Editing Talk:1175: Moving Sidewalks

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:: Has the picture changed? Now it seems as if they where going faster to the middle. --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 08:48, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
 
:: Has the picture changed? Now it seems as if they where going faster to the middle. --[[User:Johnsmith|Johnsmith]] ([[User talk:Johnsmith|talk]]) 08:48, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
  
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There doesn't appear to be any 'trick' to this one. Like the commenter above, I initially thought they were being taken towards each other by the conveyors. I thought the joke was that they would be accelerated to a ridiculous speed which would make it impossible to high five without obliterating each other, but the alt text didn't indicate anything like this and I looked again and realised I had read way too much into it. It's probably most sensible to interpret the speed multiples as relating to the first belts, not the last one you were on. This makes the difference between the '5x' belts going at 5x the speed of the outer ones, instead of 100x if each was the specified multiple of the last. If this alternative situation were the case, the outer belts would have to be going very slowly (of the order of 0.1m/s) for them to ever be able to high five. [[Special:Contributions/77.99.26.23|77.99.26.23]] 12:00, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
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There doesn't appear to be any 'trick' to this one. Like the commenter above, I initially thought they were being taken towards each other by the conveyers. I thought the joke was that they would be accelerated to a ridiculous speed which would make it impossible to high five without obliterating each other, but the alt text didn't indicate anything like this and I looked again and realised I had read way too much into it. It's probably most sensible to interpret the speed multiples as relating to the first belts, not the last one you were on. This makes the difference between the '5x' belts going at 5x the speed of the outer ones, instead of 100x if each was the specified multiple of the last. If this alternative situation were the case, the outer belts would have to be going very slowly (of the order of 0.1m/s) for them to ever be able to high five. [[Special:Contributions/77.99.26.23|77.99.26.23]] 12:00, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
  
 
The appears reminiscent of Improv Everywhere's prank, "High-Five Escalator" http://improveverywhere.com/2009/02/09/high-five-escalator/ [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]])
 
The appears reminiscent of Improv Everywhere's prank, "High-Five Escalator" http://improveverywhere.com/2009/02/09/high-five-escalator/ [[User:JamesCurran|JamesCurran]] ([[User talk:JamesCurran|talk]])
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I don't see why anyone would think the "5x speed" etc would mean 5 times the previous tile.  Seems obvious to me that the first tile is moving at some speed, the second tile is moving twice that base speed, the third moving 3x that base, etc.  So when the pass each other their moving at 10x the base speed.  Assuming the base speed is something reasonable, something near  a typical walking speed, the high five would take place at a speed similar to if they were just sprinting past each other.  Hardly a "ridiculous speed which would make it impossible to high five without obliterating each other." [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 16:58, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
 
I don't see why anyone would think the "5x speed" etc would mean 5 times the previous tile.  Seems obvious to me that the first tile is moving at some speed, the second tile is moving twice that base speed, the third moving 3x that base, etc.  So when the pass each other their moving at 10x the base speed.  Assuming the base speed is something reasonable, something near  a typical walking speed, the high five would take place at a speed similar to if they were just sprinting past each other.  Hardly a "ridiculous speed which would make it impossible to high five without obliterating each other." [[Special:Contributions/67.51.59.66|67.51.59.66]] 16:58, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
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:As you'll see from my comment, I only thought something like this might be implied on first glance before I looked at it properly. Honestly it just doesn't seem that awesome to have a series of conveyor belts that allow you to high five a person at sprinting pace. I briefly suspected Randall might have been getting at some feature of physics or mathematics, like the story of the guy who asked for payment for something in grains of rice placed on a chessboard, starting with one grain in the corner and doubling for each square. But no. It's just two people high fiving each other. [[Special:Contributions/77.99.26.23|77.99.26.23]] 17:43, 19 February 2013 (UTC)
 
  
 
Does anyone think this may be a reference to "The Caves of Steel" a novel by Isaac Asimov?  As I recall there was a global system of moving belts of various speeds that were used for transportation.
 
Does anyone think this may be a reference to "The Caves of Steel" a novel by Isaac Asimov?  As I recall there was a global system of moving belts of various speeds that were used for transportation.

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