Ask DSM anything.

[GT2]

"We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song by Billy Joel that makes reference to a catalog of headline events during his lifetime, from March 1949 to 1989, when the song was released on his album Storm Front. The events are mixed with a refrain asserting "we didn't start the fire". The song was a number-one hit in the U.S.

The song and music video have been interpreted as a rebuttal to criticism of Joel's Baby Boomer generation, from both its preceding and succeeding generations, that they were responsible for much of the world's problems.[citation needed] The song's title and refrain imply that the frenzied and troubled state which others were criticizing had been the state of the world since long before his generation's time, but that this was being ignored by their critics.

Good to see you can use Wikipedia

[Dizz28]

wow, I didn't know the song ment that.... crazy

[DSM4Life]

wow, I didn't know the song ment that.... crazy

That was not a question.

[Dizz28]

errr, my bad....Before you answered my questions about said lyrics, Did I already know the answer to it?

(Better?)



Also, Does the Chupacabre actually exist?

if so, is it not of this planet?

[DSM4Life]

errr, my bad....Before you answered my questions about said lyrics, Did I already know the answer to it?

(Better?)



Also, Does the Chupacabre actually exist?

if so, is it not of this planet?

No.

No.

[FallenWyvern]

DSM, when are you going to change your custom title to attention whore?

[Charger527]

How long do butterflies live for?

[CSAR]

What is the airspeed velocity of a coconut-laden African swallow in no-wind, 50% humidity, 75 degree Fahrenheit, and sunny weather?

















Oh, and your dick isn't in the swallow. So, take that out of the equation.

[FallenWyvern]

What is the airspeed velocity of a coconut-laden African swallow in no-wind, 50% humidity, 75 degree Fahrenheit, and sunny weather?

I thought about asking that but I figured google boy would find out quickly about Monty Python.

[DSM4Life]

DSM, when are you going to change your custom title to attention whore?

Never

How long do butterflies live for?

An adult butterfly probably has an average life-span of approximately one month. In the wild, most butterflies lives are shorter than this because of the dangers provided by predators, disease, and large objects, such as automobiles. The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks and tropical heliconians, can live up to nine months.

What is the airspeed velocity of a coconut-laden African swallow in no-wind, 50% humidity, 75 degree Fahrenheit, and sunny weather?


Easy ,

To begin with, I needed basic kinematic data on African and European swallow species.
Although 47 of the 74 worldwide swallow species are found in Africa,1 only two species are named after the continent: the West African Swallow (Hirundo domicella) and the South African Swallow (Hirundo spilodera), also known as the South African Cave Swallow.

Since the range of the South African Swallow extends only as far north as Zaire,2 I felt fairly confident that this was the non-migratory African species referred to in previous discussions of the comparative and cooperative weight-bearing capabilities of African and European swallows.3

Kinematic data for both African species was difficult to find, but the Barn or European Swallow (Hirundo rustica) has been studied intensively, and kinematic data for that species was readily available.

A 54-year survey of 26,285 European Swallows captured and released by the Avian Demography Unit of the University of Capetown finds that the average adult European swallow has a wing length of 12.2 cm and a body mass of 20.3 grams.4

Because wing beat frequency and wing amplitude both scale with body mass,5 and flight kinematic data is available for at least 22 other bird species,6 it should be possible to estimate the frequency (f ) and amplitude (A) of the European Swallow by a comparison with similar species. With those two numbers, it will be possible to estimate airspeed (U).

Actually, wrong. By comparing the European Swallow with bird species of similar body mass, we can estimate that the swallow beats its wings 18 times a second with an amplitude of 18 cm:
Species Body mass Frequency Amplitude
Zebra Finch 13 g 27 Hz 11 cm
European Swallow 20 g ≈ 18 Hz? ≈ 18 cm?
Downy Woodpecker 27 g 14 Hz 29 cm
Budgerigar 34 g 14 Hz 15 cm

Note that even the tiny Zebra Finch flaps its wings no more than 27 times a second while cruising.

If we ignore body mass and look only at bird species with a similar wingspan, we can estimate an average frequency of 14 beats per second and an amplitude of 23 cm:
Species Wingspan Frequency Amplitude
Budgerigar 27 cm 14 Hz 15 cm
European Swallow ≈ 28–30 cm ≈ 14 Hz? ≈ 23 cm?
Downy Woodpecker 31 cm 14 Hz 29 cm
European Starling 35 cm 14 Hz 26 cm

By averaging all 6 values, we can estimate that an average European Swallow flies at cruising speed with a frequency of roughly 15 beats per second, and an amplitude of roughly 22 cm.

Last month’s article on The Strouhal Number in Cruising Flight showed how simplified flight waveforms that graph amplitude versus wavelength can be useful for visualizing the Strouhal ratio (fA/U), a dimensionless parameter that tends to fall in the range of 0.2–0.4 during efficient cruising flight.

For a European Swallow flying with our estimated wingbeat amplitude of 24 cm, the predicted pattern of cruising flight ranges from a Strouhal number (St) of 0.2:

Airspeed can also be predicted using a published formula. By inverting this midpoint Strouhal ratio of 0.3 (fA/U ≈ 0.3), Graham K. Taylor et al. show that as a rule of thumb, the speed of a flying animal is roughly 3 times frequency times amplitude (U ≈ 3fA).5

We now need only plug in the numbers:

U ≈ 3fA
f ≈ 15 (beats per second)
A ≈ 0.22 (meters per beat)
U ≈ 3*15*0.22 ≈ 9.9

... to estimate that the airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow is 10 meters per second.

With some further study, it became clear that these estimates are accurate, though perhaps coincidental.

An actual study of two European Swallows flying in a low-turbulence wind tunnel in Lund, Sweden, shows that swallows flap their wings much slower than my estimate, at only 7–9 beats per second:

“Compared with other species of similar size, the swallow has quite low wingbeat frequency and relatively long wings.” 7

The maximum speed the birds could maintain was 13–14 meters per second, and although the Lund study does not discuss cruising flight in particular, the most efficient flapping (7 beats per second) occurred at an airspeed in the range of 8–11 meters per second, with an amplitude of 90–100° (17–19 cm).

Averaging the above numbers and plugging them in to the Strouhal equation for cruising flight (fA/U = 7 beats per second * 0.18 meters per beat / 9.5 meters per second) yields a Strouhal number of roughly 0.13:

... indicating a surprisingly efficient flight pattern falling well below the expected range of 0.2–0.4.

Although a definitive answer would of course require further measurements, published species-wide averages of wing length and body mass, initial Strouhal estimates based on those averages and cross-species comparisons, the Lund wind tunnel study of birds flying at a range of speeds, and revised Strouhal numbers based on that study all lead me to estimate that the average cruising airspeed velocity of an unladen European Swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour.

And i haven't even had my morning coffee yet.

[DSM4Life]

Not even worth it......

[paulzane]

Why do my girlfriends not mind me having a wife yet my wife doesn't like me having girlfriends?

[DSM4Life]

Why do my girlfriends not mind me having a wife yet my wife doesn't like me having girlfriends?

G/f see it as a game. They like the challenge of trying to "win" you over. Wives are much more emotionally evolved. Wives view you falling in love with another women worse than actually having sex.

[Ernst]

Is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

[DSM4Life]

Is there really such a thing as love at first sight?

cc

No.

[Ernst]

Why have I yet to meet a girl who is worth her weight in toilet paper?

[warchild]

you seem pretty smart dsm, how do you invest your money? stocks, saving yields, iras?
are you a homeowner?

[Dukkit]

can i be your personal assistant DSM?

[DSM4Life]

can i be your personal assistant DSM?

Depends, will you do anything i tell you to ?

you seem pretty smart dsm, how do you invest your money? stocks, saving yields, iras?
are you a homeowner?

I stare at my stocks like i stare at a womens vagina-->
I have people.

[Dukkit]

Depends, will you do anything i tell you to ?

.

haha

hmm, thats a tricky question!!

or a trick question!

[warchild]

terminator 1 or terminator 2????

[DSM4Life]

terminator 1 or terminator 2????

Hands down, term 2.

[warchild]

but dude he was such a mean mfer in T 1 even though i thought t2 was better.

[Dukkit]

kill bill 1 or kill bill 2?

[DSM4Life]

kill bill 1 or kill bill 2?

The only thing that should have been killed was the person who came up with this idea.

but dude he was such a mean mfer in T 1 even though i thought t2 was better.

Go with your gut (term 2).

[Dukkit]

if you ingested a whole jar of instant coffee in one sitting. could you die from coffee/caffiene overdose?

[SMCengineer]

If it was possible to go back in time would your actions change the course of history or would your actions have already had it's impact on the course of history thereby changing nothing in the present?

[DSM4Life]

If it was possible to go back in time would your actions change the course of history or would your actions have already had it's impact on the course of history thereby changing nothing in the present?

Your actions would change the course of history

if you ingested a whole jar of instant coffee in one sitting. could you die from coffee/caffiene overdose?

No but you would get sick

[SMCengineer]

Your actions would change the course of history

How, since all the events in history have occurred in a particular order that led to the present? Therefore you would already be a part of history.

If it was possible to change the present by going back to the past, would it be possible to kill one of your parents to prevent your birth and if that was possible than how would you have gone back to the past to actually accomplish killing one of them?

[GT2]

How, since all the events in history have occurred in a particular order that led to the present? Therefore you would already be a part of history.

If it was possible to change the present by going back to the past, would it be possible to kill one of your parents to prevent your birth and if that was possible than how would you have gone back to the past to actually accomplish killing one of them?

I'd love to see DSM have a proper comeback/argument to this.

[rhino1]

I'd love to see DSM have a proper comeback/argument to this.

I have your answer DSM....

If you killed one of your parents....whoever was not killed of the two would still lend to you being concieved (provided they ever concieved another child) with another person...

You would still exist...just 1/2 of your orriginal self..the other half would be caracteristic of the other party responsible in your conception....

[firmechicano831]

of the 6 women you had sex with! How many did u hit in their precious h? and how hard was it for you to convince them?

[DSM4Life]

of the 6 women you had sex with! How many did u hit in their precious h? and how hard was it for you to convince them?

2, Not hard to convince them at all.

[HORSE~]

Why can I not log on to this site using Firefox at the moment????

[DSM4Life]

Why can I not log on to this site using Firefox at the moment????

Are you up to date at 3.0.3 ?
I am on with FF right now.

But the answer to the question: User Error

[Kale]

Why can I not log on to this site using Firefox at the moment????

Yeah dude I am on as well. Trying clearing all your cookies and caches

[Deltasaurus]

^^good point

[FREAK]

dsm pm me

[HORSE~]

dsm pm me

I'll try to answer this one for him....


FREAK, Dude I don't want to date your old ass!!!!

[Bio-boosted]

Originally Posted by Blome

How, since all the events in history have occurred in a particular order that led to the present? Therefore you would already be a part of history.

If it was possible to change the present by going back to the past, would it be possible to kill one of your parents to prevent your birth and if that was possible than how would you have gone back to the past to actually accomplish killing one of them?

I'd love to see DSM have a proper comeback/argument to this.

Not to steal DSMs thunder here but, one or all of three of the following events could occur. Assuming time travel is possible; i) Quantum physics takes over allowing the killing but on a different thread in space-time bla bla (dimension) or ii) the murderous paradox destroys your future self instantly but, worse, you grow up to the age again and remain in the loop forever; iii) Timecop saves the day