[ale] From DSL to Fiber

Jeff Lightner jlightner at water.com
Fri Aug 25 10:24:46 EDT 2006


You're implying an airplanes doesn't ever accelerate (or even decelerate) when it "flies"?

Sorry but I have to disagree having been on many a flight in my life.  

The original question was "how long will it take to reach the speed of light" which certainly implied acceleration was occurring.  

As my nieces used to say:  So there!  :p

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Thompson Freeman
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 3:58 PM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] From DSL to Fiber

On 08/24/2006 03:38:14 PM, Jeff Lightner wrote:
> But knots per hour = 1.15 statute miles per hour per hour
> which would denote acceleration.  Therefore knots per hour
> itself is not wrong.

Errr. I'm not so sure about that. There is redundant  
information in "an aircraft flies". Now if the statement  
read "an aircraft accelerates..." I might buy the argument,  
but flying (to me at least, and I suspect in general) would  
rather imply essentially steady flight with just sufficient  
various accelerations necessary for stable flight.


> 
> What is wrong is it implies you could actually reach the
> speed of light.  Due to time/mass dilation effects at
> relativistic velocities (1/4 C or greater) it would be
> impossible to do even if your poor little plane didn't
> melt from heat in the atmosphere.  (It would have to be in
> the atmosphere of course because propellers and [air] jets
> don't work in a vacuum.)
> 
> :-)
> 

Of course, being of the nature of a thought problem, the  
physics of flight (such as air resistance) can be ignored.

8-)

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On
> Behalf Of Sean Kilpatrick
> Sent: Thursday, August 24, 2006 3:30 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] From DSL to Fiber
> 
> On Thursday 24 August 2006 13:36, David A. De Graaf wrote:
> | Precision in speaking and writing is essential for those
> who are
> | learning, and a great timesaver for everyone.
> |
> | Question: ?If an airplane flies at 200 knots/hr how long
> will it take
> | to reach the speed of light?
> |
> 
> Hmmmmm
> 
> Knots = nautical miles (which equal 1.15 statute miles)
> per hour. I'm
> not certain what "knots per hour" would mean.  And I'm all
> for
> precision in speaking and writing. <grin>
> 
> Sean,
> who in another life was a newspaper editor.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 
> 
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