Just Like a Woman

[Wonko the Sane]

Two men were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top.

A woman walked by and asked what they were doing.

"We're supposed to find the height of this flagpole," said one, "but we don't have a ladder."

The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, announced, "Twenty one feet, six inches," and walked away.

One of the men just shook his head and laughed, "A lot of good that does us. We ask for the height and she gives us the length!"

 

[Finners]

A smarter Woman (ie a man) would have worked it out using Trigonometry  :sarcastic:   

 

[Bebo]

Pythagoras theorem, the sine rule or the cosine rule?

 

[RobertBeard]

Que?

 

[Bebo]

Trigonometry.  Like a2=b2+c2-2bcCosA.  That stuff that you blokes are good at, but is far too complicated for us simple ladies to do.

 

[Finners]

'twas just a joke. But yes it's height = the tan (angle) x distance 

 

[Wonko the Sane]

I thot it was just a funny joke commenting on men's stupidity

I see now that it was more real than joke

 

[Bebo]

I agree Wonko.  While I've always thought trigonometry was a wonderful thing, working out the height of a flagpole using it is fraught with inaccuracies.  It's fine if the flagpole is on level ground so that you can guarantee a 90 degree angle between the distance you are measuring and the pole itself and that the angle that you are taking the tangent of is accurate.  Otherwise you need more than a tape measure and something to measure the angle with, you start delving into the world of theodolites or, nowadays total stations.  Much easier to drop the pole and measure it.  Unless they wanted the height compared to Ordnance Datum, which would be whole other exercise.

 

[Jim Wheeler]

as the pole measurement is imperial,, I assume this happened near New York, Wonko?

 

[shootinguru]

Da two men mustav been Paddy's Bejasus? :crazy:

 

[Wonko the Sane]

I agree Wonko.  While I've always thought trigonometry was a wonderful thing, working out the height of a flagpole using it is fraught with inaccuracies.  It's fine if the flagpole is on level ground so that you can guarantee a 90 degree angle between the distance you are measuring and the pole itself and that the angle that you are taking the tangent of is accurate.  Otherwise you need more than a tape measure and something to measure the angle with, you start delving into the world of theodolites or, nowadays total stations.  Much easier to drop the pole and measure it.  Unless they wanted the height compared to Ordnance Datum, which would be whole other exercise.

During my 40+ years as a surveyor I was never once tasked to measure a flagpole height or check its elevation

Like I mentioned earlier - it's a joke

 

[no.1topdog]

OK. But hypothetically how would you have measured it Wonko? You being all qualified and such.

We need to know (or are we taking this too seriously?)

 

[Wonko the Sane]

I would have found a nearby woman with a wrench and had her take it down and measure it

 

[Bryn12]

yeah but we all know women are crap at judging length/distance mainly because blokes keep trying to pass off one of these

as one of these