Convinced myself yesterday to complete the necessary paperwork to get an MS. (It took me long enough to convince me it was worth the 20 minutes, or so I thought it would be, of pain.) Did it today. Ran over to the academic services people here just to find out I had waited too long. I wasn’t late, considering today is technically the last offical day this term, but I also had to travel to some relatively far of place to hand it in myself, since they would use mail otherwise, and it wouldn’t get there in time and all that.
So I did that too, in the cold and the rain. Both of which are irritants, but things that I have gotten used to. Either I’ve gotten used to, or these layers of body fat gained over the past year or so are being put to good use. I knew they had to come in handy some time. :) Got back in time for the end term ME Grad Student mixer/party/free food thing. Mostly it’s just a free food thing.
Anyway, when I was out earlier, I saw some people doing it and I just hate it when I see people running in the rain to avoid getting wet. Just what the heck do they think they are doing?
Let’s assume you are a rectangular plate in cross section for simplicity. You need to get from point A to point B, and it’s raining.
( ) ( Cloud )
. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . .
. . 0 You.. . . Rain drops ..
. . | . ---> . . . .. .. .
. .| . . . Running . . . .
A____^________________________B
(You need to learn to imagine. Yes, you have shortish legs, or a really small skirt, and no hands, or hair (or nose or eyes or..).)
For all practical purposes, as you are moving between A and B, the rain is NOT GOING TO GET ANY LESS OR ANY MORE INTENSE. The flux of the rain is downward, and you are moving towards the right, which gives it a relative velocity with respect to you at an incline. Anyway, number of rain drops that hit you, and hence how wet you get, is directly proportional to your area of cross section, the rain’s flux. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW FAST YOU RUN. If you walk slowly, you’ll get wet to a certain extent, as the drops hit you with some rate. If you run faster, MORE HIT YOU in a shorter time. Meaning you’ve spent less time in the rain, but YOU AREN’T ANY DRYER WHEN YOU REACH B.
WALK DAMNIT.
I realized the whole flat plate assumption thing was a bit extreme. I didn’t really get into using elementary dot products and areas. Oh my god. I didn’t realize that’s bothered me SO FISHING MUCH over all these years. Either that or it’s people running in general.
WALK DAMNIT.
Took this today. It’s a bit blurred. But in my defense it was cold and I couldn’t really keep my hands steady. But didn’t really take out my camera too much considering it was all wet outside. Not a good idea.
