During today's physics lecture, a friend of mine drops something.
To his right are two or three empty seats. Underneath those
seats, personal belongings had been liberally strewn about. My
friend looks around on the ground for the plastic ring he
dropped. Not finding it, he gets out of his seat to look.
On his hands and knees, he looks around for his lost object with
mounting desperation. "Hey.....," I say with a perfectly straight
face. He looks up. I continue, "...lose your marbles?"
The best part, though, was that, after five to 10 minutes of
unsuccessfully looking around on the floor, he found what he was
looking for trapped in the hinge of the foldout writing tablet, more or
less in plain sight (and nowhere near the floor).
In other news, I recently bought a slightly used LogitechMX700 for $21.50. I'm pretty happy with that :D
I also got a job as webmaster for BYU's Career & Counseling Center.
Oh, would anyone reading this happen to know anything about mouse and
keyboard drivers for the 2.6 linux kernel? Every now and then, my
keyboard and/or mouse loses sync with the computer. It's kinda
annoying.
Well, it seems that once again I haven't posted in forever. I
think I'm up to three or four (maybe five) 'forevers' in between
posts. Hmm....
That's a lot of 'forevers'.
It's starting to get cold here. I've heard rumors that it might snow this week.
<shivers>
I'm gonna die.
In the intervening time, I think I'll get a warmer coat.
Something that actually keeps out the cold (at least a little
bit). The funny part is that when I go home for Christmas, I'll
likely find everything rediculously warm.
Happy Halloween everybody.
Maybe I'll post more often.
Perhaps.
I love physics questions :D They're so much fun...
(Errr...what follows is a physics
question and my answer to it. If reading physics problems makes
you quesy, you might not want to continue.)
Selected Answer:
Using the formula they used, the ramp would have to be banked at 90
degrees, because as the y component of arctangent approaches infinity,
tangent approaches (pi/2), or 90 degrees. Quite possible, except for a
few limitations:
According to Einstien, as an object's speed
approaches the speed of light, the energy needed to propel that object
approaches infinite. Since a speed approaching an infinite magnitude is
a great deal more than the speed of light, the energy required to
propel that car would be a great many times more than infinity (not to
mention modern cars are generally about 30% energy efficient). So no,
it wouldn't be possible.
Oh, and if you could get the car
going that fast, its momentum would approach infinity, meaning that
unless the ramp was solid and massive enough to absorb and redirect
that momentum without breaking, the car would either push the ramp, or
punch a hole right through it (depending how solidly built the ramp
was).
Other than a few measily 'real world' limitations, it should be possible
Wow, it's been forever since I last posted...not that I really have much to say.
School approaches for me...and has already engulfed many others...I
leave for college at the end of this week. There's still a lot of stuff
I have to get done. My room is almost cleaned out (that which I don't
neatly pack away before I go will be lost to the furious frenzy of
winnowing and cleaning that is Mother).
My computer case is almost done. For those of you that don't
know, I'm lighting it up with LEDs, and since it's made entirely of
acrylic...it should glow nicely when I'm finished :D. I might post
pictures when its done...assuming I can briefly borrow a digital camera
from someone.
I think I've become addicted to Friends...thanks to the Shoomin. I'm a little more than half way through Season 3 right now (anyone
interested in all the Friends episodes ever can cough in Sumin, Justin,
or my direction...).
Anyway, I'm going to go eat again and finish up my case. See you
guys later (hopefully). I'll leave you with this bit o' "digital art" I
made the other day.
