Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Weight in dollars squared
PROGRAMMERS at a Famous Web Search Engine are forever trying to find new ways to be helpful 鈥� and to keep us coming back. Clive Jones was recently looking up exchange rates between the British pound and the US dollar. He discovered that if you put a figure and a currency in the search box, the search engine makes 鈥渁 decent stab at providing an instant conversion without the need to select a website and search around鈥�.
Later, he accidentally typed 鈥減ound pound dollar rate鈥� into the search field and received the result: 鈥�1 British pound pound U.S. dollar = 0.677349486 kg U.S. Dollars2鈥�. After studying this, Clive says he 鈥渃an only conclude that they have attempted to provide the weight of a pound of dollars鈥�. What the intriguing unit the kilogram-dollar-squared might represent continues to elude him, though, as it does us.
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Ignoring Clive鈥檚 warning that we were in danger of opening the floodgates of permutation, we tried 鈥渆uro euro dollar rate鈥�, which wasn鈥檛 recognised as a currency conversion; then 鈥渆uro pound dollar rate鈥�, which we were informed was 鈥�1 Euro pound U.S. dollar = 0.584544487 kg U.S. Dollars2鈥�.
Something similar happens for yen. Disappointingly, 鈥渂lue whale pound dollar rate鈥� gives the usual selection of links, many to pages that do not mention whales. One links to the news, attributed to Fox, that 鈥� Would Equal Weight Of 89 Blue Whales鈥� 鈥� taking us into the outer reaches of fiscal strangeness.
Brian Robinson sends us a photo of a large sign outside a showroom in what he describes as 鈥渞ural Virginia鈥�. It says: 鈥淎ntique tables made daily鈥�
Lift is four floors short
OUR 鈥渕issing floors in buildings鈥� theme has inspired readers to send us stories about buildings around the world equipped with lifts that miss out certain floors (4 May). Now Alan Chattaway sends us the strangest one yet.
鈥淗ere in Vancouver, Canada, one of our tallest buildings has four missing floors,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he is so narrow that it would have swayed in high winds or earthquakes. To prevent this, 400 tonnes of water are on the roof to increase inertia, and four floors below are filled with concrete cross-bracing.鈥�
Alan concludes that 鈥渢he missing floors may not be obvious to those using the elevators鈥�. We think this is just as well. The knowledge of all that water and concrete just above your head when you reach the 鈥渢op floor鈥� would not be reassuring.
Theoretical types of people
INEVITABLY, Feedback readers have sent in further responses to our mentions of the T-shirt slogan that there are 鈥渙nly 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don鈥檛鈥� (16 March and 11 May). John Hartley suggests an alternative: 鈥淭here are {{},{{}}} types of people in the world 鈥� those who understand the construction of ordinal numbers in axiomatic set theory, and those who don鈥檛.鈥�
Feedback鈥檚 resident mathematics guru agrees. The symbol 鈥渰}鈥�, he explains, represents the empty set, which has no members; and {{}} represents the set whose single member is the empty set 鈥� which is how we get to 鈥渙ne鈥� in set theory. And so on to 鈥渢wo鈥�, and the rest of arithmetic.
All of which may well be true. However, Feedback suspects that the market for this T-shirt will be somewhat smaller than that for the binary variant.
One dimensional volume
AS HE was about to send a parcel via , Tim Walker decided to check first that it wasn鈥檛 too big or heavy, so he clicked on the link to 鈥渃heck parcel size鈥�. Here he was presented with the statement: 鈥渕ax volume up to 225cm.鈥�
He had a bit of a struggle with 鈥渕ax volume up to鈥�, wondering how it was possible to have more than one maximum, but decided to treat this as mere tautology. But this still left him with a one-dimensional volume, leading him briefly to wonder how many one-dimensional parcels you can fit in a three-dimensional delivery van.
He assumed, of course, that they had omitted 鈥渃ubed鈥� after 鈥渃m鈥�. Then he noticed that the website includes a handy 鈥淯K volume calculator鈥�, so he decided to check if its definition matched the one he knew. He put in 鈥�10 cm鈥� for parcel length, parcel width and parcel height, hit 鈥渃alculate size鈥� and was given a 鈥渃ombined size鈥� of 鈥�50cm鈥�.
Tasty bin bags
A SIGN in Roger Calvert鈥檚 local ASDA supermarket proclaims 鈥淭ried, Tasted and Chosen by You鈥�. The two displays it refers to, Roger tells us, are for liquid laundry detergent and plastic bin bags.
Take it all with you
FINALLY, Feedback frequently does a double take when a disembodied voice on London鈥檚 Underground admonishes passengers to 鈥渢ake all your belongings with you鈥� when leaving the train. Would they really appreciate us wedging the doors open while we unloaded 1000 books, the cast-iron cookware and the shelves they sit on?