A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011) • Hacker News Board

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#91

Post by bobwaycott » Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 5:42 AM UTC

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #53

teddyh wrote: post #23

“ ‘You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.’ ‘Frequently.’ ‘How often?’ ‘Well, some hundreds of times.’ ‘Then how many are there?’ ‘How many! I don’t know.’ ‘Quite so. You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and ob…

While good fiction, this is pretty dumb. Did Sherlock count the number of tiles on the wall as well? What about the colour of the carpet or the number of cracks in the ceiling? Knowing how many steps there are is useless information and wasteful to retain.

I think some of us just can’t help counting stairs, perhaps? There are two staircases in my house. 18 steps from the main floor to upstairs. 19 steps from the main floor to downstairs. It kind of bothers me they’re not equal. When I get to my office, there are 23 stairs to the second floor, then 13 stairs, a landing and another 12 steps to the 3rd floor to get to my office. My previous house was an old craftsman & Victorian type mix of weirdness with a staircase that was 6 steps, a landing, 9 steps, another landing, and a final 5 steps to the 2nd floor. I’m always counting stairs.

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#92

Post by jypepin » Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 8:13 AM UTC

Reedx wrote: post #90

acranox wrote: post #72

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=tanyakhovanova.com Do you just post this every 3 months?

Sixth time's the charm! Looks like they're running an experiment to see the effect of timing.

interesting. That gives a good idea for some HN popular thread-related data mining and analysis!

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#93

Post by fanf2 » Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 9:56 AM UTC

VBprogrammer wrote: post #51

fanf2 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked at our stairs at home and they have 13 steps with a rise of what looks like a bit less than 20cm - hard to measure accurately with the carpet. That gives a total height of 2.5m which is nice and round. A bit of searching around and I find the building regulations permit a rise per step between 15cm and 22cm. And I find a site which says “A typical rise is 2,600mm, which divides easily into 13 200mm risers, o…

I'd wager that when that standard was established the divisivility of those metric measurements would not have been a consideration. Most likely it's also close to some even fraction of feet and inches.

This house dates from about 1990 so I think it is built to modern dimensions, but I know nothing about this so I am mostly guessing... the 19cm ish riser also matches an 8’ floor-to-floor height, so it’s a bit hard to tell from just the stairs :-)

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#94

Post by graeme » Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 2:51 PM UTC

j9461701 wrote: post #87

Semiapies wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but Sherlock Holmes also always magically knows which trivia is important, because he's written that way. He doesn't bother with the count of stairs on every staircase he's ever walked on. And he lives in a world where the trivia he notices always reflects accurately on hidden truths, instead of being simply useless details that reveal nothing of consequence.

For example in one story Sherlock deduces that the person sending a ransom note is an educated man attempting to appear stupid, because although the note is grammatically incorrect the newspaper the letters are cut out from was The Times. And only educated men read The Times. Except....what if that's just coincidence? I mean The Times costs the same amount at a news stand as any paper right? So what if the kidnapper,…

George Macdonald Fraser did a funny sendup of this in Flashman and the Tiger, where Holmes creates a completely wrong narrative of Flashman using true facts he observed about him.

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#95

Post by jimhefferon » Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 2:53 PM UTC

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #53

teddyh wrote: post #23

“ ‘You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.’ ‘Frequently.’ ‘How often?’ ‘Well, some hundreds of times.’ ‘Then how many are there?’ ‘How many! I don’t know.’ ‘Quite so. You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and ob…

While good fiction, this is pretty dumb. Did Sherlock count the number of tiles on the wall as well? What about the colour of the carpet or the number of cracks in the ceiling? Knowing how many steps there are is useless information and wasteful to retain.

I often need to know how many steps are in stairs in my house. For instance, just a couple of weeks ago I got a new mattress and to carry it up I count the steps as I take them. It helps me to not gouge the walls.

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#96

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Aug 19, 2018, 3:38 PM UTC

davchana wrote: post #31

jacobolus wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0-indexing steps is clearly the only reasonable choice. Who in their right mind would call the ground the “first step”?

Ground is never a step; zero or one; not. Because while we are on ground; we are on same level, stairs have not started yet. As soon as we put our foot on upper level than the other foot, stairs have started & that upper foot marks the / lands on "first" step.

[deleted]

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#97

Post by lostlogin » Mon, Aug 20, 2018, 12:22 AM UTC

ChristianGeek wrote: post #66

lostlogin wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.5m is 8 foot 2.4 inches according to Google (decimals in measurement that are in inches is a thing? I’m metric so don’t know). The standard ceiling distance between floors must be 8 feet in the U.K..

The joists and surfaces between floors in a home are 12-14 inches thick in total, bringing the distance between the floor and ceiling in each level closer to 7 feet.

I’ve phrased that badly. Obviously the stairs go floor to floor... wall height would obviously be floor to floor minus joists, flooring, ceiling material.

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#98

Post by ozzmotik » Tue, Aug 21, 2018, 9:22 PM UTC

ozzmotik wrote: post #64

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the metaphor, I just think it’s stupid. There are an infinite number of things you can observe about the world around you, and there are many many more things you will not see than things you will see. All the way from high society people relations down to individual quantum particle interactions, it’s mind boggling how much there is out there happening at all times in all spaces. It’s not possible to observe a…

profundity is relative to the mind that creates the experience of the profound; it's all with respect to some other ideal. what you may consider as trite and lacking substance or meaning, from another perspective may be perceived to be extremely in depth with several layers of indirection and connection to other ideals and with networks of influence going back and forth between said ideals. it's all in how you look a…

wow i can't help but wonder what the deal with all the downvotes is, it's not like I said something with no substance or I wasted anyone's time; every time I put a lot of thought into something this is the shit that happens smh

Re: A Nerd’s Way to Walk Up the Stairs (2011)

#99

Post by thatfunny » Wed, Aug 22, 2018, 3:16 AM UTC

skookumchuck wrote: post #61

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While good fiction, this is pretty dumb. Did Sherlock count the number of tiles on the wall as well? What about the colour of the carpet or the number of cracks in the ceiling? Knowing how many steps there are is useless information and wasteful to retain.

I learned how many steps on the stairs in my house because sometimes I navigate them at night, and don't bother turning the light on. I also count steps when carrying something big and heavy and can't look down.

Where I lived for several years, I would always stay up late and have to navigate the stairs in complete darkness every night, but I never counted the steps. I just intuitively knew when I had reached the end.