Slippery when Wet
So i think i am making this Blog follow a new direction this August. On a Tuesday i will post a Science in a Nutshell post, Wednesday will see a The Plague of Me post and Thursday…well you will have to wait and see.
The Plague of Me category will have insights into my mind and how it drives me totally up the wall everyday. I will post a few things, hopefully more, on how i see the world and why i am tormented by thought constantly.
Today we have the Slippery when wet sign found in South Africa.
Slippery when wet
So you probably wonder what is my problem here. Well let me explain. EVERY single time i drive and i see one of these i get so extremely aggrovated and frustrated. This sign is so scientifically flawed that it makes me want to go rip off every sign of this type in the country. Look at the skid marks or travel path of the indicated vehicle in the sign. It is on a path moving straight and then suddenly it moves instantaneously to the left and continues. While this motion is not an impossibility it is usually only found when acted upon by a sudden impact force in the same direction of movement. In other words: something, perhaps another car hit the side of this one to create this path of travel. But if this is in fact the case then why is the car not broken in the picture. Now i know that many of you are going to say it is just an image that needs to be representative of the meaning and that is fair enough. My arguement is that they could do this in a proper way and make a sign that is not absolutely filled with physical inaccuracy. IT DRIVES ME INSANE! Note i have tried to make sense of the motion but if you look deep enough you will see there is no way a car can move like this unless the axle actually breaks of and rotates one hundred and eighty degrees ARGH! i cant take this anymore!!!!
I suggest we do as the Germans do:
Slippery when wet - Germany style
Sigh, much much better!! This is more representative of the meaning and to me it is more successful! Also its not a minibus taxi! HAHAHA.
So there you have it. I AM DRIVEN INSANE BY SLIPPERY WHEN WET SIGNS!
The Casimir Effect
Well this is a new dimension to this blog which has recently become very single minded. I am going to add a new type of post which i will categorise as science in a nutshell. These will be exactly that, science in a nutshell. Let me know what you think…
The Casimir Effect.
Well this is a very interesting effect. The universe has many different waves which are made of different wavelengths due to quantum-mechanical reasons. When we have two surfaces which are close to one another we find ourselves in a situation where only wavelengths which are a factor of the distance between the surfaces are found. So in a space of 10cm we will find wavelengths of 2,5,1,10cm etc. We wont find 7cm wavelengths for instance(note the factor needs to result in a whole number of wavelengths forming the factor, ie 5 wavelangths of 2cm and not 1.428 wavelengths of 7cm). This is because the wavelengths reflect back and forth cancelling each other out. This thus leaves us with only certain wavelengths between the surfaces and an infinite amount around the surfaces. We now have a higher energy density around the surfaces and a lower energy density between the surfaces. This brings about a force which attempts to create equilibrium once more and this leads to the Casimir Effect.
Thoughts?
