» Pointless Experiments

Mosquitoes in the Rain
Many years ago I walked into the backyard at night to enjoy a smoke. It began raining pretty hard but I didn't seek shelter. A few minutes later a mosquito bit me. I was amazed. How in the hell could a mosquito fly around in the rain? Surely falling raindrops would instantly ground a flying mosquito.

I pondered the problem and realized the truth might be surprising. I cut a foot square of light-colored cardboard and put it in the rain for ten seconds. Then I counted the rain drops that had hit the square. I realized even if the square was entirely covered with drops, that's only two-dimensions which is deceptive. It was invalid to imagine each raindrop as a column of water through which a mosquito couldn't fly. For the rain to hit a mosquito the drop and the mosquito would have to be in the same place at the same time, which is extremely unlikely. Imagine taking a 3D snapshot of a cubic foot of air space during a rain. How many drop-sized points are there in the space? Tens of thousands. How many of those spots would contain a drop of rain at any given moment? Not many. It looked like a mosquito being hit by a drop of rain would be the exception rather than the rule.

Then I had another realization. Each drop pushes the air in front of it out of its path as it falls. A flying mosquito is likely to be pushed aside by the air in front of a falling rain drop rather than be hit, even if a drop would have hit it. Similarly a butterfly is often pushed aside from your windshield as you drive rather than being hit.

I convinced myself that in general mosquitoes can fly through the rain unhindered.
(Mon 28th Jul 2008, 20:18, More)

» Expensive Mistakes

Bye-Bye Savings
I got laid off in 1999 and decided to use my savings to day-trade stocks. I figured I could work from home and earn as much or more than I had made before. So I day-traded stocks during the 2000/2001 crash and lost $82,000 USD.
(Sat 27th Oct 2007, 3:41, More)