This was originally purchased to extend my effective tickling and grabbing range when my nieces were younger. (Before they underwent the phase transition to where tickling just isn’t tolerated much) Now it’s used to grab errant trash-can-tosses if I’m being lazy, and retrieve objects that fall in the gap between the desk and the wall.
There’s the Batman problem, and “an Elephant is in the way” problem.
I have a contribution that I’ve recreated below. Back when I was teaching for the Navy, there were many opportunities to learn “new” physics and see interesting answers (one shipmate kept a list of the various spellings of “Bremsstrahlung” found on exams; he had over 35 by the time he left), and the occasional tactic, as shown in the above links, of a student realizing he can’t answer the exam question, so some other reply is needed. Sometimes you change the question (hoping for a Kobayshi Maru-esque commendation for original thinking), and sometimes you just write something down, hoping it’s correct and praying for the gods of partial credit to save you.
There was this one student who wins the gold star for this. He had been a decent student through the first several months of nuclear power school, but then something happened and he started to flame out, spectacularly. A student could be dropped from the training only after failing two courses, among other requirements, so the fact that he had completed several classes and passed exams in the current courses meant that the trajectory was visible for a relatively long time. Passing was set at 62.5%, and he failed a couple of exams (including what I was teaching) with scores of less than 50%. Most students who failed out would at least keep up the appearance of trying, lest he be found guilty of dereliction of duty, but it was clear that tis particular student just stopped caring. On an electrical systems exam, he answered only one question: “Draw a one-line diagram of the XXXX system” (a one-line diagram is a schematic) This is what his answer looked like
He was given full points for the problem, and then booted out.
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Added 6/3: It’s not just physics. Check out this bio question
Out geocaching this afternoon. First outing of the year where I did significant bushwhacking in shorts, so I have a start on a new set of scratches on my shins. And I landed hard jumping down from a bank while crossing a stream, so I have sore ankle too. Good times.
“Found it in the last tree I looked in”
That was one of the log entries. You never see, “Found it and kept looking a few more minutes.” OF COURSE it’s in the last place you looked!
(TNLNSL stands for “Took nothing, left nothing, signed log”)
. . . the more pieces they break into when they fall. Falling Chimneys over at Built on Facts.
“They came into my home, made me pay for my own TV, then double-booked the revenues,” said Rachel Sanchez of Las Cruces, just north of El Paso. “Right in front of my daughters.”
(Part I)
The state-of-the-art timekeeping technology a century ago was comprised of pendulum clocks. Refinements were made in the areas of obvious problems, such as the mechanical escapement which robs the system of energy, the vulnerability to changes in length from temperature and humidity, and vibrations. The culmination of this was the clock of W. H. Shortt, which had two pendulums, a master and a slave. The master oscillator was a free pendulum, and as it did no work to drive any mechanism, it was able to keep very precise time. The pendulum was made of invar, a material that had a very low thermal coefficient of expansion, and was encased in a chamber that was evacuated to several millitorr of pressure. The chamber was bolted to a wall that typically rested on a massive platform of the type used for telescopes, which minimized effects from vibrations. The pendulum was given an occasional boost to keep its amplitude roughly constant. The slave pendulum, which did the mechanical work of the system, received periodic electronic impulses from the master clock to correct its motion. This type of clock could keep time to better than a millisecond a day. A shortcoming (as it were) was in the measurement of the time; as Loomis notes
This remarkable result is accomplished through the possibility of averaging a large number of observations. A single impulse from a master Shortt clock has an uncertainty of 1 or 2 milli-seeonds. The master pendulum carries a small wheel. The impulse arm rests on this wheel, and as the pendulum swings out the pallet on this arm travels down the edge of the wheel, finally falling clear . It then trips an arm which falls, making the electric contact . If the small wheel is not exactly circular the arm will fall at slightly different times as the wheel is given a small turn with each fall. These variations are entirely smoothed out when a series of sparks are averaged.
So while the clock is precise in the long-term, the system of measuring it (described below) is limited at shorter durations.
I got 9/12, but then, I never did take biology after 7th grade.
via Pharyngula (whom I am compelled to cite, despite his snarky comment)
Font pun and typeface art. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
“Secret” Physics they don’t teach you in class —
The Fifth Law of Thermodynamics: Beer is good.
The Sixth Law of Thermodynamics: Men driving sports cars are assholes.
On the vagaries of random playlists on the iPod:
The transition from Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” to RHCP’s “Funky Monks” at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, before caffeine and not really fully awake, is a little harsh.
I’m just sayin’
