🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <921208171137.25c016d7@FNALD.FNAL.GOV>, ames!FNALD.FNAL.GOV!DROEGE
says:
>
>The discussion about power measurement reminds me of a problem posed by my
>mentor, Jack Riedel (RIP) one day at lunch at the PPA.
>
>You are placed in a room with a compass and a voltmeter.  Through the room
>pass two superconducting wires.  After you are locked in the room, a battery
>is placed across one end of the pair, and a load resistance across the other.
>Your problem, to save your life or win the fair maiden etc., is to tell which
>side has the battery and which side has the load.  Theorists only get one
>try at this problem, while experimentalists get an initial try to calibrate
>their apparatus. (to get the sign right).
>
      You left out engineers.  I'd cut the wires.  Then the answer is
obvious.  (Your problem statement, above, does not exclude this solution.)
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J. C. Hassler              Chem. Eng.             U. of Maine