Derailing topics for just pennies a day
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TIL derailing a train is much more difficult than derailing a forum topic, even if you have enough explosives to blow a large chunk of the track off.
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TIL derailing a train is much more difficult than derailing a forum topic
it'sa all about where you blow the track up. if you do it on a straightaway and just remove track then you won't have a huge issue, some cars will derail but overall the train should keep going just fine. you want to deflect the track sideways or remove the start of a corner. that will work much better.
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There are those that maintain a simple penny is enough to derail a train.
Bollocks of course; you just end up with a very hot penny
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There are those that maintain a simple penny is enough to derail a train.
it is enough to derail a train if it is:
- moving at relativistic velocities
or - lodged in the engineer's eye.
- moving at relativistic velocities
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very hot penny
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There are those that maintain a simple penny is enough to derail a train.
Bollocks of course; you just end up with a very hot penny
I have actually done this. In front of like 20 people waiting for a train. And at least half of them started yelling at me and panicking that the train will derail.
Mythbusting in front of an audience before the Mythbusters were even a thing. Booya.
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I have actually done this. In front of like 20 people waiting for a train. And at least half of them started yelling at me and panicking that the train will derail.
These days, that would run a significant risk of you being arrested as a terrorist.
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Not here, I hope. Yet.
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@RaceProUK said:
you just end up with a very hot penny
Mine ended up much thinner, and kind of oval.
And heat would have been generated as a result of the deformation. However, the penny has a small thermal mass, and the rail would act as a very effective heat sink, so you might well not notice.
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However, the penny has a small thermal mass, and the rail would act as a very effective heat sink, so you might well not notice.
They noticed when they tried it on Mythbusters
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Took me a fair bit of searching before I found where the train had flicked it to. It would have had plenty of time to cool down.
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a significant risk of you being arrested as a terrorist
I wonder if that would disqualify me as a housemate?
Filed under: get this fucking thing back on the rails, we need to be in Sacramento by Thursday
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They noticed when they tried it on Mythbusters
Not that I doubt you, but I'm not finding that episode on YT. Got a link?
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I wonder if that would disqualify me as a housemate?
It might qualify you to become a housemate at the "big house."
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It does look quite big, doesn't it?
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@RaceProUK said:
They noticed when they tried it on Mythbusters
Not that I doubt you, but I'm not finding that episode on YT. Got a link?
https://youtu.be/8e4Cs6TIZ5w?t=31m15s
Should start at the right bit ;)
About 32:05 is where Adam says they're hot
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Should start at the right bit
Or not
Maybe that's why it didn't show up when searching.
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Balls.
Try through a UK-based proxy?
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Try through a UK-based proxy?
Not really worth the bother. Watching Mythbusters is fun, but I have more important things I should be doing β not that I'll actually do them, but I should. :)
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lodged in the engineer's eye.
I expect most engineers will be able to stop the train even if they suddenly lost sight in one eye.
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...but I have more important things I should be doing β not that I'll actually do them, but I should.
The reason I can't get anything done, even fun.
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I expect most engineers will be able to stop the train even if they suddenly lost sight in one eye.
depends on the speed it entered the eye. ;-)
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@PleegWat said:
I expect most engineers will be able to stop the train even if they suddenly lost sight in one eye.
depends on the speed it entered the eye. ;-)
Then there's always the dead man's switch
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well there's still the relativistic speeds.
a penny traveling at even .2c* will certainly cause any train to derail.
* that's ~ 59 958km per second. otherwise known as "too belgiuming fast to be anywhere in the flightpath of"
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a penny traveling at even .2c* will certainly cause any train to derail.
I venture that, if the penny was travelling at that speed, it's not so much that the train would derail, more that it'd cease to be a train
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well there's still the relativistic speeds.
a penny traveling at even .2c* will certainly cause any train to derail.
* that's ~ 59 958km per second. otherwise known as "too belgiuming fast to be anywhere in the flightpath of"
What's the kinetic energy of that penny? It's rather smaller than the Relativistic Baseball, and not going as fast. I'd wager it goes right through, leaving a penny-shaped hole behind.
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well, i'd still argue that as the train is no longer on the tracks it has been derailed.
the fact that it has also been detrained is an entirely separate matter. :-P
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Assuming a US penny, it has a mass of 2.5g, or 0.0025kg.
That would give it a kinetic energy of 4.633Γ1012J.I believe that's enough to, as @accalia put it, 'detrain' the train
And if not, the UK penny is 3.56gβ¦
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Does it really matter? I'm practically incapacitated when I get a freakin' eyelash in my eye and it's just sitting there.
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Face it, you're just jealous I have one and you don't
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little bit.
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whenever did practicality stand in the way of pedantry?
Honestly, a penny thrown at me is probably less likely to bother me than one stuck in my eye (relativistic pennies excepted, of course).
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little bit.
You'll get one eventually, probably when you least expect it; I certainly wasn't when I got mine ;)
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knowing this group my refusal to ever hand out whoosh flags will cause people to refuse to give me pedantry flags "just because"
</grump>
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*hugs*
I don't mind flagging you for pedantry ;)
Probably won't be worth anything if others don't flag thoughβ¦
@boomzilla, I'm thinking we should get this discussion Jeffed to the right placeβ¦
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I'm pretty sure the penny thing is illegal anyway, because you are destroying your country's currency. I assume that those penny-smashing tourist things require some sort of license.
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~ 59 958km per second
So almost guaranteed to not be faced by your average train then.
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people to refuse to give me pedantry flags "just because"
Or "because flagging @accalia gets you accused of bullying".
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So almost guaranteed to not be faced by your average train then.
Only because those crazy Republicans won't fund true high speed rail!
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Or "because flagging @accalia for whoosh with little or no justification gets you accused of bullying".
If you're going to bring that up, at least be accurate about it
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i think the penny would cease to exist before hitting the train.
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It's a thought experiment; it only works for a spherical penny in a vacuum
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And a spherical train.
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That would require some different sorts of track.
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I would say 'goes without saying', but the evidence appears to be contradicting that
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