All Entries Tagged With: "Letters to Pea Green"
Letters to the Pea Green Answer Man
Dear Pea Green Answer Man,
How did the barber pole originate?
Mario Suarez
Seville
Dear Mario,
The barber pole with spiral stripes is a relic of the days when barbers were also surgeons. When the London barbers were incorporated in 1461 they were the only persons practicing surgery in the city. During the reign of Henry VIII Parliament passed a law providing that barbers should confine themselves to minor operations such as blood-letting and drawing teeth, while surgeons were prohibited from “barbering or shaving.” It was not until 1745, only thirty years before the outbreak of the American Revolution, that the barbers and surgeons of London were separated into distinct corporations, and the practice of surgery by barbers was not abolished in France, Germany and other European countries until much later. The symbol of the barber-surgeons was a spirally striped pole from which was suspended a brass basin with a semi-circular opening in the rim. The fillet around the pole indicated the bandage or ribbon twisted around the arm in blood-letting, and the basin represented the vessel used to receive the blood. Barbers have retained in a modified form this ancient symbol of their profession. In the United States the brass basin is generally omitted from the barber pole, but it is common in England.
Pea Green Answer Man
Dear Pea Green Answer Man,
If a tree should fall in a forest thousands of miles from any living creature, would any sound be produced?
Louisiana-Pacific veteran
Olathe
Dear L-P, vet:
This old question owes its continued popularity to a confusion in two distinct definitions of the word sound. Ordinarily, sound is defined as the sensation stimulated by waves set in motion by a vibrating object. Consequently there is no such sound unless there is some kind of ear to receive the sensation. In this sense, then, if a tree should fall thousands of miles from any living creature, there would be no sound. This is the psychological sense. But in physical science sound is defined as the cause of the sensation; that is, the waves which are set in motion by a vibrating object and which produce the sensation popularly called sound. So the answer to the question is, in the psychological sense of the term, no sound is produced unless there is an ear to hear. But in the physical sense sound is produced irrespective of the presence of a living creature with auditory organs. In the one case sound is a sensation, in the other, the waves which stimulate the sensation.
Pea Green Answer Man
Dear Pea Green Answer Man,
How did the Romans add, subtract and multiply with Roman numerals?
Calvin Culass
Montrose
Dear Tom,
It has long been somewhat of a popular mystery how the Romans added, subtracted and multiplied with the clumsy signs or symbols which we call Roman numerals. The fact is the Romans had no convenient symbols to indicate mathematical processes and operations. Originally every process and operation was expressed in words of full length. Their mathematical calculations were never simplified further than to abbreviate centum, 100, to C, mille, 1000, to M, and so on. Figuring was awkward business in the time of Caesar. Practically all calculations were performed on the abacus, an apparatus resembling the Chinese suan pan or the bead-and-frame affairs now used in kindergarten work. The Roman abacus contained seven long and seven short rods or bars. There were four beads on each of the long bars and one on the short ones. The beads on the short bars denoted five. The first long bar was marked I, the second X, the third C, and so on up to millions. Now suppose Caesar wished to write the number 25. He would push up two X-beads and pull down the V-bead on the corresponding bar. If he wished to subtract three from 25 he would push up the V-bead and two I-beads, leaving the two X-beads where they were. There were additional bars for making calculations involving fractions. The Romans were not reputed to be good mathematicians and they contributed little to the science.
Pea Green Answer Man
Dear Pea Green Answer Man,
Can a Constitutional Amendment be repealed?
Joe Bucky
Denver
Dear Roy,
An Amendment is just as much a part of the Constitution as the original Articles. The only way any part of the Constitution can be altered or nullified is by passing an Amendment, which, in turn, becomes part of the Constitution. Therefore, the only way to repeal an Amendment is by another Amendment.
Pea Green Answer Man
