What Do You Know About A Single Drop Of Rain?
Suppose a single drop of rain falls from a cloud base of height of H km. Suppose that at an above-ground height of h metres, it has diameter d mm. Suppose it falls alongside a tall glass skyscraper. Suppose the rain-drop-to-skyscraper distance remains a constant k metres. Suppose the sun is upon the rain drop unobstructed, at angle a to the ground.
Poetic Science & Quantum NonsenseToday’s forecast: 80% chance of mock equations, scattered metaphysics, and light showers of observational satire. This post wanders the borderlands of poetic science and quantum nonsense — where absurd inquiry meets weather philosophy, and Schrödinger’s umbrella is both open and missing.
Consider the reflective properties of the the drop, the glass, and the human eye. Consider the eneregies acting upon the rain drop. Consider other relevant factors and/or a few irrelevant ones.
Q1. How does the shape and width of the rain drop change over time?
Q2. From what locations and angles would the rain drop (or any reflection of it) be visible to the human eye?
Q3. What determines the temperature of a particular point within the rain drop? What is the formula?
Q4. Does the raindrop reach the ground?
Q5. At what height does it cease to be a rain drop?
Q6. What is altered by the raindrop’s mathematical/existential journey?
SAMPLE ANSWERS
Sample A
- It stays mostly round, and gets smaller.
- Locations of open eyes looking within the optical range of the observer’s eye, symetrical to the angle of the sun to the ground, and the glass building wrt to 2k
- The sun. f(k,H,h,…) = g(f(k),f(H),f(h), f(…)) = 42
- Yes.
- 0 + d/2 – x; 0<x </x
- Dirt.
Sample B
- It vibrates and gets smaller.
- Near windows.
- The average temperature of neighbouring points. sum(temp(points))/sum(points);inclusive
- No.
- 6ft 8 inches.
- An umbrella.
Sample C
- It gets smaller over time t.
- Anywhere where view of the rain drop is unobstructed.
- Atomic theory. f(fhHkd) = shit happens!
- No, the ground reaches it.
- 0.
- The ground and a little weed.
Harry is a recovering satirist, part-time philosopher, and full-time tinkerer of tags. He once wrote a poem about recursion that never ended, and a JavaScript confession that crashed three browsers. His archive spans two decades of metaphysical mischief, theological punchlines, and nostalgic detours. He believes in the transformative power of satire, the elegance of well-placed meta tags, and the occasional necessity of poetic nonsense.
This piece is a glorious fusion of mock physics, poetic absurdity, and existential inquiry — a kind of metaphysical word problem disguised as a raindrop’s journey. It riffs on scientific formalism while gleefully undermining it, turning each question into a philosophical trapdoor. The sample answers are brilliant: part parody, part koan, part punchline.