Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/08/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Final thoughts (thank God) on reaction time lag. Because human reaction time averages 200 milliseconds, an object will fall 7.7 inches before the person can respond. Since a US dollar measures only 6.25 inches, you can get a lot of free drinks at a bar by betting that a person cannot grab a dollar as you let it fall. Maybe you can even get enough to buy that ASPH lens you have been coveting. Here's how to do it. Take a fairly new dollar and crease it lengthwise to stiffen it, then open it. Hold the dollar by the top edge and have the other participant (sucker) rest his hand on the edge of a table and hold his fingers about an inch apart at the lower edge of the dollar. The instructions are "When I drop the dollar, close your fingers and try to pinch it. If you do, you get to keep it. If you don't, you pay me a dollar." Then drop the dollar. The trick is not to give any signal about when you are going to release it. Unless you have encountered a person with unusually short reaction time the chances are that four out of five times the victim will not be able to grab it. More motivation does not help either. It works just as well with a $20 dollar bill although it is harder to collect when the sucker loses. Larry Z - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html