By Bill Sones and Rich Sones, PhD

Q. Imagine an "Inter-species Olympics" where the featured event is a race starting from point A on the bank of a river and ending at point B at the top of a tree miles away on the other side. The contestants must first swim a mile, then run five miles, then climb the tree. And the winner of this offbeat triathlon is...

A. Surprisingly, a human being is the only species that can get there in a reasonable amount of time, says Vincent Mallette in "The Science of the Summer Games."

Think about it: To beat us, a fish would have to change into a horse and the horse into a monkey. "Human beings - the great 'generalists' of the animal world - have enough fishiness, horsiness, etc., to pull it off."

"Athlon" is a Greek word meaning "athletic contest." In the ancient Greek Olympics, the pentathlon consisted of throwing the discus and javelin, running, jumping and wrestling. Although the individual combat sports were the most avidly watched events, the winner of the pentathlon was revered as the supreme all-round man and embodiment of the Greek ideal. The modern pentathlon - riding, fencing, pistol shooting, swimming and running- gives athletes a chance to shine in this kind of all-around performance.

Q. When you drive, do you really make as good time as you think you do? Or asked another way, what's your "average automotive speed"?

A. Let's assume you drive about 12,000 miles a year To do that, you have to spend about €6,000 per year on payments, repairs, fuel, insurance and all the rest. So to run your car you've got to work an average of about two months out of 12, or about 8 weeks, or about 300 hours a year. That's finances.

Then there's the actual time you spend in your car which if you're typical is about one hour a day to drive your 12,000 miles. This computes to an additional 300 or so hours a year spent on transporting yourself. And let's not forget time for washings and polishings, tire and oil checks, repairs and what-not. We'll conservatively toss in another hour a week, or 50 more hours a year sunk into your automobility. Now, totalling the number of hours spent on both getting places and maintaining your wheels, we get 300 + 300 + 50 = 650 hours.

And considering that these 650 hours are invested to travel 12,000 miles, and that your average speed equals the overall distance divided by your time spent in gettin there, then we need to divide 12,000 miles by 650 hours. What this computation yields is the surprising figure of an average of 18.5 miles traveled per hour of time you spend on or in your car. Yes, that's 18.5 mph! (Based on "Guesstimation," by Lawrence Weinstein and John A. Adam)

Q. What implications does woodpecker research have for football players and race car drivers?

A. Slow-motion photography reveals the woodpecker's head accelerating to about 15 mph (the speed of a good human sprinter) before colliding with the tree, reports James W. Kalat in "Biological Psychology." That's on every third hit or so. The other two are gentler, setup taps, "like a carpenter lining up a hammer with a nail." The bird avoids traumatic brain injury by delivering hard strikes in an almost perfectly straight line, with neck held rigid. "The result is a near absence of rotational forces and whiplash."

Similarly, a better design for sports helmets would be to extend protection down to the shoulders, like the metal helmets medieval knights wore. For non-helmet-wearer seeing a collision coming, "tuck your chin to your chest and tighten your neck muscles."

Q. At the end of the 1942 film classic "Casablanca," Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman stand on the tarmac as she tries to decide whether to stay with the man she loves or to board the plane and leave with her husband. Bogey turns to her and says: "Inside we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon and for the rest of your life." What might a psychologist today say about Bogart's heart-wrenching advice?

A. He was eloquent but wrong, and dissonance theory - how we handle our contradictory belief - tells us why, say Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson in "Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)." Bergman would have found reasons to justify either choice, along with reasons to be glad she did not make the other.

The scene is among the most memorable in the history of cinema because most of us have stood on that same runway from time to time, says Dan Gilbert in ‘Stumbling on Happiness.’ "Our most consequential choices - whether to marry, have children, enter a profession - are often shaped by how we imagine our future regrets."

But studies show that 9 out of 10 people more regret things they haven't done than things they have, including not having gone to college not grasping profitable business opportunities and not spending enough time with family or friends.

Bogart's admonition led Bergman to board the plane and fly away with her husband. Yet, concludes Gilbert, "had she stayed with Bogey in Casablanca, she would probably have felt just fine. Not right away, perhaps, but soon and for the rest of her life."

Q. RADAR you know about but who or what has use

SOFAR, and what does the acronym stand for?

A. A fascinating feature of ocean water is that it transmits

sound at widely varying speeds, depending on

depth and temperature, says Mark Denny in "How the

Oceans Work." These variables create a region of minimal

sound speed, the so-called SOFAR channel for

"sound fixing and ranging." This "oceanic sound pipe" is

located 600-1200 meters below the ocean's surface,

where it can go to work on a whale's cry, causing it to

stay at that depth and to travel thousands of kilometers

and still be heard.

Actually, SOFAR is a term of the U.S. Navy. If a pilot had

to ditch his plane at sea, he lowered a small explosive

into the channel and detonated it. The sound could then

be picked up by remote hydrophones and the pilot's

location determined. The Navy also used the channel to

monitor foreign activity. "During the cold war, the Navy

submerged hydrophones in the SOFAR channel off the

California coast and was able to listen to the sounds

made by the propellers of ships leaving Vladivostok Harbor

in Russia."

Q. What's a bug wrangler do for a living? Hint: There

may be a few movie set extras inhabiting your kitchen.

A. Wranglers provide and manipulate insects on movie

sets, says May R. Berenbaum, Ph.D., in "Bugs in the System,"

such as the 40,000 carpenter ants rounded up for

an episode of "Wonder Woman," 3,000 locusts for "Exorcist

II: The Heretic," and 18,000 ladybugs for a TV commercial.

Bees are probably easiest, since huge numbers are readily

available from hobbyists and they respond en masse

to pheromonal scents, clustering and landing at the

selected spot right on cue. Roaches require more artful

wrangling, says entomologist Raymond Mendez, who

scared up some 5,000 for "Joe's (infested) Apartment."

For one scene, he knocked a cockroach unconscious

with carbon dioxide and inserted it via harness and special

rig into a carefully drilled doughnut hole. Revived by

the sugary scent, the bit-part performer emerged on

camera amidst the bedlam of a roomful of talking animated

roaches.

Q. In Edgar Allan Poe's masterpiece of terror, "The Pit

and the Pendulum," a prisoner finds himself strapped

beneath a large pendulum hanging some 30-40 feet

above, apparently motionless.But later he notices it is

swinging by about a yard and is descending. "Down -

certainly, relentlessly down!" To his horror, he realizes

the lower edge consists of a "crescent of glittering steel,"

sharp as a razor. Agonizing hours go by and the blade

continues its descent, swinging up to 30 feet or more.

And it is aimed directly at his heart! Now for a question

regarding th mechanics of such a torture: Supposing the

blade were suspended by a rope that was slowly let out,

why would the extent of the swinging increase?

A. Because when the crescent was initially lifted up, it

gained potential energy with height but as the blade

was slowly lowered, the potential energy was converted

into kinetic (swinging) energy, says Jearl Walker in "The

Flying Circus of Physics." Although Poe miscalculated

the amount of swing - it should have been more like 10

feet than 30 feet - "still, the mathematical inconsistency

would hardly be any comfort to the prisoner in Poe's

tale." Luckily for him, rescuers arrive just in the nick of

time and he is liberated.

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