Thursday Night Humor...
Scientists at NASA built a gun specifically to launch standard 4 pound dead chickens at the windshields of airliners,military jets and the space shuttle, all traveling at maximum velocity. The idea is to simulate the frequent incidents of collisions with airborne fowl to test the strength of the windshields.
British engineers heard about the gun and were eager to test it on the windshields of their new high speed trains.Arrangements were made, and a gun was sent to the British engineers.
When the gun was fired, the engineers stood shocked as the chicken hurled out of the barrel, crashed into the shatterproof shield, smashed it to smithereens, blasted through the control console, snapped the engineer's back-rest in two, and embedded itself in the back wall of the cabin, like an arrow shot from a bow
The horrified Brits sent NASA the disastrous results of the experiment, along with the designs of the windshield, and
begged the U.S. scientists for suggestions.
NASA responded with a one-line memo --
"Defrost the chicken!"
True story... Or so we've been told.
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not Eureka! (I found it!) but rather, 'hmm... that's funny..." - Isaac Asimov
ReplyDelete-At one time I was involved in an ammunition R&D project which involved replacing the initiating explosive in the primer. All requirements seemed to be met, except that the new explosive was a bit
quicker. ('Brisance', the term for the detonation velocity*impetus = specific force). We tested the prototype through a wide range of pistols with good results. So, it was suggested to send a bunch to the RCMP to try at their ballistics range. The Mounties soon called back not knowing whether to laugh or cry: the bullets consistently had a range of 15 ft, the slow trajectory clearly visible to the
puzzled professional shooters. We obtained their type of pistol, a revolver, the type I don't recall,
and obtained the same consternating results. A bench test with a SpinPhysics high speed camera,
(23,000 frames/sec) revealed the problem. The 'brisant' primers were pushing the bullet far enough
into the cylinder gap that by the time, a millisecond or two, the propellant fully ignited, the base of
the bullet had passed the gap. Most of the propellant gas went out the gap in a big puff of smoke,
with just enough push to sent the bullet through the muzzle on its laughable 15 ft. ballistics trajectory. Their weapon had the largest cylinder gap of existing revolver types. The fix was simple, the primer charge weight was dropped correspondingly, the primer now worked in
all weapons, and the reduced charge saved money. The Azimov Principle proven again!
Interesting and funny story BB Idaho, thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteYes, AP proven again!
ppppfffftttttttttttt'''''
ReplyDeleteA young guy from Wisconsin moves to Florida and goes to a big “everything under one roof” department store looking for a job.
The Manager says, “Do you have any sales experience?”
The kid says, “Yeah. I was a salesman back in Wisconsin. I sold vacuums.”
Well, the boss liked the kid and gave him the job. “You start tomorrow. I’ll come down after we close and see how you did. His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down.
“How many customers bought something from you today?”
The kid says, “one”.
The boss says, “Just one? Our sales people average 20 to 30 customers a day. How much was the sale for?”
The kid says, “$231,237.65″.
The boss says, “$231,237.65? What the heck did you sell?”
The kid says, “First, I sold him a small fish hook. Then I sold him a medium fishhook. Then I sold him a larger fishhook.
Then I sold him a new fishing rod. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn’t think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4×4 Expedition.”
The boss said, “A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a BOAT and a TRUCK?”
The kid said, “No, the guy came in here to buy Tampons for his wife, and I said, Dude, your weekend’s shot. You should go fishing.”