[561] in Humor
Re: DICK
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sao@MIT.EDU)
Mon Nov 21 10:17:51 1994
From: sao@MIT.EDU
To: Danielo Bernardo Perez <dbp10@columbia.edu>
Cc: humor@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 20 Nov 1994 03:27:20 EST."
<Pine.3.89C.9411200350.E22093-0100000@merhaba.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 10:14:51 EST
>you think you mit kids are so smart? then answer me this question
>will the rain hurt the rhubarb?
That question is insufficiently specified.
Acceleration of gravity on the raindrops would be, of course, 9.81 m/s^2.
However, since you have not specified the HEIGHT of the clouds from
which the rain is falling, it is impossible to even estimate the duration
of fall to within an order of magnitude.
An additional complication is added when one notes that you have not
stated whether or not it is currently raining. If the vagueries of
terrestrial weather prediction are imposed upon the query, the problem
is transformed from a relatively simple one of the interaction of a
falling body with existing atmospheric conditions into a truly TP-complete
problem of fractal complexity, entering the realm of chaos theory.
Of course, now that you've spent so much time reading this, your rhubarb
is probably all wet anyway. :^)
:Andy Oakland
sao@mit.edu
