The Geometry for Perfect Parking | Hacker News Reader

The Geometry for Perfect Parking

npr.org

24 pointsamelim9 comments

Russ Swift does it without geometry and uses much less space. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REpXf0cmJ64 (Sorry I couldnt find it in English.)

The new world record: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Eqn_BiQus (Watch it with the sound off to avoid the screaming commentator.)

I want to see it get out :-)

OT: Why must the Japanese TV always have a little box in the corner showing the reactions of random people (presumably random famous people)?

Would your average Japanese person not realize that parallel parking a car at 30mph is amazing, without seeing someone else's shocked face? Is this the logical extension of the laugh-track?

Something I've been wondering for a while...

I think it's fair to say it's works for the same reason the laugh-track works. Clearly we enjoy performances more when we're in the company of others visibly/audibly enjoying them.

My sometimes negative reaction to synthetic or real crowd approval combines two judgments: the material is awful, and the crowd is despicable in their approval of it (people sometimes viscerally hate laugh tracks). If I like the performance, I won't be disgusted by the laugh track.

I'll have to discuss this with my teachers at drving school, maybe they'll train us in geometry too afterwards. I see just one problem: Does this approach incorporate tolerances too? Having to touch the car behind you may not be appreciated.

In Paris it's common to nestle mostly into the space, gently (and sometimes not so gently) nudging the bumpers of the cars in front and back to widen the space.

When parking in Paris, leave your handbrake off and the car out of gear to avoid damage.

This only tells you the minimum space required to park your given car behind a car of a given width. The actual doing is left as an exercise to the reader.

My high school carpool was in a Ford Fiesta. The driver couldn't parallel park to save his life. But four of us could pick it up and nudge it over.

Hehe. We picked up the car of our gym teacher and "nudged" it over between two trees, such that there was no way of getting it out except for picking it up and moving again;-) Ah the good old days...

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