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Phoenix ... a little duck and a fat lady ....
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:29 am
by Cardinal Sin
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.
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:39 am
by Mattb
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
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:42 am
by Cardinal Sin
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...
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:49 am
by Mattb
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
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:53 am
by Cardinal Sin
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 )
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:57 am
by Mattb
Not either of those
Matt
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:58 am
by Cardinal Sin
Is it a nanosecond then?
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:13 am
by Weyland
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!
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:17 am
by Mattb
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
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:20 am
by Weyland
I must stop being a geek.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_prefix
I think that one was won by His Eminence...
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:20 am
by Cardinal Sin
On you go Weyland, if you've got a ripsnorter of a question waiting in the wings.
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 11:57 am
by Weyland
Okay, just thought of one:
Which movie contained the original (and incorrect
) pronunciation of one billion (10^9) watts?
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:01 pm
by Demmerz
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.
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:13 pm
by Weyland
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!
Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:24 pm
by Demmerz
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?