Holiday Miscellany

[49410enrique]

thought we might have a thread for holiday mussings, rants, cheer, gripes, random stuff etc.

also i figure we can just apply whatever holiday is coming up to the thread. keep it alive!

i'll start.

[49410enrique]

christmas chemistree!

[Bob]

The one "chosen" word sounds authentic.

[49410enrique]

[49410enrique]

she's an ornament now....

[49410enrique]

lol best comment i saw:

"What a b@#$! @00:31. Hope, a reindeer farts in her face on Christmas."

[Bob]

[rachmaninoff_forever]

lol best comment i saw:

"What a b@#$! @00:31. Hope, a reindeer farts in her face on Christmas."

I would slap her back.

[49410enrique]

who *hearts maths!? i *heart maths!

[vsrinivasa]

who *hearts maths!? i *heart maths!

That is amazing! Math is my favourite thing besides music.

[49410enrique]

That is amazing! Math is my favourite thing besides music.

i  have an alter ego that is all 'sciencey' and stuff too, i *heart physics too!

i meant to post this but was traveling and couldn't log in to post it.

i haven't done the calculations but from a rough ("10K meters" air/above view), seems pretty spot on. lol

mathematical proof for the non-existence of Santa Claus…

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding etc.

This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that “flying reindeer” (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.

[49410enrique]

i guess its a good think he can't exist or is at least dead now. i mean can you imagine waking up to this in your house in the middle of the night!?!? no wonder they tell the kids to make sure and stay in bed. i would have been messed up for life (**suddenly realizes is already pretty messed up)!

*shutters.... the nightmares!

[49410enrique]

how to 'count down' the new year like a boss!
*disclaimer, you may not actually be thought of as a boss or boss-like, depending on the aptitude and level of drunkeness of your co-horts. just sayin'

[vsrinivasa]

i  have an alter ego that is all 'sciencey' and stuff too, i *heart physics too!

i meant to post this but was traveling and could log in to post it.

i haven't done the calculations but from a rough ("10K meters" air/above view), seems pretty spot on. lol

mathematical proof for the non-existence of Santa Claus…

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding etc.

This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that “flying reindeer” (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now.

I love physics and all sciences as well. I'm Hindu and so never believed in Santa Claus or knew of the tradition until I was 14.

That's a wonderful mathematical proof. My eleventh grade calculus teacher made us write proofs for just about everything and it got so annoying that I hated proofs for several years. I don't mind them anymore. Your proof is interesting and well-done. Did you write it yourself?

[vsrinivasa]

how to 'count down' the new year like a boss!
*disclaimer, you may not actually be thought of as a boss or boss-like, depending on the aptitude and level of drunkeness of your co-horts. just sayin'

Prime number countdown? That's an idea: make a calendar using only prime numbers.

[vsrinivasa]

christmas chemistree!

We have something like this in my office.

[49410enrique]

I love physics and all sciences as well. I'm Hindu and so never believed in Santa Claus or knew of the tradition until I was 14.

That's a wonderful mathematical proof. My eleventh grade calculus teacher made us write proofs for just about everything and it got so annoying that I hated proofs for several years. I don't mind them anymore. Your proof is interesting and well-done. Did you write it yourself?

oh gawd no!!! i wish. just lifted it off another site and copy pasted. it's clever though. i don't have a name to go w that brain though. i would totally cite/credit it/them if i could. it prolly that amazing poet/writer/songstress/painter/quoter 'anonymous' . that dude (or chick) is a genius. i swear!

[vsrinivasa]

oh gawd no!!! i wish. just lifted it off another site and copy pasted. it's clever though. i don't have a name to go w that brain though. i would totally cite/credit it/them if i could. it prolly that amazing poet/writer/songstress/painter/quoter 'anonymous' . that dude (or chick) is a genius. i swear!

Whoever it is, they have made a clear and good proof.

[outin]

Oh dear...this board is full of math nerds?   

I used to love physics but didn't like math at all (except things like matrix algebra and statistics) which turned out to be a pretty bad combination...so after 3 years I changed my physics major to social sciences...best decision I ever made...after starting piano again of course

[vsrinivasa]

Oh dear...this board is full of math nerds?   

I used to love physics but didn't like math at all (except things like matrix algebra and statistics) which turned out to be a pretty bad combination...so after 3 years I changed my physics major to social sciences...best decision I ever made...after starting piano again of course

Music and math occupy adjacent areas in the brain!

[outin]

Music and math occupy adjacent areas in the brain!

I guess that explains why my musical skills are lacking so much in some areas

[vsrinivasa]

I guess that explains why my musical skills are lacking so much in some areas

Are you bad at math?

[49410enrique]

another i meant to get up before xmas. it still xmas time anyways.

[outin]

Are you bad at math?

Before? Some areas of it yes (or didn't find it easy as I do most things), others not.

But I have been able to avoid it for the last 25 years or so, so now I absolutely freakin' suck

[chopin2015]

christmas chemistree!

https://www.fireworksalliance.org/cgi-bin/viewpage.pl?p=glossary

[49410enrique]

[49410enrique]

in case you missed it. here.

here's 2012

[chopin2015]

We celebrated New Year's last night, here in Russia. A true russian new years celebration lasts many days. After a couple of days you might sleep till 5 pm and dream that you are still drinking.       So we ended up setting off the fireworks I bought here a little too close and I experienced some temporary deafness and everyone was screaming in fear instead of excitement. My grandpa fell on my grandma and they both fell down while trying to dance. We played a singing game, where you start with someone who sings a song, and the syllable that is sung last-the next person has to sing a song which starts with the same sound and everyone engaged in folk song exchange. I got to try home made Russian vodka which I still regret due to the possible brain dammage that I must have recieved from it/ Happy New years to you all, fellow human beings. I plan on continuing not drinking alcohol on ice because ice cubes cause liver damage. That is all.

[49410enrique]

i guess it's the next holiday up (in the US at least).

in honor of the good dr.  stay clean!