"Brakes" Discussion

[sadleric]

Now you're thinking with portals!

[iceberg]

Somerville is known for car theft... He probably stole it without knowing it had no brakes

[Maddo]

[quote=joeyhndc]
Cliff is 207 meters high. Hope it's a nice view, Randall.
[/quote]

Working that out is a very xkcd reader thing to do... 207... http://xkcd.com/207

[alexf42]

It's not really correct to say that the cliff is 207 feet high. That number does not take into account air resistance. Since it would be almost impossible to calculate exactly, which would require taking into account the surface area of the car, which changes as the car rotates and depends on the model, it would be much simpler to just use few enough significant figures. 207 seems too specific, but I think 210 should be good enough. The cliff is probably at least 200 feet.

Those calculations were in meters, not feet.

Yea dude, nerd up a tiny bit.

I posted this right after playing D&D, which measures everything in feet. And I'm pointing out air resistance and sig figs. If that's not nerded up enough, I don't know what is.

[nihil]

Now you're thinking with portals!

Awesome! LOL

[Sgore]

This is this past week's show:
http://www.cartalk.com/piplayer/cartalk ... llsmil.xml
Familiarize yourself. You will be happy you did.

In fact, while your at it, some various episodes of:
Prairie Home Companion:
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/ ... /02/07_phc
Wait, Wait...Don't Tell me:
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/r ... p?prgId=35
This American Life:
http://audio.thisamericanlife.org/playe ... mproxy.php
All Things Considered:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/med ... =103908246
And just for the hell of it,
Fresh Air with Terry Gross:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/med ... 04-06-2009

There. A cross section of various public radio shows in America. Now nobody anywhere has any excuse not to get any further references Randall or any other writer may make to The Tappet Brothers, Garrison Keillor/Lake Wobegon, Carl Kasell, Ira Glass or the various other fine people at NPR and PRI.
Also, Hi XKCD Community! (I'd probably rather this be my first post than anything else.)

[Benzene]

What if the car was the typical height and cliff the apparent proportional height (18 meters give or take): How fast must he go to have the curvature of the earth be significant and it actually take a full 6.5 sec to hit the ground?

[PickleMan]

What if the car wasn't a car and actually a drawing?

[SocialSceneRepairman]

"Ceci n'est pas une voiture"?

[PickleMan]

Good thing I speak french. I mean, what if this "car" isn't a real life car at all, but really just a "drawing" by the smartest person in the world...

[Sgore]

Hm. In that case, what if this discussion about a Car related webcomic by Randal Munroe isn't a real life discussion at all, but merely a bunch of people hitting keys on a keyboard, clicking some buttons and having it show up on the "display" in front of them?
(I submit meta-conversations are the best kind of conversations.)

[PickleMan]

You missed my point. Why talk about a car in the drawing?

[Sgore]

Oh, no I understood, I was just kind of joking around...(Perhaps meta-humor is more obscure then I thought it might be)...Anyway, I would have to submit "because it's fun" as an answer to your initial query. In fact, I would have to submit that as an answer to a lot of queries.
The car may not be tangable, but the amount of fun that can be had discussing it doesn't get detracted from at all.
(Also, Who's to say that car doesn't exist somewhere? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheistic_solipsism You know, hypothetically...)

[PickleMan]

And I understood your sarcasm. No, really, I did.
This may be a drawing of a real life scene...
I bet Randall is watching this and thinking, "Wtf? Its a COMIC."

[speedweasel]

From the rotation of the car in the air, can someone determine what speed the car was travelling when it left the cliff? (Make assumptions where necssary and please show your work.)

[dennisw]

From the rotation of the car in the air, can someone determine what speed the car was travelling when it left the cliff? (Make assumptions where necssary and please show your work.)

I'm going to say that it depends an awful lot on the weight distribution in the car affecting the rotational momentum - like a spinning skater spreading and retracting her arms.

[rubber314chicken]

From the rotation of the car in the air, can someone determine what speed the car was travelling when it left the cliff? (Make assumptions where necssary and please show your work.)

I'm going to say that it depends an awful lot on the weight distribution in the car affecting the rotational momentum - like a spinning skater spreading and retracting her arms.

Most of that is the type of car. Anyone know what kind of car he had, how full the gas tank was, and how much Randal weighs?

[gnetwerker]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. On that note, this from award-winning political cartoonist Jack Ohman (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/jack_ohman/) as of today (June 2):

[WhiteDragon]

The car looks like a PT Cruiser.