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Message-ID: <1fkt89h.1a661aleowcowN%spog@jwgh.org>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.kibology
Subject: Re: Psychic Traffic Cameras!
From: "Jacob W. Haller" <spog at jwgh.org>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 10:14:51 -0500

Daniel Buettner <buettner at cse.unl.edu> wrote:

My guess (and I am not an expert in this field)

I GUESS THAT YOU ARE NOT! ALTHOUGH I AM NOT AN EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF IDIOCY! SO PERHAPS I AM WRONG ABOUT YOU BEING AN IDIOT! BUT I DOUBT IT!

is that it has to do with the difference in the speed of light and the speed of sound. The camera must surely be set up at some distance from the intersection, in order to provide a wide enough field of view for the camera to record the important details of a collision. If this distance is great enough, then the time required for the light from the accident to reach the camera will be substantially different from the time required for the sound from the accident to reach the camera. So maybe what happens is that the sound reaches a "sound sensor" attached to the camera which tells the camera to begin filming. Because of the distance, the light reaching the camera from the accident is from 5 seconds ago. Then the camera just needs to record for 8 seconds, and it will likely capture the accident on film.

THAT WOULD BE PLAUSIBLE IF LIGHT WERE SLOWER THAN SOUND! BUT AS ANYONE WHO HAS EVER SEEN FILM OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN ATOM BOMB GOES OFF KNOWS, RADIATION GOES FASTER THAN SOUND! THIS IS WHY AFTER AN ATOM BOMB GOES OFF YOU ARE FIRST COOKED AND THEN BLOWN UP!

And if the camera knows there will be an accident in five seconds, why don't they set up a flashing sign at the intersection like:

                +------------------+
                |    DANGER!!!     |
                | AN ACCIDENT WILL |
                |  OCCUR IN FIVE   |
                |    SECONDS!!     |
                +------------------+

Then people could AVOID the accident, instead of the camera just saying why the accident happened. This seems pretty obvious to me.

This does seem like a good idea, but remember that in the intersection's frame of reference the accident has already occured. The camera is only able to film the accident because it is in a different frame of reference.

AND WHAT FRAME OF REFERENCE ARE YOU IN, _-*BOZO*-_? THE FRAME OF REFERENCE OF FOOLISHNESS, IS WHAT!

-jwgh

-- 
"PS. Please take note of the fact that, in conformity with the
regulations of this office, all information contained in the above
letter is false, for reasons of military security."
         - Umberto Eco, /How to Travel with a Salmon & Other Essays/

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