busting myths

before we begin, some poker talk!
other people play poker. they then talk to me. i am quite uninterested since they still talk about bad beats etc. i try to direct them to talking about strategy but then they ask simple questions, like i was short stacked with AK, was i right to push after a raise? (erm yes).

i think i might try to start playing again. i know the main reason i failed was my temperament and it's something i've been working on in general (road rage!). but then i've been saying this for a year and haven't played. i just need to think of the extra money i could make.


so, on to busting myths.
the internet is amazing. you can write *anything* on it, and more often than not, people do. then other people believe it!

there are some amazing falses people believe and i hope that you will become enlightened by reading this here post.

1) glass flows.
No. no it doesn't. it's a solid. solids don't flow.
people have thought it flows because upside down glasses 'stick' to the wooden shelves (the wood has dried). or because old windows are thicker at the bottom than at the top (that's just poor technique because the middle ages people weren't as advanced and making huge glass windows isn't easy).
like almost every solid, you can make glass flow by heating it up - ie melting it. that's when it will flow.

2) this one i read recently and was incredulous about it. i couldn't believe it was true. much of the internet thinks it's true. i don't.
springs weigh more when compressed.
only slightly more, but slightly more. the argument is that the extra stored energy is equivalent to some extra mass via e=mc^2.
sadly, as nice as this sounds, i don't think it's true. having a greater potential energy doesn't 'give' the object more mass. the only reason mass changes is because in special relativity going faster causes you to appear heavier. it's slightly more technical because it depends what frame of reference you're in (in your own frame you are always at the centre and not moving so stay at the same mass! unless you eat something.)
you can turn energy in to mas, and this will occur in proportion to the equation above, however, you aren't turning this energy in to mass. it's remaining as an energy.

there is still the matter of the potential energy it does have that an uncompressed spring doesn't. where does this extra energy go? well, if for example, you destroyed both springs by turning all the mass to energy, i think the one which is compressed would have a higher energy density. that would be the case if something had a higher potential energy and you destroyed it so i've assumed something similar for elastic potential.

i could be wrong and would be eager to hear any thoughts on the matter.