Many years ago I was taking a T-ride with a friend and the subject turned to spherical swimming pools in free-fall, and whether they would be practical. I forget exactly what aspect of the question brought us to BOTECs on volume, but I shamefacedly admitted I'd forgotten the formula for the volume of a hollow sphere, and was trying to rederive it. And the guy across the aisle leaned over and recited it for me. I was appreciative; my friend was bemused.
I'm never entirely sure if I should say these sorts of things when people are talking about them around me. Though some time ago I did give a 10-minute explanation of the Human Genome Project to someone who was really, really getting it wrong with someone he was talking about it with at an airport.
Many years ago I overheard one woman say to another at a museum exhibit, regarding a note about the composition of some star or another, skeptically, "how could they possibly know that?" and delivered an impromptu lecture on spectroscopy and how cool it is that they can, in fact, know that. I never did know whether they appreciated it, but I enjoyed it.
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dr_tectonic
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Date: 2004-10-09 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-10 06:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-10 04:46 pm (UTC)