My name is Mason Porter. I am a Professor in the Department of Mathematics at UCLA. Previously I was Professor of Nonlinear and Complex Systems in the Mathematical Institute at University of Oxford. I was also a Tutorial Fellow of Somerville College.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Like death pebbles, only larger
On Monday, I was walking between buildings in the Isaac Newton Institute (well, the second building is technically a different mathematical center) and I stepped on some stone walkways and slipped slightly as I was walking. These stones are much larger than the death pebbles and less slippery, but I can see how much of a hazard they might be when slightly wet. Death pebbles (and variants thereof) may look cool, but they have this name for a reason. (Actually, I remember Tilford once slipped on the death pebbles, and the result verified their well-deserved name.)
The best thing about death pebbles is when you take advantage of them on purpose. If you go out around campus at night and find a place where they're watering the concrete, the death pebbles are especially slippery. If you get a running start, you can easily go 10, 15 feet, if not further.
ReplyDeleteI used to do this all the time, and surprisingly I think I either never fell or only fell once, and softly at that. I can attribute it to my pizza-ninja training--super slippery floors all the time, and it only took one month of busted tailbones before I could stand on one leg, do spins in place and then dart and scoot back to the make table. Wooooooosh!