Thread: help with a calculus problem: toothpaste

  1. 09-23-2003 #1
    Silvercord
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    help with a calculus problem: toothpaste

    what are some different ways you have tried to get the last bit of toothpaste out of the bottle? I'm supposed to think of ideas but I've only thought of three, and yes this actually ties into a calculus problem (we have to mathematically find the volume of toothpaste that is inside a wrapped up toothpaste container given a function that represents the edges of the toothpaste container ).

    the three I've come up with:
    -squeeze really hard
    -put a key at the bottom and roll the tube up to squeeze the last bit out
    -cut the toothpaste bottle open to scrape it out
  2. 09-23-2003 #2
    glUser3f
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    I usually do the third method
  3. 09-23-2003 #3
    axon
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    screw getting the last bit...get a new tube! But I guess that in the process of using it I systematically fold the tube in rectangles and always squeeze from the buttom. Would you like to know anymore about my hygiene habits?

    axon

    some entropy with that sink? entropysink.com

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  4. 09-23-2003 #4
    confuted
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    Trying to find the volume of a tube of toothpaste, eh? I've got a couple kick arse ways.

    1) Submerge the tube in water (or oil) and measure the displacement.
    2) Do the math that you're supposed to do? Calculus is great fun....
    3) The tube of toothpaste has a labelled volume... read it.
    Away.
  5. 09-23-2003 #5
    Silvercord
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    thanks for reading the problem confuted, note the toothpaste bottle is almost empty, we have to find the REMAINING amount of JUST THE TOOTHPASTE (therefore submerging won't work), but the problem at hand is discussing methods people have already tried to get the last bit out of toothpaste out of the bottle, NOT finding the volume, lol.

    so to answer your quote

    Trying to find the volume of a tube of toothpaste, eh?
    no, I am not currently on that yet
  6. 09-23-2003 #6
    Zach L.
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    Perhaps flattening it with a book. I suggest placing the Oxford Unabridged on your tube of toothpaste so that the opening is clear of the book, and then jumping up and down on it repeatedly.
    The word rap as it applies to music is the result of a peculiar phonological rule which has stripped the word of its initial voiceless velar stop.
  7. 09-23-2003 #7
    axon
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    Originally posted by Zach L.
    Perhaps flattening it with a book. I suggest placing the Oxford Unabridged on your tube of toothpaste so that the opening is clear of the book, and then jumping up and down on it repeatedly.
    it is a good suggestion, but the tooth paste could not be contained during repeated jumps.

    some entropy with that sink? entropysink.com

    there are two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness. - franz kafka
  8. 09-23-2003 #8
    major_small
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    take something that has a straight edge and 1cm or more of length, and push down on the tube and slide it up... but that doesn't get what's left in the very top, where it's stiffer and damn near impossible to get out...
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  9. 09-23-2003 #9
    chrismiceli
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    well you could just hook a strong vacuum up to the tube, like a bag sealer with some "ghetto" rigged atatchment.
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  10. 09-23-2003 #10
    Silvercord
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    Perhaps flattening it with a book. I suggest placing the Oxford Unabridged on your tube of toothpaste so that the opening is clear of the book, and then jumping up and down on it repeatedly.
    u mean human beings can actually lift that gosh darn thing? My library has a copy, and it is a good thing the female librarians are masculine body builders because otherwise I think theyd probably fart and die
  11. 09-23-2003 #11
    JaWiB
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    Place mouth on opening. Suck.
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  12. 09-23-2003 #12
    Silvercord
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    lmfao @ jawib

    he said suck

    *tee hee*
  13. 09-23-2003 #13
    novacain
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    Leave the empty one to the kids and use the new one, then hide it so no one knows....


    >>we have to find the REMAINING amount of JUST THE TOOTHPASTE (therefore submerging won't work),

    It would if you knew the displacement of an empty tube and let the tube fill with liquid.


    Sir Walter Raleigh was wagered to determine the weight of smoke coming from the queens lips. Not so easy in the late 1500's.

    He weighed the queen's cigar then let the queen smoke it, keeping the ash. The weight of smoke is the weight of the cigar minus the weight of the ash and butt.....
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  14. 09-24-2003 #14
    Silvercord
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    but...but...but...I didn't know you could smoke toothpaste!
  15. 09-24-2003 #15
    Zach L.
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    Originally posted by Silvercord
    u mean human beings can actually lift that gosh darn thing? My library has a copy, and it is a good thing the female librarians are masculine body builders because otherwise I think theyd probably fart and die
    Definitely need a forklift.
    The word rap as it applies to music is the result of a peculiar phonological rule which has stripped the word of its initial voiceless velar stop.
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