Psst. See also the last line of the OP.
I’ll take your word for it. Lost my glasses recently and seriously cannot read subscript without them on here.
Will no one think of the bowl of petunias?
I never liked slugs anyway. You’re probably right.
All the calculations seem to be assuming Earth gravity. At the time of the event, Earth was no more and therefor only the gravity of Magrathea is pertinent to the calculations. Although it would have to be somewhat close or the difference would have been mentioned dramatically.
OKay, I give up. I was all set to flounce out of here over the latest moderating brouhaha, but I can’t leave a board that both knows and does the actual math on determining the terminal velocity of a sperm whale. I just can’t. I mean, what would I tell my grandchildren?
SDMB, you sonofawhoresonbitch I wish I knew how to quit you!
(And I’d also like to know about the bowl of petunias.)
takes out a large trout and ceremoniously thwacks Santo with it
Now, what about a bowl of blubber? Besides being disgusting, I mean?
Some petunias sprinkled in that bowl of blubber will make a festive centerpiece for any table.
What’s with the petunias, is it a Python thing?
If you tell me the acceleration due to gravity and air density on Magrathea, I’ll gladly rerun the numbers.
Captain Carrot, again, just because we’re talking about sperm doesn’t mean we have to include bowls of blubber.
Try hitting ‘Ctrl’ and ‘+’ at the same time. It’ll increase the font size in your browser.
Well, it would depend on whether the petunias had been watered recently. Also the shape of the bowl. And whether they were rooted, or loose cut flowers.
History does not relate.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
It’s a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy thing. Our heroes are being chased by two missiles launched from the planet Magrathea to discourage their landing. To save themselves they turn on the Infinite Improbability Drive. This causes the missiles, against all probability, to turn into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias. A bit then follows about what the whale and petunias thought in their brief existence before they crashed into the planet below.
No. I thought I was channelling Martha Stewart.
So does Saundra Lee.
(Explanation for those not cursed with awareness of Saundra Lee’s schtick: She has a show on Food Network makes these awful “semi-homemade” meals which are mostly prepackaged crap arranged on a plate and sprinkled with mint leaves from her garden and finishes every show with a truly horrendous and over the top table setting which must have taken hours to make. If she’d stop changing her table setting so often, she’d have time to make real food. She’s the Martha Stewart of the trailer park.)
Is the whale coming down or going up?
And here it is… scroll down to where it says Dialogues, and the second one there (the book… the whale… the book)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker’s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(film)
S^G
OK, so we know the velocity of a sperm whale. Now what is the velocity of whale sperm? Betcha didn’t see that coming!
Let me check my notes.