Re: A few silly questions


"David L. Burkhead" <dburkhead@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:e9ydnXCDop5mBE_YnZ2dnUVZ_sGqnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ben Newsam wrote:
On Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:56:24 GMT, "Wayne Dobson"
<nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

By the way, I'm not just asking these questions
because I'm too lazy to do any study, but that without any outside
input, I get the feeling that the person I'm arguing with feels at
liberty to call anything I say, wrong, regardless of its merits.

We get a few of those in here.

Unfortunately, Mr. Dobson is one of them. He only came here looking for
"ammo."

If you call education "ammo" then I can spare some.


I'm the person he was arguing with. The context was from his claim that, in
the case of a falling body brought to a stop by a cord (as in a hanging),
"considering only those two factors [height and weight], the forces involved
are very predictable." I immediately pointed out that those two factors
don't define the problem, let alone lead to "very predictable" forces.
Given only those two factors, the only thing that can really be said is 0 <
F < infinity. And since F here is magnitude rather than vector force,
that's really no restriction at all.


Pity they didn't rip Saddam Hussein's head off too, you mean?
Seems to me that the amount a rope or a neck stretches before it
breaks decides the outcome, otherwise it's a bungee jump.
I'd say the force involved was predictable or people wouldn't
bungee jump.

When we went around on this, the infinite force limit was brought up and Mr.
Dobson said that of course that would require infinite energy (or words to
that effect).

He's not Mr. Dobson, he's Dobby the House Elf. Be respectful
of his chosen name.
The force will not be infinite, the rope or the neck will break.



Which I disputed since, yes, you would have infinite force,
but, since (by the initial stipulation of the condition), it would take
place over zero distance. infinity * zero, undefined but possibly
meaningful if considered as a limit.


I get the feeling that the person Dobby was arguing with feels at
liberty to call anything Dobby says, wrong, regardless of its merits,
because the argumentative fuckheaded muggle brought infinity into
the argument in the first place.

*plonk*




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