I get fascinated sometimes reading about people doing amazing things with simple things. A little over 2,000 years ago a Greek (whose name is something like Erastophnese) figured out the size of the earth by observing the shadow of stick in the ground. He got it within 1% of the real value. You can do a simple search and read the story. Neat stuff.
A man with a brain and a stick
- Thread starter mac
- Start date
I.B. Washincars
Car Washer Emeritus
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 4,224
- Reaction score
- 1,057
- Points
- 113
- Location
- SW Indiana melon fields.
At one time, we had a liquor store. In our area it wasn't actually legal, but it was customary for people to actually loaf and drink beer in the store, just as in a bar. Of course, I got quite an education from the same bunch of guys every day. I was always pretty good at math. There was this one customer, I'll call "Red". He was about as smart as your guy's stick, but of course he thought he knew everything. He loved it when he could stump me, which was seldom. One day he was sure that he had me when he walked in asking "I.B. how fast does the world turn?". Well, I knew it was about 25K around the Earth and it took 24 hours, so I said "A little over a thousand miles per hour." He just looked at me with his astonished dumb look and said "That's pretty close.". Another time that I'm sure he thought he had me, he came in and asked "I.B. what number comes after a trillion?" I responded "A trillion and one..." I think that may have been the last time Red tried to play Jeopardy with me.
