Re: A few silly questions

"David L. Burkhead" <dburkhead@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:sYydncPsOMClmE7YnZ2dnUVZ_umlnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Androcles wrote:

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.

How much the rope or neck stretches. How much soft tissues sag. How
much the body rotates.

Within broad limits, predictable.

Yeah, that's what I said, predictable. Would you like some more salt for
that wound, sir?

But not so predictable that even
experienced executioners did not get the occassional hanging failure of
both
types--failure to break the neck or decapitation.

Staw man. I said that I didn't think that even experienced hangmen could be
expected to achieve a zero failure rate. In any case, the argument was over
what was the cause was of those few failures, not if a few failures were to
be expected.

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.

Go read some of his posts in rec.martial-arts and then come talk to me
about being respectful.

Oh, poor soul.

The force will not be infinite, the rope or the neck will break.

Had he said that, I would have had no problem with it. But that's not
the argument he made. Instead, he was the one making the argument about
infinite energy being required.

It was a throw-away comment, not even relevant and long ago recanted. But
you continue to flog that dead horse, as you have little other than your
pettiness to fall back on.

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,

You get the feeling wrong.

Another strong argument.

because the argumentative fuckheaded muggle brought infinity into
the argument in the first place.

And, of course, everybody knows scientists and mathmaticians _never_
use
infinity as one limit of an open interval.

And scientists don't use controlled experients, as the results are too far
removed from reality to be useful.

--
AKA "Dobbie The House Elf"


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