How.....Why... ? Mysteries of the universe

shoz · Post by **shoz** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 6:57 pm

If you can develop photographs in a darkroom with a red light on, HOW can you take a picture of something red?

Why aren't there any words with a double h? Why isn't it Southhampton?

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:13 pm

How come the wind can blow from west to east and yet a sailing ship can use it to make progress in exactly the opposite direction?

PS I have sailed all my life, have taught to yachtmaster level, have studied all the diagrams (and used them to try and explain to others!), but the basic concept still does not make sense!

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:19 pm

unlike sensible Falmouth and most of the south coast of England where the tide ebbs and flows roughly twice in every 25 hours (giving two high water times and two low water times on most days), Southampton and the Solent have four high water times most days. This is because the tidal wave coming up the Channel pushes first past the Needles and up the Solent before its friend comes round the Nab and up the Spithead.

So why does Poole have the extra High Water let alone across the Channel in France ....??

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 7:21 pm

Why can't you divide by nought?

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:28 pm

DavebytheSea wrote:Why can't you divide by nought?

Because it is nothing, not a number but an absence, like black is the absence of light/colour.

If a tree falls in the forest do the other trees laugh at it?

Why can you not have your cake and eat it, what is the point of having cake if you can't eat it?

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:33 pm

Why do 'slim chance' and 'fat chance ' mean the same thing?

Why do people say " I found it in the last place I looked".
Of course they did, after they found it they would stop looking.

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:44 pm

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

If you choke a Smurf, what colour does it go?

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:11 pm

Why does it always rain when I take the dog for a walk ????

Where do all the odd socks go??

englishangel · Post by **englishangel** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:16 pm

Mrs C. wrote:
Where do all the odd socks go??

In the back of my airing cupboard.

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:18 pm

Do any match mine???

Richard Ruck · Post by **Richard Ruck** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:19 pm

Mrs C. wrote:Why does it always rain when I take the dog for a walk ????

It doesn't!

Vonny · Post by **Vonny** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:19 pm

Mrs C. wrote:Do any match mine???

Or mine - I have 19 in a pile in my bedroom at the moment!!

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:21 pm

that beats me - only 9 at the moment - but we moved in the summer and I threw out all the odd ones then!

Mrs C. · Post by **Mrs C.** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:25 pm

Richard Ruck wrote:
Mrs C. wrote:Why does it always rain when I take the dog for a walk ????
It doesn't!

I must time it badly then!!

DavebytheSea · Post by **DavebytheSea** » Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:49 pm

englishangel wrote:
DavebytheSea wrote:Why can't you divide by nought?
Because it is nothing, not a number but an absence, like black is the absence of light/colour.

No, Mary, nought is not nothing, it is a number just like any other. You might just as well say 1 is nothing or indeed 62. If you are talking about purely physical qualities then, I agree, there is little substance to any of them other than the ink on the page. Indeed, it is only when the concept of number is applied to physical objects that they themselves assume a physical reality - say 3 oranges. Even so, it is not the 3 but the oranges that have the substance.

I agree that 0 oranges would hardly feed anyone whereas 3 oranges just might. Nevertheless, it is the oranges that provide the vitamins in each case - the attached number is just a quantifying notion. Neither the 3 or the 0 on their own could possibly feed even a mouse.

The thing is, that number is just a concept invented by the mind of man. Of itself it is nothing and without man all number is in your word "absence". It is a system of rules only - nothing more and nothing less. So, I say again, why did we complicate the issue by making a rule that we cannot divide by nought?