FLA, EFLA, PFLA
Discussion
Currently on holiday with my family in Disney World - we have timeshare here. Anyway, my (four) kids - from 12 to 19 - were having the most bizarre conversation at dinner last night. It seems they have coined some new terms. As follows:
FLA = Fat lady alert. These are reserved for 'large waddlers' - of which there are many.
EFLA = Earthquake Fat Lady Alert. This term is for those VERY big women who you can 'feel' walking near you (like the T-Rex at the beginning of Jurassic Park).
Then there is the PFLA term they have coined. My 15 year old said she felt that a force was pulling her towards a HUGE (scooter squasher) and proposed that she may have had a reasonably powerful gravitational pull. To which my son said he had observed light bending round a similar lady earlier that day. As such, they had coined the term Planet Fat Lady Alert (PFLA).
During dinner another large lady entered the restaurant on stilletos to which I posed the scientific question: what is the PSI on the heel of the shoes. My son said 'similar to a whale on a stilt'. In fact, we worked out that, bearing in mind that walking goes from one foot to the other it would probably be an amazing (circa) 600 PSI at the base. Pretty impressive shoe manufacturing I thought!
Here endeth the lesson!
FLA = Fat lady alert. These are reserved for 'large waddlers' - of which there are many.
EFLA = Earthquake Fat Lady Alert. This term is for those VERY big women who you can 'feel' walking near you (like the T-Rex at the beginning of Jurassic Park).
Then there is the PFLA term they have coined. My 15 year old said she felt that a force was pulling her towards a HUGE (scooter squasher) and proposed that she may have had a reasonably powerful gravitational pull. To which my son said he had observed light bending round a similar lady earlier that day. As such, they had coined the term Planet Fat Lady Alert (PFLA).
During dinner another large lady entered the restaurant on stilletos to which I posed the scientific question: what is the PSI on the heel of the shoes. My son said 'similar to a whale on a stilt'. In fact, we worked out that, bearing in mind that walking goes from one foot to the other it would probably be an amazing (circa) 600 PSI at the base. Pretty impressive shoe manufacturing I thought!
Here endeth the lesson!
srebbe64 said:
Well the plane couldn't take off anyway with some of these women on board. So you'd end up with a perforated plane that couldn't get airborne - not good!
Women of that size dont get to use normal size airplanes they are made to travel in heavy lift onesi.e.
Edited by sherman on Saturday 21st August 02:21
sherman said:
srebbe64 said:
Well the plane couldn't take off anyway with some of these women on board. So you'd end up with a perforated plane that couldn't get airborne - not good!
Women of that size dont get to use normal size airplanes they are made to travel in heavy lift onesi.e.
Edited by sherman on Saturday 21st August 02:21
I said to SWBO that I wasn't watching the safety brief because there wasn't a cat's chance in hell of getting to an exit before it was wedged with blubber.
Well a fat woman could be quite easily 100kgs (15 or 16 stone), that's about 220lbs. A stiletto heel is about half an inch square. So when walking, weight being transferred from one foot to another, that is 880lbs/inch^-2 on the heel. That's insane...
Edited by slomax on Sunday 22 August 09:51
slomax said:
Well a fat woman could be quite easily 100kgs (15 or 16 stone), that's about 220lbs. A stiletto heel is about half an inch square. So when walking, weight being transferred from one foot to another, that is 880lbs/inch^-2 on the heel. That's insane...
And I've felt every pound of it when a tottering heffer put me into casualty one Saturday night.Did they try the empty beer can test?
Drink a can of beer. Then throw the now empty beer can at pre-selected heifer BUT the trick is to just miss the heifer by a few millimetres. If you get it just right her gravitational field should keep it in orbit. Too close and it will melt upon re-entry, to far away and it will skip the atmosphere to be lost for ever.
I've heard rumours of beer cans being navigated across a large room by using the "slingshot" effect from the gravitational fields of several heifers.
Just like NASA using the planets for it's space probes.
Drink a can of beer. Then throw the now empty beer can at pre-selected heifer BUT the trick is to just miss the heifer by a few millimetres. If you get it just right her gravitational field should keep it in orbit. Too close and it will melt upon re-entry, to far away and it will skip the atmosphere to be lost for ever.
I've heard rumours of beer cans being navigated across a large room by using the "slingshot" effect from the gravitational fields of several heifers.
Just like NASA using the planets for it's space probes.
Edited by Tango13 on Sunday 22 August 12:52
slomax said:
Well a fat woman could be quite easily 100kgs (15 or 16 stone), that's about 220lbs. A stiletto heel is about half an inch square. So when walking, weight being transferred from one foot to another, that is 880lbs/inch^-2 on the heel. That's insane...
[pedant] shirley this only applies if she isnt using the rest of the sole of the shoe and balancing on the heels only...? [/pedant]Edited by slomax on Sunday 22 August 09:51
samdale said:
slomax said:
Well a fat woman could be quite easily 100kgs (15 or 16 stone), that's about 220lbs. A stiletto heel is about half an inch square. So when walking, weight being transferred from one foot to another, that is 880lbs/inch^-2 on the heel. That's insane...
[pedant] shirley this only applies if she isnt using the rest of the sole of the shoe and balancing on the heels only...? [/pedant]Edited by slomax on Sunday 22 August 09:51
Tango13 said:
Did they try the empty beer can test?
Drink a can of beer. Then throw the now empty beer can at pre-selected heifer BUT the trick is to just miss the heifer by a few millimetres. If you get it just right her gravitational field should keep it in orbit. Too close and it will melt upon re-entry, to far away and it will skip the atmosphere to be lost for ever.
I've heard rumours of beer cans being navigated across a large room by using the "slingshot" effect from the gravitational fields of several heifers.
Just like NASA using the planets for it's space probes.
Genius Drink a can of beer. Then throw the now empty beer can at pre-selected heifer BUT the trick is to just miss the heifer by a few millimetres. If you get it just right her gravitational field should keep it in orbit. Too close and it will melt upon re-entry, to far away and it will skip the atmosphere to be lost for ever.
I've heard rumours of beer cans being navigated across a large room by using the "slingshot" effect from the gravitational fields of several heifers.
Just like NASA using the planets for it's space probes.
Edited by Tango13 on Sunday 22 August 12:52

slomax said:
Jag-D said:
No because the heel goes down first before the rest of the sole surely?
this was the reasoning i was basing it on, yes.
), but I thought the slightly different gait you see is because the foot comes down flat.Some of these women are way more than 15 or 16 stone - some are easily more than 25 stone I'd wager! So that would increase the PSI considerably! Clearly it's a complicated calculation because all of the weight is not on the heel and also all shoes are different. However, it is most certainly a huge weight on a small area and it's a credit to the US shoe industry that the units can withstand such forces. Maybe it's similar technology to the carbon fibre protection of an F1 safety shell? If not, maybe the FIA could learn a thing or two from the American female footwear industry!
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