Geek off!

[Kevy Baby]

You can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish

[Ghoulish Delight]

Okay, I sent this to someone after they said they were interested in learning my above tidbit about relativity. He suggested I actually post it here. So, um, here you go...Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity 101 (surprisingly intuitive!)

First, the Assumptions
1) The observer has no acceleration. That's what makes this the "Special" theory as opposed to the "general" theory. Acceleration seriously complicates things. We're talking situations where the environments are at constant velocity. (in our example, we'll be talking about 1 person standing still, and 1 person on a train moving at constant velocity)

2) The speed of light is constant, no matter how the observer is moving relative to it. So, unlike other matter, there are no "related rates". You know how if a car is going 60 miles per hour, and you are going 20 miles per hour in the same direction, then the car, from your point of view is going 40 miles per hour? Not so with light. From everyone's perspective, at any speed, in any direction, light moves at the speed of light. Crazy, but true (been proven experimentally).

The Setup
Imagine a clock. This is a REALLY big clock. It looks something like this...

---------
----|
----|
----|
--------
----^

The blue dealy is a light emitter/sensor. The red lines is the path of the emitted light. The top is a mirror. The mirror at the top is spaced such that it takes exactly 1 second for a photom emitted from the emitter to go up, reflect off the mirror, and return to the sensor (call the total distance traveled up and back N).

Now, place this clock on a moving train.

The payoff

Okay, so, there's someone on the train watching this clock. He sees the photon travel from the bottom, reflect off the top and return to the sensor. It travels a distance of N, as we've already determined. It does this at the speed of light, so it takes 1 second (N/speed of light = 1 second). Fair enough, we've already agreed that this is how the clock is designed.

Now, the train car is made of glass, and there's someone standing still outside of the train observing this. Here's the path of the photon that this observer sees.

---------------
----------|
-------|-----|
----|-----------|
---- ------------ ----
----^-----------^

It's emitted from the bottom. By the time it reaches the mirror at the top (we know it reaches it and hits it in the middle beause that's what the observer on the train sees), that mirror has moved with the train. It reflects, and by the time it returns to the sensor at the bottom, the bottom has moved again. So the path is a basically a triangle (minus one side).

Now, some basic trig proves that that path is longer than N. And we're assuming that the speed of light is constant, no matter where the observer is. So, the light has now traveled a distance greater than N, at the same speed. That means it must take longer than 1 second. (N+x/speed of light > 1 second)

So voila, you have two people observing the exact same event, and seeing it take 2 different ammounts of times. Relativity.

More than you ever cared to know, I'm sure, but I love explaining it because once you accept the very simple assumption that the speed of light is constant, the rest is VERY intuitive, most people are susprised at how much sense it makes.

[Morrigoon]

If you overlay two maps of medieval Europe, one showing major areas of witch burnings, and another of major rye growing areas, you will find a near perfect match.
In "The Crucible", the description of Tituba making a "witch cake" describes her making it with rye. Ergot poisoning (ergotism), which comes from consuming rye stricken with the fungus ergot, has the following symptoms (courtesy of wikipedia):

Convulsive symptoms
Convulsive symptoms include diarrhea, paresthesias, itching, seizures, headaches, nausea and vomiting. Usually the gastrointestinal effects precede CNS effects. As well as seizures there can be hallucinations and mental effects including mania or psychosis. The convulsive symptoms are caused by clavine alkaloids.

Gangreneous symptoms
The dry gangrene is a result of vasoconstriction induced by the ergotamine-ergocristine alkaloids of the fungus. It effects the more poorly vascularized distal structures, such as the fingers and toes. Symptoms include desquamation, weak peripheral pulse, loss of peripheral sensation, edema and ultimately the death and loss of affected tissues.

Which is similar to the claims of witch burners against the accused.

[Prudence]

Oooh! Morigoon, you and I can debate the Salem ergot connection! (I'm partial to the socio-economic map theory and not such a big fan of the ergot story.)

Europe, though, is another story. Have you read "The Night Battles"? Groovy Italian goings-on. If not, you should give it a looksee. And then check out "Servants of Satan," officially the cheesiest cover in the witchypoo section of my library. Oooh! There's a German one too that I can't remember or find on the shelf. All I can remember is that it's from the author's doctoral work, published after her tragic death from slipping on wet rock while on vacation in some place like Jamaica. How's that for useless info.

[MickeyD]

The phrase, "tie goes to the runner" is not found anywhere in the offical MLB rulebook, nor, I assume, in any little league rulebook either. It's somehow one of the most well known baseball "rules" anyway.

When I was a student at San Diego State, Tony Gwynn held quite a few of the school's basketball records. (I think some of them are held by other players by now.) I honestly thought it was a misprint the first time I read that. Then I found out that he was drafted out of college, not only by the San Diego Padres, but also by the San Diego Clippers. His mother told him to choose baseball.

No Padres pitcher has ever pitched a no hitter.

No Padres hitter has ever hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, home run all in one game.)

No professional San Diego sports team has ever won the highest championship game in their sport.

Prior to the Red Sox last season, no MLB team had ever been down three playoff games and come back to win.

[Prudence]

Speaking of English taste in fashion, Elizabethans had fabulous color names -- like Horseflesh, Maiden's Blush, Goose-Turd Green, and my favorite guess-which-country-we-hate color: Dead Spaniard.