<VV> For Engineers - no Corvair (HUMOR - sort of)

[J R Read_HML]

A day or two ago a couple of folks on VV were talking about being engineers. 
I know that several are here.

Today, I received an item which might appeal to the funny bone of 
engineering types.  It follows:



>University of Copenhagen: Physics Question
>
>The following concerns a question in a physics degree exam at the
>University of Copenhagen:
>
>"Describe how to determine the height of a skyscraper with a barometer."
>
>One student replied: "You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the
>barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to
>the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer
>will equal the height of the building."
>
>This highly original answer so incensed the examiner that the student was
>failed immediately. He appealed on the grounds that his answer was
>indisputably correct, and the university appointed an independent arbiter
>to decide the case. The arbiter judged that the answer was indeed
>correct, but did not display any noticeable knowledge of physics.
>
>To resolve the problem, it was decided to call the student in and allow
>him six minutes in which to provide a verbal answer which showed at least
>a minimal familiarity with the basic principles of physics. For five
>minutes the student sat in silence, forehead creased in thought. The
>arbiter reminded him that time was running out, to which the student
>replied that he had several extremely relevant answers, but couldn't make
>up his mind which to use.
>
>On being advised to hurry up the student replied as follows:
>
>"Firstly, you could take the barometer up to the roof of the skyscraper,
>drop it over the edge, and measure the time it takes to reach the ground.
>The height of the building can then be worked out from the formula H
>=0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on the barometer."
>
>"Or if the sun is shining you could measure the height of the barometer,
>then set it on end and measure the length of its shadow. Then you measure
>the length of the skyscraper's shadow, and thereafter it is a simple
>matter of proportional arithmetic to work out the height of the
>skyscraper."
>
>"But if you wanted to be highly scientific about it, you could tie a
>short piece of string to the barometer and swing it like a pendulum,
>first at ground level and then on the roof of the skyscraper. The height
>is worked out by the difference in the gravitational restoring force T =
>2 pi square root (l / g)."
>
>"Or if the skyscraper has an outside emergency staircase, it would be
>easier to walk up it and mark off the height of the skyscraper in
>barometer lengths, then add them up."
>
>"If you merely wanted to be boring and orthodox about it, of course, you
>could use the barometer to measure the air pressure on the roof of the
>skyscraper and on the ground, and convert the difference in millibars
>into feet to give the height of the building."
>
>But since we are constantly being exhorted to exercise independence of
>mind and apply scientific methods, undoubtedly the best way would be to
>knock on the janitor's door and say to him 'If you would like a nice new
>barometer, I will give you this one if you tell me the height of this
>skyscraper'."
>
>The student was Nils Bohr, the only Dane to win the Nobel prize for
>Physics.

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Later, JR