Avalanches Simulated With 500,000 Ping-Pong Balls 56
An anonymous reader submits "Ping-pong ball avalanche experiments have been carried out for the last three years at the Miyanomori ski jump in Sapporo, Japan, to study three-dimensional granular flows. Up to 550,000 balls were released near the top of the landing slope. The balls then flowed past video cameras positioned close to the flow, which measured individual ball velocities in three dimensions, and air pressure tubes at different heights. The flows developed a complicated three-dimensional structure with a distinct head and tail, lobes and 'eyes.' See for yourself, it's quite interesting!"
Re:Pic of project leader (Score:1, Funny)
wtf? (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey Bill, we've got tons of ping-pong balls and a very elaborate and sophisticated means of tracking their movement - what should we do with them?"
"Uhh, use them to predict the Powerball results and retire on private carribean islands, unique ones of which we own for every day of the month?"
"No, you fool! Avalanche research is clearly the way!"
A victim of this experiment? (Score:5, Funny)
A bespecticled bunny rabbit and moose were seen running from the scene.
The hardest part... (Score:5, Funny)
The hardest part is digging yourself out with nothing but a ping pong paddle...
Gotta love that Engrish (Score:2, Funny)
Re:looks like... (Score:2, Funny)
Avalanche Rescue (Score:4, Funny)
They could rescue people with chihuahuas carrying cans of diet pepsi.
Re:looks like... (Score:3, Funny)