How good is ur physics?

[Johnny]

Do you know Physics as well ? The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at theUniversity of Manchester.





"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with aBarometer." One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of thebarometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper tothe ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometerwillequal the height of the building." This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the studentwas failed. The student appealed on the grounds that his answer wasindisputably correct, and the university appointed an independentarbiterto decide the case. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeedcorrect, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics. Toresolve the problem it was decided to call the student in and allow himsix minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least aminimal familiarity the basic principles of physics. For five minutesthestudent sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which thestudentreplied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn'tmake up his mind which to use. On being advised to hurry up the studentreplied as follows: "Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of theskyscraper,drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach theground.The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H =3D0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer." "Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of thebarometer,then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then youmeasure the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is asimple matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of theskyscraper." "But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie ashortpiece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum, first atground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height isworked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T =3D2 pi sqroot (l / g)." "Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would beeasier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper inbarometer lengths, then add them up." "If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course,youcould use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of theskyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibarsintofeet to give the height of the building." "But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence ofmind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be toknock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nicenewbarometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of thisskyscraper'." The student was Niels Bohr, the only person from Denmark to win theNobel prize for Physics And the adjudicator was another legendaryphysicist, Lord Rutherford.

[Mayavi Morpheus]

I read the same story, but it was a bit different. In the version I read Neils bohr says that he'd drop the barometer from top of building and conut the seconds it took for the barometer to drop to the ground deriving the height of the building.

Two different versions of the same story means that this is not true story.

[ZC]

i see only one. n in both !! i also read n before !

[Portuguese Man-Of-War]

Awright - here's one more:



Build another skyscraper next to the one in question, but 10 meters higher. This time measure the height of the skyscraper while constructing itself so that you don't have to do stupid stuff with a barometer on this one - sheesh, one skyscraper and a barometer is more than enough trouble to handle. We could now simply subtract 10 meters from the height of this new skyscraper to get the height of the original one, but then the barometer didn't come into the picture, right? All right, this didn't work, so demolish the new skyscraper. So as not to appear like a total idiot and put the demolished building to some use, take a protractor and a barometer and stand on top of the rubble. Pour the mercury out of the barometer and, holding the protractor with its base parallel to the earth, incline the barometer tube until you can see the top of the skyscraper from the bottom. Check the angle of inclination, and, using elementary trigonometry, calculate the height of the skyscraper as measured from the top of the rubble. Do similar stuff to get height from the bottom of the rubble and the height of the rubble itself. Don't tell anyone that you calculated the height from the bottom of the rubble, since that itself is the skyscraper's height, and will render void your raison d'etre for having built a new skyscraper. Instead, add the height of the rubble to the height of the building as measured from the top of the rubble. Voila!

[Johnny]

I read the same story, but it was a bit different. In the version I read Neils bohr says that he'd drop the barometer from top of building and conut the seconds it took for the barometer to drop to the ground deriving the height of the building.
Two different versions of the same story means that this is not true story.

Man MM, wat u have said is already there in the posted para,

Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of theskyscraper,drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach theground.The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H =3D0.5g x t squared

So it still might be a true story

[azazel]

that went a coupla metres above my head..

[Mayavi Morpheus]

Man MM, wat u have said is already there in the posted para,

Posting at 3.00 in the night is not such a good thing. The other topic I started at the same time confirms it.

[azazel]

Posting at 3.00 in the night is not such a good thing. The other topic I started at the same time confirms it.

were u doped out or somethin?