12: Who figures out stuff like this? They’re not using taxpayer funds, are they?
15: good idea
(Why are 22 and 23 seperate entries?)
35: This is only true if you count “America” as one continent. Which most people don’t.
47: It is probably a word that was specifically coined with this goal in mind, and thus contains all kinds of unnecessary, redundant, and meaningless prefixes and suffixes.
50: Yet more BS pseudo-science. You have to ask yourself: How can they know this?
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
the interstate highway system came into existance after WWII , cause Ike was so impressed with the AutoBahnsystem. Congress approved because the backers stressed the defense aspects zooming troops and material across country. In fact i think it was called the Interstate Highway and Defense bill. There may have been some political BS about using it for landing strips back then just to get it passed.As for the Harvest mite bein deadly. 'taint. My biggest fear is death from a spider bite.
“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx
Oh, come on. There’s more to a continent than not being connected to any other landmass. It that were the only criteria, there would only be four continents: Old World, New World, Australia, and Antarctica. The fact is, Europe and Asia are usually considered seperate continents because they are verydifferent places.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
Do you mean that they have paws, as opposed to hands, or that they don’t even have paws? I can’t imagine that those arms end in stumps! More info please!
There is no universal concensus on continent naming. Most people consider Australia a continent, but others include the many large and small islands around Australia and call it Oceana. Likewise, Europe and Asia are often combined into Eurasia. But North and South America have always been treated as separate continents, I believe.
Anyway, the question is wrong no matter which method you use. If you are going to demand that contiguous land masses are continents in order to justify “America”, then you have to use “Eurasia”. If you separate them so you can have Europe and Asia, then you have to have North and South America and the question is still wrong.
As for the polar bear question, I was just making a joke. “Handedness” is a concept that doesn’t require hands. It just means a favoring of one side of the body. I have no idea if all Polar Bears are left-handed.
Besides the fact that that is a meaningless word, I thought the longest word with meaning was “antidisestablishmentarianistically”.
Polar Bear fur is clear and hollow. The hollowness means that it reflects light in a way which makes it appear white. The hollowness helps hold heat in better – polar bear fur is extraordinarily warm. The skin is also dark colored, but not necessarily black.
Polar bears hairs are clear like fibre optic cables. The fur appears whitish, because that’s the color around them.
Re 101 Dalamatians: the “parents” in that cartoon did not have children, just dogs.
Re Lethologica: this can also be described as “Aphasia”
I’ll be there
Where I’ll teach what I’ve been taught
And I’ve been taught…
Who said anything about human parents. Do one of the adult dogs die? (Been a looong time since I’ve seen it, so I dunno, but I don’t remember that happening…)
Interesting assertion. First of all, let’s note that if you flip a
perfectly balanced coin 10,000 times, the probability that you get
exactly 5,000 heads is 0.007979, that is, you’ll get exactly 5000
heads roughly 8 out of every 1000 times you try the experiment. It’s
true the average number of heads you get over time, after many
experiments, will be 5000, and it’s also true that of all possible
specific outcomes from 0H + 10000T through 5000H + 5000 T and on up to
10000H + 0T the outcome 5000H + 5000T is the most probable.
We can interpret this statement as more reasonably asserting that
the average number of heads will be 4950, which means the probability
of getting a head on each flip is 0.4950 instead of 0.5000, or
equivalently the ratio P_light/P_heavy, where P_light is the
probability of landing light side (tails) down, and P_heavy is the
probability of landing heavy side (heads) down, is 4950/5000 = 0.9900.
What does this imply about the mass distribution? The question is not
easy to answer. For the sake of argument we need to make many
assumptions. First, neglect air resistance, since it depends in a
complicated way on the precise shape of the coin. Thus the
distribution of coin orientations at impact is uniform over the angle
the coin plane makes with the ground. Assume further the ground is a
perfect plane and the coin edge makes a perfect right angle to the
coin plane, because otherwise we need to get into details of the
surface and exact coin shape. Next we must make some assumption about
the friction of the coin edge with the ground. The most complicated
case is zero friction (slip) and the easiest is friction so high the
coin edge cannot slip (stick) and the coin must rotate around the
point of impact. Let’s assume stick conditions.
Discard all events where the coin lands exactly on edge, since it
will stay that way indefinitely. Now, all coins landing slightly off
perpendicular will have a torque exerted about the point of contact by
gravity, acting at the center of mass. If the center of mass is
further towards the direction of lean than the point of contact, a
torque will be exerted that increases the angle of lean. Otherwise, a
torque will be exerted that decreases the angle of lean.
Now we must consider with what angular momentum the coin arrives.
If it is spinning rapidly, the torque exerted by the ground will have
little effect on its angular momentum and the coin will bounce back
and forth, undergoing some exceedingly complicated motion before
friction destroys its angular momentum and it comes to rest. It seems
unlikely that the position of the center of mass will have any
discernable effect on the outcome. This is probably experimental
reality, in general. Nevertheless, let us plow on by assuming the
coin arrives with zero angular momentum, so that effect of the
displaced center of mass has its maximum effect.
If the coin is perfectly balanced, the center of mass will be
further towards the direction of lean than the point of contact for
lean angles a>ArcTan(d/r), where d is half the thickness and r the
radius of the coin. For a standard penny d = 0.5 mm and r = 9.5 mm,
so lean angles must be greater than 3.0 degrees. For lean angles less
than this, the coin will rock back and forth on its edge until
friction brings it to the upright position. Hence we must actually
discard all impacts with lean angles less than 3.0 degrees in
either direction.
Let us assume the center of mass is displaced from the center of the
coin perpendicularly from the coin plain x millimeters towards the
heavy face. Now the torque will produce falling if the lean angle
a>ArcTan((d+x)/r) toward the light side and a>ArcTan((d-x)/r) toward
the heavy side. For x=0.1 mm that would be, for example, a>3.6 deg
toward the light side, and a>2.4 deg toward the heavy side. The ratio
of probabilities P_light/P_heavy is given by the ratio of the ranges
of acceptable lean angles, or
(90-ArcTan((d+x)/r))/(90-ArcTan((d-x)/r)). This is essentially a
straight line from P_light/P_heavy = 1.0 at x = 0 to P_light/P_heavy =
0.9666 at x = 0.5. The case P_light/P_heavy = 0.9900 occurs for x =
0.148 mm, or a 30% displacement of the center of mass towards the
heads side.
quote:
“the interstate highway system came into existance after WWII , cause Ike was so impressed with the AutoBahnsystem.” (sic)
Perhaps, but Ike probably got the idea when he volunteered for a US Army cross-country (Washington DC to San Francisco) journey in 1919. It took nearly two months and the Army had to reinforce, completely rebuild or otherwise modify no less than 65 bridges along the way.
The operation illustrated the appalling condition of the nation’s roads at the time, which were almost entirely local and unpaved. Many simply ended abruptly at county or state lines.
The US Highway system was not to come along for several years, and even in the 1950s it was never really a national highway, since it was manitained by 48 individual states. Eisenhower undoubtably recalled his earlier trip across the country when he argued in favor of the Interstate Highway System against an initially-reluctant Congress.
It’s a long way to heaven, but only three short steps to hell.
[quote]
Polar bears hairs are clear like fibre optic cables. The fur appears whitish, because that’s the color around them.[/unquote]Not at the zoo, it’s not. Nor is it the color around them when it’s stuffed and set into a standing position in Col. Mustard’s study. Come to think of it, most polar bears I’ve seen are only white in the polite sense and are in actuality a yellowish color.
“I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”