3 ms·

Lets find out by tipping it over!

philwelch 16y ago
I don't know why this was modded down--it's a valid solution in the finest tradition of the Gordian Knot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- stretchwithme 16y ago
  Sorry, I don't know what you mean. I just left my comment, which was just a joke about tipping over the vending machine, a common practice when you want to find out whats in it. Sorry for any confusion.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    Wikipedia is down, so I'll tell the story as far as I remember it: There was an infamous knot called the Gordian Knot. It was an actual knot, very difficult to untie. There was some prophecy or other that the person who was able to solve the Gordian Knot (by presenting the two separated ends of the knot) would rule all of Asia or something. Anyway, Alexander the Great faced the knot, carefully considered the problem for a minute or two, drew his sword, and cut it in half. So a Gordian Knot is something that seems to be a complex intellectual puzzle you can spend a lot of time and effort meticulously working at, or you can just "cheat" and get the same result out of it, and it doesn't really matter in the end. There's a similar joke about a mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer finding the height of a building--the mathematician measures the building's shadow and the angle of the sun and derives the answer with trigonometry, the physicist drops a stopwatch off the roof and derives the height from the time on the stopwatch when it hits the ground and breaks, and the engineer steps inside and asks the superintendent how tall the building is.
    - tobych 16y ago
      "Wikipedia is down, so I'll tell the story as far as I remember it..." Your introduction warmed my heart. An air-conditioning plant fails in Florida and the art of storytelling from memory is rekindled.
    - stretchwithme 16y ago
      ah, I see what you mean. Thanks.

I don't know why this was modded down--it's a valid solution in the finest tradition of the Gordian Knot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
stretchwithme 16y ago
Sorry, I don't know what you mean. I just left my comment, which was just a joke about tipping over the vending machine, a common practice when you want to find out whats in it. Sorry for any confusion.
- philwelch 16y ago
  Wikipedia is down, so I'll tell the story as far as I remember it: There was an infamous knot called the Gordian Knot. It was an actual knot, very difficult to untie. There was some prophecy or other that the person who was able to solve the Gordian Knot (by presenting the two separated ends of the knot) would rule all of Asia or something. Anyway, Alexander the Great faced the knot, carefully considered the problem for a minute or two, drew his sword, and cut it in half. So a Gordian Knot is something that seems to be a complex intellectual puzzle you can spend a lot of time and effort meticulously working at, or you can just "cheat" and get the same result out of it, and it doesn't really matter in the end. There's a similar joke about a mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer finding the height of a building--the mathematician measures the building's shadow and the angle of the sun and derives the answer with trigonometry, the physicist drops a stopwatch off the roof and derives the height from the time on the stopwatch when it hits the ground and breaks, and the engineer steps inside and asks the superintendent how tall the building is.
  - tobych 16y ago
    "Wikipedia is down, so I'll tell the story as far as I remember it..." Your introduction warmed my heart. An air-conditioning plant fails in Florida and the art of storytelling from memory is rekindled.
  - stretchwithme 16y ago
    ah, I see what you mean. Thanks.