Re: JPMorgan Chase to strengthen offshoring to India

Richard Heathfield wrote:
> Howard Brazee said:
>
> > On Tue, 13 Dec 2005 20:10:23 +0000 (UTC), Richard Heathfield
> > <invalid_at_invalid.invalid> wrote:
> >
> >>When I'd crossed the last 'i' and dotted the final 't', my result (which,
> >>yes, I handed in) was: 2.997 metres per second. This means that, if I
> >>break into a slowish run, then according to the Lorentz-Fitzgerald
> >>equations I acquire imaginary mass, and can only decelerate by running
> >>harder.
> >
> > That's one of the places where slide rule training helps. You can't
> > do anything with a slide rule without being able to guess the proper
> > order of magnitude of the answer.
>
> Well, oddly enough, I did actually learn how to use a slide rule at school.
> I had a really nice one in a tough blue plastic case. (I wonder what
> happened to it?) Anyway, I didn't happen to use a slide rule for this; it
> was more a case of native stupidity - I knew perfectly well how fast light
> is, but that real world knowledge somehow didn't filter through to my
> calcs.
>
> > Didn't someone write a story where people live in everyday life with a
> > very low speed of light?
>
> You may be thinking of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" series. This isn't the
> only or even the main scientific spoof in the book, but it's mentioned
> occasionally. Light is slowed as it passes through a magical field. IIRC
> the speed of light on the Discworld is around 600mph.

Surely that would depend upon:
1. Whether you were living near the rim where the speed of rotation would increase the apparent speed of the light; 2. The density of the magical field in your locale. Remember, light slows in the presence of magic. Received on Tue Dec 13 2005 - 16:06:12 CST