Circular Reasoning
2000 Darwin Award Nominee
Confirmed True by Darwin
(1998, London) A £200,000 fine was levied against a construction
firm for the deaths of two workers. The two 28-year-old men, reportedly
experienced in their work, fell 100 feet after drilling a hole
through thick concrete without realizing they were standing in
the center of the circle. Neither was wearing a safety harness
to arrest his 8-story plunge.
DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2009
Submitted by: Jim
Anscombe, Tony Whyte
Reference: The Times of London
COMMENTS:
Bernard
W. Joseph, mathematician: "How could they stand in the center of the
circle? If it's a fly-cutter, you would have to keep jumping
over the revolving arm. If it's a core cutter, you can't fit
inside the tube. This is hard to believe.
Russell
Styles: They could have been cutting
a noncircular hole in a slab with a diamond saw. Such a hole
could be easily large enough for two people.
Bernard: "Any floor of that sort would
use reinforcing rods. They would have had to not only chop out
the concrete, but also cut the rebar. I still think that it's
mechanically improbable.
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