[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Radiolab: What is the most average size thing
Mitchell I. Wolfe
mwolfe at vinebrook.com
Mon Dec 30 12:47:55 PST 2024
About a year ago, I read this book:
Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail
Napkin [3]
by Lawrence Weinstein (Author), John Adam (Author)
See the table of contents for the subject area categories.
The book and eBook are available from the Lexington Cary Library.
-- Mitch
On 2024-12-30 14:18, Ted Kochanski via LCTG wrote:
> Re: - Average Size
>
> Suggest picking some categories and then doing what VF Weiskopf called
> Mountain Science [i.e. when you are hiking in the mountains with no
> toolto do the calculating -- make estimates of things such as how tall
> a mountain could be, how massive, etc
>
> I would suggest -- what is the mean and median of objects [animate or
> inanimate including things created by humans intentionally and
> unintentionally] which float on the ocean [e.g. from micro-plankton to
> Whales to Very Large Crude Carriers, Post PanaMax Container Ships,
> Mini-city Cruise Ships, Ford Class Aircraft Carriers, etc] --
> dimensions, volume and mass
>
> Ted
>
> On Mon, Dec 30, 2024 at 11:01 AM Carl Lazarus via LCTG
> <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:
> That Eames movie is wonderful. On the Radiolab question, there is no
> answer because the question is too vague. What counts as a thing? Can
> you count both a collection and its components?
>
> On Sun, Dec 29, 2024 at 9:34 PM John Rudy via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us>
> wrote:
>
> Look up powers of Ten Eames 1977
>
> John Rudy
>
> 781-861-0402
>
> 781-718-8334 cell
>
> 13 Hawthorne Lane [1]
>
> Bedford MA [1]
>
> jjrudy1 at comcast.net
>
> From: Robert Primak <bobprimak at yahoo.com>
> Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2024 9:28 PM
> To: 'Lexington Computer and Technology Group' <lctg at lists.toku.us>;
> jjrudy1 at comcast.net
> Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Radiolab: What is the
> most average size thing
>
> That link doesn't work in the Chromium web browser.
>
> -- Bob Primak
>
> On Sunday, December 29, 2024 at 09:18:05 PM EST, <jjrudy1 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
>
> There was an interesting video made more than a decade ago that looked
> at, as I recall, size. It started with a person, and then grew, piece
> by pice one order of magnitude to show what things are like at
> different scales. Then it did the same thing backwards by 1/10 at s
> time. I recall us showing the video at the club a long time ago.
> Cannot recall what it was called.
>
> See this video
> https://www.google.com/search?q=video+progressively+making+units+biggr+by+a+factor+of+10&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1116US1116&oq=video+progressively+making+units+biggr+by+a+factor+of+10&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyCQgDECEYChigATIHCAQQIRirAjIHCAUQIRiPAtIBCTI1MDgyajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f8c8d350,vid:0fKBhvDjuy0,st:0
> [2]
>
> John Rudy
>
> 781-861-0402
>
> 781-718-8334 cell
>
> 13 Hawthorne Lane [1]
>
> Bedford MA [1]
>
> jjrudy1 at comcast.net
>
> From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+jjrudy1=comcast.net at lists.toku.us> On Behalf
> Of Robert Primak via LCTG
> Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2024 8:47 PM
> To: Lexington Computer and Technology Group <lctg at lists.toku.us>; Peter
> Albin <palbin24 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Radiolab: What is the
> most average size thing
>
> I agree about the second part being of a nonscientific interest. But
> nonetheless, of some interest, I think. (Not to our group for meeting
> purposes, of course.)
>
> The first part is interesting from a technology point of view. The
> engineers in our group are always talking about doing "back of the
> envelope" estimates of stuff, and that's exactly what this segment was
> about. As with all such estimates, certain assumptions had to be made.
>
> I was curious about why the idea of the Universe being 10^93 meters
> across (based on Cosmic Inflation, not the farthest that light has ever
> traveled) was rejected out of hand. That would have made the estimate
> orders of magnitude bigger. But the use of the Planck Distance does
> seem reasonable, because below that size the fabric of space-time seems
> not to be measurable as a distance.
>
> Interestingly enough, at least a couple of sets of their assumptions
> led to the same result, but that might have been confirmation bias.
>
> Too bad this isn't a video, because that would make it more useful for
> a meeting. But maybe someone in the group who is much better at math
> than I am might try to develop a slide show based on these estimates,
> and explain where some of the assumptions may have come from.
>
> -- Bob Primak
>
> On Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 09:05:16 PM EST, Peter Albin via LCTG
> <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:
>
> Listen to the first half of this Radiolab podcast (~30 min) to answer
>
> the question:
>
> "First, after graduating from high school, without a clear plan for
> what
>
> to do next, Laura Andrews started asking herself a lot of questions. A
>
> spiral of big philosophical thoughts that led her to sit down and write
>
> to us with a question that was... oddly mathematical. What is the most
>
> average size thing, if you take into account everything in the
> universe.
>
> So, along with mathematician Steven Strogatz, we decided to see if we
>
> could sit down and, in a friendly throwdown of guesstimates and quick
>
> calculations, rough out an answer. "
>
> http://www.wnycstudios.org/story/average-show/
>
> If you are curious, the second segment ( specific moment in history
> when
>
> the world tried to find the "average" human body) is also interesting,
>
> though, less scientific!
>
> Peter
>
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------
[1]
https://www.google.com/maps/search/13+Hawthorne+Lane+Bedford+MA?entry=gmail&source=g
[2]
https://www.google.com/search?q=video+progressively+making+units+biggr+by+a+factor+of+10&rlz=1C1VDKB_enUS1116US1116&oq=video+progressively+making+units+biggr+by+a+factor+of+10&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyCQgDECEYChigATIHCAQQIRirAjIHCAUQIRiPAtIBCTI1MDgyajBqN6gCCLACAQ&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:f8c8d350,vid:0fKBhvDjuy0,st:0
[3]
https://www.amazon.com/Guesstimation-Solving-Worlds-Problems-Cocktail/dp/0691129495
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