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Möbius Strip Riddle Solved
BigLug writes with news that two experts in non-linear dynamics, Gert van der Heijden and Eugene Starostin of University College London, have developed an algebraic equation that describes the Möbius strip — something that, you may be surprised to learn, had never been done since the form's discovery in 1858. ABC.net.au has an accessible short summary: "What determines the strip's shape is its differing areas of 'energy density,' they say. 'Energy density' means the stored, elastic energy that is contained in the strip as a result of the folding. Places where the strip is most bent have the highest energy density; conversely, places that are flat and unstressed by a fold have the least energy density."
Damn, I got all excite when I thought it said Moby strips....
So now can my graphics coprocessor render moebius strips on demand?
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make install -not war
Are they telling me that all I have to do is fold the $1 this certain way before I give it to the stripper, and she won't think I'm a weirdo???
Maybe now she'll be interested in ^&$%!@#$*^%@ CARRIER LOST, BRAIN EXPLODED.
Möbius strip == Microsoft Marketing FUD.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Is this supposed to be "news"?
Here's a riddle from a HIGHSCHOOL textbook on physics dating back to the FIFTIES:
"You have two empty jars, thin and tall. In one of them, you put thin and tall metal spring vertically, so it follows the shape of the jar while being uncompressed. In the other one, you put exactly the same spring, but insert it horizontally, so it requires compression to be inserted into the jar. Obviously the compressed spring required energy to be compressed, and thus possesses more energy than the identical but uncompressed spring.
Next, you pour sulphuric acid into both jars. The acid gradually disintegrates the springs. The springs disappeared. The question is, what happened to the energy you have used to compress the spring before it disintegrated?"
The book then goes on to explain, "The compressed spring possessed higher elastic energy reserves than the uncompressed spring, the excess energy being equal to the energy required to compress the spring. When both springs disintegrated, it was measured that the compressed spring took longer to disintegrate, and the average temperature of the acid in the jar with the compressed spring was higher than the one with the uncompressed spring. The elastic energy, therefore, was converted into thermal energy".