Phoenix ... a little duck and a fat lady ....

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:29 am

OK chaps.

I was reading through lists of obscure forgotton words last night, and stumbled upon the following very useful word.

GROWLERY.

Anyone care to guess what it might mean? You'll be seeing me use it ad nauseam on this board.

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:39 am

Luckily i have read Bleak House (an excellent book btw) - seems you are a big fan of Ye Olde Englishe YE! :P

It's just somewhere that people would go when they aren't feeling too happy. The quote was something like i come and growl here when ive got no humour.

Matt

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:42 am

That is a coincidence! Yes, growlery is a place you go to sit on your own when you're sad or angry.

Well done MattB. Over to you...

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:49 am

Thanks - I've just noticed teh thread is now bingo titled

Here we are: There is an actual name for 1/100th of a second. What is it?

Matt

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:53 am

right. it could be a picosecond, but one hundredth of a metre is a centimetre, so I'm going for a centisecond, even though it doesn't sound right.

(the bingo thread was a desperate attempt to think of a play on the number 28 )

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:57 am

Not either of those

Matt

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:58 am

Is it a nanosecond then?

Weyland · Post by **Weyland** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:13 am

Hmmm, I don't want to argue or anything, but "centisecond" should be correct, as "centi" is the SI prefix for 1/100th (10^-2, 0.01), and SI prefixes can be added to the word second.

I'm confused!

Mattb · Post by **Mattb** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:17 am

Hmm, i'll pass this over then. Seems there is a bit of confusion over it too. The answer i was after was jiffy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiffy_%28time%29

'Strictly speaking, a jiffy is a unit of time that takes up one hundredth of a second'

It appears it can be other times too though, so its a bit ambiguous. Over to someone else!

Matt

Weyland · Post by **Weyland** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:20 am

I must stop being a geek.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix

I think that one was won by His Eminence...

Cardinal Sin · Post by **Cardinal Sin** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:20 am

On you go Weyland, if you've got a ripsnorter of a question waiting in the wings.

Weyland · Post by **Weyland** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:57 am

Okay, just thought of one:

Which movie contained the original (and incorrect

) pronunciation of one billion (10^9) watts?

Demmerz · Post by **Demmerz** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:01 pm

Ah bugger, I knew it was a jiffy, too.

My guess for the next one is Back to the Future - With the 1.21 Gigawatts of power required!

Unless it's Frankenstein's Monster, but I've guessed already.

Weyland · Post by **Weyland** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:13 pm

Hah, straight away! Yup, except Doc Emmett pronounces it "Jigawatt" rather than the now common (even in America) "Gigawatt".

(He also says "One point twenty one" instead of "One point two one", hut hey...)

Your go Demmerz!

Demmerz · Post by **Demmerz** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:24 pm

That's what made me realise - if he hadn't have pronounced it in such a silly fashion in the film the question would have been much harder!

Retro Phoenix to keep you all on your toes and flex those searching muscles:

How did a goal kick taken during a match in Walsall manage to travel 150 miles?