new thread
I thought this was rather funny...
From:http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080211/sc_livescience/thescienceoffairytales
Kids of any age love to read fairy tales because the storyline never limits the possibility that anything could happen. Curses, spells, and handsome princes reign in worlds beyond the reader’s imagination.But are the most magical moments from some of our favorite stories actually possible? Basic physical principles and recent scientific research suggest that what readers might mistake for fantasies and exaggeration could be rooted in reality.
Rapunzel
In the Brothers Grimm story of "Rapunzel," a witch holds a beautiful young woman captive in a tower. Rapunzel is blessed with a lovely singing voice and long, long blond hair. One day, her voice enchants a prince passing through a nearby forest. They fall in love, and Rapunzel lets down her hair so that the prince may use it to climb the tower to meet her. This chain of events begs readers to ask a question. Can human hair support the weight of another person?
On average one strand of hair can support about three and one-half ounces, or about the weight of two candy bars. Each strand of dark hair is generally thicker, and therefore stronger, than blond hair.
But, alas, Rapunzel must make do with blond locks. Given that blondes generally have about 140,000 hairs on their heads, her hair should easily support the weight of many, many princes. However, there is more to this story.
If Rapunzel simply let down her hair and the prince started climbing immediately, her hair would not break, but it might rip out. Also, the rest of her body might not be able to support the weight. Thankfully, there are strategies that she can use to help reduce the strain on her head and body.
Nathan Harshman, Assistant Professor of Physics at American University in Washington, DC, suggests Rapunzel would be safer and more secure if she tied her hair around something before lowering it. “The whole idea is that you can use the friction of the hair against itself in the knot, and whatever it is tied around will support the weight of the prince.” That is a much better idea than making Rapunzel’s scalp the anchor point.
HAHAHAHA!
The complete link with explanations of the feasability of Aladdin's carpet and the Little Mermaid can be found here:
The Science of Fairy Tales
Interesting.....but could all the king's horses and all the kings men really not put Humpty Dumpty back together again?....which also begs the question.....why was a giant egg sat on a wall? and why was there a giant living egg?
Stolen from one of my favourite comic strips - Pearls Before Swine
"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the Kings' Horses
And All the Kings' Men
Couldn't Put Humpty Together Again"
"Scrambled or omlette was the choice
'I love the taste' Yelled somebody's voice
'His death was not kind,'
Cried one of the men,
'But I'd shove that egg all over again'"
Haha! I'd do a giant egg sarnie! :) mmmmm
I can see how support makes a difference. The story wouldn't have worked as well otherwise.
Hearing footsteps approach her tower, Rapunzel hefted her massive braid out the window and was startled to hear a muffled moan as the thick tassel sped toward the ground. This was not the voice of her aged adoptive mother the witch but someone entirely new. Rapunzel's heart melted to see such a handsome long haired prince below her looking somewhat stunned as he unwound himself from the hair that had dropped from the sky onto him so unexpectedly and quite heavily considering the amount of hair she possessed.
Despite the pain in his neck he looked up and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, at least from the waist up. Being behind a tower window the other half remained unseen for the time being though he expected the rest of her body would be just as lovely unless of course she had been hidden away for being a clubfooted princess. Being an optimistic prince he decided to risk it and asked to meet the lovely girl. She gave a summary of her predicament and inability to leave her home though she heartily implored the prince to use her hair as a means to visit her chamber.
Sadly the love between them was short lived. Transfixed by the prince's beautiful curls Rapunzel neglected to brace her hair before he began his ascent. The moment the full weight of his body strained at her braid Rapunzel was dragged over the windowsill and flew out the window hurtling downward onto the shocked prince breaking both their necks in the process. At this point the story closes because although magic regularly happens in fairy tales I am not aware of any instances where characters are brought back to life. Oh well, pity Rapunzel was not allowed out of her tower to go to school and learn about physics.
Irreverently,
Elizabeth
What an enjoyable offering this posting is! Thank you, Doctor Bragi, for uploading its magnificence on the board, and thanks Andrew B. and MushroomCult, and dear Elizabeth Regina, whose tragic version o/t Rapunzel tale I'd not heard; it made me shudder and brought a tear to my eyes (*sniff*) . . .
Alongside the wonderful Yahoo! maintained LiveScience site's article as excerpted, that is, right up there WITH Doctors Nathan Harshman's and Steve Cummer's and the other three doctors who figured out under what conditions Aladdin's magic carpet could be made to fly (heeeeey, what about the part about the genie in the oil lamp?), a world-renowned quantum physicist, Jack Sarfatti, whose 1970's primer for Star Trek quality strangeness, "Space, Time, and Beyond" explains the unexplainable, with nifty little minimalistic comic strip diagrams to clarify in pragmatic, scientific terms what magical thinking thinkers like this writer just wouldn't get. Go here:
http://qedcorp.com/pcr/pcr/sar,html
Fittingly enough in the context of the "Rapunzel" piece above, his long-haired photo portrait has been matted onto the cartoon body of one Jack, laboring to climb up the beanstalk, before embarking on his adventure to retrieve the goose that lays golden eggs from the Eglishman-eating giant in his castle lair atop the clouds.
ALSO, speaking of beautiful, long hair, chanteuse, actress, and filmmaker (!) Los Angeles' Lisa Hammer, has committed lots of fairy tales to celluloid. Whether depicted in glorious black and white, cokored gels, or silent era of film sepiatones, she's compiled them all on DVD's or VHS tapes here:
http://lisahammer.com
On her opus, "A Night of Marchenfilm", the German for which is pronnunced "meer-kin-feel-mah", meaning "fairy tale movies", we see yet another Brothers Grimm classic, "Jorinda und Joringel". In it, a young couple of lovers about to be wed, suffers the young lass of the pair being changed into a bird by an evil sceress, held in a cage in her enchanted castle, and then changed back into a maiden once her betrother acquires a flower with a magical gem in it guarded by a fairy.
Fortunately there are lotsa longhaired actors appearing in Ms. Hammers cinematic endeavors, all attired in period piece garb. But, LOL, I can't wait ta see the scientific explanation for THAT little bit of folklore! LOL! Thanks again ta everyone participating in this thread . . .
Yours for solving the mysteries f the unknown WITH longhaired camaraderie and filmmaking talent,
Quenyan
Thanks Matt well that's the joy of fairy tails and why do people have to analise the myths for and how dare they spoil our childhoods!
Cheers,
John.B
I wonder if she uses a Boar bristle brush or Nylon.
hmmmmmm
Kevin