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Knowledge: How to determine the
height of a skyscraper with a
barometer.
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One student replied : "You
tie a long piece of string to the
neck of the barometer, then lower
the barometer from the roof of the
skyscraper to the ground. The length
of the string plus the length of the
barometer will equal the height of
the building."
This highly original answer so
incensed the examiner that the
student was failed immediately. The
student appealed on the grounds that
his answer was indisputablyÂ
correct, and the university
appointed an independent arbiter to
decide the case.
The arbiter judged that the answer
was indeed correct, but did not
display any noticeable knowledge of
physics. To resolve the problem it
was decided to call the student in
and allow him six minutes in which
to provide a verbal answer that
showed at least a minimal
familiarity with the basic
principles of physics.
For five minutes the student sat in
silence, forehead creased in
thought.
The arbiter reminded him that time
was running out, to which the
student replied that he had several
extremely relevant answers, but
couldn't make up his mind which to
use. On being advised to hurry up
the student replied as follows:
"Firstly, you could take the
barometer up to the roof of the
skyscraper,drop it over the edge,
and measure the time it takes to
reach the ground.
The height of the building can then
be worked out from the formula H
=0.5g x t squared. But bad luck on
the barometer.""Or if the sun is
shining you could measure the height
of the barometer, then set it on end
and measure the length of its
shadow. Then you measure the length
of the skyscraper's shadow, and
thereafter it is a simple matter of
proportional arithmetic to work out
the height of the skyscraper." "But
if you wanted to be highly
scientific about it, you could tie a
short piece of string to the
barometer and swing it like a
pendulum, first at ground level and
then on the roof of the skyscraper.
The height is worked out by the
difference in the gravitational
restoring force T = 2 pi sqroot
(l/g)."
"Or if the skyscraper has an outside
emergency staircase, it would be
easier to walk up it and mark off
the height of the skyscraper in
barometer lengths, then add them
up."
"If you merely wanted to be boring
and orthodox about it, of course,
you could use the barometer to
measure the air pressure on the roof
of the skyscraper and on the ground,
and convert the difference in
millibars into feet to give the
height of the building."
"But since we are constantly being
exhorted to exercise independence of
mind and apply scientific methods,
undoubtedly the best way would be to
knock on the janitor's door and say
to him, 'If you would like a nice
new barometer, I will give you this
one if you tell me the height of
this skyscraper'."
(The student was
Niels Bohr, the only Dane
to win the
Nobel prize for Physics)
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