- Feb 15, 2004
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A physicist, a mathmatician, and an engineer were each given a budget of $100 to measure the height of a particular hotel. All three of them formed a plan immediately and set to work.
The physicist bought a stopwatch and some weights. Then, he proceeded to drop the weights off the top of the building, time how long it took them to impact the ground, and used the kinematic equation x = (1/2)at^2 + v_0*t + x_0 to find the height of the building.
The mathmatician bought a protractor, some string, a couple washers to use as weights, and a measuring tape. Using the above, he measured out a certain distance from the base of the building, then found the angle at that point from the ground to the top of the building. Using trigonometry, he too found the same answer for the height of the building.
The engineer, however, had disappeared, and neither of the others saw him until the next morning at work. When they did see him, it was obvious that he had a horrible hangover, yet their boss said he had been the first one to report back with the correct height of the building. Confused, they asked him how he did it.
"Oh, it was easy" he said. "I gave a bellboy $20 to tell me the height of the building, then went to hotel bar for the rest of the night."
The physicist bought a stopwatch and some weights. Then, he proceeded to drop the weights off the top of the building, time how long it took them to impact the ground, and used the kinematic equation x = (1/2)at^2 + v_0*t + x_0 to find the height of the building.
The mathmatician bought a protractor, some string, a couple washers to use as weights, and a measuring tape. Using the above, he measured out a certain distance from the base of the building, then found the angle at that point from the ground to the top of the building. Using trigonometry, he too found the same answer for the height of the building.
The engineer, however, had disappeared, and neither of the others saw him until the next morning at work. When they did see him, it was obvious that he had a horrible hangover, yet their boss said he had been the first one to report back with the correct height of the building. Confused, they asked him how he did it.
"Oh, it was easy" he said. "I gave a bellboy $20 to tell me the height of the building, then went to hotel bar for the rest of the night."
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