I was at the World Usability Day 2010 conference, held in a beautiful auditorium in the Open University at Raanana (more on what I lectured about in coming posts), and I made a discovery that I just have to share with you: Hot air rises; cold air falls!

Of course I knew this; I’d graduated in Physics, after all. But I failed to make the connection at first. I  was sitting there near the front of the hall and slowly freezing from the air conditioning, until pubic protest made the powers that be turn off the A/C. Later they turned it back on. More freezing.

Then, during the break, I was talking to one of the organizers and mentioned this issue and she said “well, if we turn it off the people in the top rows get too hot“. And then it hit me: the auditorium had a slanting floor, with the back rows much closer to the vaulted ceiling than those near the stage; I could adjust my surrounding temperature by moving to a higher row where I’d be comfortable. Like the trees on a mountain range, that each live at the altitude that suits it…