Phone Mystery Solved
October 20, 2005 Ken Drummond
I
was waiting for a call from Ellen. Finally the phone rang and I picked
it up and answered it. I said, “Hello, hello.” But no response, nothing.
After
a few seconds I heard Kai and Ellen talking. I guess Kai had picked up
the phone in the main house. So then I chimed in and started talking
with Ellen and Kai hung up.
I was talking to Kai about it later on, wondering what the problem with
my phone could have been. Kai said she thought it might be that it took
longer for the phone signal to get out to the cottage because it was
farther away and the cord was longer. I explained to her that
electricity travels on a wire at almost the speed of light. “Let’s
see,” I calculated, how long would it take for electricity to travel
from here to the cottage at almost the speed of light? Kai thought
about it for a second, then said, “But it wouldn’t go at the speed of
light because it’s dark out now.”
“Of course,” I said. “How silly of me that I never even thought of
that.”