"Sawney Beane" wrote in message
...
Ioannis wrote:


Your are giving the previous poster reasons to do some serious damage,
particularly if he tries it with a Chinese "CE certified" fluorescent
chord
luminaire!

Never mind what the police will think if they see a guy in the dark
swinging
a fluorescent tube:

"What are you doing there?"

"I'm trying to observe the stroboscopic effect..."

"The WHAT?!"

"You know, when the light goes on and off at 120 Hz, and the phosphors
have
this persistence, see, and you can...by rotating FAST the lamp..."

"Arrest him. He is dangerous"...


"Car Talk" is a syndicated radio show in which the Tappet Brothers,
Click and Clack, answer questions about automotive mechanics. Each
week they read a brain teaser. One week they gave the number of
inches between railroad rails in America and asked how that had
become the standard gage.

There are different parts of a rail to measure from, so I took a
steel tape to measure the track alongside the municipal parking
lot. While I was there, the crossing arms came down and traffic
backed up and no train came.


Big grin!!! The crossing arms are triggered by oncoming trains by shorting
the two rails together and completing a circuit. You did the same thing
with your steel tape (it isn't very much current, just a ma or two).

I watched a front-end loader clearing snow a few years ago in a nearby town.
He wanted to cross the road often to dump the snow on the other side, but
traffic was always a problem for him. Well, he was working across a
railroad track that serviced a small factory and had the usual red lights
and crossing arms. When he was ready to cross the road, he lowered the
bucket down to touch the rails. Bingo!, the lights would flash, the arms
would drop and traffic came to a stop. He'd lift the bucket, cross the road
and dump, and return while the crossing arms were finishing their cycle and
rising back up. He had learned to 'work the system'. But I don't think CSX
approves of such chicanery.

daestrom