For some reason, this story makes me feel very very good.

http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2310803p-8689263c.html

The Pirate Captain’s webpage is:

http://pirate.phora.net/index.html

I was eating dinner and thought of a question:

What’s the weight difference of a body on the equator vs the poles on Earth?

I decided to use two different UNC library resources to help me answer this question. I used both the Instant Messanger buddies “undergradref” and “davisrefdesk”. These buddies are librarians waiting to help you answer your questions. I wanted to see how similar these buddies were.

The davisrefdesk was not as helpful as the undergradref. davisrefdesk walked me through accessing confusing online databases through the library’s website. I had to ask what to search for and they said “gravity”. That got me nowhere. I got the impression that they were annoyed with my question. They ended the chat with a suggestion to come to the library and check out a physics book. Unacceptible. If davisrefdesk wants folks to come to them rather than google, they should be prepared to deliver a quick answer to my question. Once they do that, they can follow up with more elaborate sources of information on the subject, like physics textbooks.

undergradref was EXCELLENT. I asked my question and within 5 minutes they sent me a link to a Cornell webpage answering it in detail. I think they would have answered more quickly but they were interupted at the desk during the chat.

I’ve been using undergradref for months now to answer different questions I come up with. They have always been helpful and quick. I thought I’d try davisrefdesk to see how well the folks at Davis Library were emulating the Undergraduate Library service. I’ll have to test it out some more to see if I get consistent results back from davisrefdesk.

So, what IS your weight difference between the equator and the poles on Earth?

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=310