Is it just me or are people fucking thick?

betamax · Post by **betamax** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:34 pm 0

Best physics-related thread this week

M · Post by M » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:40 pm 0

Guru-Meditation wrote:Wouldn't the chopped up pixies start clogging the fan though?

No, you are confusing the plane and rocket problems:

piku wrote:Pixies would be confined to the aeroplane problem previously stated and therefore not an issue.

Stuart B · Post by **Stuart B** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:41 pm 0

Of course it would take off!

Because I'm interpreting the 'aeroplane' in the original question to be a harrier, which would just go straight up.

Fuck this magic-conveyor bollocks

kalmar · Post by **kalmar** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:42 pm 0

piku wrote: If you put a rocket above a big sucking fan that could suck exactly as fast as the rocket shot out its fire, would the rocket take off? This would be a special fire-proof fan that matched its speed exactly to the thrust of the rocket. The rocket would already have its occupants, no snakes and they would have already had their in-flight meal. Pixies would be confined to the aeroplane problem previously stated and therefore not an issue.

And the rocket is wearing a duffel coat.

Bog · Post by **Bog** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:43 pm 0

Is this the right time to bring up the theory of Intelligent Falling to oppose the flawed and unproven "Theory" of Gravitation?

PinkFearie · Post by **PinkFearie** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:49 pm 0

but what about the poor defenceless pixies?

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:50 pm 0

M wrote:
Guru-Meditation wrote:Wouldn't the chopped up pixies start clogging the fan though?
No, you are confusing the plane and rocket problems:

Ooooh I saw the part where it was pixie gas holding it up, not their magic arrows.

ClankClank · Post by **ClankClank** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:53 pm 0

Imagine you have the front wheel of a bike, the one that spins freely and unconnected on it's axis.

OK, now you stand over a treadmill, with your feet planted on the ground on either side.

You put the wheel on the stationary treadmill. <EDIT - AND HOLD IT BY THE AXLES> Nothing happens.

You increase the speed of the treadmill to 5mph. The wheel spins quite happily around it's axis. You yourself experience almost no backwards force. You exert almost no forwards force to keep yourself stationary.

You increase the speed to, oh, 40mph. You are still standing there. The wheel spins. The backward force on you is still very small. This is a bicycle wheel, and it's raison d'etre is to spin with very little friction. The force you exert forwards is still very small.

Keeping the wheel on the treadmill, you walk forwards. Easily.

Replace the wheel with the airplane's wheels. Replace the force that you exert against the ground by that of a jet engine. WATCH PLANE TAKE OFF.

Of course, that's the case for a treadmill which travels the same speed as the AXIS of the wheel, and thus the plane.

If it travels the same speed as the bottom of the wheel, which is in contact with the ground, then it doesn't move at all BECAUSE THE BOTTOM OF ANY WHEEL HAS A SPEED RELATIVE TO THE GROUND OF ZERO. Otherwise it would be SLIPPING. In this case, the treadmill could easily be replaced by the floor.

Thank you.

sponge · Post by **sponge** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:55 pm 0

It would start rolling backwards.

PinkFearie · Post by **PinkFearie** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 10:56 pm 0

where would the pixies sit?

fred_zen · Post by **fred_zen** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:15 pm 0

Bog wrote:Is this the right time to bring up the theory of Intelligent Falling to oppose the flawed and unproven "Theory" of Gravitation?

Excellent point. The kids have a right to know about the debate that divides today's scientific community.

Erm, pixies, then? From a christian POV, I think I have issues with that.

PinkFearie wrote:but what about the poor defenceless pixies?

Don't you worry, pixies are entirely different beasts than faeries. Maybe.

piku · Post by **piku** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:23 pm 0

M wrote:
Guru-Meditation wrote:Wouldn't the chopped up pixies start clogging the fan though?
No, you are confusing the plane and rocket problems:

piku wrote:Pixies would be confined to the aeroplane problem previously stated and therefore not an issue.

That's what years of writing software specs gets you

I should try writing contracts next

Mir Nyet · Post by **Mir Nyet** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:43 pm 0

zip accident wrote:
piku wrote:

really it's the high pressure pushing the wing upwards?
Yes.

Mmmm... A planes wing generates lift by accelerating air over the top of its surface thus creating a low pressure area over the wing into which the wing is pulled, the shape of the wing is also designed to expand the accelerated air thus increasing the pressure drop at speed.

You can easily see this effect by holding a single sheet of A4 paper too your lower lip and blowing over the surface of the paper. The paper will rise as the air passes over the surface of the paper into the lower pressured area directly above the paper...

disciple · Post by **disciple** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:46 pm 0

Who lives here then?

Kronos · Post by **Kronos** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 11:47 pm 0

Ok, short of it, if the plane isn't physically moving forwards through the air then it will never lift. Simple, the pixies get bored standing still, they need the thrill of the ride under the wing to push it up with their magic arrows

And yes people are thick in general, this is why we have ID cards coming with hardly any protest (they're all huddled round a 'peado' residence protesting that thanks to the sun woooo)