things that make you go "hmmm"

Grr, you made me get my calculator out :p

Taking the radius of the earth to be 6378.1 km, using 2PiR you get a circumference of 40074784.21 metres. Add 1 metre, divide by Pi and then divide by two and you get a difference in radaii of:

*Drum Roll*

15.9 Cm

Do I win a cookie? = D

Correct! Well done that man. Gap between surface of the earth and the cord all around the world would be about 15.9cm. You don't need to know the circumference of the earth as it has no bearing on the answer, which is the same for any size of sphere. Distance added divided by twice Pi, so in this case 100cm/6.28 = 15.92
Amazingly large.
 

maddave

Full Member
Jan 2, 2004
4,177
39
Manchester UK
How can something be "new" and "improved"? if it's new, what was it improving on?

Why is there an expiration date on SOUR cream?

What did the designer of the drawing board go back to when his/her original design was a failure?

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

If an orange is orange, why isn't a lime called a green or a lemon called a yellow?
 

Melonfish

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 8, 2009
2,460
2
Warrington, UK
why do we press harder on a remote controll when the batteries are flat?
why does superman stop bullets with his chest but ducks when the gun is thrown at him?
why does someone believe you when you say there are billions upon billions of stars but check when you say the paint is wet?
why do they use sterilised needles for the lethal injection?

finally, if quizzes are quizzical what are tests?
 

Nagual

Native
Jun 5, 2007
1,963
0
Argyll
If a man speaks, and there isn't a woman to hear him, is he still wrong?
Why can't you mantle something?
Why isn't there mouse flavoured cat food?
 

father jack

Member
Nov 30, 2009
27
0
scotland
What would happen if you were at the one side of the earth and were to drill a hole and line the insides like a swimming pool flume right the way to the other end of the earth then jumped in ? would you come out the other end and if you did how is that possible given gravity pulls ??

i sat for hours on this and nearly went mad
 

gregorach

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 15, 2005
3,723
29
51
Edinburgh
I actually know the answer to that one - you would fall the entire distance to the other side of the Earth, accelerating until you passed the centre and then slowing down again until you're stationary at the moment you reach the other side, and then fall back again. If we ignore the effects of friction and air resistance, you'd oscillate back and forth for ever. Taking air resistance and friction into account, you'd hit terminal velocity fairly quickly, so you wouldn't actually fall all the way through and you'd eventually end up stationary at the exact centre of the Earth.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/154/what-if-you-fell-into-a-tube-through-the-earth
 

Bushwhacker

Banned
Jun 26, 2008
3,882
8
Dorset
How long would your toothbrush be if your arms bent the other way?

What came first - egg fried rice or chicken fried rice?

Do siamese twins have one passport or two?
 

Seth.Karlo

Member
Aug 11, 2009
26
0
32
Wiltshire
Lol.

It reminds me somewhat of my Coil Gun that I made for my Physics investigation, utter madness. And yay, I got it right!

Wooooooooooh!

Back to work I go... :(
 

Seth.Karlo

Member
Aug 11, 2009
26
0
32
Wiltshire
He parks it at his house! (Or uses a shovel :p)

If you want to be confused or thinking "hmmm" for a LOOOOONG time, go and read about relativity, took me a good month to get my head around it >.<
 

Melonfish

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 8, 2009
2,460
2
Warrington, UK
you take a spaceship up into a geosynchronous orbit sat stationary relative to the UK.
to the earth your relative but to the solar system your spinning around a planet.
ok so we accelerate until we are stationary in relation to our position around the planet, the earth rotates under us but our position does not change relative to the system.
but wait. we're still moving WITH the planet around the orbit of the sun, SO we use our thrusters to halt our position to be stationary relative to the sun!
the earth slowly spins on its own axis and moves away from us, at a set speed.
but wait we're only stationary now relative to our sun, so what about our galaxy?
and so on, and so on.


horribly horribly simplified but you get the gist.
 
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Chinkapin

Settler
Jan 5, 2009
746
1
83
Kansas USA
Here is my explanation of the meaning of relativity. This is a true story that happened to me and my wife:

We took a motorcycle trip some years ago. We live in south central Kansas. We had made it up to north western Kansas and I had stopped at a small station to buy some gasoline. We were about 300 miles from home and almost in Colorado. A very elderly gentleman came out to pump the gasoline into the tank and while we were making small talk, he asked me where I was from. I told him, and he replied: "Damn, you are a long way from home!" In the next breath, he asked me where I was going. I answered, Seattle, Washington. He looked at me and said: "Damn, you haven't even started!"

And that is relativity.
 

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