Meanwhile in Japan... Smoking Manners

Today's trivia is a collection of images produced by the Japan Tobacco company, a part government owned company which was the result of a long nationalisation of the tobacco industry.

As you might therefore imagine, smoking is somewhat popular in Japan...

The Japanese people are regarded as overly polite. They also have a sense of humor. The images included are some of the more amusing of 70 produced by the marketing campaign.

Smoke

Fire

Citations Physlink and Cornish Council

Snow

Reaction

For the full listing, this site has them online.

Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg

Image from Bristol Eating Adventures

Today's trivia was started by an interesting question around the Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg. Thus we'll see where this takes us.

The latest understanding of Black Holes was used for the rendering of the scenes in Interstellar

How many Sandwich Sandwich scotch eggs would be required to create a mass large enough to collapse under its own gravitational field, thus creating a black hole?

Recommended units:

• Capacity of an English bowler hat
• 45 foot truck (45 tons)
• Capacity of the House of Lords
• Solar Masses (1 Solar Mass = 1.9 to the power of 30 kg)

The current understanding of black holes if that they can form from a start about three times the mass of our own Sun. Estimating one scotch egg at 0.5 kg gives us 12 nonillion kg.

Taken from the BBC Two series Human Universe

Which falls faster in a vacuum? A Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg or a feather?

It is clear that unless the Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg is an exotic material, it will fall much like the bowling ball. However if the distance is sufficient and the mass of the Scotch Egg is high enough, it will draw the feather to it under its own gravity.

What velocity might be required to penetrate the reactive armour of a modern Challenger main battle tank with a Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg?

Modern main battle tanks use sophisticated armour, for example the Chobham reactive armour of the British Challenger tanks. Composed of ceramic tiles encased in a metal matrix and bonded to a backing plate by several elastic layers, it would take a truly mighty Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg to defeat such armour.

Misusing some sensible calculations from here if we compressed the Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg into the size of 1cm sphere and fired it directly at a sheet of 1cm thick plate steel, it might only need a velocity of 126m/s to penetrate. Clearly we're going to need a larger Scotch Egg.

How much damage could be potentially dealt with a single Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg under Dungeons and Dragons rules? Official D&D Rules V3.4

This one really depends on how you classify the Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg.

Working from If we consider some of the possible options we get the following list

• Inappropriatley Sized Weapons: -2 attack penalty for each size class difference. -4 penalty if the creature is not proficient with the weapon.
• Improvised Weapons: Automatic -4 penalty for non-proficiency, can cause critical hit, can be thrown.
• Thrown Weapons: Uses character's Strength modifier, One handed weapons count as standard action. Can cause critical hit.

Clearly we should treat the Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg as an improvised thrown weapon and give it a bonus to critical hits for good measure!

Can you suggest some collective nouns for the Sandwich Sandwich Scotch Egg?

• A tumble of Scotch Eggs
• A collapse of Scotch Eggs

Any other suggestions?

Mornington Crescent

Full size version

Todays trivia is all about a panel show game known as "Mornington Crescent".

This game was first made popular by the Radio 4 show "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" in 1978 and has been played in every season since then. (It is mooted that its origins belong slightly further back, perhaps being named after another station, Finchley Central).

The radio show has been hosted for a long time by the late Humphrey Lyttelton. Now run by Stephen Fry, Jack Dee and Rob Brydon.

The Tube Station

The game was named after a tube station on the Northen Line in Zone 2. First opened in 1907, and later closed in 1992 for refurbishment. It then faced the real prospect of remaining closed forever until a concerted campaign was launched by fans of the game to have the station reopened. This campaign was successful and in 1998 it was reopened.

A English Heritage plaque commemorating the late Willie Rushton, one of the longest running contestants on the Radio 4 panel show has been mounted inside the station.

Introduction to the Rules

The game is classified as a complex strategy game played traditionally on the London Tube map. (There have been mootings of playing the game on other city metro maps, but these are generally folly.) It is suitable for two or more players and can be played anywhere. Having access to a tube map may be considered a useful reference unless the blind variant is played.

There is an adjudicator who will decide whether moves are valid and will ensure the orderly procession of turns.

The basic concept is that players take it in turn making moves which bring them close to the end goal of Mornington Crescent. The player who lands on Mornington Crescent (and it being considered a valid move) will win the game unless of course they are playing the reverse variant in which case players attempt to perform the opposite, starting at Mornington Crescent and moving towards the start.

A Cavalcade of Rules, Variants, Versions, Stratagems and Protocols

For the more advanced players there are a plethora of additional rules that can be applied to the game. Traditionally on the radio show a particular ruling is indicated which players need to be aware of when they make their moves.

From the archives at least 76 specific rules have been identified. They range from the cunning and devious to the outright silly.

Some examples of rules which make for interesting play:

hugo’s 2nd stratagem

Moves across consecutive rows are prohibited unless you’re in Knip.

north london rules

Contraflows are inverted, and to avoid Triangulation, Dollis Hill will be wild.

simplified version

Stovold’s Defence is still allowable during Forward Triangulation, but Back Doubling may only be attempted after a Northern Approach.

Knip and Huffs

We would be remiss in our duties if we did not include special mention to some of the moves and concepts that make up the game:

• Huff - Landing on a huffing station allows the previous player (the huffer) to huff the current player, thereby reversing order of play until another huff is performed. This of course voids the 7th rule.
• Knip - The player is required to miss a go as a result of lateral shifting. There are exceptions to this (hugo's 2nd stratagem being one case)
• Strike Move - Players can knock their opponents out of position (only in Devonshire variants)
• Stymie - To prevent a players move by blocking their passage (See Boxing in for more detail)
• Back Doubling - Only possible after the Northern Approach

Further Reading

For those that have had their appetite whetted by Mornington Crescent, they need look no further than two noteworthy publications:

the little book of mornington crescent

Includes the history of this classic parlour game, great players, an FAQ, recipes, and other related topics.

Published by Orion, 2000, ISBN 0752818643. (Paperback - ISBN 0752844229.)

stovold’s mornington crescent almanac 2002

A collection of facts and figures, historical records, player profiles, and rules and rulings. A must for all serious players, and just plain fun for everyone else.

Published by Orion, 2001, ISBN 0752847295. (Paperback - ISBN 0752848151.)

References

An online collection of the recognised variations

Luna-9

Today's trivia hopes to cover a slightly less well known Moon landing; from the Soviet Union space program.

The year is 1966, the Soviet Union had had mixed success with landings on the Moon. Since the start of their mission to land on the Moon in 1958, they had launched 20 missions. Only two missions, both in 1959, had succeeded. Luna-2 successfully (intentionally) crashed into the surface of the Moon, Luna-3 provided the first photos of the far side of the Moon.

However they were learning hugely from their space program and had refined the launch vehicle which would take the next mission, Luna-9 to the first soft body landing on the Moon.

Launch and Approach

The launch vehicle was the Molniya-M (a design derived from an earlier ICBM design, last used 2010) which operated as a four stage rocket. Was considerably more reliable than previous rockets and provided enough lift to get the 1.5 ton lander into orbit, set it into a gentle spin and provide the final velocity to get it into a trajectory towards the Moon.

A helpful simulation of the entire launch, approach and landing

This journey lasted 4 days and included a crucial course correction where the lander pivoted over so its rockets were directed at the Moon which allowed it to start its descent towards the surface.

The Luna-9 Lander; the body contained the flight control systems, the front contained the probe payload to deploy to the lunar surface

The lander was equipped with radar altimeter which allowed it to determine how high it was from the surface:

• At 25km from the surface the retro-rockets fired to slow descent
• At 250 meters the retro-rocket cut out and 4 stabilising rockets fired
• At 5 meters a contact sensor fires, and the probe is jettisoned from the top

The probe then bounced on an inflated air cushion before coming to rest on the lunar surface. Once stationary, the air cushion is jettisoned off.

A reconstruction of lander deployed the probe safely to the surface

The probe itself as comparatively quite simple. It consisted of a hermetically sealed container in which was held:

• radio equipment
• program timer
• heat control system
• geiger counter
• television system

Images Received

Approximately 250 seconds after the probe came to a halt the probe sprang open its four petal shaped panels and began a photographic survey of the lunar environment.

Model of the Luna-9 probe with 'petals' and radio masts deployed

The probe for the mission was equipped with a simple imaging system (by modern standards). It consisted of a television camera which pointed upwards and a mirror which was angled out towards the lunar surface. The mirror was rotated by a motor at a constant rate.

It would start recording images and broadcasting them via radio transmission back to Earth to be received by Soviet Union radio telescopes.

This also allowed the Jodrell Bank Lovell radio telescope to receive the same images.

Lovell Radio Telescope

It was quickly realised that the received signals were encoded in Radiofax, an internationally agreed standard for sending images between newspaper companies around the world.

"A Muirhead facsimile convertor and receiver were rushed out to Jodrell Bank from the Daily Express newspaper offices in Manchester. When the signals received the next afternoon were played through the machine, out scrolled, line by line, the first ever picture of the lunar surface taken from the surface." -- quote Professor Tim O'Brien

Perhaps to the Soviets dismay, the Express published the first image ever taken from the surface of the Moon before they did.

First photograph taken from the surface of the Moon in February 1966 by the Soviet lander Luna-9

Successes

The mission achieved a number of firsts:

• First soft body landing demonstrating the kind of flight control systems which would be required to land people on the Moon
• First images transmitted from the surface of another body in space
• Confirmation that the Moon's surface could support a foreign object; theories at the time predicted things might simply sink into the surface
• First recordings of radiation from the surface of the Moon (30 millirads per day)

A panoramic image captured by the probe full Size.

Last contact with the spacecraft was at 22:55 UT on 6 February 1966, after which its onboard batteries expired.

Warp Speed

Today's trivia takes us hurling through the currently understood theory of warp travel.

Warp travel is probably one of the largest achievements in the science fiction adventures of the Star Trek and other universes. Warp travel allows spaceships to travel faster than the speed of light to overcome the seemingly mind boggling distances involved in interstellar travel.

Astronomical Perspective

• Distance between Earth and Sun = 1 AU (Astronomical Unit)
• AU ~= 150 million km
• Voyager is the highest energy spacecraft launched (nuclear powered)
• Cruising at 3.6AU, in 33 years Voyager has travelled ~116AU
• Nearest Star: Proxima Centauri 4.3 light years
• 1 light-year = 63,240 AU
• Voyager has ~75,000 years remaining

There have been various research proposals on how to travel through these vast distances in faster time, perhaps fast enough for a human life span. Those are interesting, but not the main subject for todays trivia.

General Relativity

Before we can dive head long into possible warp drives, we need to brush up a little on our theroy of general relativity. Well... we need a couple of useful concepts.

We understand that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and represents a theoretical maximum.

This leads us to the idea that the fastest way to travel between two given points in space at the speed of light is simply the distance divided by the speed of light.

However, there is a situation where it is possible to travel faster than the speed of light. This is when the universe is expanding or contracting.

If we were to attempt the same thought experiment of travelling between two points I the universe whilst the universe was collapsing we can see that we would travel faster than the speed of light. (Perhaps the same effect of needing to go to toilet; the closer you get the greater the urge?)

That is as far as I need to go into the theory of general relativity.

Warp Drive

In 1994, Miguel Alcubierre published a paper which details how a theoretical warp drive could work.

It centres around this principle of expanding or collapsing the space-time of the universe.

Alcubierre states in his paper that if the region of space time in front of the ship was collapsed, it would bring the distant star close to the ship. If the region behind the ship was expanded it would move the ship further away from its starting point.

This would allow the ship to travel though space time without having to actually travel. The crew inside the 'warp bubble' would not feel any acceleration, and time would pass normally for them.

This warp bubble would have forward motion though space-time and allows the ship to travel considerably faster than the speed of light.

To take us back to the previous thought experiment. If a ship wishes to travel to some distant star:

• travel on conventional propulsion until it was clear of its home planet (will be explained shortly)
• Align with the distant star
• Engage its warp drive
• Halfway along the journey it would then need to reverse the direction of its warp drive to begin decelerating
• Arrive some distance from its destination (also explained later)
• Travel on conventional propulsion the rest of the way

Expanding Space-Time

One of the interesting side effects of the this concept is that it needs Negative Energy to produce the space-time warping effect.

Negative energy is a theoretical concept at the very edge of our current understanding. It is included in the explanations of certain fields including gravitational fields and a number of quantum fields.

Negative energy has some very strange properties:

• Accelerating in the direction opposite to applied force
• Causes normal positive matter to self accelerate infinitely
• Has a negative gravity effect

Current research indicates it is possible to detect the presence of negative energy.

Side Effects

As you might imagine, such a system has some unusual side effects.

Risks to Ship

• If the warp bubble destabilized, it would distort the ship horribly
• Recent research indicates superluminal velocities would generate so much Hawking radiation that it would destroy the ship inside the bubble

Risks to Surrounding Space

• Destroys space in front of it, creates space behind it.
• Would destroy anything that comes into contact with warp bubble
• Any particles collected infront of the bubble would be released in an energetic explosion akin to a sonic boom shockwave directly infront of the ship

Risks to the entire Galaxy

• Something the size of Jupiter in negative energy required

Conclusion

This is a fascinating and growing area of research. Calculations are being changed and revised all the time. The energy requirements of a theoretical warp drive are being refined to the point NASA have commissioned research and a new rendering of what a warp drive capable ship might look like.

References

Warp Field Mechanics 101

The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity

How to Explore the Universe