calling all geeks... that means all of you.

hey so I learned that when you pull tape off the roll it generates its own energy fron the breaking of the bond and in so doing makes its own light. don't ask what I was doing in the pitch dark with scotch tape.

any other neat tid, geek, bits?

There's always the chewing wintergreen life savers in the dark....

well, cookie crumbs have less calories than whole cookies because when they get broken up the bonds are broken and the energy gets released..

http://www.hightechscience.org/funfacts.htm

:D

I don't know how much I trust this site, considering they misuse an apostrophe in their second "fun fact".

Form now on I am wrapping my presents in the dark!

If you mix corn starch and water it is considered both a solid and a liquid....

And if you mix in green food coloring, its called oobleck.

spring, summer, autumn, winter and .... oobleck!

i think i have that voice acted on a record from my youth somewhere ... it was great.� *sniff*� i need to find my old collection again and a player.

�-= george =-

ok i never realised my full geek-ocity... i used to make corn starch and water just to play with it... AND i dyed it green. whee, geekdom!

jen

It is a non-newtonian fluid. Its properties are similar to glass. Glass also can act like a liquid. If you take a look at a really old window, hundreds of years old, you'll see how it has flowed towards the bottom.

While The Master agrees that glass is an amorphous solid (I've never heard the term non-newtonian fluid), the idea that old windows are thicker at the bottom because of glass-flow in incorrect.

To quote Cecil in the above-referenced article, "...the real question is whether glass flows, as liquids do. I'm happy to say it does, just not very fast. In the original column I wrote, 'At room temperature [glass's] rate of flow is so slow that it would take billions of years to ooze out of shape.'"

I am not sure if he is right about this. Frederick the Great of Prussia was also a scientist. He performed an experiment. He placed a cannonball on a plate of glass and left it there for years (I'm not sure how many, 20+). At the end of that time he measured how far the ball had sunk into the glass. It was measurable.

A non-newtonian fluid is one that reacts differently to fast accelleration than it does to slow. Glasses, Silly Putty, and Corn starch, all become more viscious under high acceleration and act like solids. Ketchup is hte opposite it becomes less viscous which is why if you shake the bottle it will pour easier. The single most practical thing I learned in physics class.

but then.

why are old windows thicker at the bottom?

And why is it only the windows that are hundreds of years old?

And what about Mac?

maybe on its own it won't warp... but under the pressure of all the glass above it?

because I was thinking about it, and glasses and bowls that are made of glass from a long time ago don't seem to show that kind of wear...

so. it's because the glass is narrow and tall it weighs itself down?

just a thought, I have nothing to support it ;D

Exactly it is under more pressure. Plus of course how many glasses and bowls are hundreds of years old.

No. It's because of the way windows were made hundreds of years ago. They were made out from flattened-out blown bubbles of glass.

It was only recently that they developed the technology to make perfectly flat sheets of glass. I believe they're formed on lakes of mercury, or somesuch...

okay... but why does that make them thicker at the bottom?

exactly my question.

But I have some AWESOME nerd jokes. I think I've told them here before but they definitely bear repeating.

A hydrogen ion walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender looks at him and goes, "Man, are you okay, you look depressed?"
The ion sullenly says, "Yeah, I am. I lost an electron today."
The bartender hands him his drink. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive!"

...There's more. Tell me if I've said these already. :o)

Meh.� I get these kind of jokes from my little brother John.� I don't get it.

<> !*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<> ~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

If anyone understands PLEEEAAASE tell me so I can know what I'm pretending to "lol" to.

I think he was trying to tell you something important, but I can't make it out over the noise on his serial line...

Okay, I found out what it is.� I'll give you a cluuuee!! It's a Unix thing.

..it's a poem :)

Yes!

On second glance....

I can make out the rhyme (and nearly fell over laughing -- I'm *such* a geek.) but I fail to see the message.

More processing time has been slated...

Wait a tick(), it even has rhythm!

Please, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Here goes...

broket broket bang star tick-tick hash,
caret quote backtick dollar-dollar dash,
bang star equal at dollar-underscore,
percent star broket broket tilde hash four,
ampersand bracket bracket dot-dot slash,
pipe parenthesis comma-comma crash!

I took a couple liberties with the naming of some of the elements (If I'm right, the { in the last line should be a '(' ) so if anyone has a more accurate translation, I'd love to hear it.

This is how my older brother translated it for me.

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH

mine is relativeley the same.. except the last line, which went (for me) :

Pipe curly-bracket comma comma comma crash.

lol, i knew odoitau would get it

Make your very own light show!�

http://www.pmichaud.com/grape/

note: best to do in someone else's microwave.�