[TheForge] Re: Smithing question

[Mike Spencer]

Andy quoth:

>> As far as I recall, the 33K # was the weight that a typical horse could
>> lift 1 foot in 1 minute through tackle

And Phlip retorted:

> Thanks, Andy. It's not a measurement with a great deal of relevence
> to my normal activities...

A tad more relevant:

My high shool physics teacher hooked a climbing rope to the high,
Victorian-era ceiling, appointed one student as "starter" to run the
stop watch.  Rules: The starter yells "go" and the subject starts
climbing.  The subject can yell "stop" at any time and the started
stops the stopwatch.

So a few students climbed the rope, calculated out at a pathetic 0.1
HP or there abouts (If I recall correctly -- long time ago). Two of
the school's top jocks were in this class and of course had to show
off.  The captian of the basketball team reached the ceiling, yelled
"stop" and calculated out at 0.3 HP.  Loud cheers.

Then the teacher -- ca 35 years old and not the athletic type -- took
a turn.  On "go" sprang up, grabbed as high as possible, pulled up as
far as that initial grab would take him and yelled "stop".
Calculations showed about 1.0 HP.

The jocks had been going all the way to the ceiling.  Point made: HP
is a unit measuring *the rate* at which work is done.  Humans can't
sustain a rate of 1 HP but can hit 1 HP over short intervals of, say,
1 to 2 seconds.

Good teacher.  Even the jocks got it.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^

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