Old 12-12-21, 08:58 PM
  #17  
Seattle Forrest
Senior Member
 
Seattle Forrest's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 23,208
Mentioned: 89 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 18883 Post(s)
Liked 10,645 Times in 6,054 Posts
Neils Bohr was a jerk as a teenager, like everyone. His science teacher failed him. On an exam, the teacher had asked how can you use a barometer to measure the height of a tall building? Everyone with a Garmin knows the answer, and complains sometimes about the result. Bohr answered "take the barometer to the roof of the building, drop it to the ground, measure the time it takes, and calculate the distance by assuming constant acceleration under gravity." The teacher held young Niels after class the next day and said he would pass the child of he can demonstrate that he learned the course's material by giving the correct answer. Bohr relented: "you can learn the height of a tall building using a barometer by building a gyroscope out of the barometer and measuring the strength of gravity at the ground and roof, and then calculating the distances. Or you can lower the barometer to the ground and measure the amount of rope required. If the building has a superintendent, you can trade the barometer for accurate information regarding the height of the building."

Probably not a true story.
Seattle Forrest is offline