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1. June 2007, 21:57:03
alanback 
Subject: The limitations of intuition
Modified by alanback (1. June 2007, 22:00:12)
Some of the mathematical discussion around BKR produces results that some may find counter-intuitive.  Although I believe strongly in intuition, some things we believe intuitively are just wrong.  This thought reminded me of a conversation I overheard on an airplane the other day.

One man was describing to another his experiences as a paratrooper.  He noted that he jumped with about 100 pounds of gear.  The other man exclaimed, "Well, you must have fallen really fast then!"

After a moment's reflection, I thought of Galileo's famous experiment dropping metal balls from the Tower of Pisa.  His great discovery was that the force of gravity produces a constant acceleration regardless of the mass of a falling object.  This led me to conclude that the listener's intuitive response was incorrect.

Then it occurred to me that my own intuition had failed me because I jumped (no pun intended) to the conclusion that a parachuter's rate of descent is independent of mass based on Galileo's experiment.  It turns out that the rate of descent is proportional to the square root of the mass of the parachute and its load. 

http://www.pcprg.com/rounddes.htm

I guess the lesson is that an ounce of experience is worth a pound of intuition and logic.





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