MrMongoose

I've done a couple of experiments and witnessed a crazy man at my University doing several mosre with vortex rings. Although they've only been circular ones, from what I've seen. I'd suggest using a triangular,star or whatever you like shaped rod and moving it quickly through a slightly larger chamber filled with smoke.

Sorry for trying to help you fix your rain gauge...

You should identify hurt with pressure (and anatomy). Generally big things with the same momentum as little things hurt less because there is are larger contact area and less pressure. Also, when you take account of elasticity, impact takes place over a finite distance, so the faster something is moving, the shorter time the force acts over and thus the larger it is. A simple example: A train weighs 100000kg. A bullet weighs 0.001kg. Say a bullet travels at 200m/s. Its momentum is therefore 0.2Ns. for the train to have this momentum, it would need to be travelling at a speed of 2 micrometres ever second. Thats essentially still. If there was a bolt protruding from the train with the same frontal area as the bullet, I reckon it would hurt less to lean against the bolt with your forehead than to be shot in the forehead by the bullet. The other high point of low velocity momentum is you get plenty of time to recoil your body or even plain dodge the incoming projectile.

Is smokiness proportional to genius?

Surely a water tight pipe the width of a pyramid rock and the height of a pyramid is more of a feat than a pyramid for an egyptian architect?

Well in reality, water entering the gap at the top of the v plates will run down the sides of the plates until it sits in the pool in the bottom of the v. Volumetric flow rate per unit area x area of opening = water volume = rate of increase of water volume x time spent collecting water volume is proportional to height x area of free surface And area of free surface is proportional to height, so if you shove everything together, rate of increase of water volume (i.e. rain per second per area) is proportional to height squared You could equally say height is proportional to the square root of the amount of rain per area per second, which I suspect is where your square root comes from. Now wheres the puzzle?

I just wrote this post, then realised I was using the instantaenous free surface area rather than the area of the opening, but rather than delete it I'll leave it here just in case you made the same mistake as I did when I got excited about my "result" Well, after a given time, and excusing the very word equations, Volume of water in bottom of v= volume of incoming rain per unit area x area at top. Volume of water in bottom of v = height of water x area of opening x 2sin (angle of v to vertical). So, Height of water= volume of incoming water per unit area/2sin(angle of v to vertical) So water height is proportional to the amount of water that has been added, rather than the amount of water squared.

I'm fairly sure the American Civil War started without the presidents consent.

Simply put, your spinning disc would have to be huge and spin very fast to keep the table upright. Legs are cheaper.

Thinking in terms of the miniscus again, the v section will make the boundary component of surface tension be at a finite angle to the vertical, so the innaccuracy will be lower. Also, as the water height will be projected onto the angled side it will be amplified with a gain equal to the secant of the angle to increase the resolution. In terms of the entry of a v, the only other thing I can think of is that rain approaching the collector obliquely may bounce out again around the edges if the angle of the plates is large. Also, having a reduced volume for the same given free surface area will increase evaporative effects on the meaurement. There's just so much to say. If this is realy a puzzle rather than you trying to get us to write an essay for you, maybe you could point us in the right direction?

Well, whats the volume of a triangular prism? Why are the first few millimetres so important? Are you actually trying to make this or is this intended to be a "brainteaser"?

Partial volumetric flow rate? I have to admit, I only really understood the last sentence of the first post.

Maybe the boat slows down to munch some clover?

The wider it is, the lesser the miniscus. If its too narrow, capillary action could come into play. Also in a brief shower, there may not be a large enough sample of rain droplets for a good statistically sound test unless you use a reasonably large collection area. Reducing size can keep costs down and save space. I'd go for 4-5 inches between the tops of the two plates.

A good argument always makes note of the greatest counterarguments. Him saying that there is reason to believe something does not mean he believes it.

Those top three equaions look more like steady flow than laminar flow. I still don't see how laminar to turbulent transition is going to help with gaining a fundamental insight into the problem. It seems like trying to teach someone binary to help them realise thier pc isnt turning on because its not plugged in. Even looking at simple skin friction drag and form drag equations would seem excessive when the OP is simply trying to grasp Newtons 1st Law.

How's that going to help?

You could always use excel

heathen!

Well, the majority of that post was valid opinion which I disagree with. As for the last link, thanks. Sounds worth a try!

would using three lamps and three lenses be above budget?

How does being in the top 100 Universities in the country make your University one of the best? I don't mean that to sound insulting, but maybe those in the top 5 shoot psychics on sight.

Python is a little simplistic. If you want to write short programs it's fast, if you want to write long programs it's slow. Also, I have heard of python being looked down on as a toy by employers, so whilst it may be adequate for what you do, other ones may look better for your job hunting purposes. I would vehemently back Fortran. If you're interested, there's a pretty decent beginners guide here: http://gershwin.ens.fr/vdaniel/Doc-Locale/Langages-Program-Scientific/Fortran/Tutorial/ The only problem with Fortran is that I have yet to find a compiler for windows, so you'll want to get a fake linux for windows if you dont have (or want) a full os. The bonus here is that if you can do stuff with that you have more skills to add to your CV! Here's the one I use: http://www.cygwin.com/

Which software? Do you mean which compiler or which software should you make? The answers to those two depend on which language you use and what you want to make, but initially for learning you will probably start with "Hello World". As for languages, personally I'd say c++ and java are the most common commercially, so if you're actually looking for a programming job, learn one of those. If you want programming to add to your skills for a more scientific job, Fortran may be better. If you're more specific with what you want I'll give you my very very very opinionated views and send you some links

Ok that seems to make sense thanks.