At 02:35 PM 26 June 2002 +1000, Pat Naughtin wrote: >This story sounds a lot like an urban legend, but it was too good not to >share it with you. >Cheers, >Pat Naughtin CAMS >Geelong, Australia > >*** > >There is often more than one solution > >The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the University >of Copenhagen. > >'Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer.' >....
A search for Neils Bohr at the Urban Legends reference page (www.snopes2.com) brings up a substantial history of this story. Two excerpts: Legend: A physics professor gives a final examination that requires his students to explain how to measure the height of a tall building using a barometer. Instead of the expected answer (i.e., measure the barometric pressure at the top and bottom of the building, then use those readings to calculate the altitude), one student provides several unique but technically correct alternative solutions to the problem. Origins: The earliest account of the "barometer" legend we've found so far comes from a 1958 Reader's Digest collection, and the tale is usually identified as being the invention of Dr. Alexander Calandra, who included a first- person account of it in a 1961 textbook (The Teaching of Elementary Science of Mathematics) and published it as an article in Saturday Review in 1968. The various responses mentioned in the legend have also been included in lists of supposedly "real" answers given by physics students when confronted by this same question. (One such list was submitted to the periodical Current Science by Dr. Calandra himself.) Whether a real incident was the basis for Dr. Calandra's creation of this parable is unknown. Jim Elwell, CAMS Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
