More like dumbtors!

[virtk0s]

I don't understand why doctors tell you to "drink fluids." I mean, they think you're gonna drink some damn solids? Plus, glass is technically an extremely slowly moving fluid... can I drink glass? And gases exhibit fluid properties... can I drink laughing gas? Will that make me better? "Sorry I died from alcohol poisoning doctor, but you indicated

Comments

[anonymous]

I think by "fluids" they usually mean some potable, water-based liquids. So glass would not be an intelligent thing to drink. I'd hate to get to Hell and have to say I died because something I drank cut me open.

[greathackster]

That was me btw.

[virtk0s]

Yeah, but its not really implied... You would think with something that could kill you more specifics is better.

[laurtypoo]

well, some people probably dont have the common sense to drink "fluids". maybe you could try drinking molten glass, though im sure it'd burn you to death

[virtk0s]

Glass doesn't have to be molten to be a fluid. Technically, it's flowing as it sits in your windowsill. That's why if you ever go to a really old house that hasn't had its glass replaced, the glass is thicker on the bottom of the window than at the top... gravity causes it to flow down to the base!

[laurtypoo]

how long would we have to wait for the glass to ooze out of the frame altogether? i heard it'd take a billion years

[anthus29]

the whole "old windows are wider at the bottom" thing is sort of a myth. It's more due to the way they made glass back then rather than the glass flowing.

[virtk0s]

Interesting. Can you elaborate?

[anthus29]

When medieval glassblowers made plate glass, they spun the molten glass to create a lamina. Because of the centrifugal effect, the edges of the plate would be thicker than the center, and usually one edge was widest. Practicality dictated that this edge would be the bottom of the window, because it was the most stable configuration. This is why medieval windows are wider at the bottom.

The evidence against the glass actually flowing is that the effect isn't more pronounced for older glass. If the flowing hypothesis were true, glass from antiquity would be much more lopsided than that from the Middle Ages. Also, if window glass flowed perceptibly over a period of centuries, then distortion of optical glass (e.g. contact lenses and telescope and microscope lenses), being much more precise, would be noticable within a few years or even weeks.

[virtk0s]

Awesome background. So this means that glass actually does not flow at all? Or rather, significantly moreso than any other solid-feeling object?

[cornellengr2008]

If you want to be a semanticist (a.k.a. "jerk")...

Seriously, if you don't understand what the doctor means when he says "drink fluids", you ought to ask. If instead you take that as your cue to drink yourself to death with alcohol or glass, well... it was nice knowing you and i'm sorry you had to go like that. But just one final question: how'd you get into Cornell?

Sorry to ruin your fun, but... was this supposed to be funny?

[virtk0s]

Yes.

[cornellengr2008]

well... it wasn't :\

[virtk0s]

I'm sorry you feel that way.