Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 4]

[V8mate]

The Mad Monk said:

You are on top of a ladder, say 50 feet (old money) high.

You have a choice. either
1. jump off and drop 50 feet vertically, or
2. stay on the ladder as it drops to the ground in an arc.

Now, I am not a scientist, or a mathematician, but it seems that dropping to the ground in an arc would be less damaging than a vertical drop?

At fifty feet, it'll be bad news any which way

At a more realistic height... maybe, ladder height?... I think the issue with staying on-board is that you'll be 'gripped by fear' and won't let ago at an opportune moment, thereby ending up landing on your back. Broken legs are preferable to a broken back.

[anonymous-user]

deeen said:

These two scenarios are not the same. With the bullet, the energy needed to move it horizontally comes from firing the gun. Where does the energy for the horizontal vector of the man on the ladder come from?

stting his pants?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

V8mate said:

At fifty feet, it'll be bad news any which way

At a more realistic height... maybe, ladder height?... I think the issue with staying on-board is that you'll be 'gripped by fear' and won't let ago at an opportune moment, thereby ending up landing on your back. Broken legs are preferable to a broken back.

I think you're right - the reality is that, if it happened, you would very likely not react at all.

However, I think it is more likely that the foot of the ladder would slip backwards and you would fall down atop the ladder and crush all of your fingers, than to fall backwards in a large comedic arc and land on your back. I guess it depends on whether you sited your ladder too steep or too shallow.

Either way, though, you'll probably stay 'gripped by fear' as you say.

[anonymous-user]

What if the ladder was on a conveyor belt?

[V8mate]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

V8mate said:

At fifty feet, it'll be bad news any which way

At a more realistic height... maybe, ladder height?... I think the issue with staying on-board is that you'll be 'gripped by fear' and won't let ago at an opportune moment, thereby ending up landing on your back. Broken legs are preferable to a broken back.

I think you're right - the reality is that, if it happened, you would very likely not react at all.

However, I think it is more likely that the foot of the ladder would slip backwards and you would fall down atop the ladder and crush all of your fingers, than to fall backwards in a large comedic arc and land on your back. I guess it depends on whether you sited your ladder too steep or too shallow.

Either way, though, you'll probably stay 'gripped by fear' as you say.

I think the initial reaction could go either way - some people will instinctively 'flee' the danger (jump) and others will hold on to it in some 'place of safety' belief. The idea that, at an ideal point mid-way through the arc, they'll elegantly depart the moving ladder for a perfect landing is highly unlikely.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

V8mate said:

I think the initial reaction could go either way - some people will instinctively 'flee' the danger (jump) and others will hold on to it in some 'place of safety' belief. The idea that, at an ideal point mid-way through the arc, they'll elegantly depart the moving ladder for a perfect landing is highly unlikely.

I agree.

I'm pretty sure I would go down with the ladder going "ohstohstohstohstohst!"

[V8mate]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

V8mate said:

I think the initial reaction could go either way - some people will instinctively 'flee' the danger (jump) and others will hold on to it in some 'place of safety' belief. The idea that, at an ideal point mid-way through the arc, they'll elegantly depart the moving ladder for a perfect landing is highly unlikely.

I agree.

I'm pretty sure I would go down with the ladder going "ohstohstohstohstohst!"

I'd send someone else up the ladder. They're bloody dangerous!

[Roofless Toothless]

Ayahuasca said:

I asked this a long time ago but didn’t get a satisfactory answer.

You are on a ladder cleaning out guttering on a roof say 20 feet high. Suddenly the ladder starts to fall backwards away from the wall. Are you better off jumping from the ladder at the top, or hanging onto it and going down in an arc?

This is what you need to do.

https://9gag.com/gag/aKVKj81

[SpeckledJim]

Imagining a 5 metre vertical ladder, if the fall was only one metre (so only the first, what, 20 ish degrees of ladder rotation), then staying on the ladder will take longer than just falling vertically. So I think that means the impact after that 1 metre vertical travel will be smaller.

So, if after 1 metre of vertical travel, ladder man is going slower (vertically) than falling man, then I reckon that means he'll still be going slower after 5 metres of vertical travel.

So I'd rather be ladder man than falling man (outwith the argument of landing on your feet, which I've regarded as a separate practical question). Is my physics wrong?

[talksthetorque]

Climb down the ladder as it is falling.

[Antony Moxey]

Secure the ladder properly and have someone footing it. It won't fall over then.

[Johnspex]

Does anyone know how to get rid of the stench of diesel from inside my car? It spilled about 4 months ago nd doesn't seem to be getting any better. Obviously I've wiped it up and tried washing the carpets but even after all this time it still stinks.
The irony is it's a petrol car. Moral- don't carry "empty" 45 gallon drums for friends!


Thanks

[glenrobbo]

Halmyre said:

I wear pants under my shorts, but Americans wear shorts under their pants.

And Superman wears his Y-fronts over his tights...

[coppernorks]

Antony Moxey said:

Secure the ladder properly and have someone footing it. It won't fall over then.

thanks there to Duncan [ Sensible ] Thicket, but your sensible ejaculation is contrary to the spirit of the question/thread.

[vonuber]

Johnspex said:

Does anyone know how to get rid of the stench of diesel from inside my car? It spilled about 4 months ago nd doesn't seem to be getting any better. Obviously I've wiped it up and tried washing the carpets but even after all this time it still stinks.
The irony is it's a petrol car. Moral- don't carry "empty" 45 gallon drums for friends!
Thanks

If you set fire to it then it will burn the fuel away, resulting in no diesel smell.

[paua]

vonuber said:

Johnspex said:

Does anyone know how to get rid of the stench of diesel from inside my car? It spilled about 4 months ago nd doesn't seem to be getting any better. Obviously I've wiped it up and tried washing the carpets but even after all this time it still stinks.
The irony is it's a petrol car. Moral- don't carry "empty" 45 gallon drums for friends!
Thanks

If you set fire to it then it will burn the fuel away, resulting in no diesel smell.

Alternatively, I can sell you a 4 day old squid to place upon the exhaust manifold - after which you will never again be aware of a diesel smell.

[foxbody-87]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

I watched a documentary series on the history of the development of trains on something like Yesterday, or National Geographic, or Discovery, or something. It was lockdown and I was bored. And it actually proved to be quite interesting.

They said the Diesel-Electric was developed because a suitable gearbox to directly drive the wheels would have been bigger than the locomotive itself, would have weighed an inordinate amount, and would have seized from its own friction. Basically it would have been technically unfeasible.

I presume the same would be true for a steam engine.

Some of the early diesel multiple units under BR had mechanical gearboxes, but being (I imagine) fairly light that would probably work.

[Dr Jekyll]

What's the easiest BA or BSC subject to get into Oxford to study?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

foxbody-87 said:

Some of the early diesel multiple units under BR had mechanical gearboxes, but being (I imagine) fairly light that would probably work.

Maybe you're right - there was an early petrol-powered locomotive that was mechanical drive also, but it could only pull a couple of carriages. I think perhaps that once you got to a certain size the gearbox became unfeasible. Maybe that's what the documentary was saying. Certainly Diesel-Electric was an immense breakthrough and removed this limiting factor.

[AstonZagato]

Dr Jekyll said:

What's the easiest BA or BSC subject to get into Oxford to study?

BSc is impossible as they award BAs even for science subjects (as does Cambridge).

You probably would have to choose an obscure subject that few people study at A level and doesn't have a great deal of utility in later life. In my day, Classics at Cambridge (what I read) had relatively few applicants but the standard was still high - the brightest Public School students tended to study Latin and Ancient Greek.

Land Economy was the sportsman's degree at Cambridge back then, so was generally thought to be the easiest.

The admissions / applicants stats are here:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/Annual%20A...

A view from someone who does undergraduate admissions for one of the colleges is that rare subjects (egyptology) and ones that Brits are bad at (modern languages) will pretty much guarantee you an interview. Places are still competitive though.

Edited by AstonZagato on Monday 20th July 20:45