Re: First Bike!

> ...of all the non-silver options. The silver=20
> model, having no actual color pigment, is=20
> .000000000000000014372 grams lighter. Also, being
> the lightest color, it absorbs fewer photons (which=20
> are much heavier than most people think - the=20
> typical photon weighs about as much as a month-old=20
> kitten). Finally, since it reflects the most light,=20
> silver is the fastest color when heading east in=20
> the afternoon, or west in the morning. Thus, the=20
> direction of your daily commute is an important=20
> factor when choosing color.

Oh, no, no, Grasshopper...and as much as it pains me to have to
respectfully point out the error of your ways in the above, I must,
sadly, do so.

Silver paint, since the silver color in question comes from a suspension
of fine particles of metallic substances (generally pure lead, or maybe
plutonium or osmium or something even denser) is actually the HEAVIEST
of the paints, by a good 3-4 whole milligrams per square cm.  Blue, on
the other hand, is the lightest; think about what other things are blue
- the most obvious example, of course, is the sky, and you don't get
much lighter than that. So silver bikes start out at a significant
disadvantage relative to their faster, and altogether MUCH
nicer-looking, blue brethren.  (I won't even go into the effects that
being in the presence of such heavy metals might have on the thought
processes of those spending much time on or around said silver-painted
vehicles; at this point, y'all probably wouldn't get it anyway...:-))

Further, you unfortunately have been misinformed (undoubtedly the
effects of an inadequate public-school education) as to the *extremely*
significant effects of photonic reflection/absorption; nay, you have it
exactly backwards! Photons themselves have very, very little mass, but
of course it is well known that photons CAN carry significant momentum,
and this is the principle behind such concepts as the "light-sail"
spacecraft drive.  But to fully absorb this momentum, you want to -
what?  That's right, ABSORB those photons, not reflect them.  Blue
paint, since it absorbs most of the visible spectrum (including that
nice peak in sunlight around the green) clearly will impart the most
photon-carried momentum to the bike.  (This has, unfortunately, caused
some who skipped the graduate classes in the subject to assume that
black would therefore be the fastest color.  But black unfortunately has
the effect of trapping ALL the photons which strike it, adding
significantly to the overall mass of the bike and negating what
otherwise would be a very, very slight advantage over blue in photonic
momentum capture efficiency.) Blue is, therefore, per actual
scientific-sounding claims painstakingly typed into this very paragraph,
most definitely the fastest possible color.

All of these statements are quite obviously true, since you are all
seeing them in genuine text appearing on a COMPUTER.  Who could possibly
argue with THAT?


Bob M.

BLUE 2001 SV650

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