dba@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (David Anderson) (04/11/85)
I remember seeing published somwhere (Reader's Digest? Games?) a canonical list of ways to measure the height of a building using a barometer (throw if off the roof and measure the time to hit the ground, etc.). I'm not suggesting that we recreate the list -- I'm just asking for a pointer to it. Can anyone help? -- David.Anderson@cmu-cs-k.ARPA ..!seismo!cmu-cs-k!dba (412) 422-1255
rjv@ihdev.UUCP (04/13/85)
the funniest answer i've ever seen for measuring the height of a building with a barometer was: "take the barometer to a person who knows the building well, say, the doorman, and barter. 'i will give you this barometer if you tell me how high tall this building is' " most of the other answers were 'scientificish' in nature -- this is still the best answer. GOOD ANSWER, GOOD ANSWER!, ron vaughn ...!ihnp4!ihdev!rjv ps: i'd like to see the full list also. some of the answers (like this one) are really interesting.
ben@moncol.UUCP (Bennett Broder) (04/16/85)
>I remember seeing published somwhere (Reader's Digest? Games?) >a canonical list of ways to measure the height of a building using >a barometer (throw if off the roof and measure the time to hit the >ground, etc.). I'm not suggesting that we recreate the list -- I'm >just asking for a pointer to it. Can anyone help? >-- >David.Anderson@cmu-cs-k.ARPA ..!seismo!cmu-cs-k!dba (412) 422-1255 Come on now. Everyone knows that the correct way to find the height of a building using a barometer is to find the owner of the building and say, "I'll give you a good barometer if you will tell me the height of your building" Ben Broder {petsd,pesnta,princeton}!moncol!ben
tdh@frog.UUCP (T. Dave Hudson) (04/23/85)
>>I remember seeing published somwhere (Reader's Digest? Games?) >>a canonical list of ways to measure the height of a building using >>a barometer (throw if off the roof and measure the time to hit the >>ground, etc.). I'm not suggesting that we recreate the list -- I'm >>just asking for a pointer to it. Can anyone help? >>-- >>David.Anderson@cmu-cs-k.ARPA ..!seismo!cmu-cs-k!dba (412) 422-1255 Sometime around 1973 or 1974 I got the question in a quiz in high school. I thought it was a stupidly obvious question and got a little creative with the answers. The teacher chided me when returning the quizes, so I told him it was a stupid question and he said that no it wasn't (but didn't say why). A classmate asked to see and then to borrow my quiz. Now I am wondering if that incident figures into all this. I'd like to see any references for the list also. David Hudson
dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) (04/25/85)
>>I remember seeing published somwhere (Reader's Digest? Games?) >>a canonical list of ways to measure the height of a building using >>a barometer (throw if off the roof and measure the time to hit the >>ground, etc.). > Sometime around 1973 or 1974 I got the question in a quiz in high school. > > David Hudson I vaguely remember reading an account in Physics Today around 1971 or 72 of an instructor who had asked this question on a quiz and gotten a bunch of "creative" answers (as David speaks of giving). There was some discussion in the letters column over whether the student should have been given good marks or bad for the response, with the consensus favoring the good-marks theory. If David's recollection on the date is wrong, perhaps he is the actual genesis of this story. It is also possibel that a coincidence is involved. I've long wondered about an item in a book of grafiti published in the late 60s that contained one I'd invented: "Lenin's tomb is a Communist's plot." Did someone else come up with that, or did it propagate fast enough to get published in a grafiti collection about a year or so after I invented it? Who knows? -- D Gary Grady Duke U Comp Center, Durham, NC 27706 (919) 684-3695 USENET: {seismo,decvax,ihnp4,akgua,etc.}!mcnc!ecsvax!dgary
gjerawlins@watdaisy.UUCP (Gregory J.E. Rawlins) (05/01/85)
[i can't credit this since i lost the original address...] >I remember seeing published somwhere (Reader's Digest? Games?) >a canonical list of ways to measure the height of a building using >a barometer (throw if off the roof and measure the time to hit the >ground, etc.). I finally tracked down the original mention of this article to "The Nature of Human Intelligence" by J.P. Guilford McGraw-Hill 1967. From the discussion it appears is if Guildford made up the list as a hypothetical case of Creative Student meets Stodgy Orthodoxy. I could be wrong about this as i found the reference in another book ("The Universe Within" M.Hunt Simon & Schuster 1982) and he gives direct quotes. Maybe over time (1967 remember) it has been added to and become folklore...maybe sometime in the Neolithic Oog The Magnificent had just invented the barometer and Ugh The Wiseass came up with a bunch of reasons why Oog shouldn't have bothered..... :-) :-) :-) greg -- Gregory J.E. Rawlins, Department of Computer Science, U. Waterloo {allegra|clyde|linus|inhp4|decvax}!watmath!watdaisy!gjerawlins