New To WW - What Is With All The Norm Bashing?

[Mark Jerde]

Depends on the observer's position. Each driver would get a 50 mph impact (I guess), but a fly on the front bumper would get 50 mph from two ways. ;-)

-- Mark

[Dan]

On Sat 13 Dec 2003 06:56:19p, [e-mail] (Bruce) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Eh? You're saying that the energy released in two cars colliding head on is the same as in one car hitting a stationary wall?

I'm willing to go with the fact that it's not the same as hitting a wall at

100 miles an hour, but I'm having trouble with the "same as 50" part. Yes, each car is decelerating from 50 to 0 very suddenly, but there's an awful lot more momentum involved when both objects are traveling, and I can't believe there's no difference.

Lemme hunt a bit here... ah.

[Swingman]

What a groove they had, Dire Straits.

[Bruce]

exactly TWICE as much energy released. Fortunately, it is released between

2 cars so each car sees exactly what it would see if it it a wall at 50mph.

When Pournelle realized his mistake, be tried to cover his ass by saying that the collision with the other car would be more dangerous because of flying whiskey bottles and glass and stuff. Talk about lame.

[Bay Area Dave]

Don't you like Andy Rooney either?

Those are some mighty strong adjectives you are tossing about.

dave

Mark & Juanita wrote:

snip

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Every time I saw them I had a new "best show I've ever seen".

Barry

[Andy Dingley]

Flying whisky bottles are a serious hazard in Pournelle's world.

BTW - He popped up in Dr Dobbs recently. Hope that's not a regular column - damned waste of paper.

[Silvan]

While I always found his computer-related writing rather clueless, I like a number of Niven/Pournelle novels. I no longer read much fiction, and I'm more likely to read something old and familiar than something new that might be a waste of time. "The Legacy of Heorott" (I probably spelled that wrong) is one of my all-time A #1 numero uno favorites.

That and "Ender's Game." (Card, yes, I know. I was just pondering.)

[Bruce]

Who wrote Footfall? That was damn good.

[Dan]

On Sat 13 Dec 2003 10:20:53p, [e-mail] (Bruce) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Well... an absolutely immovable, completely undamageable wall, yes. Then all the energy would be absorbed by the car and none by the wall. If the wall takes any damage, then the car absorbs less, so a head-on would do more damage because both cars absorb all the energy.

To get back on the Off Topic topic, I've been in chats and watched interviews with quite a few SF writers, and Harlan Ellison has had my vote for most arrogant and conceited for quite some time now. I guess Pournelled is up there but nowhere near the top.

Dan

[Mark Jerde]

A SF writer came ot my university. I don't remember who, 1977 was quite awhile ago. The phrase he kept using during his talk was, "I give good reading." I don't know if he was successful in spending "quality time" with one or more coeds. Jerk.

-- Mark

[Bruce]

All that is assumed in the thought experiment. It is also assumed that the cars are identical in size, shape and weight and meet exactly head on, bumper to bumper.

I think we all realize these circumstances are hard to meet in real life. Most head ons are NOT direct hits and not all of the energy is immediately dissipated because the cars will spin past each other. Unfortunately, because the drivers are both to the inside lane, they usually catch the brunt of it anyway in those headlight to headlight crashes.

[Silvan]

Niven/Pournelle... The shaft was 50 makaskrupkith in length and all that... Yeah, that one's on my list too. (No idea if I spelled "makaskrupkith" right, but knowing me, I probably did. It's only the nrmoal worsd I splel wrnog.)

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

This book gave me nightmares when I was a teenager.

Barry

[Silvan]

Lucifer's Hammer... Wow, that's one I haven't thought about in a long time.

Haven't read Discworld, no idea what it is.

I don't read sci-fi much anymore. Usually either howto books or thrillers set in contemporary society. Especially forensic/medical stuff, like Robin Cook and that guy who writes the Lincoln Rhyme novels.

I don't read at all much anymore though. Reading's not much better than TV as a form of active entertainment. I prefer to produce something. Written words, source code, drawings, paintings, wooden items.... Books next, and then TV dead last.

If people had books on CD instead of books on tape, I might listen to books while driving, but the last time I spent any time looking around inside a truckstop (admittedly years ago) they were all on tape only. No tape player. Tapes sound like crap anyway.

[Andy Dingley]

The McDonald's hamburger of fantasy fiction.

Funny and tasty while you're reading them, over too quickly and half an hour later you forget you've had it at all.

Then you look down and you've turned into a 25 stone comic-book otaku with a collection of Robert McRincewind action figures.

ObWoodworking: Anyone know how to plane sapient pearwood ? Damn stuff is refusing to get in the planer.

[Charles Krug]

That would be Dr. Jerry Pournelle, who got into Sci Fi by serving as Robert Heinlein's technical resource.

Who wrote "The Strategy of Technology" which was THE book the War College used to teach command staff how to fight a cold war?

Who retired from aerospace engineering to write science fiction?

IOW, he IS, exactly a rocket scientist, albeit a retired one.

[Mike G]

Great, can he build a blanket chest?

[Andy Dingley]

So is Steve Bennett !

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 11:13:51 +0000, Andy Dingley scribbled

^^^^^^^^^

????????? Referring to McDonald's as tasty?!?!?!?!!!! Did you actually mean funny tasting instead? Was that a pune?

Where did you get it? JOAT was looking for some a few months ago.

Luigi Replace "no" with "yk" for real email address