Housekeeping Questions For Flerfs

Globe proponents have come up with some basic questions to ask flerfs when they enter a debate. These questions come from flerf folklore where various flat Earth proponents have failed to be able to answer them. It is oftentimes a showcase of irony, because flerfs think they know more about physics and maths than actual working scientists while struggling to grasp basic concepts.

Basic questions

Is 10 to the negative 17 (10^-17) a negative number?

Answer: No.

On a triangle with sides 1, 1 and 1, what are the internal angles?

Answer: 3 × 60 degrees; the internal angles will always sum to 180 degrees.

How do you convert meters into kilometers?

Answer: Divide by 1000 (e.g., 1000 m ÷ 1000 = 1 km). Nathan Oakley, rather arrogantly, seemed to think you instead multiply by 1000, even after being informed that this is wrong. He insisted that "diving something makes it smaller". Following Nathan's understanding, one meter is equal to one thousand kilometres.

Slightly harder questions

Dr. Blitz

Recently, Dr. Blitz began asking his flerf opponents a question from his physics tutorials. The question is particularly effective in testing the flerf's understanding of relative motion:

A car is moving down a flat, horizontal highway at a constant speed of 21 m/s when suddenly a rock dropped from rest straight down from a bridge crashes through the windshield. The rock strikes the windshield at a right angle, and the windshield makes a 60 degree angle with the horizontal.

a. Find the speed of the rock relative to the car when it hits the windshield.

b. Find the distance above the point of contact with the windshield from which the rock was dropped.

c. If the driver had seen what was about to happen just as the rock was being released, how much time would she have to react before the rock strikes the windshield?

Answer to a: The horizontal component of the rock's velocity is always 21 m/s second relative to the car, but the vertical component is changing as it falls from rest. To strike the windshield at a right angle, it's velocity vector at the moment of impact must be angled at 90 − 60 = 30 degrees to the horizontal. We know the horizontal component and angle, so we can solve for the final velocity:

$$\cos (\theta )=\frac{adj}{hyp}$$

$$\cos (30)=\frac{21}{v}$$

$$v=24.2m/s$$