Rafael Prieto Curiel, in the mathematics magazine Chalkdust, does some rough calculations about waiting for a bus: “Let’s measure how much time I expect to wait for the next bus to arrive as I observe more or fewer passengers in the stop…. If I find zero passengers at the bus stop, 99% of the time I […]
Tag: stop
Cessation of Rumination. Say: “I? Aye!”
One needn’t ruminate more than one wants or need to, suggests this study: “The Cessation of Rumination Through Self-Affirmation,” Sander L. Koole, Karianne Smeets, Ad van Knippenberg, and Ap Dijksterhuis, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1999, Vol. 77, No. 1, 111-25. The authors affirm that they are at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
How to (try to) stop a machine
This video documents an unplanned experiment in engineering and human nature. Workers at a construction site contemplate how to arrest a machine that will not stop spinning. Then more workers join in the contemplation… (Thanks to investigator Ralph Enders for bringing this to our attention.) BONUS: Researchers at the University of Minnesota physics department write, […]