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Re: Isn't it the limit? (Divertissement)



At 09:18 AM 3/30/97, Donald E. Simanek wrote in a postamble:

BTW, on proofreading the above I noted that I had originally said "gives
the wrong answer." I changed it to "gives *a* wrong answer". Any student
can give more than one wrong answer to any problem,
and any mathematician
can prove conclusively that for any problem there an infinity of wrong
answers. The mathematician might even be able to specify the order of
that infinity. Well, maybe not....
There could be a publishable paper in this.
...
Dr. Donald E. Simanek


Now HERE is material fit for a physics hero
( and one of these, I will not be denied...)

A certain smiling homunculus sitting inside the college head, looking
round in sometimes disbelief - yes, THAT'S the person I am particularly glad
to hear from.
Like Feynman establishing his reputation as a safe cracker on the Manhattan
project, if only by secretly calling the manufacturers -
and noting just how many safes were unchanged from their delivered combinations.

But I hasten to remind myself - isn't a strongly convergent mindset a
necessary accouterment to solving Physics problems?

Doubtless so - but if we want a supersonic airflow into a vacuum tank, we
need to remember that a nozzle that converges AND diverges is what the
recipe calls for!

Talking about divergence - I seem to recall an oft told question about
a railroad line which used continuous welded rail (as so many of them do.)
On a section of continuous rail one mile long, some mischievous fellow
inserted an extra foot of rail by the railroad engineers' method of in-situ
welding with a mix of aluminum powder and rusty iron flakes.

This was before the rail had been staked down of course: the question
arises - what was the maximum height the long curved rail rose above the
height of its brother?

I suspect there may be some slight similarity between this curved rail and
one of these spherical triangle meridians that are proving so resistant to
straightening.

Regards
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK