Biscuits, Bowie and bothersome befuddlement

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bowie rekkons the last piece of technology he fullee understood the koncepts behind was the fountin pen.

eno reckons biscuits come in odd numbaz in a packet - so you buy more than one - so they'll cheroot equally.

both got me thinking for ages - no i wazn't stoned- i wonder dooya eva get swept away by the offhand statements/bollux theories of others and ifso - when were you last suckered ?

― G.R.D. Robot II, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Eno's quite right. Only it also applies to chewing gum.

― Helen Fordsdale, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The last time someone blew my mind was when totally stoned, a friend explained to me with perfect clarity, how the speed of light is relative, and that therefore on that basis, it is possible for an object to move faster than the speed of light but may not appear to be, depending on the relative position of the observer.

It still makes my head woozy just thinking about it.

― Trevor, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That might be because they were talking arse.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry, that was a bit brusque. The crucial point about Special Relativity is that the speed of light is NOT relative. It is constant relative to any observers in inertial frames. This means that even if you are travelling at c/2(where c = speed of light) towards me and I fire a laser at you it will still appear to travel at c relative to me and c relative to you even though it would seem that you should see it travelling at 3c/2 according to old skool Gallilean relativity. All that jazz about length contraction, time dilation and e = mc² derives from this initial postulate.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Read 'in all' for 'constant relative to any observers in' above. The presence of an observer is irrelevant.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Help! Can we get back to biscuits please?

― Madchen, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

rick, anyone with a hangover of such monstrous proportions as yours should not be talking about no speed of light. you should be making a cup of tea and whimpering in a dark corner. get to it.

― katie, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The physics part of my brain seems to be curiously uninjured after last night's alcohol assault. However, the doing work bit and talking coherently bit have been thoroughly screwed.

― RickyT, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I very much doubt that Bowie understands anything about capillary action, which is the principle of how a fountain pen works.

― toraneko, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

also how are you supposed to write and be comfy if you are left-handed w/o blodging what you just wrote? mr so-called bowie? eh??

― mark s, Wednesday, 17 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ten years pass...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=i2WFBlJvcMQ

― Sweet Yin Yang ☯ (Latham Green), Wednesday, 15 August 2012 14:21 (thirteen years ago)

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