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From: Patrick Scheible on 4 May 2010 22:06 Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> writes: > In article <w9zaasfiabj.fsf(a)zipcon.net>, Patrick Scheible <kkt(a)zipcon.net> > wrote: > > > > > > And even Lord Kelvin said that heavier-than-air machines can *not* > > > > > fly. > > > > > > > > Which is a bizarre belief to hold, as birds are demonstrably heavier > > > > than air. > > > > > > But they're not machines. > > > > So why would Lord Kelvin think it was fundamentally impossible to make a > > machine to do what a bird does? > > Because a bird has less mass per volume than a machine? Because a bird > essentially carries only itself, whereas a machine (of the type he was > talking about) would carry people and/or cargo that would add significantly > to its weight? Because he lacked the vision to see future developments? I've spent a while chasing Kelvin's quote, and not found the context it was in. I did, however, find this link: http://www.chardmuseum.co.uk/Powered_Flight/ which describes Stringfellow's demonstration of an unmanned, steam-powered airplane in 1848. Kelvin's statement was in 1895. So you can add "he lacked knowledge of what had been done" to "lacked the vision to see future developments". Definitely not Kelvin's finest moment. -- Patrick
From: Jennifer Usher on 4 May 2010 22:11 "Lewis" <g.kreme(a)gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote in message news:slrnhu16oe.2jll.g.kreme(a)ibook-g4.local... >> According to folklore the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee >> should be incapable of flight but scientists never claimed that they had >> evolved an anti-gravity organ or anything like that. It was always clear >> that we simply didn't have an adequate grasp of aerodynamics, fluid >> dynamics, biomechanics etc to explain such a complex phenomenon. > > It took Chaos theory to explain it, as I recall. Actually, the simple answer is, bumblebees don't study physics. The longer answer is a bit more complex and has to do with viscosity and fluid dynamics: http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March00/APS_Wang.hrs.html -- Jennifer Usher
From: Jennifer Usher on 4 May 2010 22:41 "Charles Richmond" <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote in message news:hrodqa$3ua$3(a)news.eternal-september.org... > How about the American Computer Museum in Bozeman, Montana??? > > http://www.compustory.com/ > > > And don't forget the Charles Babbage Institute at the University of > Minnesota: > > http://www.cbi.umn.edu/ Both of those would certainly be worth a visit. -- Jennifer Usher
From: JF Mezei on 4 May 2010 22:57 Gordon Bell has a web site that is focused on the history of Digital. Despite being hosted on microsoft web site, it appears to be benign and won't delete all your files. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/Digital/DECmuseum.htm
From: Charles Richmond on 4 May 2010 23:09
Michelle Steiner wrote: > In article <hrpt30$q3r$4(a)news.eternal-september.org>, > Charles Richmond <frizzle(a)tx.rr.com> wrote: > >> And even Lord Kelvin said that heavier-than-air machines can *not* fly. >> >> Different groups of scientists often propose different theories of how >> things work. Their support of their theories is often highly colored by >> their opinions and egos. >> >> For a new theory to be fully accepted, often the "old guard" have to die >> out. > > Clarke's Laws: > > 1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is > possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is > impossible, he is probably wrong. > > 2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture > a little way past them into the impossible. > > 3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. > I have heard of a speech giving to freshmen in the college of engineering: "In the four years you are here, half of everything we teach you will be wrong. It's your job to figure out which half." -- +----------------------------------------+ | Charles and Francis Richmond | | | | plano dot net at aquaporin4 dot com | +----------------------------------------+ |