Posted on 06/30/2004 1:35:28 PM PDT by NukeMan
The Top 20 Cool Things About a Car that Goes Faster than the Speed of Light
20 Sleep 'til noon. Still get to work by 8:00am!
19 Doppler shift makes red traffic lights look green.
18 Breaking laws of physics only a misdemeanor in most states.
17 Never in car long enough to hear an entire Madonna song.
16 Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking keep bugging you to carpool.
15 No one can see you pick your nose while you drive.
14 Lunch breaks in Paris, circa 1792.
13 LA to Vegas in 2 nanoseconds.
12 You can stop worrying about being sucked into a black hole driving home from work.
11 You'll be so thin while driving it you can even wear horizontal stripes.
10 That deer in your headlights is actually behind you.
9 Kid from Mentos commercial almost guaranteed to lose a limb if he tries to duck through back seat.
8 Traffic enforcement limited to cops with PhD's in Quantum Physics.
7 Bugs never see you comin'.
6 You can get to the good hookers before Charlie Sheen.
5 Can make a fortune delivering pizza with the slogan "It's there before you order or it's free!"
4 Car makes it from Hollywood to London fast enough to not arouse suspicions of Elizabeth Hurley.
3 License plate: "Me=mc2"
2 Cigarette butts don't land in the backseat -- they land in last week!
and the Number 1 Cool Thing About a Car that Goes Faster than the Speed of Light...
1. drive-by shooting stars
http://hagen.let.rug.nl/peterm/jokes/joke40.htm
This is really posted at 5:02:30.
Two billion years ago ... wasn't that when we switched to Universal Savings Time? In order to conserve energy, if memory serves.
Keep thinking she is my stepdaughter, at least that is what I tell the neighbors. They are beginning to wonder how I came up with a new stepdaughter without getting married.
PS: Keep this to yourself.
I think he deduced it as a consequence of Maxwell's equations. That's where he got the symbol "c" from, I'm told. But as always, I'll yield to the experts, who often correct my babblings.
Faster? No, they are SLOWER. At least in my kitchen. I'll check the bathroom tonight.
I first notice it with the refrigerator light.
"A varying speed of light contradicts Einstein's theory of relativity, and would undermine much of traditional physics." I'm no physicist, but that assertion seems a stretch because if the 'constant is sliding upward, the relative 'whole-universe' relationship would be the same at any given temporal point. Am I confused or what?
I wasn't around then. You're the expert.
Faster or slower in the fridge? Inquiring minds want to know!
The Theory is okay. If the speed of light is not constant, and of course it isn't at all, results may lie outside the Theory rather than contradict it.
Probably. But so am I. If the speed of light is variable, I'll need to rethink just about everything.
I know nothingk...nothingk!
This happens every time I get a new set of tires for my truck.
Too bad Mallomar season just ended !
Finding the Speed of Light with
Marshmallows-A Take-Home Lab
Robert H. Stauffer, Jr., Cimarron-Memorial High School, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
I have heard that at 16 years old, Albert Einstein constantly wondered what it would be like to ride on a beam of light. Students in physics always seem to be fascinated by the properties of light. However, speed-of-light demonstrations often require extensive preparation or expensive equipment. I have prepared a simple classroom demonstration that the students can also use as a take-home lab.
The activity requires a microwave oven, a microwave-safe casserole dish, a bag of marshmallows, and a ruler. (The oven must be of the type that has no mechanical motion-no turntable or rotating mirror. If there is a turn-table, remove it first.) First, open the marshmallows and place them in the casserole dish, completely covering it with a layer one marshmallow thick. Next, put the dish of marshmallows in the microwave and cook on low heat. Microwaves do not cook evenly and the marshmallows will begin to melt at the hottest spots in the microwave. (I leaned this from our Food Science teacher Anita Cornwall.) Heat the marshmallows until they begin to melt in four or five different spots. Remove the dish from the microwave and observe the melted spots. Take the ruler and measure the distance between the melted spots. You will find that one distance repeats over and over. This distance will correspond to half the wavelength of the microwave, about 6 cm. Now turn the oven around and look for a small sign that gives you the frequency of the microwave. Most commercial microwaves operate at 2450 MHz.
All you do now is multiply the frequency by the wavelength. The product is the speed of light.
Example:
Velocity = Frequency ´ Wavelength
Velocity = 2450 MHz ´ 0.122 m
Velocity = 2.99 ´ 108 m/s
This works in my physics class, often with less than 5% error. Then the students can eat the marshmallows.
(Reprinted with permission from The Physics Teacher, vol. 35, April 1997, p. 231. Copyright 1997 American Association of Physics Teachers )
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