Friday, June 10, 2011

Still Not Blogging Much. But I Have More Random Links!

George Takei vs. Tennessee's "Don't Say Gay" Bill: Just say "Takei!" I love this guy.

Swingin’ physics: A demonstration of how "in simplicity, complexity, and the border in between lies great beauty." Using pendulums. Or, in other words: physics is cool.

Allons-y!: The Tree Lobsters ask, "What would the Doctor do?"

Weight of book collection damaging house: It has occasionally occurred to me to wonder at what point the weight of one's book collection is likely to become structurally unsafe. Maybe this establishes a lower limit.

8 comments:

  1. I think you are still safe for a while. What is the average weight of a book. Would you know?

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  2. Depends on whether it's a paperback or a hardback or what...

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  3. Are most of your books on shelves, which presumably would tend to "pull" on the wall if hewavily loaded? Or are they in bookcases, in which case presumably the floor would take the strain? If the latter, then so long as most of them are on the ground floor (which you would probably call the first floor) I'd guess that you are fairly safe.

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  4. Most of them are in bookcases, although the 400 or so on the To-Read Pile are on shelves. And I only have one floor. However, I do have a possibly somewhat unstable concrete slab foundation. :)

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  5. I did once hear an alarming story from the days of mainframe computers. A new computer was to be installed in a company's computer room, which had an elevated floor to allow power cables to run underneath to the items of equipment. Unfortunately the new computer was substantially heavier than the old, and no sooner had it been installed than it went through the floor.

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  6. The pendulum video said, "Starring Allen". They should've said "Bob". :)

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  7. By the way, I just checked, and if LibraryThing's statistics are to be believed, the average weight of a book in my collection is .85 pounds.

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