# ID animal we almost ran over, please

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-animal-we-almost-ran-over-please/245240>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 15, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-animal-we-almost-ran-over-please/245240 "2004-05-15T05:52:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-animal-we-almost-ran-over-please/245240/21 "2004-05-16T10:21:38Z")

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> [@tomndebb](#):
>
> Alternatively:
> 
> _How much wood **w** ould a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck **w** ould chuck wood?_

This is one of those things I would have never thought about, if I hadn’t discovered the SDMB. The idea that there is more than one common usage of this phrase. I’d always heard it:

How much wood **w** ould a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck **c** ould chuck wood?

Did a quick google on the version I’m familiar with and found this [column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_083a.html).

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**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-animal-we-almost-ran-over-please/245240/22 "2004-05-16T13:37:31Z")

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I would just point out that the apparatus shown in **lemur** ’s post looks suspiciously like a magnetic sector mass spectrometer, and in order to work properly, would have to be operated at a vacuum of \<1 x 10-5 torr, which would kill the woodchuck.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-animal-we-almost-ran-over-please/245240/23 "2004-05-16T15:02:20Z")

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> [@bizzwire](#):
>
> I would just point out that the apparatus shown in **lemur** ’s post looks suspiciously like a magnetic sector mass spectrometer, and in order to work properly, would have to be operated at a vacuum of \<1 x 10-5 torr, which would kill the woodchuck.

I think you mean my post, since **Lemur’s** is to an Aplodontia.

Since the method requires ionizing the woodchuck, its survival of the process is unlikely.

From the site:

> [@](#):
>
> 1:This sort of mad chucking would annihilate the woodchuck in the process, and so would be ethically a less than clear-cut question.

As the site notes, testing the proposition will require the construction of a woodchuck/timber collider 30 km in diameter.

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**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-animal-we-almost-ran-over-please/245240/24 "2004-05-16T16:03:08Z")

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Hey! You were right by me - I live off Route 62.

Anyway, I’d concur that it was a woodchuck.

Also, you said:

> [@](#):
>
> although there are plenty of streams and ponds in this town, none of them are within a half mile of where we encountered the beast

A river runs parallel to Route 62 for quite a ways. You can’t always see it but it’s there. I forget how far west it goes - it comes up from Beverly and follows 62 into Danvers.

Glad you missed the whatever-it-was. The other day I was driving down Route 1 into Boston and saw something waggle its way to the right-hand lane (where I was) and I saw it was either a woodchuck or a 'possum and I started beeping and shouting, “NO, NO!!” Thank god the critter stopped. I probably would have had to stop and throw up if I had hit it.

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