I'm good at coming up with the strangest things. Here's one more:
Two says ago, my newspaper got soaking wet. Literally. I had to put it over something ontop my heater to dry it out. When it dried out completely the next morning, I lifted the paper off the stand-rig that I made. The paper felt stiff...was crinkled.. and was as light as a feather.
It was 12 pages. In amazement, I layed it on the palm of my hand and gave it a little heave in the air...several times in succession. Yes...it was just like it became feather light. So then I decided to fetch a normal newspaper out of my recycling. It too just so happened to be 12 pages. I felt each of them. The normal paper felt way heavier...so it seemed.
Today, I decided to take both papers down to the post office's 1/100 ounce sensitive scale. (Ain't I nuts? Don't answer that.
) I found out that the ex-water logged paper weighed 3.6 oz. and the normal one weighed 3.7 oz. I repeated the test several times. Came out the same each time.
It wasn't as big of a difference as I thought. But non the less, it was a respectable difference, percentage wise ( I guess a little under 3%). So why did I percieve such a BIG difference in weight? The combination of two thiongs: The fact that it indeed actually weighed less. And the fact that when the wet newpaper dried out, it became stiff and would not bend, and was crinkled. This caused the my hand not to have as many molecules of paper touching my hand. Also, the normal newspaper would droop down the sides of my hand and you could feel this pull...where the ex-wet newspaper would not do this. It seemed to just float in the palm of my hand.
So you might say actual weight loss plus other deceptions created the illusion that the dried out paper weighed a lot less.
I had my friend tonight rest each paper in the palm of his hand and I had him tell me which one, if any, weighed more. He said the normal one...for sure. He tried it in both his right and left hands...switching hands.
This would be an experiment any of you who are curious about, could perform yourself.
Now, I shall close, with the mystery. Where did that 1/10 of an ounce go? [To rule out variances in papers (which I doubt), I will test a couple more 12 pages of newspper to see if these both produce 3.7 ounces.]
Two says ago, my newspaper got soaking wet. Literally. I had to put it over something ontop my heater to dry it out. When it dried out completely the next morning, I lifted the paper off the stand-rig that I made. The paper felt stiff...was crinkled.. and was as light as a feather.
It was 12 pages. In amazement, I layed it on the palm of my hand and gave it a little heave in the air...several times in succession. Yes...it was just like it became feather light. So then I decided to fetch a normal newspaper out of my recycling. It too just so happened to be 12 pages. I felt each of them. The normal paper felt way heavier...so it seemed.
Today, I decided to take both papers down to the post office's 1/100 ounce sensitive scale. (Ain't I nuts? Don't answer that.
) I found out that the ex-water logged paper weighed 3.6 oz. and the normal one weighed 3.7 oz. I repeated the test several times. Came out the same each time.It wasn't as big of a difference as I thought. But non the less, it was a respectable difference, percentage wise ( I guess a little under 3%). So why did I percieve such a BIG difference in weight? The combination of two thiongs: The fact that it indeed actually weighed less. And the fact that when the wet newpaper dried out, it became stiff and would not bend, and was crinkled. This caused the my hand not to have as many molecules of paper touching my hand. Also, the normal newspaper would droop down the sides of my hand and you could feel this pull...where the ex-wet newspaper would not do this. It seemed to just float in the palm of my hand.
So you might say actual weight loss plus other deceptions created the illusion that the dried out paper weighed a lot less.
I had my friend tonight rest each paper in the palm of his hand and I had him tell me which one, if any, weighed more. He said the normal one...for sure. He tried it in both his right and left hands...switching hands.
This would be an experiment any of you who are curious about, could perform yourself.
Now, I shall close, with the mystery. Where did that 1/10 of an ounce go? [To rule out variances in papers (which I doubt), I will test a couple more 12 pages of newspper to see if these both produce 3.7 ounces.]
