SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
People, trucks and even military tanks have tried and failed the task of pulling apart two phone books lying face up with their pages interleaved, like a shuffled deck of cards. While physicists have long known that this must be due to enormous frictional forces, exactly how these forces are generated has been an enigma – until now.
A team of physicists from France and Canada has discovered that it is the layout of the books coupled with the act of pulling that is producing the force.
http://phys.org/news/2015-08-mystery-impossible-interleaved.html
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Mystery of Why It's Impossible to Pull Apart Interleaved Phone Books - Solved
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 35 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Hey, wait a minute!! I want a divorce!! ... you're not Clint Eastwood!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @09:57PM
When reproduced this effect can be used to enclose Free Speech Zones with deceptively impenetrable fences to keep the peons in their place.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 27 2015, @10:05PM
They'll fail. You know... "information wants to be free" and all that jazz; besides the phone books are replaced by apps for tablets - good lock... errr.... I mean, good luck interleaving those tablets.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @10:14PM
You're missing the point! which is to make deceptively strong fences out of paper! Think of the Chinese Finger Trap in fence form.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 27 2015, @10:21PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @10:26PM
Gretchen, stop trying to make (grin) happen.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 27 2015, @10:48PM
I'm not. Actually, I'm pretty happy to make it my own signature, if I could figure out how to protect it as my own(... naaah. Doesn't worth the effort)
Besides, there is an almost subliminal but serious point that I may wanted to make in my original reply [soylentnews.org]: people today are less sensitive to physical gathering, the freedom on speech moved quite a lot on the net. Which means if the people really care enough to gather, some flimsy phone books will stop them - just throw some gasoline over them then use an app to fire it up (grin)
If they really want to stop them, they'll need to disrupt their phone/tablet communication (build their tablet locks instead of phonebook lock).
S'rely**... if people really care, good luck with that [newscientist.com]
---
*, ** and don't call me Shirley either
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 27 2015, @11:10PM
lol 'mr (grin)' failed to recognize 'mr !' — hoist by your own retard
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 27 2015, @11:54PM
Subtle, indeed!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford