- If I shot an infinitely strong laser beam into the sky
at a random point, how much damage would it do? — Garrett D.
xkcd: What If?
xkcd: What If? #109 - Into the Blue
Into the Blue
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #110 - Walking New York
Walking New York
- Could a person walk the entire city of NY in their lifetime? (including inside apartments) — Asaf Shamir
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #111 - All the Money
All the Money
- People sometimes say "If I had all the money in the world ..." in order to
discuss what they would do if they had no financial constraints. I'm curious,
though, what would happen if one person had all of the world's money? — Daniel Pino
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #112 - Balloon Car
Balloon Car
- My 12-year-old daughter is proposing an interesting project. She is planning to attach a number
of helium balloons to a chair, which in turn would be tethered by means of a rope to a Ferrari.
Her 13-year-old friend would then drive the Ferrari around, while she sits in the chair enjoying
uninterrupted views of the countryside. Leaving aside the legal and insurance difficulties, my
daughter is keen to know the maximum speed that she could expect to attain, and how many
helium balloons would be required. — Phil Rodgers, Cambridge, UK
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
- geckzilla
- Ocular Digitator
- Posts: 9180
- Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:42 pm
- Location: Modesto, CA
- Contact:
Re: xkcd: What If? #112
Two thoughts: First, seems like a novel way to kill someone by tying them to a balloon and having them freeze to death high in the atmosphere. Second, seems like a novel way to steal a Ferrari.
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.
xkcd: What If? #113 - Visit Every State
Visit Every State
- How fast could you visit all 50 states? — as discussed by Stephen Von Worley on Data Pointed
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
so... what is the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes, in the above xkcd?
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.
-
- Don't bring me down
- Posts: 2524
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:24 am
- AKA: Bruce
- Location: East Idaho
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
My quick guess would be 1 ohm. Prove me wrong, I dare ya.Beyond wrote:so... what is the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes, in the above xkcd?
![Laughing :lol2:](./images/smilies/asterisk_laugh.gif)
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
http://m.wikihow.com/Calculate-Series-a ... ResistanceBDanielMayfield wrote:My quick guess would be 1 ohm. Prove me wrong, I dare ya.Beyond wrote:so... what is the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes, in the above xkcd?
Here is the simple equation
-
- Don't bring me down
- Posts: 2524
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:24 am
- AKA: Bruce
- Location: East Idaho
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
Yes, the basic equations are quite simple, but it's a deceptively complex network. I didn't want to get stuck in the road ...BMAONE23 wrote:http://m.wikihow.com/Calculate-Series-a ... ResistanceBDanielMayfield wrote:My quick guess would be 1 ohm. Prove me wrong, I dare ya.Beyond wrote:so... what is the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes, in the above xkcd?
Here is the simple equation
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
The answer is.... stick the ends of the two leads of an Ohmmeter on the two nodes and read what the scale says.
I've got the meter, but no 1-ohm resistors.
![Laughing :lol2:](./images/smilies/asterisk_laugh.gif)
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.
-
- Don't bring me down
- Posts: 2524
- Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2012 11:24 am
- AKA: Bruce
- Location: East Idaho
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
I thought of that too, but the problem is that you'd need an infinite number of resistors ...Beyond wrote:The answer is.... stick the ends of the two leads of an Ohmmeter on the two nodes and read what the scale says.I've got the meter, but no 1-ohm resistors.
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.
- Chris Peterson
- Abominable Snowman
- Posts: 18459
- Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
- Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
- Contact:
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
These resistor network problems are routinely assigned in first year college electronics class.Beyond wrote:so... what is the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes, in the above xkcd?
In this case, the answer is about 0.77 ohms (in fact, it's exactly 4/pi - 0.5).
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
But not in Technical School electrical shop classes, at least not the ones i was in w-a-y back in the 60's.Chris Peterson wrote:These resistor network problems are routinely assigned in first year college electronics class.
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
In my classes, we failed if we gave the correct answer with no derivation:Chris Peterson wrote:These resistor network problems are routinely assigned in first year college electronics class.Beyond wrote:so... what is the equivalent resistance between the two marked nodes, in the above xkcd?
In this case, the answer is about 0.77 ohms (in fact, it's exactly 4/pi - 0.5).
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath668/kmath668.htm
- Chris Peterson
- Abominable Snowman
- Posts: 18459
- Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
- Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
- Contact:
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
Actually, I didn't derive my answer. I ran a sim using a SPICE module in Matlab.Nitpicker wrote:In my classes, we failed if we gave the correct answer with no derivation:
http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath668/kmath668.htm
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com
Re: xkcd: What If? #113
Application of the lattice Green's function for calculating the resistance of an infinite networks of resistors - J. Cserti
- arXiv.org > cond-mat > arXiv:cond-mat/9909120 > 08 Sep 1999 (v1), 12 Jan 2000 (v4)
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #114 - Antimatter
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #115 - Into the Sun
Into the Sun
- When I was about 8 years old, shoveling snow on a freezing day in Colorado, I wished
that I could be instantly transported to the surface of the Sun, just for a nanosecond,
then instantly transported back. I figured this would be long enough to warm me up
but not long enough to harm me. What would actually happen? — AJ, Kansas City
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #116 - No-Rules NASCAR
No-Rules NASCAR
- If you stripped away all the rules of car racing and had a contest which was
simply to get a human being around a track 200 times as fast as possible,
what strategy would win? Let's say the racer has to survive. — Hunter Freyer
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #117 - Distant Death
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
xkcd: What If? #118 - Physical Salary
Physical Salary
- What if people's incomes appeared around them as cash in real time?
How much would you need to make to be in real trouble? — Julia Anderson, Albuquerque, NM
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
- MargaritaMc
- Look to the Evenstar
- Posts: 1836
- Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:14 pm
- Location: 28°16'7"N 16°36'20"W
Re: xkcd: What If?
Thanks for posting these, bystander! I always enjoy them but don't remember to go to the website if you don't post the links here.
M
M
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
— Dr Debra M. Elmegreen, Fellow of the AAAS
xkcd: What If? #119 - Laser Umbrella
Laser Umbrella
- Stopping rain from falling on something with an umbrella or a tent is boring. What
if you tried to stop rain with a laser that targeted and vaporized each incoming
droplet before it could come within ten feet of the ground? — Zach Wheeler
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk. — Garrison Keillor
- geckzilla
- Ocular Digitator
- Posts: 9180
- Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:42 pm
- Location: Modesto, CA
- Contact:
Re: xkcd: What If?
Good to know that there are at least three livable autoclaves in Boston.
Just call me "geck" because "zilla" is like a last name.