From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.system

For quite some while, we've seen that once Arlen/Andy/Wally
J/Maria/(other numerous posting nyms) gets an idea fixed in his/her
head, almost no demonstrations of facts will sway him/her.

For instance!

I'm a road racing driver and instructor. I've been racing since 2013.

But for Arlen (I knew him first by that nym, IIRC) he became convinced
that I couldn't possibly be those things...

...despite lots of conclusive evidence of the fact.

And it boiled down to only a couple of things.

First, I drive a BMW 135i, and Arlen insisted that if I didn't know
which nicknames were used for BMW's cars and motorcyles, then I couldn't possibly be a racing driver. Mar 9, 2023

'If Alan claims to race beemers, he's a moron for not even knowing the
first thing about his fabrications since the term came about in racing circles.

Jesus Christ.
What kind of idiot 'racer' doesn't know that?

Hence, I wish you wouldn't quote that moron Alan Baker, Jolly Roger, but
now that you have, if he doesn't even know the difference between a
bimmer and a beemer, there's zero chance of his track fabrication being
true.'

And on December 20, 2023, he brought up the "catenary" curve.:

'That's why I brought up the word "catenary" which _every_ (real) racer
knows all about, as it's one of the most important words in racing schools.'

And now (of course) he's taken to using AI LLMs to try and "prove" his "facts"...

...so I did the same:

I asked Gemini:

"Can you find any reference online that refers to the shape of the curve
a road racing car takes through a corner as being a catenary curve?"

And the response was:

"No, online references and vehicle dynamics literature do not refer to
the curve a racing car takes through a corner as a catenary curve."

But let's not stop there!

I asked ChatGPT the same question, and it answered:

'I searched for references that explicitly describe a road-racing car's
path through a corner as a catenary curve, rather than merely discussing
the geometry of the racing line.

So far, I haven't found a convincing reference that makes that exact identification. I did find some useful sources discussing the
mathematical shape of a racing line, which help distinguish a catenary
from other curves that might look similar.'

But my laughing at him over this led to him putting me in his kill file!

And after scouring the internet, the only place he could find a
reference to a "catenary" curve in racing...

...was the curve that one programmer chose to use...

...in a simulation...

...of a track for racing model wooden race cars...

...that were about one foot long!
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