Monday, December 04, 2006

Angels in the Rain (Or: observation fails under the relentless assault of illogic)

L 26:4 I will provide you with rain at the right time, so that the land will bear its crops and the trees of the field will provide fruit.

Conversation: Mr. Scientist and their Turkish technician

-Did you ever wonder how it rains?
-Oh, in Turkey they tell children that there’s a little angel in each raindrop.
-But didn’t you wonder how it really works?
-No, there is an angel in each raindrop.
-…What?
-Because each raindrop has a little gravitational pull and so if you have a cloud of raindrops they would all make one big rain blob because of gravity. So God sends angels to keep them raindrops…. What, don’t you believe that here?
-You do know that gravity falls off as the square of the distance.
-Of course.
-So gravity between raindrops is negligible and the gravity of the earth is much more important.
-No, they’d make a blob!
-If I took this ice bucket and threw it in the air would all the ice come down as a big blob?
-No, but--
-If I threw a glass of water at you would it hit you as a big blob?
-No, but raindrops are different. Because of the angels.
-[Aaaaaaauuggggh.]

Even more distressing: the woman in question is a scientist.

3 comments:

  1. Whoa.

    I mean, whoa.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:17 PM

    Yeah, what Jenevieve said...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah, that's what we thought. Although it is a pretty image.

    ReplyDelete

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