Mid-air collision
To find out whether air taxi passengers need to worry about collisions with birds, a number of tests were carried out by a German emergency program.
Colliding a real air taxi with a real bird would be complicated and dangerous, so perfection was impossible, so experimenters made do by dropping artificial “bird bullets” onto a rigged metal plate that allowed them to measure the force of the impact.
Aditya Devta and Isabelle Metz of the German Aerospace Center and Sophie Armani of the Technical University of Munich described these violent encounters as follows: Preprint paper(Thanks to reader Mason Porter for pointing this out.)
This study was, necessarily, a rough step toward definitively answering the big questions.
The report said the bird shots were dropped manually and faced various challenges, including “inconsistency and lack of repeatability” due to human involvement. Future efforts should “eliminate human involvement and [so as to] “Improve the accuracy and repeatability of force measurements.”
Collision in the middle of the track
Speaking of experiments involving birds and flying taxis, have you heard of the moose and bullet train experiment? Yong Peng and his colleagues from Central South University in China began investigating what happens when these heavy animals meet at high speed.Analysis of moose movement trajectory after collision between bullet train and moose” “.
The questions go beyond the initial simple collision: the scientists mention two possible complications: “If the moose lies on the tracks after the collision, it could increase the risk of train derailment” and “if the moose is thrown into the air during the collision, it could strike and damage the pantograph, disrupting train operation.”
Previous investigations have relied on mathematical simulations using finite element methods and less-heavy experiments, using fresh beef muscle tissue (from cows, not elk) and a type of stress-strain testing machine called a “split-Hopkinson pressure bar.”
Essentially, the force of the impact “depends on the area of contact between the train and the moose,” the scientists report.
Regarding these complexities, the report states: “The moose will not be pushed aside by the V-shaped locomotive and derail, and the moose will not be thrown into the air to the height of the pantograph, causing no damage to the Shinkansen pantograph.”
The study suggests something bigger is on the way: “Only a scenario of a train crossing the tracks at 110km/h hitting a moose was simulated, which cannot fully reflect the risk of a train-moose collision. Therefore, further speeds and attitudes are needed to enhance ongoing research.”
Feeling cheeky
Slowly and gently, new findings about sources are coming in from readers. These concern the off-label use of ketchup and other sticky foods to make electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes work better (Feedback, May 25).
Brian Leffin Smith adds a musical note: “You don’t need human skin to test whether ketchup electrodes are better than regular gel electrodes. I have equipment that applies a low voltage to plant leaves (or anything else) and converts the varying current into a MIDI signal that can be sent to a computer or synthesizer to play sounds… Anyway, in a statistically insignificant but anecdotally and culinarily interesting test, I found that low-salt ketchup placed between an ECG electrode and a chili leaf produced a fairly high E, while the proper gel placed on the adjacent leaf produced a G. I thought this might be useful, but now I don’t think so.”
Dave Hardy makes a point about practicality: “In the early 1970s, my GP said that gel was ridiculously expensive, but that strawberry jam would work just as well. I don’t know if he tried a range of options or just used what he had on hand (this was in the Falkland Islands).”
Death of a Star
It is surprising how few people are hailed as “famous pathologists.” news The paper reported on the death of one of them: “Dr. Cyril Wecht, the prominent pathologist who argued that more than one shooter killed JFK, has died at age 93.”
One of the first celebrated pathologists, Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947), helped establish London’s reputation as a hotbed of fascinating and intricate murder mystery investigations.
Royal College of Physicians RevealedAfter his death, he said that Spilsbury’s career had been a truly dramatic one: “The famous Crippen trial in which he was involved [William] Wilcox’s attempts to prove that the murders were committed with hyoscine hydrobromide first attracted him to public attention, and he lamented it at every trial he subsequently attended, which no doubt accounted for his stern and cold demeanor towards all but his closest friends.
Spilsbury’s attitude was by no means contemptible. One aspect of the job of dissecting a corpse is the terrible stench of rotting bodies, which can put off sensitive people. Spilsbury was not a sensitive person in this respect. His colleagues were amazed at how enthusiastic he was about dissecting a corpse. Obituary To put it politely, it was an “olfactory disorder.”
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible
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