[3227] in Humor
physics
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Andrew B. Greytak)
Fri Jun 9 21:48:51 2000
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2000 21:49:42 -0500
To: humor@mit.edu
From: "Andrew B. Greytak" <agreytak@MIT.EDU>
>
>The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the
>University of Copenhagen: "Describe how to determine the height of a
>skyscraper using a barometer."
>
>One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the
>barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to
>the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will
>equal the height of the building."
>
>This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student
>was failed immediately. He appealed on the grounds that his answer was
>indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent
>arbiter to decide the case. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed
>correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. To
>resolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow him six
>minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least a
>minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics.
>
>For five minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought.
>The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student
>replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make
>up his mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the student
>replied as follows:
>
>"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper,
>drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground.
>The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula
>H=0.5gxt squared. But bad luck on the barometer!
>
>Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer,
>then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you
>measure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a
>simple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the
>skyscraper.
>
>But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a short
>piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first at
>ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height is
>worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T=2 pi
>square root (l/g).
>
>"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be
>easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in barometer
>lengths, then add them up."
>
>"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you
>could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the
>skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars
>into feet to give the height of the building."
>
>But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of
>mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be
>to knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice
>new barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this
>skyscraper'."
>
>The student was Niels Bohr, the only Dane to ever win the Nobel prize
>for Physics.
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew Bardeen Greytak, MIT '00 <agreytak@mit.edu>
East Campus Dorm <http://gel.mit.edu/andrew>
3 Ames Street box 135 (617) 225-6531
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02142
