january02

02-01-02 Happy New Year everyone. I finally updated the site. I know that it's already February, but these are questions asked last month, so I'm putting them in here. Also, I'm trying out a new, simpler, less rug-like design. Since so many of you complained about the monkeys, I've decided to have them stay back in the 2001 pages. You'll have to settle for a panda until I find a suitable koala bear.

The first January questionscomes to us courtesy of Mel.
"Here's a little question for ya: Why would someone as seemingly intelligent as you NOT be doing something with school? What are your "plans for the future"??? Have a spiffy day eh!"
Thanks for the (seemingly) compliment. While I wasn't "doing something with school" when I received this question, I am now. You, my friend, are visiting the site of a Glendale Community College student. Plans for the future, eh? Don't know. I plan to be out of GCC and in one of the University of California campuses by this time next year, majoring in math (or, if I decide that I rather major in something that will get me a job down the line, some type of science, most likely physics). Have yourself a spiffy day also, and thanks for visiting the site.

The next one's from Longhair.
"I would like to know the speed of all things, like the speed of sound, light, warp speed, micro waves, raido waves, phone, and different ways. Like the speed of light 186,000,000 mps and different rates, like mps, mph, & any other speeds the more simple people will understand.
Thanks"
     Ok. In the following answer, mi is miles, m is meters. Also, unless otherwise noted, the speed given is what it would be in a vacum.
     Light = 186287.490 mi/s, or 299,792,458 m/s.
     Sound: in a gas: at 20*C , room temperature, it's 343 m/s; in water it's 1480m/s; in solids, well it depends on the solid; for example, for steel, it's 5960 m/s while for lead it's 1960 m/s. In general, the speed of sound is greatest in solids, then liquids, then gases.
      Warp speed: I don' know, I'll let you know if I ever do.
      Radio waves/microwaves: travel at the speed of light (since they're all electro-magnetic waves)
      Phone: I'm guessing that the speed of "phone" would be the speed of sound through whatever's in the phone lines, so ig the lines are, I don't know, copper, the speed would be around 5010 m/s.
      Speed of McMigran (on an average day): varies from around 3mi/h (walking) to around 60mi/h (being driven)

     As for the different ways of stating them, do that yourself you lazy son of a gun. A ruler tells you that 12inches=30centimeters. Ok, 100 centimeters=1meter, 1000meters=1kilometer.....2 feet to a yard, 5280feet=1mile.
    As for stating them in ways "simple people" will understand....lets see, ok, open your eyes, the amount of time it took you to see something is the speed of light, the amount of time it takes you to hear something is the speed of sound...wait, no, nevermind, the info needs to go from your eyes/ears to your brain as well, so forget that. Ok, I know, something even more absurd: divide your desired speed, in miles, by 60 (we'll call this X); then, ride in a car that's going at 60mi/h.....now, tell yourself "ok, light/sound/what-have-you travels X times faster than thsis"....doesn't mean anything, right?
    Anyway, thanks for the question.

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02-17-02
And the masses are enraged:
In reponse to this answer, Andrew Shran writes:
You have a blaringly wrong answer in your January 2001 page.
[quotes section of answer regarding "phone speed"]
This is wrong because transferring information over phone lines by sound would be incredibly stupid. Also, then it would be impossible for technologies like DSL to work. Since in a long distance call, large portion of the phone signal (distance-wise, of course) is transmitted via fiber optic cables, which are light, so it WOULD be the speed of light except that then the signal is converted back to an electrical one and makes the final trip to its destination via copper wire. I don't know how fast an electrical signal travels, but find the average of the speed of the electrical signal and light and add in a few delay milliseconds for conversion time and there's your speed of phone.
Andrew

You prissy little bitch, how dare you correct me! Anyway, right you are, I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks for letting me know about the blaringly wrong answer. Had the McMigran any money, he'd send you a t-shirt or something; as it is, you'll have to settle for the ephemeral appreciation of a happy little boy with delusions of adequacy.

Here's a queastion from lost child
"why can people denounce Nazi's but i can not denounce god? yeah, not many people like Hitler but there are those that do. well i happen not to like the idea of this god fellow. now i was accused, in school, of bashing christians because i said God was egotistical, misogynistic and blood hungry. <oh and that he doesnt even exist> i have things to back up my claim. (The fucking bible) As do people who dislike Hitler and the Holocaust. now why is it bad for me to hate the idea of god, but it is ok to hate the idea of hitler. are people really as stupid and they seem??? i am utterly confused."

You can denounce god all you want. It's not bad for you to hate the idea of god. The folks at your school are wrong. Of course, you already knew all of this, so why ask the McMigran? No, people are seldom as stupid as they seem.