top o' the mornin'® 6/10/2014

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earendel
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top o' the mornin'® 6/10/2014

#1 Post by earendel » Tue Jun 10, 2014 1:33 pm

Well, I have what it takes to survive on the moon.

We just completed our quarterly office training and "teambuilding exercise." The exercise assumed that our team had crash landed on the moon and we had 15 items that had survived the crash. We were supposed to rank the items in order of importance for survival. Then we compared our ranking to that compiled by a team of experts from NASA. Our group did the best overall, thanks to me, because I had the best individual ranking. The items included things like a compass, a raft, a parachute, matches, an FM receiver/transmitter, food, water, a map, 2 .45 caliber pistols, flares, and dehydrated milk.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."

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mrkelley23
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Re: top o' the mornin'® 6/10/2014

#2 Post by mrkelley23 » Tue Jun 10, 2014 1:40 pm

Funny. I used that lesson some 25 years ago as one of my first icebreakers for my first AP Physics class. Did you find NASA's explanation page for the answers?
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. -- Richard Feynman

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earendel
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Re: top o' the mornin'® 6/10/2014

#3 Post by earendel » Tue Jun 10, 2014 1:48 pm

mrkelley23 wrote:Funny. I used that lesson some 25 years ago as one of my first icebreakers for my first AP Physics class. Did you find NASA's explanation page for the answers?
The "solution page" had some sort of explanations.
Spoiler
For instance the raft was ranked higher than the compass because the carbon dioxide canisters that inflated the raft could be used for propulsion and the compass was virtually useless because there is no magnetic field on the moon.
Some of the items were easy to figure out and some seemed like a judgment call.
"Elen sila lumenn omentielvo...A star shines on the hour of our meeting."

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Bob Juch
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Re: top o' the mornin'® 6/10/2014

#4 Post by Bob Juch » Tue Jun 10, 2014 1:54 pm

earendel wrote:Well, I have what it takes to survive on the moon.

We just completed our quarterly office training and "teambuilding exercise." The exercise assumed that our team had crash landed on the moon and we had 15 items that had survived the crash. We were supposed to rank the items in order of importance for survival. Then we compared our ranking to that compiled by a team of experts from NASA. Our group did the best overall, thanks to me, because I had the best individual ranking. The items included things like a compass, a raft, a parachute, matches, an FM receiver/transmitter, food, water, a map, 2 .45 caliber pistols, flares, and dehydrated milk.
The compass, raft, parachute, matches and flares won't be useful for their intended purposes but their materials might.
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
- Douglas Adams (1952 - 2001)

Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere.

Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he grows up, he'll never be able to drive in New Jersey.

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