22 Replies to “PW Science Minute…(The Sanity Inspector)”

1. furriskey says:

   March 27, 2007 at 12:46 pm

   Ac­cord­ing to Ig­natiev’s cal­cu­la­tions, if this ver­sion of MOND is cor­rect, an ob­ject at that lo­ca­tion might brief­ly shift lo­ca­tions by one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter, be­fore re­turn­ing to its orig­i­nal place a frac­tion of a sec­ond lat­er.

   Keep looking. It can’t have gone far…

2. Squid says:

   March 27, 2007 at 12:50 pm

   Two days per year?  Santa Claus doesn’t work much more than that.

   It’s the perfect research project!

3. furriskey says:

   March 27, 2007 at 12:58 pm

   Come on squid! You don’t work things out to
   

   one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter

   without really putting the hours in…

4. B Moe says:

   March 27, 2007 at 1:03 pm

   The events would take place near the equi­nox dates, two days in the fall and spring when the day is the same length as the night. The lo­ca­tions would dif­fer year by year. On Sept. 22 of next year, they would lie in north­ern Green­land and across the globe in Ant­arc­ti­ca.

   Coincidence? 

   Or conspiracy?

5. slackjawedyokel says:

   March 27, 2007 at 1:26 pm

   When my son was a teenager, he might brief­ly shift lo­ca­tions by one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter twice a year.

   Unless it involved taking out the garbage.

6. The Other Ken says:

   March 27, 2007 at 1:50 pm

   So that’s why I can’t find my tie clip whenever I’m in a hurry!

   Y’know, It’s always in the last place you look…

7. McGehee says:

   March 27, 2007 at 1:58 pm

   Ac­cord­ing to Ig­natiev’s cal­cu­la­tions, if this ver­sion of MOND is cor­rect, an ob­ject at that lo­ca­tion might brief­ly shift lo­ca­tions by one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter, be­fore re­turn­ing to its orig­i­nal place a frac­tion of a sec­ond lat­er.

   Am I the only one who’s just thought of a great prank?

8. Drumwaster says:

   March 27, 2007 at 2:51 pm

   Am I the only one who’s just thought of a great prank?

   Apparently.

   TW: to some extent47, anyway.

9. memomachine says:

   March 27, 2007 at 3:00 pm

   Hmmmm.

   Every day that passes offers up more scientific research ….

   which often makes ancient magic rituals look tame by comparison.

10. memomachine says:

    March 27, 2007 at 3:02 pm

    Hmmm.

    Now where the hell did my damn socks go?

11. memomachine says:

    March 27, 2007 at 3:03 pm

    Hmmm.

    Y’know, It’s always in the last place you look…

    That’s why, when I’m looking for something, I continue looking for it even after I’ve already found it.

    That way I can triumphantly show that this proverb isn’t necessarily true whenever it gets brought out by someone.

    Petty and a little strange, but very very satisfying.

12. furriskey says:

    March 27, 2007 at 3:20 pm

    I continue looking for it even after I’ve already found it.

    yeah but you’re not really looking

13. Farmer Joe says:

    March 27, 2007 at 3:57 pm

    Some phys­i­cists con­sid­er dark mat­ter a prov­en fact. But a mi­nor­i­ty dis­a­g­ree, un­set­tled by the fact that dark mat­ter has nev­er been found, even though it would have to out­weigh reg­u­lar mat­ter by five­fold.

    A num­ber of these skep­tics have de­vel­oped al­ter­na­tive the­o­ries that ac­count for the mys­te­ri­ous mo­tions through slight chang­es to the tra­di­tion­al laws of gra­v­i­ty and mo­tion—prin­ci­ples de­vel­oped by Isaac New­ton in the 1600s and elab­o­rat­ed by Al­bert Ein­stein in the last cen­tu­ry.

    I wonder how these sentences would have been written if the subject under discussion had been climate change rather than gravitation.

14. McGehee says:

    March 27, 2007 at 5:42 pm

    Am I the only one who’s just thought of a great prank?

    Apparently.

    A bunch of us should arrange to cause objects at several different locations nowhere near Greenland or Antarctica, to shift lo­ca­tions by one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter, be­fore re­turn­ing to their orig­i­nal places a frac­tion of a sec­ond lat­er.

    It would, like, totally mess them up!

15. BoZ says:

    March 27, 2007 at 5:55 pm

    Some phys­i­cists con­sid­er dark mat­ter a prov­en fact.

    They should be demoted to climatologists.

    (Comments in this space may be less redundant than they appear.)

16. Ernie G says:

    March 27, 2007 at 8:25 pm

    I don’t get it. If the object (tie-clip or whatever) moves

    one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter

    it would seem that any instrument to measure its motion would also move

    one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter

    , so even if the effect exists, how could they measure it?

17. Bill D. Cat says:

    March 27, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    A bunch of us should arrange to cause objects at several different locations nowhere near Greenland or Antarctica, to shift lo­ca­tions by one fifth of a tril­lionth of a mil­li­me­ter, be­fore re­turn­ing to their orig­i­nal places a frac­tion of a sec­ond lat­er.

    I’d pitch in , but I seem to have misplaced my tape measure .

18. Robert Crawford says:

    March 27, 2007 at 8:42 pm

    I continue looking for it even after I’ve already found it.

    Have you ever found it again?

19. Kevin B says:

    March 27, 2007 at 9:33 pm

    I bet you keep losing one of your cufflinks as well.

    (I’d include a link to the Wiki entry on cufflinks for the benefit of the younger readers but I figured it would help their education to look it up for themselves.  And I’m lazy.)

20. Bill D. Cat says:

    March 27, 2007 at 9:52 pm

    Kevin B ,
    
    What’s next on this evil crusade , explaining what wind a watch means ?

21. commander0 says:

    March 27, 2007 at 9:55 pm

    If we can predict where this anomaly will occur maybe I can get my wife to have sex next to it.  That way maybe she’ll, ya know, move a little.  Badumpump.  Thank you folks I’ll be here all week.  Don’t forget to tip the waitresses.

    Head61?  Yeah, maybe some of that too.

22. furriskey says:

    March 28, 2007 at 12:44 am

    See? Science can be fun!

Comments are closed.