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Great Western Coffee Shop > Sideshoots - associated subjects > The Lighter Side > Where are we focused? [DotD 9.4.2020]
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Author Topic: Where are we focused? [DotD 9.4.2020]  (Read 1355 times)
grahame
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« on: April 09, 2020, 02:42:17 »
Looking close to us, or far ahead?





Let's make both clear, please
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Red Squirrel
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« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2020, 10:45:35 »
I don't think there's much point in trying to look very far ahead at the moment. As the Danish proverb has it:

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It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.

...and never was this more true than today.
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Things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could.
Celestial
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« Reply #2 on: April 09, 2020, 10:45:59 »
Newquay?
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johnneyw
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« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2020, 11:31:00 »
Quote from: Red Squirrel on April 09, 2020, 10:45:35
I don't think there's much point in trying to look very far ahead at the moment. As the Danish proverb has it:

Quote
It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.

...and never was this more true than today.

I thought that quote was attributed to Neils Bohr but then again, he was from Denmark of course. Like you said though, never was this more true than today.
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Red Squirrel
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« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2020, 13:26:42 »
Disappointingly, the origin is vague: https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/niels-bohr/
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stuving
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« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2020, 14:40:50 »
Quote from: Red Squirrel on April 09, 2020, 13:26:42
Disappointingly, the origin is vague: https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/niels-bohr/


I could have predicted that ... or maybe I will.
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eXPassenger
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« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2020, 18:32:06 »
I have always liked his (supposed) answer, when at Copenhagen university, to the question "Given a barometer how would you determine the height of a tall building?".

His answers were:
  • Tying a piece of string to the barometer, lowering the barometer from the roof to the ground, and measuring the length of the string and barometer.
  • Dropping the barometer off the roof, measuring the time it takes to hit the ground, and calculating the building's height assuming constant acceleration under gravity.
  • When the sun is shining, standing the barometer up, measuring the height of the barometer and the lengths of the shadows of both barometer and building, and finding the building's height using similar triangles.
  • Tying a piece of string to the barometer, and swinging it like a pendulum both on the ground and on the roof, and from the known pendulum length and swing period, calculate the gravitational field for the two cases. Use Newton's law of gravitation to calculate the radial altitude of both the ground and the roof. The difference will be the height of the building.
  • Tying a piece of string to the barometer, which is as long as the height of the building, and swinging it like a pendulum, and from the swing period, calculate the pendulum length.
  • Marking off the number of barometer lengths vertically along the emergency staircase, and multiplying this with the length of the barometer.
  • Trading the barometer for the correct information with the building's janitor or superintendent.
  • Measuring the pressure difference between ground and roof and calculating the height difference (the expected answer).
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