The Straight Dope 10/21/2005

THE STRAIGHT DOPE 10/21/2005

Dear Cecil:

One of the most familiar scenes in the Tarzan movies is
Tarzan swinging through the jungle on vines. My friends and
I were discussing this and came to the conclusion that there
aren't any vines in America strong enough to swing on, but
maybe there are in Africa. Are any vines growing in trees
strong enough to swing on? --ShonEncinas, via e-mail

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Cecil replies:

Oh, sure. We're talking here about lianas, a generic term
for the high-climbing woody vines found in the tropics. One
of the biggest lianas, Entada gigas, turns up in both the
Americas and Africa. It can reach well over a foot in
diameter, more than sturdy enough to swing on. However, you
can see where other problems might intrude--e.g., how you'd
get a grip. The more you investigate, in fact, the more you
realize vines wouldn't make for a practical system of
locomotion. Investigate further still and you come to an
additional conclusion: Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs
didn't think they would either.

Vines first. Having consulted with George Angehr, who serves
as tropical forest expert for the Straight Dope Science
Advisory Board and moonlights as an ornithologist for the
Smithsonian Institution in Panama, we can state the
drawbacks of vines-as-jungle-bicycle as follows:

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051021.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

How does a radar gun work? It seems crazy to me that a cop
can just point a funny-looking laser gun at my car and
magically tell how fast I'm going! How do I know he's not
reading the car behind or next to me? --Laura K., Texas

SDSTAFF Q.E.D. replies:

In its simplest form, radar (really, it should properly be
RADAR, since the term is an acronym for RAdio Detection And
Ranging, but it has long since entered the lexicon as a word
in its own right, so "radar" it is) is a directed
radio-frequency transmission that can bounce off an object
and return information about it. This information can
include the shape, size, location, distance, velocity and
even the composition of the object, measured either directly
or indirectly. Radar was developed during World War II to
locate enemy aircraft and ships and has found its way even
into mundane activities such as shopping: Many supermarkets
use low-power radar to detect the motion of a person or
shopping cart and automatically open the doors.

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mradar.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 03/26/1985

Dear Cecil: 

Linus Pauling and others speak of the marvelous curative
powers of vitamin C. I take it myself with superstitious
regularity and virtually never get a cold. Yet others say
there isn't one shred of evidence that vitamin C prevents
colds or any other disease. Your answer will be an
inestimable service to mankind. --CC Writer, Chicago  

Cecil replies:  

All in a day's work, bubba. The evidence for megadoses
of vitamin C is mixed. One researcher, using data
from eight separate studies, concluded that vitamin C freaks
averaged about one-tenth fewer colds per year than other
people, and their colds lasted one-tenth less time. More
recently, researcher Elliot Dick at the University of
Wisconsin studied 24 subjects, eight of whom had been
exposed to a cold virus. Eight of the others vitamin C, and
the other eight received a placebo. After a week of living
together, seven of the eight placebo patients had colds
compared with six of the eight vitamin C patients. The
difference was that the symptoms of the vitamin C patients,
as indicated by the number of coughs, sneezes, nose
blowings, and so on, were only half as severe. The study
will be repeated, but so far things look promising. 

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_412a.html

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