Fun Facts

1. According to Steve Wright in the afternoon 'factoids', squrrels cannot see red. This is one of those 'honest it's true' facts that is probably untrue. Either that or being a Red Squrrel is the lonliest thing in the world, apart from the voices.
2. If a body falls from 1000ft, it will hit the ground in about 8 seconds, or so say a lot of the posters on Peter Davids site. There is a lot of calculation in this (If we set the starting height at x=0 and the initial velocity = o, then the formula is x=-1/2gt^2 where g = 32 ft/s^2. So, at t=20 sec, x = 6400 feet downward. At t=30 sec, x = 14,400 feet.
   Solving for t, we get t = sqrt(-2x/g). So, if the top is x=0 and the bottom is x=-1000, we get t= 7.9. So, it would take about 8 seconds to hit the bottom after being dropped from a height of 1000 feet). Now try to slip that into a comversation tomorrow, without getting strange looks.
3. Now to the Coriolis effect. This is the one where the water goes down the plug hole one way in the northern hemisphere, and the other in the southern hemisphere, as popularised by the Simpsons episode 'Bart vs Austrailia'. It does not work that way. It is a pitty, i did like the idea.
4. The island of Ireland may not have any snakes (no jokes about the polticians please), but we do have a lizard. It is oddly called the common Lizard, as opposed to all the other lizards who don't live here.
5. Back to Squrrels, and this is why game stations are not that bad a hoby for young people, because it could be worse...