Sadly it's not much of a joke. At the rate things are degrading the next Dark
Ages aren't that inconceivable or that far off. There may be a lot more
collective knowledge today than there was 50 years ago (and I'm not too sure
about that) but the level of general knowledge among the population here in the
US - HAS - declined and is pathetic. (why else would the have to skew the SAT
scores 200 points to get the same numbers they did 20 years ago?)

One should have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the way things that
directly effect his/her life work. Relying on the advice and productivity of
"professionals trained to do that" without even the most basic understanding
leaves one very vulnerable to both the laws of nature and your unscrupulous
fellow man.

For what it's worth I got the point of the original post, found it amusing and
entertaining. I almost went down the exact same path before I read the specs
in part 23, but my worst case was a "student's stall landing from 6 feet.
Thats how they got the number"
=================
- PS -- Reading over that, maybe the joke IS on you. Or on America. A lot
of
the stuff I was taught in gammar school more than fifty years ago is now
considered College Level material. I was about eleven years old when they
hit
us with 'Mechanics of Motion,' a chapter we were expected (and required) to
master before the Christmas break. Today, 'education' appears to have become
a
largely SOCIAL activity of which the acquisition of knowledge is a mere
by-product, given little emphasis.