Daily Archives: January 20, 2009

The Many Mario Worlds Interpretation of Physics

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Acceleration Due to Gravity: Super Mario Brothers

We determined that, generally speaking, the gravity in each Mario game, as game hardware has increased, is getting closer to the true value of gravity on earth of 9.8 m/s2. However, gravity, even on the newest consoles, is still extreme. According to Wikipedia, a typical person can withstand 5 g before losing consciousness, and all but the very latest of Mario games have gravity greater than this. Also, with gravity that great, it is a wonder Mario can perform such feats as leaping almost 5 times his own body height!

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Six Degrees of Something

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Diandra writes about social networks at Cocktail Party Physics, in it really is a small world

This reminds me that according to the Oracle of Bacon and some simple math, I have a Bacon number of three, sort of. Back when I was in high school, the local TV station (WRGB Channel 6) must have been desperate to fill some news time, because they schlepped a few doors down the road to the high school and interviewed some of us. I was interviewed by Ernie Tetrault, the news anchor (though he got my name wrong — the name that appeared onscreen was “Tim,” and I was recognized by a teller at the bank the next day. “OMG, you’re Tim Swanson!” Fame is so fleeting*) Ernie Tetrault has Bacon number of 2, as he was in the movie Sneakers (as a news anchor) with Stephen Tobolowsky, who was in a movie with Kevin Bacon (Murder in the First).

*but this allows me to say “There some who call me … Tim”