MetaChat - This is my 225th post

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05 January 2007

This is my 225th post which is 15 squared. What this means is →[More:] if all my posts were placed on a grid, you could put them in 15 rows and 15 columns.

What I'm still trying to puzzle out is how tall Frank's 2000-inch TV is (whether widescreen or standard aspect ratio). I got as far as sohcahtoa, but I can't remember enough trig to keep things straight.

If the altitude is l and the width is w, hypoteneuse h times sin α (where alpha is the smaller of the two non-right angles) gives me l, right? So I need to find α, which is the tan^-1 of either 9/16 or 4/3, depending on the aspect ratio, right? Then l divided by either 9 or 3 (depending again on aspect ratio) will give me x, which I can then multiply by 16 or 4 for the width, right? This has been bothering me since Alapalooza came out in the early nineties.

post by: Eideteker at: 16:22 | 10 comments

Well did you factor in the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? DUH!!!

The answer is 42!

posted by iconomy 05 January | 16:27

African or European Swallow?

posted by pieisexactlythree 05 January | 16:31

No need to do trigonometry black magic. Just pithagoras (sp?) is enough:

(16*y/9)^2 + y^2 = 2000^2
256y^2/81+y^2=4000000
337y^2/81=4000000
y^2=4000000*81/337
y~=980.5

Analog calculation for 4/3

posted by qvantamon 05 January | 16:38

African or European Swallow?
Either, but you can't see them, but they're very nice.

posted by TheDonF 05 January | 16:38

Ok, so if it's widescreen, the TV is about 980.5" tall (just the tube, the entire thing is likely well over 1000" tall), which is about 82' or 25 m. If it's standard, it's 1200" tall, or 100 ft. (30.5 m). I checked my math with the Pythagorean theorem (a² + b² = c²) and it looks correct! Anyone want to check my math?

I'm guessing that Weird Al intended it to be a standard 4:3 tube, because that makes it come out to an even 100 ft. And it was before most of the widescreen hype that this song was released. Poor Frank, stuck paying off an obsolete NON-widescreen, non-HD TV! The pan-n-scan will give you whiplash!

posted by Eideteker 05 January | 16:39

Well did you factor in the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Christ, can you imagine cleaning the bird strikes off that thing?

No need to do trigonometry black magic.

Ok, but I cooked up the exercise to refresh my trig knowledge. I checked it with pythagoras. ;) I should have made that clearer.

posted by Eideteker 05 January | 16:41

Damn, what kinda micropenis do you have to have to lay a swallow?

posted by danostuporstar 05 January | 16:48

Math. Brain hurts.

posted by deborah 05 January | 21:41

The real question is, are you made of wood and do you weigh as much as a duck?

posted by bunnyfire 05 January | 23:38

I never understood the "math = brain hurty" school of thought. Was it the rote of having to do 2+3 200 times a night? Because I have always loved math but hated homework.

posted by Eideteker 06 January | 08:01

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