"Tut, Tut . . ."

I have no idea why I bothered to blow dry my hair this morning. Today the wind and rain ferociously pulled at me, threatening to tear me apart and hurl me in a thousand different directions, as I struggled to walk the three blocks to my office this morning. About halfway there, my umbrella was forced inside out by the wind and I gave up attempting to shield myself from the rain and made hurried dash for the office lobby.

In my dream world, I would have stayed home today, and cozied up next to a warm fire with a good book, and, of course, a cup of hot chocolate. But, like everyone else out there, I live in the real world – and definitely not the world of my hopeful imagination.

The other day Kevin and I were talking about math, of all things, and the subject of rain came up. Kevin is a true modern day Renaissance Man. That’s one thing I love about him. He has a wide range of interests (art, science, law, theology, etc.) and never ceases to teach me new things. (Another good thing is that, even if he’s told me something several months before, there’s a good chance my bad memory has forgotten it. So, everything is always new and interesting! Ha!) He was explaining to me a question that intrigues mathematicians, involving rain. Basically, the question is – if rain is falling consistently, and there is no wind, will a person get more wet if he runs from point A to point B, or if he walks from point A to point B. Apparently it’s a close call but it’s likely that a person gets more wet if he runs.

A: Why do they have to make such a mathematical fuss over this? Why not just have two people start at point A, one of them running and one of them walking, and then, when they get to point B, take a good look at them to see who is wetter?
K: But what if it’s so close that it’s hard to tell?
A: Then it doesn’t really matter what someone does if you can’t tell the difference, does it?
K: Argh! You are way too practical. That’s no fun at all. I want to theorize about this!