Groucho's Fact Hunt

[summerisle]

Worst 7 Dwarves spin off idea yet

This year's Everton Christmas pantomime.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

@Groucho can wasps make honey?

 

[JimmyJeffers]

@Groucho can wasps make honey?

They make jam mate

 

[Groucho]

@Groucho can wasps make honey?

Dunno you’ll have to ask one

 

[Black Belt Jones]

I assume this works on the same principle as people walking on a conveyorbelt that's moving in the same direction as they are walking. Rather than taking longer, it just helps them walk faster (relative to the stationary ground around them)

I don't really understand it mate - it's a mind bender.

Best explanation I've read is that as the rope stretches out in front, in also stretches behind. So at zero seconds there is 100% of the rope in front of it.
After 1 second, the rope is now way longer, but the ant has advanced a tiny percent increment, and the rope behind it has gotten a bit bigger. So it slowly gains percentages of rope, and after a trillion years, gets to the end!

The furthest object we have ever seen with a telescope is galaxy GN-z11, at 32 billion light years distant. But the age of the universe is thought to be 13.4 billion years. So how can we see it? The universe is expanding and we can use the maths of the ant on the rope to work out if we will ever see the light from such a distant thing.

GN-z11 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[chrismpw]

Think on this: if you are driving at 70mph in a 1 tonne (ton now we're not in the EU) and your windscreen hits a fly travelling in the opposite direction, then the fly changes direction to comply with the direction if the car.

However, for an instant, as it changes and reverses its direction the fly must be momentarily stationary. It's in contact with the windscreen. At that moment the fly is stationary then so too must be the windscreen it is in contact with.

Enjoy.

 

[WA Toffee]

Think on this: if you are driving at 70mph in a 1 tonne (ton now we're not in the EU) and your windscreen hits a fly travelling in the opposite direction, then the fly changes direction to comply with the direction if the car.

However, for an instant, as it changes and reverses its direction the fly must be momentarily stationary. It's in contact with the windscreen. At that moment the fly is stationary then so too must be the windscreen it is in contact with.

Enjoy.

Fletchers paradox

 

[chrismpw]

Fletchers paradox

Didn't realise it had a name. Nice one.

 

[cooperman]

Think on this: if you are driving at 70mph in a 1 tonne (ton now we're not in the EU) and your windscreen hits a fly travelling in the opposite direction, then the fly changes direction to comply with the direction if the car.

However, for an instant, as it changes and reverses its direction the fly must be momentarily stationary. It's in contact with the windscreen. At that moment the fly is stationary then so too must be the windscreen it is in contact with.

Enjoy.

Individual parts of the fly change velocity at different times, by milliseconds. So the first part to hit the screen (let's say front of the fly) goes from a positive to negative v, decelerating and then accelerating the other way (simple acceleration really) whilst passing through the back of the fly. This causes a very clear change in shape of the fly.

Hard to explain on here without diagrams but that's how I've always seen this one

 

[chrismpw]

Individual parts of the fly change velocity at different times, by milliseconds. So the first part to hit the screen (let's say front of the fly) goes from a positive to negative v, decelerating and then accelerating the other way (simple acceleration really) whilst passing through the back of the fly. This causes a very clear change in shape of the fly.

Hard to explain on here without diagrams but that's how I've always seen this one

But any part of the fly changing direction is stationary, as must be the part it is impacting.

That very, very local part of the glass must be stationary - clearly the car is not. The time required for the glass to be stationary comes from the backwards flex of the glass in that location - minuscule though it is and then dissipating across the screen as a wave. It That's how I see it. The wave in the glass only has to be minuscule because the fly us so small. Repeat the experiment with a heavier object, like a cow, and the wave in the screen flexes more than the brittleness of the glass can tolerate. Broken screen.

 

[chrismpw]

Individual parts of the fly change velocity at different times, by milliseconds. So the first part to hit the screen (let's say front of the fly) goes from a positive to negative v, decelerating and then accelerating the other way (simple acceleration really) whilst passing through the back of the fly. This causes a very clear change in shape of the fly.

Hard to explain on here without diagrams but that's how I've always seen this one

But any part of the fly changing direction is stationary, as must be the part it is impacting.

That very, very local part of the glass must be stationary - clearly the car is not. The time required for the glass to be stationary comes from the backwards flex of the glass in that location - minuscule though it is and then dissipating across the screen as a wave. It That's how I see it. The wave in the glass only has to be minuscule because the fly us so small. Repeat the experiment with a heavier object, like a cow, and the wave in the screen flexes more than the brittleness of the glass can tolerate. Broken screen.

 

[cooperman]

But any part of the fly changing direction is stationary, as must be the part it is impacting.

That very, very local part of the glass must be stationary - clearly the car is not. The time required for the glass to be stationary comes from the backwards flex of the glass in that location - minuscule though it is and then dissipating across the screen as a wave. It That's how I see it. The wave in the glass only has to be minuscule because the fly us so small. Repeat the experiment with a heavier object, like a cow, and the wave in the screen flexes more than the brittleness of the glass can tolerate. Broken screen.

Yes, that too.

It's a great one to explore. Gets you thinking about average velocity compared to velocity at an exact moment of time too

 

[Groucho]

When director of the BBC, David Attenborough commissioned Match of the Day and Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

 

[summerisle]

Brexit voters.

 

[Groucho]