raiche@dartvax.UUCP (George A. Raiche) (12/12/84)
From "Journey to Babel" (D.C. Fontana), Spock's father Sarek is 102.437 TERRESTRIAL years old. One notes that specifying the age to this precision (10^-3 yrs) implies that Sarek (the one who gives the age) knows his age with an uncertainty of approximately 8 hrs and 46 minutes. One would think he'd know his date and time of birth more precisely, being the hard- guy Vulcan that he is. George Raiche Dept. of Chemistry Dartmouth "Are you trying to be funny?" "Never."
adolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark Adolph) (12/15/84)
*** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** > From "Journey to Babel" (D.C. Fontana), Spock's father Sarek is 102.437 > TERRESTRIAL years old. One notes that specifying the age to this precision > (10^-3 yrs) implies that Sarek (the one who gives the age) knows his age > with an uncertainty of approximately 8 hrs and 46 minutes. One would > think he'd know his date and time of birth more precisely, being the hard- > guy Vulcan that he is. > > George Raiche He probably felt...sorry, thought that this answer was in the ballpark enough for the tastes of a mere human (Kirk). After all, they get disturbed when Vulcans are too precise. -- Mark A. ...uw-beaver!ssc-vax!adolph "Computers are like preppies: they just boil around in their own way and you have to do things their way or they blow you off." "Everything that was different was a different thing..."
bsa@ncoast.UUCP (Brandon Allbery) (12/18/84)
> Article <2630@dartvax.UUCP>, from raiche@dartvax.UUCP (George A. Raiche) +---------------- | From "Journey to Babel" (D.C. Fontana), Spock's father Sarek is 102.437 | TERRESTRIAL years old. One notes that specifying the age to this precision | (10^-3 yrs) implies that Sarek (the one who gives the age) knows his age | with an uncertainty of approximately 8 hrs and 46 minutes. One would | think he'd know his date and time of birth more precisely, being the hard- | guy Vulcan that he is. (1) He most likely wouldn't give it to the second, that'd be self-defeating; (2) Accounting for that, it might be either exact or nonterminating (really 102.4369999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999... years old); and what about the vagaries in translation when a double planet is involved? --bsa -- Brandon Allbery @ decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!bsa (..ncoast!tdi1!bsa business) 6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, Ohio 44131 (216) 524-1416 <<<<<< An equal opportunity employer: I both create and destroy bugs :-) >>>>>>