Anecdotes about situations wherein a little scientific knowledge paid off

[sysprog]

I'm hoping to see accounts of situations wherein a little (or maybe a lot) of scientific knowledge paid off.

I'll start with one that's really basic, but in my view rather amusing.

In the winter of '87 I was returning to Chicago, from DC where I'd been working on a USG contract (IBM mainframe systems programming). I debarked from the plane along with the other passengers, and went to collect my check-in baggage. The conveyor was moving, but no bags were emerging from behind the row of vertical ribbons. I waited for 15 minutes or so, then got fed up.

I stepped onto the conveyor and went through the ribbon portal into the little ante room wherein the bags are transferred to the conveyor. Normally, the door from there to the tarmac would automatically lock in both directions upon closing, but this time, it was snowy and icy, and some ice at the foot of the door had kept it slightly ajar, so I opened the door and walked out onto the tarmac.

There I saw a man running the tractor-train with all our bags loaded onto it. He was sitting in his little tractor just spinning the wheels. I approached him, and asked how long he'd been doing that, and he said for about 20 minutes.

I observed that the path to the door I'd just walked out of was an upward grade, and I explained to the driver that on the icy surface, the grade was too steep for his train to climb it, so he should reverse and go downgrade a bit to escape from rut he'd been digging, then climb back up at an angle and curvily zigzag up the grade, so as to make a longer path up the grade, and thereby climb a less steep grade. I saw the light of understanding gleam on his face, and he followed the suggestion.

Soon thereafter he had pulled the train to the desired destination, and I helped him to to unload the bags from the train and put them on the conveyor. When I got to my own bag, I greeted the man goodbye, and then went back through the ribbons. When I emerged on the conveyor holding my bag, the other passengers, who saw the bags finally being conveyed, openly applauded. I suppose I'd get arrested if I were to try anything like that today.

 

[jedishrfu]

My wife took a unique photo at sunset in south Texas and used it as her screen saver on her iPad. It has a setting sun with a circular chunk cut out of it. At first, we thought it was a cloud partially blocking the sunset but I’d never seen a cloud of that particular shape.

I did a search and discovered that a partial eclipse occurred that day visible in Arizona and California. The eclipse track did not include Texas at all but there it was at dusk she caught a partial eclipse by chance.

 

[jedishrfu]

On another occasion, my son went out with his jeep in the winter and when he returned he parked at the top of our inclined driveway. About 15 minutes later, we heard a crash. The jeep slid down and hit the garage door center pillar with enough force to move the door frame not the pillar out of alignment by about 6 inches.

I tried to figure a way to push the frame back into place so at least I could close the door. Nothing came to mind until I remembered I had some adjustable truck straps. Using a combination of car jack at the base of the pillar and the straps wrapped around the pillar and the jack, I was able to open the jack and the straps bringing the door frame back into place enough to close the door. A true MacGyver solution.

 

[Borg]

I was at a party one winter when someone parked to close to the ditch and slid in as they were trying to leave. There were 10+ able-bodied twenty somethings standing around and they came to the conclusion that a tow truck was needed. I explained that we had more than enough manpower to practically lift the entire car but all we had to do was pick up one corner. Once everyone got in place, the car was out in ten seconds.

 

[berkeman]

My wife came home from her work recently, and told me that they had a new team-building project (they have those often at the fairly large company that she works for). The project/competition was to design a small pinewood derby car for the usual ramp contest. I asked her what the rules were, and she showed me the printout.

The size of the cars was constrained, but not the weight (duh). I asked her to verify that the weight of the little cars was not part of rules constraints, and when she came back home the next day and said "nope", I gave here one of my old scuba diving weightbelt weights, and told here to strap it to their team's car.

They ended up winning the competition by at least 20% on the time to travel down the ramp. I'm pretty sure that the weight of the little cars will be included in the rules next year.

 

[sysprog]

I was at a party one winter when someone parked to close to the ditch and slid in as they were trying to leave. There were 10+ able-bodied twenty somethings standing around and they came to the conclusion that a tow truck was needed. I explained that we had more than enough manpower to practically lift the entire car but all we had to do was pick up one corner. Once everyone got in place, the car was out in ten seconds.

You're right about the manpower -- once at a '70s backyard party a bunch of the guys sneaked around to the front for a minute and put the host's car (a VW Beetle) on his front porch -- in the morning, he was at first shocked and bewildered; then he marshaled a different bunch of the guys and gals out of those who were crashed out in his downstairs rooms to put it back.

 

[berkeman]

Quiz Question -- What movie is this from?

https://www.imcdb.org/i049434.jpg

 

[hutchphd]

Do we get points for knowing the car? Movie does not look familiar.

 

[berkeman]

Nope, sorry. The car was moving up and down on top of an airbag, if that helps...

Oh, and another hint -- the setting was a Caltech dorm room...

 

[Klystron]

My parents bought a large load of thick slate with irregular shapes from a local quarry to create a backyard patio. Nowadays we could number and photograph the large slabs and develop best fit using computer graphics. As a youngster I was pretty good at finding patterns, orientation and fit. Average computation skills but good with angles and shapes. Dad asked me to look at each piece and tell the helpers where to place and align them. I oriented the slabs in my head and told the helpers where to place them.

I used ideas from some old books about ancient Greek geometry and my Dad's molecular chemistry textbooks. Placed largest pieces at optimum places and filled in second largest then third in spirals. Filled a few gaps with fragments. Patio still intact and in use after 60 years.

 

[sysprog]

Quiz Question -- What movie is this from?

Spoiler: strong hint

The letters 'R' and 'G' come to mind . . .

 

[JT Smith]

I didn't get past the word "debarked" in your original post. I had to look it up. And indeed, one can either debark, disembark, or even disembarkate, if they aren't into the whole brevity thing. But if you're a tree or a dog, debark isn't such a fun word.

 

[Klystron]

Nope, sorry. The car was moving up and down on top of an airbag, if that helps...

Oh, and another hint -- the setting was a Caltech dorm room...

And some Real Genius students wanted revenge on the car's owner?

P.S: One of Val Kilmer's best flicks.

 

[Klystron]

Do we get points for knowing the car? Movie does not look familiar.

Looks like a Peugeot? The Real question is if a bunch of college students on Genius grants can pop popcorn using a) a crystal prism divider, b) a spinning stainless steel mirror, and c) a frozen iodine laser?

 

[hutchphd]

The car I am almost certain is a citroen c1970. My movie acumen is less certain. Of course I was 18 yrs old in 1970, so I can actually recall that stuff...

 

[chemisttree]

My wife took a unique photo at sunset in south Texas and used it as her screen saver on her iPad. It has a setting sun with a circular chunk cut out of it. At first, we thought it was a cloud partially blocking the sunset but I’d never seen a cloud of that particular shape.

I did a search and discovered that a partial eclipse occurred that day visible in Arizona and California. The eclipse track did not include Texas at all but there it was at dusk she caught a partial eclipse by chance.

Like this?

 

[jedishrfu]

Wow, nice photo. Sadly no it was more of a quarter circle on the lower right at sunset and a bit fuzzy too once you zoomed in.

 

[Klystron]

The car I am almost certain is a citroen c1970. My movie acumen is less certain. Of course I was 18 yrs old in 1970, so I can actually recall that stuff...

Hey, so was I; but I have never been much of an automobile buff. Seemed as if most conversations back then were about either cars or popular music. Movies, not as much.

 

[jedishrfu]

My wife came home from her work recently, and told me that they had a new team-building project (they have those often at the fairly large copmpany that she works for). The project/competition was to design a small pinewood derby car for the usual ramp contest. I asked her what the rules were, and she showed me the printout.

The size of the cars was constrained, but not the weight (duh). I asked her to verify that the weight of the little cars was not part of rules constraints, and when she came back home the next day and said "nope", I gave here one of my old scuba diving weightbelt weights, and told here to strap it to their team's car.

They ended up winning the competition by at least 20% on the time to travel down the ramp. I'm pretty sure that the weight of the little cars will be included in the rules next year.

There was a kids movie where a girl was to race in a soapbox derby race in Ireland. Her dad was a past champion but he knew it was very dangerous for his daughter to try. She prevailed won her dad over and he gave her his secret racing mod which was a sliding weight for taking corners faster.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1319032/

 

[chemisttree]

Back when I was working at Firestone and going to undergraduate school, an older customer came in with a noise problem. He says, “It’s been making this really loud noise lately. Can you check it?” So I get in for a test drive and confirm what he reported. Really loud... like the muffler had a huge hole or something. I get it up on the lift and examine his exhaust system. The muffler is off its rubber hanger and won’t go back on. Weird! The pipe leading away from it is bent at kind of an unusual angle. The pipe’s hanger is holding up the entire exhaust system from the catalytic converter rearward.
Everything is intact, just bent. No holes or cracks anywhere.

Then I discover it. The muffler was jammed up against the frame of the car. I get the customer out to the shop and show him the damage, the bent pipe and the muffler pressing against the car’s frame.
“How did this happen?”, I ask him.
“Yeah, I was in an accident and its been making that noise ever since”, he says. “They want to replace the muffler but it doesn’t need one, it has one that is fine.”
So I explain to him why the muffler pressing against the frame is causing the noise. How sound travels through the air but also by conduction through solid objects even better.
That’s when I screwed up! To demonstrate, I installed a stack of wooden spacers between the muffler and frame that I fashioned out of pieces of one of the Firestone yardsticks we seemed to always have around.
He gets into the car to hear for himself and says, “That’s it! You fixed it!”

Groan! “No, no, no! It’s not fixed. I only did this to show...”
“Thanks! What do I owe you?”
“Nothing, it’s not repaired. You actually need to get the muffler replaced. We don’t do that here, so...”
“Thanks again! You’re the only one that’s been able to figure this thing out! Goodbye!”

Over the next several months I “fixed” his muffler several more times (free!) until I eventually told him that I ran out of yardsticks.

See, we were converting over to the metric system at the time...

 

[chemisttree]

And now @berkeman understands how anchoring a washing machine on a stand to the frame of the house to steady it is bad ju ju! Kinda been there and done that.

 

[Klystron]

An USAF general in charge of training asked for help teaching new radar operators to acquire, track and shoot down* aircraft visiting our electronic warfare (EW) ranges. Pilots and flight crews needed to fly against the toughest most experienced anti-aircraft crews in order to prepare for actual warfare. Us actual war veterans were eventually time limited by regulation.

We set up schools back at base to teach advanced techniques but how could we simulate EW conditions to enhance visual and tactile responses; so-called 'hand-to-eye coordination', where visual cues were small with unpredictable movements? We turned to a popular local hobby: skeet shooting clay pigeons**.

I bought a spring-loaded launcher and we chipped into buy boxes of inexpensive shotgun ammunition and crates of clay pigeons. Operators who owned shotguns shared weapons with those without. We set up impromptu ranges in the desert and at designated trash dumps in towns near the EW sites and encouraged operators to attend sessions after work and on days off.

The training sessions became well attended and produced interesting results. Some 'city kids' who had never handled firearms became adept at mentally computing angles and blasting clay pigeons under difficult conditions. When I left the service to continue my education, I left my well-used shotgun and launcher with the best instructor. Physics can be fun!

*simulated electronically.
**video games were just entering the market, usually in bars and arcades. Quite expensive.