Laser levels - why not just use a ball of string?

[Keith Williams]

Indeed.

Ours did, until they figured out that even when they caught it, they didn't.

Would you believe: US Patent # 5,443,036 "Method of Exercising a Cat".

Abstract:

"A method for inducing cats to exercise consists od directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct."

[Keith Williams]

Is that what you get when you leave a cat and a canary in the same room?

[Big Al]

What the F*&K is a pencil? Could you use a lap top?

[Norman Billingham]

Highly advanced mathematics:

No force on earth however great Can stretch a string however fine into a horizontal line which will be absolutely straight

>

[Mike Barnes]

Surely a line can be perfectly straight or perfectly horizontal, but not both. Except for a zero-length line, of course.

[yellowbirddog]

Not string. Bucket, water, and tubing:

[Steve B]

String also involves the use of grey matter. Something that is lacking in most people today. You have to know how to do it to do it.

Everything that is done with a laser can be done with string, measuring tape, level, and half a brain. Except, that is, to throw a red dot out there that the cat can play with.

Now, there are two lasers. Real lasers and play lasers. Real lasers can be useful in throwing a line all around a room, or against a building, or otherwise put up a mark that is easier than using the old ways. It is just that they are very expensive, and one must know a lot about how to make them work, and be sure that they are working properly. Anyone can throw up a laser line, attach cabinets or molding, and be done with it. But, is it right? Or do you end up with a kitchen full of crooked cabinets and molding before you realize the thing is off?

Takes less time to do it the old way.

Steve

[The Medway Handyman]

How long would it have to be?

[badgolferman]

You're confused, my friend. In our area we call that tape.

[Tony Bryer]

Ah yes. On a tour we went to see the longest pier in Queensland, used for loading sugar. Constant height above the water and, we were told, the middle is six foot above a straight line joining the ends.

[Willshak]

I read a long time ago, that if a fly lands on a horizontally installed steel girder, the girder will sag from the fly's weight. Of course, the sag can only be measured with some very expensive equipment that none of us possess.

- Bill In Hamptonburgh, NY To Email, remove the double zeroes after 'at'

[Harlan Messinger]

The pier is six miles long? If it's six inches rather than six feet, that would make the pier about one and three-quarter miles long. I found Urangan Pier, which is supposedly 1.4 km, a little under a mile. Is that the one?

[Tony Bryer]

No, Lucinda, further north:

"Situated about 100 kilometers north of Townsville, on the northeast coast of Australia, the Port of Lucinda is dedicated to the export of raw sugar from the Ingham sugar-growing district. It comprises on-shore sugar handling and storage facilities, with a single trestle jetty and conveyor running out to an offshore berth and ship loader. The jetty is one of the longest of its type in the world, extending for 5.6 kilometers and dipping 1.2 meters over its length as it follows the curvature of the earth. Sugar takes 22 minutes to travel along the conveyor from the on-shore storage sheds to the ship loader."

So four foot in old money

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:o7ytnJu5jDUJ:

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember [e-mail] saying something like:

The beam of light from a ball of string is crap.

[nicksanspam]

Hmmm. I woulda thunk half that, ie r-sqrt(r^2-2.8^2), where r = 12,756.3 km.

Nick

[dadiOH]

Tried stretching a string 600 feet or so?

[Stuart Noble]

Having spent a frustrating afternoon putting a coat of white paint on an already white ceiling, it occurs to me that any line you could follow would be a bonus. Is that something a laser level could do? The tinted paint that's supposed to show you where you've been is totally useless IMO

[Harlan Messinger]

That's the earth's diameter, 2r.

[Ian White]

Tried pointing a piece of string, from a ladder at one end?

Tried drilling two holes at right-angles from different sides of a door frame, and having the ends meet up exactly?

[The Medway Handyman]

How you do that?