Two physicists from the University of California, San Diego apparently get paid to play with their strings. The two men ran a series of experiments in which they dropped a string into a box and tumbled it for 10 seconds. And then they repeated the dropping/tumbling action 3,000 times. Then they developed a computer program to mimic their observations. The point? To observe and analyze the knotting properties of string.
What an exciting job - it makes me want to poke out my eyeballs. I wonder what these guys say at the annual physicists convention? I mean, the geek quotient must be pretty high among physicists, but these guys must be in the upper deviations of the bell curve of nerdiness.
"Yeah, I just spent the last 12 months dropping strings into boxes and tumbling them."
"No, there is no useful knowledge resulting from my work."
"My big plans for next year? Dropping paper clips into cups and discovering the fascinating world of paper clip chains."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Just to be a nerd and to point out that this is not a useless study...
With more and more of products we depend on being made of fiber re-enforced materials and molecular chains that act like string, it is important to understand the knotting properties of string of different materials.
It may seem like a simple thing to understand, but like most of nature, it is deceptively complex.
Your safety and your children's safety in carbon fiber cars that are just down the road will depend on understanding how these strings behave. When you get onto that new Boeing plane made of carbon fiber, won't you be glad the wings wont fall off because someone "played" with some string in a box?
So, I guess you attended the annual physicists convention. I stand somewhat corrected - it may have a function.
However, thinking of doing the job still makes me want to poke out my eyeballs.
Post a Comment