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A good Physics Geek story

Discussion in 'Break Room' started by efuller, Apr 8, 2014.

  1. efuller

    efuller MVP


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    I was poking around the Novel website and found this.



    Intelligence - practical example

    On a physics test at the university of Copenhagen there once appeared a question as follows.

    "describe how to calculate the height of skyscraper with help of a barometer."

    A student answered:

    "One can bind a long rope to the top end of the barometer and lower it from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The height of the skyscraper corresponds to the height of the barometer plus the length of the rope."

    The examiner was so outraged by this profoundly original answer that the student was dismissed immediately. In turn the student appealed to his fundamental rights with a reasoning that the answer was undoubtedly correct. Therefore the university appointed an impartial arbitrator in order to decide the case.


    The arbitrator finally concluded that the answer was indeed correct, however it displayed no perceptible knowledge of physics. To solve this problem he decided to grant the student 6 more minutes so that he could formulate another answer showing at least a minimum basic knowledge of physics.


    For the next 5 minutes the student sat quietly with the head bent forward and sunk in thoughts. As the arbitrator reminded him of the time running, the student replied that he had some extremely relevant answers, but couldnĀ“t decide which one to use.

    When the arbitrator told him to hurry up, the student answered as follows:


    "First of all we could throw the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper, measure time up to the impact and calculate the height according to the formula h=0,5g* (t in the square).

    Or, if the sun shines, we could measure the height of the barometer and the length of its shade.

    Subsequently we could still measure the length of the shade from the skyscraper and calculate its height by means of proportional arithmetic.

    If we want to be scientific to a higher standard, we can get a piece of rope knotted to the barometer and let it oscillate, first on the ground and then on the roof of the skyscraper.

    The height corresponds to the deviation of the gravitational regeneration force T=2 (pi in the square) (l/g).
    Or else, if the skyscraper has an external staircase, we could go up step by step while counting and adding up the height of the building in barometer lengths.

    If we are only looking for a boring and orthodox solution, we surely can measure the air pressure with the barometer on the ground and on the roof of the skyscraper and calculate the height through the difference of pressure .

    But since we are constantly asked to practice the independence of our understanding and apply scientific methods, it would be probably easiest to knock at the door of the concierge and say:

    >" if you tell me the height of this building, I will give you this beautiful barometer."< "

    The student was Niels Bores, the first Dane, who won the Nobel Prize for physics.
     
  2. :good:That is a beauty that shows thinking outside of the box, love it. Confession- I went straight for air-pressure.
     
  3. Dr. Steven King

    Dr. Steven King Well-Known Member

    Amen,

    I went for measuring the total ground contact force after dropping the barometer thereby allowing us to deduce speed at impact (by previously measuring the contact surface area and weight of the device). Knowing that speed increases with a constant gravity acceleration (and calculating for wind resistance because we know the surface area). We can deduce height of the building with physics and by thinking like an engineer.

    Kind of like dropping a watermelon off a building but with a bigger crash...

    A Hui Hou,
    Steve

    Don't forget to calculate if there is a spring to midigate the impact.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ0CVYUp-gE
     
  4. drsarbes

    drsarbes Well-Known Member

    " if you tell me the height of this building, I will give you this beautiful barometer."

    Beautiful.
     
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