Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

voila!

[ December 15, 2002, 20:04: Message edited by: Instar ]

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

"When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat. The two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago."

What do you call that device, and is the cat happy? Will the butter go bad, will it smell? Will it be a "Smelly Cat"(TM)?

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

That's an interesting sig! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

...um, one time I dropped my toast and it landed with the butter side facing UP! It must have been at a moment of special planetary alignment or something. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif

It will probably never happen again... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif (It's one of those "maybe it will happen once in your lifetime if you're extremely lucky" type of events.)

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ok, I am going to run a test to see how often this works. 20 loaves of bread here I come....

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

I saw it on coolsig, and I loved it
Its a violation of thermodynamics... but it would WORK!
I will use it to power my spaceship

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Butter study

Earlier this year over a thousand schoolchildren across Britain took part in a mass experiment to get to the bottom of one of the most vexing questions of our time: is it true that tumbling toast tends to land butter-side down? The experiment was the world’s biggest-ever investigation of Murphy’s Law – that "if something can go wrong, it will." Over 20,000 tumbles of toast later, the truth was finally revealed. When it slides off a plate, toast really does land butter-side down more often than not: 62% of the time, to be precise.

The experiment had finally got to the bottom of what many scientists have dismissed as a silly urban myth, yet countless breakfast-eaters insist is an irksome reality. Indeed, the study went further, showing that the cause of the trouble wasn’t the weight of the butter or the aerodynamics of the toast, but simply the fact that toast tumbling from table-height doesn’t spin fast enough to bring the buttered side on top again before the toast hits the floor.

[ December 16, 2002, 07:51: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Ruatha, thanks. that tid bit, (or bit tid) will give me conversational material for all of the seaasonal parties now through new years.
Good one.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Yeah, thanks Ruatha. (You are all knowing arn't you? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

But that showed 62% landed butter side down. My test showed 63%. So I wasn't too far behind. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif (Considering I didn't do no test.)

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

interesting article. i still cant believe someone actually did a test like this though. lol

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Are you in the southern hemisphere by any chance? Perhaps the coriolis effect causes toast to spin in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere, thus altering the fundamental physics of the buttered toast phenomenon.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Hey, if you flush the toilet in the Southern Hemisphere, the water is supposed to swirl in the opposite direction as it goes down. I don't think this is true but I never had a chance to do an experiment to see if it's true.

I'll go flush my toilet right now and see which way it swirls...
OK, it swirls COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. I am in the Northern Hemisphere.

I don't think I'll have an opportunity to visit the Southern Hemiphere anytime soon, so if you live there, please try flushing your toilet. (And if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, does your toilet swirl counter-clockwise like mine does?)

I wonder what happens if you're at the North Pole, or South Pole, or on the Equator?

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The toilet is too small a system for the coriolis effect to have any implication. Wich way the water turns in the toilet is based on where the water enters, imperfections in the toilet and where it exits. A toilet that spins the water clockwise on the nortern hemisphere will do so also on the south hemisphere.
The coriolis effect needs large weather systems to really make any impact.

Better explanation

[ December 17, 2002, 07:55: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Wow, thanks, Ruatha! I remember hearing about the water swirling the opposite way in the Southern Hemisphere a number of times from different people, and each time I heard it, I had this nagging feeling that it didn't seem right... but I couldn't come up with a good argument to say why it's not right, so I couldn't disagree, and it sort of bothered me for years!

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

you can alway fill up your sink or bathtub and let it drain. that will be affected by the effect.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">no, the answer is simple: you buttered the wrong side.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Next time, I'll butter half of one side and half of the other side, so at least I know that I'm half right about which side to put the butter on.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">-nope, it won't.
It's just to small a system to be effected by the coriolis effect.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Well, if you plugged up most of the drain so it drained very slowly, the Coriolis force could eventually reverse it, given enough time. It affects all systems; it just is a weak force compared to the force of the rotation of the system.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">If it drained very slowly it wouldn't build up any momentum for it to spin, right?
It would essentially be a system with water standing still. And you don't se still standing water starting to spin by itself just becourse you let it be for a couple of weeks, months, years...

[ December 18, 2002, 15:09: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

I'm assuming there's some momentum to begin with. It wouldn't reverse the flow, but it would slow it down/stop it.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">-nope, it won't.
It's just to small a system to be effected by the coriolis effect.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">the bathtub should work. as a child i remeber playing in the tub. i would fill it up a couple of inches and drain the water and watch stuff get sucked down the whirlpool. i used to watch the stuff go round and round the vortex until it got sucked it. i was easily amused as a child. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ December 18, 2002, 17:15: Message edited by: desdinova ]

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

Yes, but it doesn't involve the coriolis effect.
It depends on the shape of the bath tub, the position of the drain, the movement of water before it starts to go down the drain, etc etc.

If you take all the necessery steps and have a perfect vessel for the water and observe very closely you might be able to detect the coriolis force, but I wouldn't bet on it on your first attempt!

[ December 18, 2002, 17:18: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

i read some articles and they explain why it wouldnt affect the bathtub. oh well, it was still fun to do as a child http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

is this still the sig thread? does Arkcon read this?

I like his sig:

--------------------
It is by Caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion-
It is by the beans of Java, that thoughts acquire speed-
The hands acquire shakes; the shakes become a warning-
It is by Caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion...

some time ago, i was thinking of pitching an energy drink marketing scheme to any random cola company.

The Juice of S.N.A.F.U.: When will alone will not set your mind in motion.

Re: Make me a signature or... something
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Puke, that is too funny. I don't know where I found my sig -- probably I was searching for Dune info when the House books came out.

Here's something fun, print out my sig, but select a font small, with shadowing -- it will seem to vibrate. Great for the coffee maker at work.

Or for the discerning ... Click Here

[ December 18, 2002, 21:57: Message edited by: Arkcon ]