🚀 go-pugleaf

palmer@sfu.ca (Leigh Palmer) writes:

>It has been a tradition at Caltech to drop a 78 K (that's "kelvins", not
>"kilograms") pumpkin from the tower of the Millikan Library at midnight on
>Hallowe'en to smash on the tiles below. I have a reliable report that a flash
>of light has been seen to accompany the destruction of the pumpkin. I can
>report myself that the *sound* made by a similarly prepared Canadian pumpkin
>when dropped ten meters to concrete is quite exceptional, if not particularly
>illuminating.

>While I have not done work in this field for some time, and though I have never
>been acquainted with the literature, I'd like to know if any progress has been
>made lately. Was there a pumpkin drop this year? What resulted? Is there a
>corpus of scholarly publication on this worthy topic?

Yes, there was a pumpkin drop this year.  No, I don't believe any blue flashes
were seen, although with all the camera flashes it was hard to tell.  In fact,
from what I've heard, nobody's seen a flash for at least a few years back.
Actually it was all just a rumor planted by KGB agents so that Caltech 
students would all be caught off gaurd when the late Soviet Union invaded the
US.  But it's still cool to watch.


-- 
--Ron Stieger                      **** JUST VOTE NO. ****
  stieger@cco.caltech.edu
You know you're in trouble when math is the only class you DON'T use a
calculator for.