Observations of childhood physics

[LotusExcelle]

I'm posting an ATM series that pre-dates my current age by quite a bit. You see when I was young I had all sorts of ideas on how things worked. Here are some of them:

If you stir hot chocolate counter-clockwise you get powder.
My mom would always pour in the hot chocolate mix into the cup and stir it clockwise. I observed that it dissolved. I proposed that stirring it the other way must make it undissolve.
Update: This doesn't work.

Knots in your hair get literally "combed out" and fall on the floor.
It baffled me how running this fine-toothed thing through your hair would make it smooth. My mom explained that it combed out the knots. I thought knots existed in and of themselves - a little like a dust bunny. They were attracted to your hair at night.
Update: Knots don't fall on the floor. After a full year of research and a grant from the government I've determined that knots form FROM your hair and combing it merely untangles your hair.
Sub-note: Electrical wiring also automatically tangles without outside intervention.
Sub-sub-note: Invent a wiring comb so that bundle of wires in the corner of my audio/video room doesn't gather more mass and become a planet.

I'm the best breakdancer on earth.
my brother and I would regularly pull out the Michael Jackson 'Thriller' tape and a big piece of cardboard, go out back, and breakdance. I had several patented moves including one where I layed on my stomach and pushed off, rotating on my *chin* then landed on my back. It hurt. A lot.
Update: Not only am I not a good break dancer I also can no longer balance my entire weight onto my chin. This *must* mean earth is gaining mass and therefore now has more gravity than it did when i was younger. This is observationally correct.

Perhaps if we spin the earth backwards it will loose mass.

[BigDon]

When I was a kid, when it rained, it was a world wide event. As I got older it became more and more localized.

This proves the Earth is getting bigger.

[tdvance]

I'm posting an ATM series that pre-dates my current age by quite a bit. You see when I was young I had all sorts of ideas on how things worked. Here are some of them:

If you stir hot chocolate counter-clockwise you get powder.
My mom would always pour in the hot chocolate mix into the cup and stir it clockwise. I observed that it dissolved. I proposed that stirring it the other way must make it undissolve.
Update: This doesn't work.

Yeah it does, you just have to reverse *everything* exactly, including quantum interactions :)




"Knots in your hair get literally "combed out" and fall on the floor.
It baffled me how running this fine-toothed thing through your hair would make it smooth. My mom explained that it combed out the knots. I thought knots existed in and of themselves - a little like a dust bunny. They were attracted to your hair at night.
Update: Knots don't fall on the floor. After a full year of research and a grant from the government I've determined that knots form FROM your hair and combing it merely untangles your hair."

ha ha, mathematically, they are not knots or else you would have to cut your hair to get them out. They are "false" knots, topologically equivalent to straight hair :)

"Perhaps if we spin the earth backwards it will loose mass."

If you spin it fast enough...

[01101001]

Yeah it does, you just have to reverse *everything* exactly, including quantum interactions.

This is true. Often, halfway through stirring the cream into my coffee, I decide I want it black, so I unstir the mixture and put the cream back where I got it.

===

One of my childhood ATMs: Television signals came through the power cord. I thought you needed some "pipe" to carry content.

A few years ago, I took another look at my cable-TV connections and decided I had been right initially. But, now I look at my wireless Internet connection and I've flip-flopped again.

[Torsten]

Reminds me of my childhood thoughts about mechanical metamorphosis:

I grew up in a town that got a lot of snow (30 year average snowfall is 424 cm/year) and the town owned a fleet of big twin engine snowblowers (picture for those unfamiliar with them) (http://www.townoftruckee.com/images/snowblower.jpg). I recall going on a drive with my parents just before winter when I was 3 1/2 years old and seeing a ~5 ton truck with a crane behind the cab parked off the road (like the one pictured on this page) (http://www.atlaspolar.com/material-handling-equipment/hiab-175-truck-mounted-crane.html). At that moment my mother commented to my father "It looks like it's going to snow", and from that coincidence I concluded that these crane-equipped trucks metamorphosed each year into the snowblowers that kept our streets clear.

That was more than 20 years before "Transformers" hit the North American toy market.

(this is a rerun of a previous post (http://www.bautforum.com/1134990-post17.html) in the Kids say the darndest things (http://www.bautforum.com/off-topic-babbling/68174-kids-say-darnedest-things.html) thread.)

[Spock Jenkins]

On a long road trip out west as a six year old sleeping in the back of a van. It's amazing what images of the unknown and unseen road creep into your mind when you can feel the forces of a clover leaf exit ramp, but not see it.

Our van was being lifted up and tranported by machine to a new roadway. We were spinning the entire time.

update: It's just a curved road.

[KaiYeves]

When I was a little kid, my mother knew a few people who had swimming pools. As is likely to happen in summer on the East Coast, the first days I can remember swimming in the pools, there were thunderstorms that night.
Conclusion: If you swim in a swimming pool, there will be a thunderstorm that night.
Update: Man, I used to be dumb.

[Nowhere Man]

I'll have to try that the next time I drive through a cloverleaf.

On second thought, maybe not...

From the mind of a 3- or 4-year-old Nowhere Boy: There are small people in the radio, talking and singing. Later this became: The music played on the radio is performed live at the radio station -- how did they get all those musicians in there?

Fred

[KaiYeves]

I also used to think that every single copy of a magazine was unique and had the same articles, but different ads.

[ToSeek]

Seems more OTB than ATM, unless you're planning on defending some of these hypotheses. ;)

[torque of the town]

When I was a child the time duration between Christmas's was almost infinite.

These days it seems hardly worthwhile putting the decorations back in the loft :cry:

[Swift]

This is childhood biology.... I remember a point in childhood where I knew babies came from a mommy and a daddy, but I wasn't sure how the material transfer happened. I decided the most likely method was through the belly buttons (particularly since the baby grew right behind the mommy's belly button). :o

[BigDon]

Kindergarden through about second grade I thought pregnancy was something that just "happened" after marriage.

Though I did meet a woman who had two children before she found out what caused it. (True story)

[LotusExcelle]

wait wait wait. wait. wait wait. Was she blond?

[torque of the town]

wait wait wait. wait. wait wait. Was she blond?



Yes, but not natural as I remember:D

[Argos]

In my childhood, the speed of light was infinite, and so was the sound speed. A piece of foam would fall slower than an iron ball. Meteors were actually falling stars. The planets were lined one after the other at a distance roughly equal to their diameters. The Moon was reachable by airplanes and getting to the center of the Earth was just a matter of finding the right entrance [and obviously you could easily get to China by digging a hole].

I used to be as wise as an ancient Greek philosopher. ;)

[tdvance]

This is childhood biology.... I remember a point in childhood where I knew babies came from a mommy and a daddy, but I wasn't sure how the material transfer happened. I decided the most likely method was through the belly buttons (particularly since the baby grew right behind the mommy's belly button). :o


I thought it was through hugging; combine that with tales of accidental pregnancies, and I wondered if I'd become a father unwittingly.

[Spock Jenkins]

I thought it was through hugging; combine that with tales of accidental pregnancies, and I wondered if I'd become a father unwittingly.

Through the wisdom of playground education, I had a pretty good idea of what act had to take place. It was the actual science of conception I was way off on. The rest is not fit for this board.

I'll just say with the fourth on the way - I think I'm starting to understand.

[BigDon]

Congrats on the new one Spock! (I wish I had more...)

[Fazor]

Congrats on the new one Spock! (I wish I had more...)

Myself, I'm happy perfecting things in the production area rather than the working in the assembly and quality control departments.

[BigDon]

That's because you're not almost dead.

(They are removing the pine trees planted around my elementary school I watched being planted because....they're getting old! Ouch!)

[Swift]

Through the wisdom of playground education, I had a pretty good idea of what act had to take place. It was the actual science of conception I was way off on. The rest is not fit for this board.

I'll just say with the fourth on the way - I think I'm starting to understand.
Well, I think you need maybe another 6 or 7 for a really good data set. You know, you want a statistically significant sample population. :eek:

Congrats on number 4. http://www.websmileys.com/sm/fam/fam11.gif

[SeanF]

Though I did meet a woman who had two children before she found out what caused it. (True story)
I feel the need to defend this poor woman. Granted, it's unusual that nobody told her, but we're not expecting that she should have figured it out on her own, are we?

After all, she presumably "did the deed" more than twice, and there would have been at least a couple weeks between the pertinent deed and her becoming aware of the pregnancy, right? Why would she reasonably draw a link between the two?

[Studioguy]

After all, she presumably "did the deed" more than twice, and there would have been at least a couple weeks between the pertinent deed and her becoming aware of the pregnancy, right? Why would she reasonably draw a link between the two?

I guess this would depend on whether she was a person who was born and raised in the USPA (United States of Pornographic America) or if she was a character being played by Jody Foster with Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson co-starring.

[SeanF]

I guess this would depend on whether she was a person who was born and raised in the USPA (United States of Pornographic America) or if she was a character being played by Jody Foster with Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson co-starring.
Yes, I acknowledged that's it odd she didn't learn it from someone else. Well, I said "that nobody told her," but this is the same thing.

What I'm questioning is the reference to her having two children of her own, which seemed to imply that she should have known it from her own experience - in fact, from those two specific experiences. I don't think that's really fair.

[BigDon]

Okay, alright!

I've already been asked a couple of times via pm so here it is.

One you all forget how old I am. There was a "before the internet" you know.

I asked her that myself.

She was born in the late thirties, had a very rural upbringing, had had sex since she was 12 (her words) and only got pregnant for the first time two years after her marriage about age 22. Sheer chance.

No, I don't remember her name, I never slept with her and I never saw her again after that night.

You all act like I insulted the whole gender. Sarah Bernhardt does a good enough job of that without my help.

[kleindoofy]

... If you stir hot chocolate counter-clockwise you get powder. ...

My 7th grade science teacher flatly (and in my opinion rightly so) refused to ever grant any "extra credit" to help improve grades.

So, one day we were doing an experiment in which we put popsicle sticks in a test tube, put fire under the tube, and collected the escaping gas through a liquid filter. After doing all the separations, if I recall correctly after 33 years, we ended up having charcoal, a liquid or two, and two or more gases.

Then the teacher said "anybody want any extra credit?" Of course, all of us just stared at him in disbelief.

One student said "sure, how?"

The teacher said, "take all the components we separated and make wood out of them again."

A number of my classmates actually tried it, for weeks! :lol:

Thank you for reminding me of that.

[mugaliens]

The smooth water inside the boat's wake is perfect for putting your hand in - feels like liquid glass.

[Studioguy]

Yes, I acknowledged that's it odd she didn't learn it from someone else. Well, I said "that nobody told her," but this is the same thing.

What I'm questioning is the reference to her having two children of her own, which seemed to imply that she should have known it from her own experience - in fact, from those two specific experiences. I don't think that's really fair.

Sorry if it wasn't clear, but I was simply trying to make a goofy joke with a somewhat obscure movie reference. No indictment of anyone's testimony as to her sexual education and/or first hand experience.

My Mom actually had a friend who tells the story of getting pregnant at a young age and seriously breaking down when the doctor explained how the child was going to be born. "It's coming out of what? And it will be HOW BIG?" The unavoidable image of this woman, who at the time was in her 70's (and not a GOOD 70), giving birth was disturbing to say the least.

Along the original topic, I came from a family with a lot of welders and steelworkers. Anytime I'd see any of them during their work hours or immediately following they would just be covered in funk from working all day. Yet anytime I was actually around when they were at work, they were mostly sitting around drinking coffee and chit-chatting (probably because I'd be there during their lunch breaks). So, in my mind, huge steel storage tanks and pressure vessels were built by sitting around talking and drinking coffee...and that was a dirty activity apparently.

[Nowhere Man]

A more up-to-date case of relative times is happening to me. It seems like a very short period between the monthly mortgage payments that I have to make, but it seems like a very long period between the monthly land-contract payments that I receive.

Go figure.

Fred

[BigDon]

Whoa!

That was a bit testy wasn't it?

Had a little sleep and an ale since I posted that and I feel bad I blew up.

I'm sorry guys.

I seemed to have needed a nap and a bottle...

:)

[KaiYeves]

I used to think there was no such thing as safely treating a burn. If you touched a flame, you'd catch on fire and die instantly.

Needless to say, I was very careful around fire in my early childhood.

[BigDon]

Not altogether a bad thing to teach small children Kai.

[KaiYeves]

Nobody taught me it, I just somehow came up with it.

[BigDon]

Yep, like walking and language right?

[LotusExcelle]

At a very young age my brother asked my mom when color was invented. Only he didn't mean color *film*. He thought that things were really truly monochrome until around the 50's.

For my part i was convinced that crayons were really tiny rockets. The red ones were particularly powerful.

[Neverfly]

I thought that Neil Armstrong was exceptionally powerful like Hercules.

[Studioguy]

What do you mean you thought that? Are you implying that he isn't?

Don't go talking about my favorite trumpet player like that.

[Neverfly]

What do you mean you thought that? Are you implying that he isn't?
I think he would be the first to admit to being quite human;)

Don't go talking about my favorite trumpet player like that.
Louis has so far escaped unscathed.

[torque of the town]

A more up-to-date case of relative times is happening to me. It seems like a very short period between the monthly mortgage payments that I have to make, but it seems like a very long period between the monthly land-contract payments that I receive.

Go figure.

Fred


This phenomena in the UK is collectively known as "To much month left at the end of your money"

[Delvo]

Knots in your hair get literally "combed out" and fall on the floor.
[B]Update: Knots don't fall on the floor.Sometimes they do...

Based on the observation that my finger (or other small object close to my face) would seem transparent whenever I could see duplicates of it (because I could clearly see one solid whatever-was-behind-it right through both of them), I had a strange concept of things in general turning somehow un-corporeal when duplicated. I came up with an idea for a superhero who could pass through objects or let them pass through him, by temporarily duplicating himself (or even just an arm or such). But I could tell that the circumstances under which this kind of transparentifying duplication could happen were pretty rare, because otherwise people would do it routinely for various purposes. So I started experimenting with it to determine just what the rules were. That's how I figured out that it was just an optical side effect of having two eyes and one brain.

[KaiYeves]

I watched Sailor Moon rather avidly when it first came to the US in the late nineties, and, because I had never seen anime before, I assumed that, because the art looked more real, the things portrayed in the show were also real. Which, seeing as the evil aliens that stole life-force could be disguised as anybody, meant that I spent several years in a state of paranoia.

[tdvance]

My 7th grade science teacher flatly (and in my opinion rightly so) refused to ever grant any "extra credit" to help improve grades.

So, one day we were doing an experiment in which we put popsicle sticks in a test tube, put fire under the tube, and collected the escaping gas through a liquid filter. After doing all the separations, if I recall correctly after 33 years, we ended up having charcoal, a liquid or two, and two or more gases.

Then the teacher said "anybody want any extra credit?" Of course, all of us just stared at him in disbelief.

One student said "sure, how?"

The teacher said, "take all the components we separated and make wood out of them again."

A number of my classmates actually tried it, for weeks! :lol:

Thank you for reminding me of that.


It's easy--bury the components with a Maple seed.

[tdvance]

I thought that Neil Armstrong was exceptionally powerful like Hercules.

did you also think he was related to Louis and Stretch?

[Romanus]

For some reason, I thought that world maps showed only one half of the planet. Where the heck *did* Russia go once it fell off the map? ;)

[Robinson]

While embarrassing, the following anecdote provides valuable information about physics.

Observing bumblebees as a young child, I theorized that because they flew slowly, they had slow reaction times.

Based on this dubious knowledge, I thought it would be possible to grab one and shove it in the collection jar before it could sting my bare hand.

Missing some part of the brain that usually cautions one to do more research before conducting an experiment, I tried grabbing a bumblebee and quickly tried throwing it into a jar.



Some lessons you never forget.

In this case, I learned that not only can a bumblebee sting faster than you can measure, a bumblebee sting hurts far worse than one imagines it might.

And I had the opportunity to observe first hand the effects of bumblebee venom on a small child's hand for many hours. Painful hours. Unpleasant hours, which provided much time for reflection on the laws of physics. And bumblebees.

It didn't help that Grandma asked, as she was preparing a bag of ice, how it happened that a bumblebee stung me. Somehow explaining it to her made it seem sort of dumb, the idea that one could quickly grab a bee and not get stung.

Some lessons you never forget.

Possible conclusion of physics experiment:
Insects are way faster than humans.
Bees are to be avoided.
Ice doesn't really stop the excruciating pain of a bumblebee sting.
Mom wasn't kidding when she said leave bees alone because they can sting you.
Protective equipment should always be worn when experimenting with anything that could possibly be dangerous.

This last lesson proved valuable during another experiment, "Am I faster than a rattlesnake?".

[KaiYeves]

For some reason, I thought that world maps showed only one half of the planet. Where the heck *did* Russia go once it fell off the map?
I also used to think this, and believed the other half of the planet was all ocean.

[mugaliens]

This last lesson proved valuable during another experiment, "Am I faster than a rattlesnake?".

I must not have learned that one very well, as we collected rattlesnakes and water mocassins for their skins in grade school. In retrospect, I'm glad my dad bought us a ping-pong table when we were young and challanged us to play it as much as possible. I'm fairly certain the reflexes we developed doing that played a role in keeping us from being bitten.

[BigDon]

We played, "Sure, these needle nose are long enough to unhook that shark".

[mugaliens]

We played, "Sure, these needle nose are long enough to unhook that shark".

2x4's work better. That way, after they've been thoroughly beaned, you can reach in with your bare hands.

[Disinfo Agent]

At a very young age my brother asked my mom when color was invented. Only he didn't mean color *film*. He thought that things were really truly monochrome until around the 50's. :lol: Delightful!

This is childhood biology.... I remember a point in childhood where I knew babies came from a mommy and a daddy, but I wasn't sure how the material transfer happened. I decided the most likely method was through the belly buttons (particularly since the baby grew right behind the mommy's belly button). :oAt one point I thought it was through the mouth (kissing).

[BigDon]

2x4's work better. That way, after they've been thoroughly beaned, you can reach in with your bare hands.

True, but it makes it harder for them to swim away when you've unhooked them.

[mugaliens]

True, but it makes it harder for them to swim away when you've unhooked them.

Are you sure another couple of whacks won't get them going again? Maybe they're kick-started...

[Robinson]

Oh stop it.

[LotusExcelle]

Back in my early days of fixing things I had a minibike with a dinky little briggs 3.5 horse engine. The minibike didn't have any brakes and as far as I know the throttle had never been handlebar mounted. You had to reach down to the carb and open it yourself. So... one-handed, brakeless, nearly burning your throttle-hand off greatness was sure to come.

One summer my cousin and I (countless tales to be told but I'll stay on target this time) decided to see just how fast the thing would go. We locked the torque converter setup (bell clutch with a CVT kind of thing... snowmobiles use a larger version) for top speed.

Then things got, shall we say, stupid.

Now keep in mind I was about 15 when all of this happened.

We decided to see how a Briggs would handle nitrous. We didn't have access to the tools to hook up a real nitro bottle and tune the thing. So we went to the next (in our minds) best thing. RC Nitro Gas.

The smell of RC Nitro Gas getting pumped out of a lawnmower engine... The three-foot-long flame shooting out the exhaust port.... the newly experienced psychotic rpm limit.

I can't really explain it.

Let's just say I wasn't aware of how stupid or dangerous it was to mix the stuff into my minibike tank and go ripping around the neighborhood. One thing is for sure - I may have single-handedly killed the mosquito population within a 5 mile radius. The fumes may also explain many many things I did later in life. Also - this is a tip - get brakes. And for crying out loud put a proper throttle on!

Anyway. It never exploded. It just went like stink. And also.. it stank.

[Robinson]

Oh, we can tell physics stories from out TEENAGE years?


That is a whole nother story then ...

[LotusExcelle]

Let fly with the stupidity. Mine runs deep.

[BigDon]

Anybody do the bedsheet/umbrella parachute?

[LotusExcelle]

How about Jarts during a hurricane? That's one of my favorites. We should all have died.

[Robinson]

Anybody do the bedsheet/umbrella parachute?

Is there anybody who didn't?

[BigDon]

Firing an M-1 garand* (with a cut down barrel so it fit in our fishing pole carriers) at a piling about 50 yards out in the bay and having the round strike a large bolt and ricochette straight back and go whickering past your ear.


*For the really big rats the .22 couldn't run off.

[BigDon]

Close enough to fluff your hair.

[LotusExcelle]

I wonder if it was at lethal velocity at that point?

[mugaliens]

The first time I jumped off a swing, copying the other kids, I learned just how painful it was to land on one's coccyx. The gasping reflex took over, and I sounded like a punching bag being sucked into a vacuum cleaner.

[BigDon]

I wonder if it was at lethal velocity at that point?

I don't.

[BigDon]

Back to little kid time again:

Back when I was 5 Stingray, the show made by the same folks that gave us Fireball XL5 and Thunderbirds had a scene where the protagonist saves one of the female leads (The mute girl with the bluegreen hair who's name I forget) from a "diabolical device" consisting of her being strapped to a table with a swordfish suspended above her and the line holding the swordfish was run through the center of a candle, which of course burnt slowly down.

(You have to order those special nowadays, candles with ropes through them that is. Though girls with blue green hair are much more common now.)

And at the last second the hero saves her by slapping his hand down on the candle to extinguish it.

You don't do THAT twice!

[LotusExcelle]

Hmm. That depends. I regularly extinguish candles with my fingers then dip my fingers/hand in the wax right after. Also I have been known to walk across hot coals before.

[BigDon]

Hmm. That depends. I regularly extinguish candles with my fingers then dip my fingers/hand in the wax right after. Also I have been known to walk across hot coals before.

Lotus, slap down on an inch wide candle with the palm of your hand.

And I've done better than hot coals...

[LotusExcelle]

I see, sir. I've burnt a hole in my finger with a plasma generator. I challenge you! *throws gauntlet*

[BigDon]

http://www.bautforum.com/questions-answers/75596-hydrogen-production.html

Post number 12.

your turn

[LotusExcelle]

I... ummm. I had.. this one time...

Okay I give up.

[BigDon]

One of my friends who read that post told me, "You play poker different than I do."

[LotusExcelle]

Perhaps you need to invest in kevlar underpants. They are in my advanced line of personal protective wear. In the same aisle as steel-toed socks.

[BigDon]

Cool, maybe I'll start playing poker again!

[HenrikOlsen]

http://www.bautforum.com/questions-answers/75596-hydrogen-production.html

Post number 12.

your turn
I don't think we ever got the explanation for how you got from preparing a poker game to having doctors check if they'd have to do a williectomy.

[BigDon]

Yeah, funny that...

Ever tell you one of the things that makes me nervous are large vessels of boiling liquids?

[KaiYeves]

I tried sitting on the handlebars of a seesaw instead of the seat.
Ow. Just ow.

[Robinson]

If you go off the high dive with a inflatable raft under you, you won't get hurt.

[LotusExcelle]

Haha I've done that with a kayak.

[LotusExcelle]

My brother and I weren't your typical kids. This can be evidenced by each and every interaction we have had since I was old enough to talk, I think. Combined our powers of strangeness formed a vortex of obtuse thought and action. I shall regale you with some stories that come to mind now as I gather myself around the fire on this cold fall morn'. The dogs of the house are at my feet and the room smells of smoke. (This is funny for several reasons... not the least of which is that I'm actually at work on lunch break)

The outcomes of most of our experiments mostly were bruises. We could not afford real swords but wanted to swordfight. So a few different forms of 'practice' swords were made. The first, and possibly the most painful, were PVC swords. One and one-quarter inch PVC pipes were donned with false cross guards and duct-tape grips. Mine was oversized for my height at the time. Being the younger brother meant, later, when we moved up in the world and bought a battle axe and a dagger that I would end up wielding a small dagger while my brother attempted to cleave my arms off with his axe.

The effect of taking a PVC pipe swung at full-hurt speed on, say, a shin is one of near comical pain. One ends up rolling on the ground for a full 20 minutes while the other brother attempts to pretend like nothing happened in hopes that if a parent should poke their head out the window it would appear as if the hurt party was merely having a seizure instead of trying to will away what would become a foot-long dark purple and yellow bruise. Unfortunately our mother was the kind that would rather we beat the snot out of each other with what could delicately be called glorified plumbing products than be out doing drugs or other such thing. n other words she not only allowed us to pretend we were medieval soldiers in dire conflict but in fact would drive use to the store to buy more PVC if we needed it.

I was smaller than my brother at that point but I was also stronger - to this day I am still stronger but now taller as well. My brother was the better swordsman, however. After a lengthy fight I lowered my guard and he swung at me - connecting soundly with my face. I could see the panic in his eye as I picked my head up from the ground... where I was amazed to find myself considering I had just been standing fully upright. The damage was minor. I have taken the tip of the PVC to the side of my nose. Amazingly my nose didn't bleed (the one time in my life) nor did it break. But the bruise would remain there several weeks and become a sort of honor point.

One of the effects of being 'us' is that we decided that we could swing the PVC far too fast to be realistic. And so we changed the materials of our weapons to 7-foot long metal T-stock spikes.

[Robinson]

Oh lard. Now I am remembering all the sword fights of my youth.

[weatherc]

We didn't use PVC pipe for sword fights, mostly because we had plenty of sticks of all sizes from the trees in our backyard. We got some pretty good bruises from those, too.

[mugaliens]

Hmm. That depends. I regularly extinguish candles with my fingers then dip my fingers/hand in the wax right after. Also I have been known to walk across hot coals before.

So long as you don't sleep on them...

[KaiYeves]

I first came across the word "expelled" in Harry Potter, and assumed that it meant specifically being kicked out of Hogwarts. Which sort of makes sense- you exit the school, so you can't learn any more spells.