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increpatio
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« on: 22:50:48, 15-08-2007 » |
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Out of respect for both Kitch and the Avant-Garde, I will create a new thread for this reply. You have an object and you want to know if it will float in water. Do you need to know the object's mass, weight, or density? None of the above? You just need a bucket of water? Now this needs scrupulous honesty on the part of anyone who feels moved to answer it. Is there anyone out there who has read The Life of Pi and not secretly conducted an experiment to see whether, proportionately speaking of course, a large bunch of bananas would indeed float satisfactorily enough to support the weight of an orang-utan? Female orangutans weigh in at about 45kg, and the bunch of bananas pictured on the wikipedia "banana" entry is 92kg. So it's certainly not too far-fetched given that data (though, to be honest, I can't guess how dense bananas are...). Oh wait, a quick search in the journal of food engineering ("Shrinkage and density evolution during drying of tropical fruits: application to banana", Volume 64, Issue 1) has yielding that, for fresh bananas, "the stiff material mass is rather negligible compared with the water mass and consequently the density of the sample[=banana] is very close to the density of the liquid in the product." So maybe not then, unless there was a lot of bark involved :/ Q: Can orangutans bark? ...and then be able excise "likely" altogether for a *MUCH* clearer reading.
And an analogy even more pointless and boring than the one I was attempting to make.  I don't think so; one can just as easily order things by density as by weight! I remind the assembled company that we now have a Pedantry Thread and that this is not it.
Duly noted. |
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« Last Edit: 22:56:19, 15-08-2007 by increpatio »
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George Garnett
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« Reply #1 on: 22:56:03, 15-08-2007 » |
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So you didn't try it with a sink full of salty water, three bananas and a small toy orang-utan when no one else was in the house then? I can't have been the only one, can I?
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« Last Edit: 22:59:02, 15-08-2007 by George Garnett »
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increpatio
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« Reply #2 on: 22:58:50, 15-08-2007 » |
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So you didn't try it with a bowl of salty water, three bananas and a small toy orang-utan when no one else was in the house then?
Whatever floats your boat, George.... (I haven't, no. Actually haven't conducted any scientific experiments in a while, which is silly as I've two sextants that've been in my room for a year and a half that I've been ITCHING to calibrate). |
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John W
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« Reply #4 on: 23:30:25, 15-08-2007 » |
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Whatever floats your boat, George....
And, for those of you wrestling with mass, volume, density, wondering why a massive steel aircraft carrier can float, it's the density that determines if it floats. Yes, steel is much denser than water, but ,with all that air trapped in the ship, the average density is low and it cannot displace all the denser water necessary to sink it. |
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increpatio
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« Reply #5 on: 23:35:28, 15-08-2007 » |
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Yes, steel is much denser than water, but ,with all that air trapped in the ship, the average density is low and it cannot displace all the denser water necessary to sink it.
Funny that, I always thought that people used torpedoes to sink ships.... |
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John W
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« Reply #6 on: 00:12:07, 16-08-2007 » |
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Funny that, I always thought that people used torpedoes to sink ships....
It's not funny at all (pedantry...), you see the torpedo makes a hole, water enters the ship and, as it replaces air, the average density of the ship gradually increases eventually exceeding that of the surrounding water and it becomes able to displace enough water to sink completely. The main force acting here is gravity, pulling with more force on the denser material to displace the less dense. John W |
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IgnorantRockFan
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« Reply #7 on: 09:49:09, 16-08-2007 » |
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This definitely sounds like a job for Professor Myang Lee and her big...... basket of fruit  |
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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increpatio
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« Reply #8 on: 10:20:45, 24-08-2007 » |
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What would anyone think if someone started very loudly and publicly denouncing areas of writing about twister theory without showing any evidence of knowing anything about it, or having read it?
Well, I am not a theoretical physicist, but: In past times I would have applied the Baez crackpot index ( http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html) and probably dismissed it on that basis. Nowadays it would depend on whether they seemed to have a sincere desire to understand the matter. If they did not, I think I would dismiss (possibly publicly) their claims entirely. Such people (of the latter sort) are a dime a doze in the science world(not as scientists themselves, but as people who email scientists with unsubstantiated claims). |
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #9 on: 15:12:22, 25-08-2007 » |
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Crackpot index marvellous.
Anyone want to come up with one for musicology?
Sorry - Off-Topic. I'll get my coat.
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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richard barrett
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« Reply #10 on: 15:19:41, 25-08-2007 » |
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Crackpot index marvellous.
Anyone want to come up with one for musicology?
Don't tempt me! I have work to do. |
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #11 on: 15:23:05, 25-08-2007 » |
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Anyone want to come up with one for musicology? Someone already took a stab at it at TOP. It was a kind of spoof method for assessing the "greatness" of composers, on a 1-10 scale. At least, I presume it was a spoof... |
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Chafing Dish
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« Reply #12 on: 17:30:10, 25-08-2007 » |
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It was a kind of spoof method for assessing the "greatness" of composers, on a 1-10 scale.
Link? |
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #13 on: 17:37:03, 25-08-2007 » |
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Sorry C-D, I think all the messages on that old site have now gone off to the great ether in the sky.
Ollie Sudden at one time had a screen-grab of it, so amused was he by the goings-on related to it.. you could ask him?
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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thompson1780
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« Reply #14 on: 17:40:21, 25-08-2007 » |
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Here is the first message of the thread: As one who adheres to absolute and objective standards of taste, I have a set of categories to a single one of which I find it useful and convenient to assign each and every composer. Composers, I judge, may be considered as either "first-raters," "second-raters," "third-raters," "fourth-raters," "fifth-raters," "sixth-raters," or "seventh-raters".
I propose here little by little to give three examples from each category, one name per century; and let it be understood that I refer always to the best efforts of each composer named. Let me begin to-day with three examples of first-raters: Bach, Brahms, and Scriabine.
The distinguishing characteristic of a first-rate composer is that his music never palls and always thrills and inspires; it retains its quality after one has got to know it; it bears up under and encourages and even demands any number of repeated hearings. It seduces the listener, draws him in, and at the same time makes him a better person as a result of listening (no matter how often) to it; it is perhaps even literally an elevating experience. To qualify for this category the music of a first-rate composer must have beauty and artistic form.
I would very much like to hear other contributors' views of these points. And in case you can get the link to work here it is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbradio3/F2620064?thread=2455180You'll see that Our Syd is now called Esme Muchgoodery at tOP Tommo |
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Made by Thompson & son, at the Violin & c. the West end of St. Paul's Churchyard, LONDON
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