Mazanec
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2004
Posts: 355 
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Post by Mazanec on Dec 19, 2004 9:24:05 GMT -5
Just a thread for brief comments of the "ah-ha" variety. for example:
Those traffic lights look like little lego building blocks from your car, but when you see one on the ground they are big!
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Post by Original Admin on Dec 19, 2004 18:24:01 GMT -5
Interesting. Tonight, I watched a program about "rogue waves" trashing cargo ships in the south atlantic. The program looked at the frequency of these waves, and used orbiting technology to map the events. There are more 30m waves breaking in the south atlantic than we thought there were. It was a good program, it described how cargo ships are designed to take in 15 tonnes per square metre - and can realistically accept the grace of 30 tonnes per square metre with a dent or two. However a 30m wave provides the energy to impart a 100+ tonne per square metre whack - which holes the ship - even front on - and invariably sinks it. The most interesting thing about the program for me, was that it took a Quantum physicist to demonstrate that a given wave can occasionally glean energy from a neighbouring wave and in itself gain height and eventually break. What was more interesting, was that an observer of the VERY VERY SMALL, needed the observations of the relatively large (in earthbound sea waves of course) to determine that this transfer of energy was taking place. In actual fact - if that Quantum physicist were actually an intellectual being, he would have realised this transference occurs in waves of a very smaller measurement. Therefore to plot his fancy graphs (which are indeed real) - he would not have had to wait for a wave of 30m, instead he could show the same effect in a wave tank with samples of risis and cross wave energy absorbsion at 1mm - or a micron - or at atomic level - whatever. His quotations of the Schrodinger equations were either a) Not relevant b) Were relevant but I dont understand them quite. To go back to your post though Maz, you see the wave is as large as it is small.  Andy. |
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Post by docone31 on Dec 20, 2004 8:38:57 GMT -5
Murphys law, during holiday season, setting a stone, or soldering a simple ring size change, the most important stone will crack, or the ring will completly melt and distort.
I did an Italian bracelet repair. Italian bracelet is a style name and it is hollow shapes machine soldered in links.
The bracelet acts like a radiator and pulls heat away from the solder joint.
Three large links away from the joint, the link collapsed! The solder never flowed and was still balled up.
Andy, I think the alchemists were closer to the truth than the empirical scients of today.
The case of rogue waves. I have been at sea for years when I was younger. We used to watch waves gather and grow and stay stable.
A faster wave would overtake a slower one, and if conditions were right, the faster wave would absorb the slower wave making a stronger, larger wave. I have seen waves come in from oblique angles and gather and grow. Changing course and angle.
Do we now know more than we did, or can we just use more refined tools?
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