doctor_big wrote: > @Golden Earring > > Your writing style is a breath of fresh air. Good work. > > Could you please post some rationalization regarding the Julius caesar > atoms /breath in & out scenario? > > 50% seems rather high.
Hi doc! I agree that it's counter-intuitive, but what it was designed by the boffins at Oxford to highlight was that we have little real grasp of how tiny atoms actually are: at our perceived scale everything appears solid even though it's mostly empty space - including within the atoms themselves. The calculation compares the number of atoms in a breath with the ratio of the size (in terms of its atom content, in other words, taking account of the rarification at higher altitudes) of the entire atmosphere with that of one pair of lungs' full, assuming perfect dispersion of the atoms from poor old Julius's final exhalation during the quite long intervening period. Please don't ask me to replicate the actual figures, I'm not as sharp as I used to be: ask someone who's currently studying maths & physics to fill in the blanks. The calculations were performed independently (& checked several times because we were just as surprised as you are by what popped out) by myself & 2 colleagues who had also done double maths & physics A & S levels (the S levels were optional & seriously tough back then); all 3 of us had to accept the unexpected result & all of us subsequently got scholarships to Oxford (2 minor in Physics & 1 major in Maths). My friend Paul got the 6th best First in Maths Finals in his year. We were all in the groove back then, it was right at the end of the state grammar school era. To be fair we had been crammed to death from age 11, but did acquire a capacity for independent thinking as well. My school was 40th in the country for Oxbridge entrance that year. It had only been in existence for 20 years, so that was good going. Immediately after I left it became an 11 - 16 comprehensive school: all the teachers found alternative employment in public schools. End of an era. Don't know what happened to the big board in the entrance hall with all our names proudly stencilled on in gold letters. 62 now, it's all a bit of a blur, except the result of the calculation which was surprising enough to be unforgettable... Dave :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Golden Earring's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=66646 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=106914 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
