So they actually got people to "volunteer" for this trial? Surely anybody who heard the (Western) news about SARS wouldn't have gone anywhere near something that stood a good chance of infecting them with it, so it begs the question (if they were "volunteers" and not "volunteered") of what has the Chinese Government released to its citizens about SARS?
I use ZoneAlarm Pro, and you can select whether a program is allowed to access the internet/act as a server/accept incoming connections etc..., and keep those settings for every time the program is run. Then every time a program wants to run IE, it will load up IE but it won't be able to connect to anything.
I, however, set it to ask every time whether I want to allow IE to access the internet, since there are a few sites that I visit where it works better in IE than Firefox, especially a Java chess game one (but that's probably because I've only installed Firefox 1.0 with absolutely no extensions so far), but I can't be bothered to set it all up since I'm clearing my hard drive soon. This way, if it wants to run, it has to get throuhg me first.
Everybody better hurry up and see that cartoon, coz the link expires 30 days after the cartoon is published. Try viewing the one for 31 days ago (the last date not included on the calendar at the top of the Dilbert window) and you won't be able to get it.
Oh, and I calculate that as roughly 5000 miles per (UK) gallon. A fighter jet will do about 1 mile per gallon, a car about 30. Fuel efficient or what!
Correction to parent, it won't actually cross a football pitch, the resistive forces would be far greater than the thrust of the "engine", so it would stay where it is. The calculation above was assuming no resistive forces.
Assuming constant acceleration and no retarding forces, if the initial velocity on leaving the Earth's atmosphere was 11.2 km/s, then the acceleration is (change in velocity)/(change in time) = (2737 - 11.2)km/s * 3600s / 3648h = 2725.8 * 3600 / 3648 km/h^2 = 2690 km/h^2 = 2.08e-4 km/s^-2 = 2.08e-7 m/s^2.
Rather slow accelaration, at that rate it'll take 29683seconds to travel the length of an American Football pitch (from a stationary start), approximately 8.25 hours. That's slow.
Given that a proposed trip to Mars would have an approximate duration from launch to returning to Earth of between 400 and 650 days, if they're looking for a volunteer to sleep that long...
Let's see... With a IE 6.0 resource kit at $39.27 and the book "IE For Dummies" on offer at $15.39, they could get 3658 copies of each, then have enough ($53.72) left over to get a few drinks in for a job well done.
It's actually E^2 = (m^2 * c^4) + (p^2 * c^2), so for objects with no momentum (only rest mass energy) you can sqaure-root both sides and get E = m * c^2
ANY two bodies with mass will have a gravitational force between them and will attract each other, so the Earth is actually "pulling" the Sun towards it. However, since the Sun has a much larger mass than the Earth, it appears that the Earth rotates around the Sun.
The actual law is F=GmM/(r^2), so when the astronauts are on Earth, r is small and F (the gravitational force) is large. When they are up in orbit, r is orders of magnitude higher, so F is smaller. Thus, they are still being pulled towards the Earth, but as they are in orbit, this "pulling" contributes to centripetal acceleration - hence, they orbit.
Well, as a Physics Undergraduate, I had a course in Relativity last year, and passed the exam at the end. Should I need anything more, I can sneak into the lectures for the year below me or just ask the lecturer - maybe offer him 25% or something...
With a coverage of 500,000 square miles, that works out as a circle of radius 400miles. Given an effective range of, say, 750 miles per blimp (need some overlap at the edges at least), and that the US-Mexico border is 3,100km, you'd need 5 just for this border. What about the coastlines, or the border with Canada? To do as you suggest, you'd need at least 50% again (so that there is one covering every pair as a bare minimum), as well as as a landing & repair facility not too far away.
Hmm... Operating at 70,000 feet? How the hell are you meant to repair them? Bringing it back down for maintenance is the only option I can think of, and that will severely reduce your observational capabilities there.
Also, what if it gets punctured or damaged while at 70,000 feet? Will there be an immediate action plan to send up a replacement? As it's unmanned, I guess this means that every little defect requires a ground-based overhaul?
Yes, but watch out for the water! I live in the UK, and was born "up North", where the water is "soft". My father used to make a lot of his home-brewed beer, and apparantly it tasted quite nice. We later moved "down South", he got his brewing kit out again, and made a batch. This time, it tasted like crap because the water where we then lived is "hard". He had to chuck the whole batch away.
Me? I hate beer, will never touch the stuff. Now, if I could only make a home-made Baileys set...
Slashdot Mirror
So they actually got people to "volunteer" for this trial? Surely anybody who heard the (Western) news about SARS wouldn't have gone anywhere near something that stood a good chance of infecting them with it, so it begs the question (if they were "volunteers" and not "volunteered") of what has the Chinese Government released to its citizens about SARS?
The bit where it says "(c) Microsoft"
Intelsat has made alternative capacity available to most of its IA-7 customers, many of whom have already had their services restored.
Smpl, jst fl thm (c nd nsf) by nt sng vwls. sy!
I, however, set it to ask every time whether I want to allow IE to access the internet, since there are a few sites that I visit where it works better in IE than Firefox, especially a Java chess game one (but that's probably because I've only installed Firefox 1.0 with absolutely no extensions so far), but I can't be bothered to set it all up since I'm clearing my hard drive soon. This way, if it wants to run, it has to get throuhg me first.
Everybody better hurry up and see that cartoon, coz the link expires 30 days after the cartoon is published. Try viewing the one for 31 days ago (the last date not included on the calendar at the top of the Dilbert window) and you won't be able to get it.
Correction to parent, it won't actually cross a football pitch, the resistive forces would be far greater than the thrust of the "engine", so it would stay where it is. The calculation above was assuming no resistive forces.
Final velocity = approx. 2737 km/s (about 10,000 km/h)
Fuel consumed = 58.8kg Xe
Assuming constant acceleration and no retarding forces, if the initial velocity on leaving the Earth's atmosphere was 11.2 km/s, then the acceleration is (change in velocity)/(change in time) = (2737 - 11.2)km/s * 3600s / 3648h = 2725.8 * 3600 / 3648 km/h^2 = 2690 km/h^2 = 2.08e-4 km/s^-2 = 2.08e-7 m/s^2.
Rather slow accelaration, at that rate it'll take 29683seconds to travel the length of an American Football pitch (from a stationary start), approximately 8.25 hours. That's slow.
Data taken from here.
As for the $10m prize, how is it all going to be split? I assume Rutan won't get to keep all of it?
Paperweight - stop it going floating in the first place.
Given that a proposed trip to Mars would have an approximate duration from launch to returning to Earth of between 400 and 650 days, if they're looking for a volunteer to sleep that long...
Let's see... With a IE 6.0 resource kit at $39.27 and the book "IE For Dummies" on offer at $15.39, they could get 3658 copies of each, then have enough ($53.72) left over to get a few drinks in for a job well done.
I think GW Bush needs more than a battery... How about an electric chair?
New
Untried
CLever
Economically
Acheivable
Rocket
BZZZZZ...
It's actually E^2 = (m^2 * c^4) + (p^2 * c^2), so for objects with no momentum (only rest mass energy) you can sqaure-root both sides and get E = m * c^2
Waiting for everyone to switch their calculators to binary mode...
Projectile equations of motion, very useful in FPS games.
The actual law is F=GmM/(r^2), so when the astronauts are on Earth, r is small and F (the gravitational force) is large. When they are up in orbit, r is orders of magnitude higher, so F is smaller. Thus, they are still being pulled towards the Earth, but as they are in orbit, this "pulling" contributes to centripetal acceleration - hence, they orbit.
Hope this clears up your "ignorance".
Well, as a Physics Undergraduate, I had a course in Relativity last year, and passed the exam at the end. Should I need anything more, I can sneak into the lectures for the year below me or just ask the lecturer - maybe offer him 25% or something...
What about the noise created? Last time I was near a jet engine, it made quite a racket...
Just make sure they don't have the ad opposite a full-page Microsoft one...
To reiterate my point, not feasible.
Also, what if it gets punctured or damaged while at 70,000 feet? Will there be an immediate action plan to send up a replacement? As it's unmanned, I guess this means that every little defect requires a ground-based overhaul?
Personally, I don't see it working at the moment.
Yes, but watch out for the water! I live in the UK, and was born "up North", where the water is "soft". My father used to make a lot of his home-brewed beer, and apparantly it tasted quite nice. We later moved "down South", he got his brewing kit out again, and made a batch. This time, it tasted like crap because the water where we then lived is "hard". He had to chuck the whole batch away.
Me? I hate beer, will never touch the stuff. Now, if I could only make a home-made Baileys set...