10/29/01
Today's Joke:
The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen:
"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with 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.
The student 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 that 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 = 0.5g x t 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 sq. 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 win the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Today's Trivia:
Where did the phrase "smoking gun" come from?
This phrase, meaning incontrovertible evidence of guilt, is of relatively recent origin. It actually was first coined by Republican congressman Barber Conable during the Watergate investigation. The smoking gun in question then was a 23 June 1973 tape of a conversation between Richard Nixon and his chief of staff, H.R. Haldeman:

Haldeman: ... the FBI is not under control ... and you think the thing to do is to get them, the FBI, to stop?
Nixon: Right, fine.

Upon hearing the tape, Conable stated that it "looked like a smoking gun," meaning that from the tape it was clear that Nixon had approved the cover up. Conable may not have been the first to use the phrase, but he was the first to get credit for using it.

It is somewhat surprising that the phrase is so recent, given that its imagery is so vivid and obvious. Arthur Conan Doyle, in The Gloria Scott, a Sherlock Holmes story published in April 1893, used the phrase smoking pistol: "the chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand." Conan Doyle's usage, however, was quite literal and not figurative. Also, it referred to a murder case while the current usage is usually found in a political context. Finally, there is no evidence to indicate that the phrase was used in the intervening seventy years.

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