KeithT, I disagree with your OP. (hey that rhymes!)
I enjoyed the fact that the OP was worded in such a way that there were multiple interpretations, and that it took a long time to thoroughly explore those different interpretations and all of the different details involved.
Just like I would recommend to those posters that continually ridiculed the people for a lengthy topic, if you found an answer you liked in the first few posts, and you were getting annoyed by the length of the thread, then quit reading it.
Aw, sheesh. All of you witty and wonderful people have totally failed to address the question put forth by the OP.
The question was: **If a horse dies on treadmill, will Dopers ever stop beating it? **
…and if the goats behind two of the doors are Angry and Hungry, what is the horse?
RaftPeople, if the length of the thread upset me, I wouldn’t stick around to read it. Even on the 8th page of the comments thread, new details and interpretations are popping up, and those are fun to read – if they’re well reasoned.
It’s our seeming inability to clearly explain counterintuitive phenomena – look how at how much confusion there was about friction – and the resulting, repeating confused outrage by guests who really don’t seem to grasp the unclearly explained underlying theory that can make it tedious.
For some reason, Monty Hall and .9999999… = 1 are particularly upsetting to people, because they are so counter intuitive. Most people want to trust their judgment and will continuing arguing their position when they’ve proved wrong. I haven’t seen those items presented here, but I’ve participated (on the losing side!) of both arguments, and I can recall how upset I was. I think in both cases the whole thing is exacerbated by the condescending know-it-all who explained them to me, and I will take a wild leap and suggest that such condescending know-it-alls are not in short supply on this board. Even the most cut-and-dried issues become ugly conversations when the discussion isn’t civil.
My advice is to simply respect people even if they’re wrong. You’ve probably been wrong a few times yourself in your life. Stop looking for opportunities to work in little jabs and insults.
Also, if you don’t know that much about something, and/or you can explain it clearly, just don’t say anything.
You’ve a point there. I thought Cecil was headed straight for the abyss in his treadmill column until something clicked about halfway through and I understood the problem. I don’t think it was because he explained it well; he just said something that coaxed my mind to solve the problem. Since there do seem to be concepts that can’t be concisely and lucidly explained, the horse-beating threads are probably necessary - eventually someone will state the matter in just the right way to get through to someone.
The problem of folks popping in on the third page of a thread is regretable but unavoidable. The large ones (threads, not Dopers) daunt all but the most determined readers. (Alas, I’ve done this myself a few times; when y’all are done with the horse, feel free to cane me).
In my newby days I was dumb enough to march into a 0.333~ thread without being prepared to defend myself. You can guess how that went. But by the end of my participation I was actually thinking and learning. So the venture was worth it.
Oh. And it isn’t just guests for whom penis ensues.
