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Nintendo DS Wireless in Freefall
Nicholas Roussos writes "Wired reports about four skydivers who decided to give the Nintendo DS wireless capabilities a try while they were freefalling. 'The four sky divers proved that an ad hoc network set up using the wireless functions of a Nintendo DS works perfectly at distances of nearly 400 feet while falling 120 miles an hour,' states the article."
I'll tell you what would be cool, ultralights with automatic paintball guns, heat seeking nerf missiles, and a HUD. Then have a dogfight, and when Mr. Farmer comes out of his house yelling at you for scaring the bejesus out of his livestock you make a second pass, *thunk* *thunk* *thunk* *thunk*
Wait, what was this article about again?
In this year of the Einstein centenary, these skydivers have managed to rediscover the Principle of Relativity - that it matters not how fast you are moving, the laws of physics are the same. Indeed, if radio waves failed to propagate for skydivers the entire structure of physics would have to be re-created from scratch.
nintendo ds, cause falling 120miles/h towards the ground isent exciteing enough.
So now when they kick you and your friends off the plane for using wifi while in flight, you'll be all good.
I mean, there is no/little relative velocity, and radio waves are fast (plus there is no ether :D).
As to the whole thing... I really dont know. Its cool, but it sounds like a real potential for darwin awards ("damn, ill get you. Just a nother round..." *splash*)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
http://stashbox.fromtheshadows.tv/
or the actual torrent:
http://torrents.fromtheshadows.tv/fts_box1.0.avi.t orrent
It is good to read about some real world applications with todays technology. Usually these articles are so theoretical....
...though I'd really hate to try it. I get sucked into "the zone" when gaming and computing so tend to ignore most outside stimuli (feel free to correct spelling, etc.). Hope that my parachute would be automatically opening, otherwise...
1) Wow. Line-of-sight is line-of-site!
2) If all 4 of them are falling in the same direction at the same speed, than their velocity is irrelevant; their relative velocity is zero.
3) What networked games can you actually finish within the 60 seconds before you hit the ground?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
At speeds like that, how could the speed of light even hope to keep up?
Dude, I fragged you!
No, dude. I fragged you first!
No Way! I fragged you first.
SPLAT!
If they are all travelling at the same speed - so what? What if one was still and the other was travelling at 400mph? Could they still communicate? I know, they would be too far apart if the moving one went in a straight line. But, what if it went back and forth? The issue is the simple doppler effect. At what point is it unable to handle wireless communications?
I only ask because I feel that we will eventually have wireless transmitters in all cars to monitor traffic and assist in directing traffic away from congested areas. At what speed do cars lose effective communication with stationary antennas? Cell phones seem to work just fine at 100mph+
The previous comment is purposely vague and generalized, but all of the facts are completely true.
I won't personally be trying this with my DS anytime soon. If I wanted to pee, besides in my pants while playing my DS, I'll just do it in the bathroom.
They might have hit the ground before they booted up the game and loaded the level. ;)
You don't want those UMD's to come accidentally shooting out at that height.
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
Jimmy! PULL THE STRING!!
*waves hand* Just a second man
For the love of god! Deploy your parachute!
I just gotta get the high score, I'm almost there. *SPLAT*
... and in the DRM, bind them.
Reminds me of a bash.org IRC quote:
Zanthis(ALE): AFK, tornado
Has a whole other meaning in this context.
"The four sky divers proved that an ad hoc network set up using the wireless functions of a Nintendo DS works perfectly at distances of nearly 400 feet while falling 120 miles an hour"
I'm glad they proved it, it was really keeping me up at night.
The Nintendo DS is already a hassle to control with two hands while on the ground - how the heck did these guys keep their styluses steady mid-descent?
I get pretty bored skydiving too.
1) If Bob is in the baggage car of a train traveling north at 90MPH and Margaret is standing still 10 cars north of Bob, each car being approximately 40 feet long, home much time would pass before Bob crashes into Margaret? Show your work.
2) If I put two chickens in a bag and give you the bag, how many chickens do you have?
3) If radio waves from a Nintendo DS travel at roughly 186,000 miles per second, how fast would two parallel trains moving in the same direction have to travel before the conductor in each train could no longer receive signals from the other conductor's Nintendo DS?
4) If you were in a car travelling at the speed of light and you flashed your high-beams, would anything happen? Assume you're on the New Jersey Turnpike.
The skydivers experience is consistent with Galilean relativity, Einstein's special relativity wouldnt have much of an effect in this situation.
It is not surprising that their wireless worked in the least, as to be able to detect any relativistic effect, their frame, determined by gamma=(1-v^2/c^2)^(-1/2) would have to be close to or greater than 1. That would be darn close to the speed of light.
Since when does Carrot Top try out new material on Slashdot?
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jonathan barket
Do you really have a network when all nodes got just got dropped?
Hur hur hur...
-Pinkoir
If four skydivers were in space (exo-solar-diving) free-falling from Jupiter toward the Sun with an intent to drop into Earth after a few braking maneuvers (what a rush! Oh wait, you'd barely feel the solar wind, uh?).
So, once again if four sport-extremists were sol-exo-diving, would that 20 K-mile/per second put a dent in your line-of-sight RF communication channel?
Yes...barely I leave you to do the math.
(plus, then, no one can hear you scream in space)
Skydiver 1: Is it working?
.... I feel like I forgot something... my charger .... or ....
Skydiver 2: What?
Skydiver 3: He said, IS IT WORKING?
Skydiver 4: Mine is up!
Skydiver 1: Okay, so is mine now.
Skydiver 2: What?
Skydiver 3: HE SAID, HIS IS WORKING NOW!
Skydiver 2: OKAY THANKS!
Skydiver 4: Start the game already.
Skydiver 2: What?
Skydiver 1: Okay Cool, I can see everybody!
Skydiver 3:
WHUMP!!
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
I hate to break it to you guys, but so long as the people are moving at the same velocity, there isn't any kind of problem. If all of them had been moving at .999 speed of light (in our point of view), there still wouldn't be a difference, because they are all in the same frame of reference, and they would all measure the speed of light from their point of view to be 3.0x10^8 ms^-1. No doppler effect of the radio waves would be created, and no greater time lag would ensue. It's as if they aren't moving, because according to each other, they aren't!
Of course [it can't]! That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208.
The good news was the four skydivers proved that an ad hoc wireless network using the Nintendo DS works perfectly at distances of 400 feet while falling 120 miles an hour...
.500 ain't bad.
The bad news is neither the Nintendo DS or the four skydivers bounce very well.
Meh. Batting
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