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About the Museum
The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), the Hoax Forum, and the Top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes.
The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.
The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoaxipedia (the museum's online encyclopedia of hoaxes), the Hoax Forum, and the Top 100 April Fools' Day Hoaxes.
The museum was created in 1997 by Alex Boese. He's assisted by a staff of deputy curators and docents. Alex is the author of three books, most recently Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments (which has nothing to do with hoaxes). Check out the list of the Top 20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time for a preview.Prankplace.com
COVERT CLICKERSecretly control the TV, anywhere, any time! This device is so small it is easily concealed in your pocket. It can control volume, change the channel or turn the TV on & off. It works on 90% of all TV's.
THE TOILET MONSTERYour wife will never yell at you about leaving the seat up again! The Toilet Monster attaches to the inside of the toilet bowl by suction cups. As the unsuspecting person goes to use the bathroom, they'll scream as they lift the lid and are greeted by the Toilet Monster! Not recommended for the elderly or those with a weak heart.
Casimir Effect Causes Ships To Attract Each Other
Status: Myth
According to Wikipedia, the Casimir Effect (which is real) is "a physical force exerted between separate objects, which is due to neither charge, gravity, nor the exchange of particles, but instead is due to resonance of all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening space between the objects." The effect is best observed with things such as parallel plates of metal in a vacuum. Another example often used to illustrate the effect is that it can be seen operating on ships lying close together in a strong swell because "waves with wavelengths longer than the distance between the ships would be suppressed in the space separating them. This could perhaps pull the ships together."
But Nature.com reports that former NASA scientist Fabrizio Pinto has challenged this notion. The claim about the Casimir Effect acting on ships apparently traces back to a 1996 article by Dutch scientist Sipko Boersma, who came across a statement in an 1836 nautical book warning that "two ships should not be moored too close together because they are attracted one towards the other by a certain force of attraction." Pinto found a copy of this 1836 book and discovered that it was talking about ships moored in a calm sea, not in a strong swell. But Pinto is suspicious even of this claim. Nature reports:
Pinto says he hasn't found any real evidence for the effect, in either sailing or scientific literature. Naval architect Jason Smithwick of Southampton University says he has never heard of such an effect. "I could imagine how it might possibly happen, but it would take a very specific set of circumstances," he told news@nature.com. "It's nothing that naval architects have ever worried about." Pinto thinks that the whole tale is symptomatic of physicists' approach to the history of their subject. "Physicists love lore about their own science," he says. "There are other stories that are unfounded historically."
Nature lists a few of these other popular (but false) stories that physicists like to tell, including the claim that Galileo proved objects fall at the same speed by throwing things off the leaning tower of Pisa, or that Newton was inspired to discover the law of gravity after an apple fell on his head.Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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It would make sense that it would only occur in a vacuum, as there's so many other factors elsewhere (especially at sea) to interfere.
Posted by Egret Narcosa on Sat May 06, 2006 at 12:22 PMMaybe ships like to sail along on lonely water to keep company with each other, so that they should feel less alone.
Posted by t.kurione on Sun May 07, 2006 at 01:36 AMI dunno, seems like two ships sitting side by side in a calm bay just might be attracted to each other by gravity alone.
There's a good demo of the gravitic attraction of small masses at "Bending spacetime in the basement":
http://www.fourmilab.ch/gravitation/foobar/
Seems to me if two masses of less than a kilo each can attract weights on a beam balance, two floating ships weighing several tons should have no trouble attracting each other.
Posted by Captain DaFt on Sun May 07, 2006 at 11:07 AMThere's a good demo of the gravitic attraction of small masses at "Bending spacetime in the basement":
http://www.fourmilab.ch/gravitation/foobar/
Seems to me if two masses of less than a kilo each can attract weights on a beam balance, two floating ships weighing several tons should have no trouble attracting each other.
I have observed this first hand several times - but there's nothing mysterious about it. A slight breeze will move a boat on calm water - if lined up just right, the upwind boat blocks the wind from the downwind boat. Boat "A" drifts towards boat "B"
Posted by Espano d'Orgone on Tue May 09, 2006 at 04:35 AMI was a Naval Officer and the only times I have ever seen or heard of ships being sucked together was during underway replenishment.
This is when two ships are on parallel courses about 150 feet apart and both moving about 10 - 12 knots. The reason the ships want to move together is due to the Bernoulli Principle. The flow of the water and the close proximity of the ships creates a low pressure area between them.
I would not know about two ships close to each other at anchor, because there are a lot better reasons to keep ships apart when anchored. Often the scope of the anchor chain is around 7:1, so if you were anchored in 30 feet of water then you have 210 feet of chain. That length plus the length of your ship is the radius of the ‘swing circle’. While at anchor, the ship can be anywhere within that swing circle. Due to currents, tidal currents and wind two ships at anchor might not be pointing the same direction at the same time and will swing differently. That is why you don’t want your swing circles to overlap. I cannot imagine two ships being so close to each other at anchor that they actually move towards one another.
Posted by Jim in Columbus, Ohio on Tue May 09, 2006 at 09:04 AMThis is when two ships are on parallel courses about 150 feet apart and both moving about 10 - 12 knots. The reason the ships want to move together is due to the Bernoulli Principle. The flow of the water and the close proximity of the ships creates a low pressure area between them.
I would not know about two ships close to each other at anchor, because there are a lot better reasons to keep ships apart when anchored. Often the scope of the anchor chain is around 7:1, so if you were anchored in 30 feet of water then you have 210 feet of chain. That length plus the length of your ship is the radius of the ‘swing circle’. While at anchor, the ship can be anywhere within that swing circle. Due to currents, tidal currents and wind two ships at anchor might not be pointing the same direction at the same time and will swing differently. That is why you don’t want your swing circles to overlap. I cannot imagine two ships being so close to each other at anchor that they actually move towards one another.
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