Speaking of tornados, last night TLC had an interesting documentary on the subject. It featured impressive footage of tornados and their devastation, though that wasn't the scariest part. The scariest part was Elias Loomis (1811-1889).

In his studies of tornados, Loomis had heard the common claim that powerful tornado winds can defeather a chicken. It occured to him that, by simulating the wind conditions necessary to defeather a chicken, he could estimate the wind speeds of "powerful tornados".

It's subtle deductive reasoning like this that has made our country great.

In any case, how do you make a chicken go really fast? Launch it from a cannon, of course.

Comments

Comments are now closed on this site. Too much comment spam. Sigh.