RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 146, 16 March 1939, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws). Rugby football, it is contended, Is not slipping. Maybe it would be more accurate to say it was passing. Einstein announces that he has solved the riddle of gravitation. We understand that it is closely related to the fall.

Demonstrations are reported to be taking place in England of baby gas helmets in the presence of infants under two. Maybe sanity will come out of their mouths.

“Would you kindly answer the following problem?” says “Puzzled.” “If a man purchases a horse at £4O, sells it at £5O, repurchases it at £6O and sells again at £7O, what profit does he make?”

[The answer according to an accountant is a profit of £2O. Maybe, adds the expert, what is really intended is the following problem:—“A” buys the horse for £4O; sells to “B” for £5O. “A” makes a profit of £lO. “B” sells the horse to “A” for £6O. “B” makes a profit of £lO. “A” sells the horse to “B” for £7O. “A” makes a profit of £lO. “B” then has a horse that cost £7O which was bought by “A” for £4O. Under the circumstances “B” pays £3O more than the worth of the horse to “A” originally. This takes £3O off the £lO profit “B” made, leaving “B” £2O down and “A” up £2O. The answer depends, however, entirely on the value of the horse.]

The remarkable way in which the careers of the two commanders, recently appointed to the flying boats on the Tasman service, have been identical is one of those inexplicable occurrences that have been noted from time to time. For example, during the Great War an American military, doctor met a certain Mr. Armstrong. The two had never met before. They were almost exactly alike. Furthermore, during their conversation it transpired that both men had been born on the same day, October 28, 1884. Their parents were farmers. They were both only sons. Both had gone through the same studies. They had both married on the same day and had the same number of children. Both the men who bad met during the Great War died at the same hour on October 28, 1934, on their fiftieth birthday. In much the same way the Kaiser and a blacksmith named Schwarz bad a career as identical as possible for two such different ranks. Both were born on the same day, both married on the same day a woman of the same name. Both wives bore children on the same day. When Schwarz died of cancer the Kaiser was thoroughly frightened.

Einstein’s claim to have discovered the secret of gravitation will introduce a series of illuminating facts into what so far has been almost factless darkness. So far as the average person is concerned, gravitation is some mysterious force that produces lib. of butter under certain specified conditions. It would cease to be 11b. of butter under conditions other than those usually specified. Indeed, if we were very particular about our butter and it was weighed by spring scales one would have to make allowances .from place to place. It would not be lib. of butter at the North Pole, and it would vary in weight from country to country. The variation, however, is very small. If we took our pound of butter to the moon the variation would be much more, and at a very great distance from the world the term would be meaningless, because the butter might have no weight at all. Nevertheless, so far as we earth-crawlers are concerned, gravity is a force which .causes us, when falling in a vacuum, a very unusual procedure, to increase our speed at the rate of 32 feet a second every second, or thereabouts.

Though what we call gravity is usually considered to be the attraction of the world on other bodies, this force of attraction is really very small. All bodies attract one another, as well as being attracted by the world. For example, two locomotives weighing 200 tons situated side by side and 12 feet apart attract one another with a force equivalent to half an ounce. Experiments along these lines have been made to discover the size of the forces that attract bodies. One expert hung two bulls weighing 401 b. each from the two arms ot’ a very delicate balance. Under the arms he placed a lump of lead that weighed 3001 b. By moving this lump of lead under one or other of the two balls of lead be could see bow much had to be placed in the opposite scales to compensate for the attraction of the 3001 b. of lead. He found that the attraction of the lead was equivalent to the weight of a drop of water. As the total weight on the balance pivots was about 801 b., it is obvious that a very delicate weighing machine had to be used.

The disclosure that Mr. Chamberlain’s famous umbrella has been in use for 40 years, should enable the Prime Minister of England to join the ranks of a modest collection of economists who have shown marked ability in the care of personal effects. Mr. Chamberlain may be interested to know that lie lias competitors, if not in the matter of umbrellas, at least in other personal effects. As long ago as 1929. Mr. John Gates, of New York, was credited with wearing the same collar-stud for no fewer than 61 years. The subsequent history of Mr. Gates is not known. If he is still alive and wears the same stud, there is every reason to assume that he is the champion coliar-stud wearer of the world. We would point out that some little skill and considerable luck is required to retain the services of so elusive a thing as a collarstud, even for a year.

Regarding a news report recently about a girl observed doing physical exercises on the roof of a building in Auckland, a reader says that he had the following report of the event from an Irish friend: "There she was, six storeys up, standing on the basement doing her exercises.” The same friend, when describing a cycle trip which he did at a record speed, said: "But I didn’t tell them 1 had a head-wind. behind me all Hie way.’ Kickshaws must admit that ouee he wrote iu a moment of forgetfulness, "decapitated at the wrist.”

Several readers have recently written, asking' when the various seasons begin. This is usually a precursor of “Brothers and sisters have I none—.’ Despite this fact, here are the various seasons:—Astronomically, the seasons start as follows: Summer, December 21; autumn, March 21; winter, June 21 ; spring, September 21. Meteorologically, the seasons are as follows: Summer. December-February: autumn, March-May; winter, June-August; spring. September-November.