General Knowledge!

[MrMxyzptlk]

Tug-of-War??          

(Name the two countries that would be the top two contenders evrey olympics!  )


Okay, I like the Olympic-theme idea, so ....


Let's have either the NAME* or the YEAR of the original marathon runner....


* Either of the two disputed names would do, and I'll give leeway on the year, although that one should be easy for any battle historians here!

[jim360]

The Battle of Marathon is c. 390 BC I think. But I'm only confident about the first digit and have in mind that it's something-4...

And the name of the guy has gone. Sigh...

[Marty]

I'm only confident about the first digit

Wrongly. Consider: Alexander the Great Conquered Persia in 334BC.

[jim360]

Just looked it up...

 

My memory served me better than expected, but not in the way I thought...

490BC. (Yes, looked up, but come on, I had two of the three digits right to start with!)

[MrMxyzptlk]

S'all yours, Marty!  (What's a hundred years give or take!    )

Pheidippides / Philippides was the soldier's name. (I would have accepted the now-busted, incorrect second name as well. Oh, and I LOVE the British-local humor at the end of that page, too!)

Here's a link for those poor souls unfamiliar with this interesting and important trivia from history....

[jim360]

How many elements are there in the classical "periodic table"?

Yours,

Marty.

[MrMxyzptlk]

You mean the four, like in The Fifth Element?


Earth, Air, Fire, Water.


There's also the "Ether" within which it all resides, too....

[jim360]

Yup, your go may.

[MrMxyzptlk]

Yup, your go may.

KK....

Officially name "reduced gravity aircraft," what is the more common, UNofficial, more popular name for this aircraft?

[BFM_Enigma]

They are just airplanes flown to allow brief periods of weightlessness. No special models or types.

Unless you are looking for a slang expression - vomit comet

[MrMxyzptlk]

They are just airplanes flown to allow brief periods of weightlessness. No special models or types.

Unless you are looking for a slang expression - vomit comet

Actually, in the USA they have to have special equipment and additional FAA compliance than "just a normal 727-200, etc."  (FYI: There was an early stand about additional passenger safety rules made for "reduced gravity aircraft" by the US FAA when Zero Gravity Corporation wanted to take Stephen Hawking up in one for a ride!*)

And "Vomit Comet" is the "unofficial name" for these types of fixed-wing aircraft (and what they do.) Versions of such airplanes are officially nicknamed "Weightless Wonder"s.


Yur up, Enigma!


* Excerpt from a Wired Magazine interview with Peter Diamandis, founder of Zero Gravity Corporation:
"We took off. All the doctors and nurses were there, and all the people were watching from the back. Stephen did fantastic! We did a second, a third parabola—the doctors said he was doing great—we did a fourth, fifth, sixth. After that, one of his attendants said, “He wants you to flip him around.” So on the seventh and eighth parabolas, we spun him around! The photos from that flight are amazing. Hawking is only able to control a few muscles in his body, and he’s got this (huge) grin on his face."

How cool must've THAT been for Hawking!!!

[BFM_Enigma]

If an aircraft is flying in constant sustained flight at 35,000 ft above sea level, at 500 miles per hour, the planes lift force is 675,000 pounds, and a wing area of 4,605 square feet. The plane is flying on Tuesday in the summer, the plane is almost at full passenger capacity, the pilot has brown hair, and one of the flight attendants appears to be in a bad mood.

What is the plane's weight?
What is the drag force?

And Why?

[jim360]

0, because otherwise I don't think this could be called general knowledge.

[BFM_Enigma]

Newton's Laws are not general knowledge? Ok I can switch to another question

[jim360]

The laws may be but the calculations are not!

I could just as well ask what is the square root of 152,670,736. Everyone can pull out a calculator.

Also I can't see the point in converting from imperial to SI units just to work this out and back again. Those numbers are meaningless to me (if perhaps not to our US friends) so I can't be expected to recognise them. I mean, I can work with imperial units, I just don't if I can help it since they're clumsy and outdated. Maybe their metric equivalents would mean something to me but I doubt it since most physics problems I solve these days tend to go "A ball weighs x kilos and travels at y metres per second for z minutes..." with no numbers.

Is 0 the right answer?