FREE: Half-Life 2 from Orange Box owner

[shecky]

i am surprised i have not seen any more of these threads yet, but as an owner of the Orange Box i now have a free copy of HL2 to give away. so instead of just giving it away, lets make it interesting. I will give away HL2:EP1 in another thread.

the best answer to the following question within the next 24 hours gets HL2 from me. i will annouce the winner by midnight, EST tomorrow.

the question:

How many pancakes would it take to shingle the roof of a dog house?

[nate13]

well, depends on the size of the dog house and the size of the pancake... 42?:):confused:

[kuebby]

Well the roof of the dog house can be expressed (lw)*2. And a pancake can be expressed as ((pi)r^2)^blueberry. Therefore, the number of pancakes required is ((lw*2)/(((pi)r^2)^blueberry))*1.2(accounting for shrinkage). So if we assume a normal sized pancake is about 4 inches across, and we also assume that your (theoretical) dog is of normal size, and has an average sized house, then I'd have to guess maybe 150 pancakes.

[Jack Flash]

The real question is this: "Are the pancakes from IHOP or Waffle House?" Everyone knows Waffle House deliberately half-asses their pancakes. I would say 62 pancakes, though, for a medium sized doghouse.

[Xander562]

1 ---- It's a very large pancake, and a cylindrical dog house.

[zflauaus]

Well, I took Sketchup and made a 4' by 2' dog house with a 33.7 degree roofing slope and the top of the roof was 8" from the top of the rectangular prism. To shingle one side of the dog house using 6" diameter pancakes took about 18 of them, possibly less when you take of the excess scrap. So altogether, it would take about 39 pancakes, most likely less. You may run into a few problems.

1) Your dog may become hungry and proceed to eat the shingles, thus making the whole thing irrelevant.

2) Wildlife may take notice, come to your dog's house and proceed to eat off the shingles, once again making the effort a waste of time sadly.

3) Some shingles may suddenly "disappear" into your stomach.

Might I suggest using syrup as an easy, edible stick-on instead of traditional nails? Just make sure that no syrup is visible to outside air or you may get things stuck to it, not to mention your dog may be stuck on the roof.

I attached an image from SketchUp showing the dog house and the pancakes on the roof. If you desire, I can post the SketchUp file tomorrow to show the dog house.

[MacinDoc]

No number of pancakes will shingle the dog house, silly, you have to do it yourself!

If you want a number, though, I will assume that you will work with 5" pancakes (6" are just too floppy and unwieldly), with a 1" overlap to eliminate uncovered areas, since they are circular. For a medium-sized dog, typical doghouse dimensions are 36" long and 32" wide, with sides 24" high. With a 45 degree miter for the roof, the apex will be 24+16=40" high.

Each half of the roof (with about 2" overlap on each side to keep rain off the walls) would measure about 40*24, and would require about 60 pancakes to shingle. So, a total of 120 pancakes if you just want to shingle the roof (each pancake covers 4"*4" after taking into account overlap).

Each side is 36"*24", so 54 pancakes per side, for a total of 108.

The rectangular part of the front and back is 32"*24", so 48 pancakes each. Add the triangular part up to the apex of the roof, which would require half of the pancakes you would use if it were a rectangle, so half of the pancakes needed to cover a 32"*16" rectangle, for an additional 16 pancakes, or 64 pancakes each for the front and back. Now, assuming that the doorway will take up half of the area of the rectangular portion of the front (so the doorway would be 24" high and 16" wide), that would remove 24 pancakes needed for the front, so 40 for the front and 64 for the back, for a total of 104 pancakes.

So, added up, 120 pancakes for just the roof, or 120+108+104=332 pancakes for the whole exterior. Maybe throw on 5 more each for breakfast for yourself and a friend, 5 for your dog to chew on so he doesn't try to eat your building supplies, and you get 347.

And sorry, but if your dog eats your homework, you're on your own...

[Sun Baked]

Your dog has shingles?

I feel sorry for the dog. :(

[zerkour]

47 pancakes.

[wako]

the answer is ZERO


because why the hell would you shingle a dog house with pancakes in the first place? :p

[creator2456]

How many pancakes would it take to shingle the roof of a dog house?

1) Pancakes can't shingle the roof, but they can be used as shingles
2) Pancakes would make a great insulator for the dog house

Now for the shingling. If I were doing this, I would make a simple mold (use a cookie sheet perhaps) for my pancakes so they would be more shingle shaped (rectangular or square). This will cut down on wast due to the circular nature of traditional pancakes, as well as figuring how many much easier. To cook my pancakes I would not do them in the traditional way either. This leaves the surface far to porous to be effective at protecting the dog house from rain. I would place two cookie sheets in the oven with the broiler on to get them nice and hot. Once hot I would spray with cooking spray for easy pancake removal and quickly pour the batter into on of the sheets. I then would place the second sheet on top (making sure not to compress the batter in fear of oozing) and then place back into the oven. Doing this as a high temp will create a nicely formed impenetrable crust on both sides of the pancake.

Repeat these steps until you have enough "shingles".


ehh...far too tired to finish...you get the idea...finish it on your own.

[dukebound85]

id eat them before i could ever use them as shingles....

[Hummer]

Ice Cream doesn't have bones!

[TheLongShaft]

The answer is "Rabbits don't drink milk."

[vanzskater272]

it would take a lot of pancakes. like 84

[aquanutz]

NONE! Fish can't cook!

[blumoon]

the question:

How many pancakes would it take to shingle the roof of a dog house?

Well having 2 dogs of my own I think the answer would be infinite as the dogs would eat them as fast as you would put them down. We all know dogs think they are always being starved! :)

[baby duck monge]

I don't think anyone is really being as efficient as they could be in their dog house roof construction. Regular pancakes are not the way to go at all. This job requires nothing less than the thin pancake (something in the crepe family). Crepes and the like are typically at least twice as large as your normal pancake, so you would require far fewer than any number of normal pancakes.

Furthermore, the thin pancake would be better suited for the job than a regular pancake in every aspect except insulation. Being thinner and larger, the thin pancake is easier to work with in that it is far more flexible than the traditional pancake. Furthermore, the decreased weight of the overall roof cover would make the structure much less likely to collapse, killing your hypothetical dog.

Finally, I feel the need to address the topic of toppings. Syrup may make a nice adhesive (much better for the light, thin pancakes than the regular sized pancakes), but it is imperative that no syrup is exposed. Syrup contains a lot of sugar which, in addition to attracting insects and the like, is water soluble. You do not want your "glue" to be dissolved the first time it rains. Which brings me to the most important of the toppings - butter. Each and every "shingle" should be thoroughly coated with a layer or two of butter. As all my distinguished colleagues have failed to note, pancakes are not the heartiest material when wet. Any rainfall (or an errant sprinkler) would certainly cause the structure to fall apart. That's where butter comes in. The natural companion to the pancake, butter is also water repellent! Any pancake shingles not covered in butter are a (pardon the pun) recipe for disaster.

As for the more direct answer to your question: anywhere from 50-67% of the number of regular pancakes required for said roof construction, given the use of thin pancakes (and don't forget the butter coating!).

[Jasonbot]

Again... It all has to do with primordial soup! But in this alt. universe dogs haven't yet been invented and the dog house is such a foreign thing that people don't bother pancake-shingling their dog houses of which they have no use for)

[v-ault]

the dog would eat them before the pancakes ever could.

[ravenvii]

Piitb

[Jecko024]

can I be your dog? I'm kinda hungry now.

[shecky]

OK., competition is closed. ill post my decision in a few mins.

[shecky]

And the winner is.............

Ice Cream doesn't have bones!

who had the perfect answer to a nonsensical question: a nonsensical answer. plus, hiz/her avatar is the shizznit.

congrats Hummer. check your PM's