Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler I've Always Wondered... (Insert Question Here!)

We've all been impressed with the amount of knowledge that's been expressed on these boards. Knowledge on a huge array of topics by a huge array of people. And sometimes I've thought of a question for which I've always wondered the answer....

So, ask anything you want here. I, sure as sh*t, won't have the answer.... but someone will! I'll go first to see if I can get the ball rolling...

What's the point with "bail"? I don't understand.

A crime is committed, a person is arrested, but...what? We're willing to let them go free for awhile if they pony up some cash? Whether that bail is set high or low, isn't it still going to be the rich guy who gets out of jail for awhile and the poor guy who is stuck there?

Presumed innocent until proved otherwise (a difficult premise to swallow when the culprit is caught in flagrante)

Yep, the more money one has, the more likely one will be able to make bail.

Good morning, Marcus! I hope you're back in bed after being up so early. I'm about to breakfast down and crawl back in myself.

Well, I understand "presumed innocent", but then why not let EVERY non-threatening person back out until trial as a matter of policy. How come it seems arbitrary and financially based?

Back to bed? No way!

I've been getting up at 5AM and walking (almost) every morning! (You're not likely to see too many posts from me after 10PM, though!)

It's just that there has to be motivation to come back for trial. Money is the closest thing to a one-size-fits-all motivator. Bail amounts vary based on the circumstances, and it's not always an option, depending on the risk of flight. At least, according to Law & Order.

OK, I've got one. If a solid dissolves in a liquid, does the volume of the liquid change? My canonical example is sugar cubes in coffee. If the sugar cubes are in the mug, then the coffee is poured over them, does the total volume of stuff in the mug change as the cubes dissolve?

Post deleted by me so as to not take away from Ken's question.

Ken, I'd say as the sugar cube becomes saturated with coffee, the total volume in the cup decreases, since there are pockets of air in the sugar cube being displaced by the coffee. Once the point of saturation is reached, My guess is the volume decrease yet again when the sugar dissolves out of it's solid form into a liquid solution. I'm willing to bet the coffee-water-sugar solution can pack more molecules in a tighter space than the crystallized sugar cube.

I have no proof of this.

That was pretty much what I was thinking, but I'm usually thinking it when I'm half asleep. Much as I am now.

If you are travelling the speed of light, then turn on your headlights, what happens?

The headlights turn on like normal. The speed of light is constant relative to the observer.

I prefer my coffee black.

Mass (or volume in Ken’s example) is directly proportional to density and state of matter (solid, liquid, vapor). The liquid will be denser than the sugar cube. This assumes temperature remains constant.


My question:

What the hell was it? The chicken or the egg?

I'm going with Aristotle on that one to answer/not answer the question. He concluded, after much thought, that they must BOTH have existed from the start. I know, I know...but...

On a different note, I'm wondering why the gov't here is banning all these pesticides/herbicides for homeowners but continues to allow farmers and golf courses to apply massive amounts of them. Either these chemicals are bad for the environment or they're not, what does it matter who applies them? I do have some sympathy for the farmers, however, because they are producing crops, but there exists a double standard here. I can't imagine how much of these chemicals the thousands of golf courses are putting into the water table.

I've always (since elementary school) seen this as question of evolution vs. creationism.

If you side with evolution, then the egg came first. The two creatures which produced and fertilized the egg were not quite chickens yet, but one evolutionary step before. Although the egg they made contained a chicken.

If you side with creationism, then it was the chicken, as all the animals created were in their fully formed state, not as zygotes.

Yes, I was pondering such ideas before I was 10.

How about some questions which can actually be answered instead of just thought experiments. Although the sugar in coffee one was pretty good. Try this: if you mix a half liter of pure alcohol and a half liter of distilled water. What is the volume of the resulting mixture?

I am not sure of the exact volume but it will be less than 1 liter because the molecules of the 2 solutions are not the same.

Does anyone know what my Avatar is?

I have always wondered why there is brail on a drive through ATM

I am guessing that a lot of well educated lawmakers dictated that any sign in a bank be "accessible" to the blind.

I agree that it seems silly, but it's simply so that visually-impaired people can use them. No, of course they don't drive themselves up to one. But they can be driven to one. And the braille allows them to use the ATM just like anyone else.

I've seen it many times.

A) I once worked in a bank where we could view the outside ATM machine.

and

B) my town is home to the Illinois School for the Visually Impared, so there is a community of VI people that live here.

so, A+B=C; where C= seeing a VI person using the braille on an ATM machine.

Since pure alcohol evaporates rather quickly, less than 1 liter, for sure.

It's because they use the same parts for ATMs in drive-through and walk-up situations. Economies of scale, see?

It is the depiction of the electron shells of Argon.

Says, Neon.

Alcohol doesn't evaporate that quickly. Though, pure alcohol doesn't stay pure very long. It will eventually pull in about 5% water from the air. Ether is fun though. If you pour it on a surface, you can actually see it evaporate in front of your eyes.

But as was pointed out, it will be less than 1 liter. The molecules of the two compounds tend to fit inside each other. Another neat trick with the 50/50 alcohol/water mixture is to soak a paper napkin in it, and set it on fire. The water will keep even that thin paper below its kindling point.

Peter raises an excellent point.

For the purposes of this thread, I am just as happy to have charismatic conjecture as truth.

btw, God could have simply created the egg.

While I continue to marvel at Mark's ingenuity and the knowledge and camaraderie here, it seems to me that it's difficult to come up with questions that don't fall into one of two categories:

1. Here, let me Google that for you...
2. "Why..." (thus inciting the opinionated, divisive beasts of politics, religion and philosophy).

I think it is wonderful that the many scientists here allow people like me to learn from them.

LOL! You guys are a gas!!!

That's noble gas, to you. Otherwise you could call us nothing more than methane.

I've been called Old Methane...in a way.....

I had that happen once. I always zip up slowly now...

The golfcourse part is easy. Politicos don't like to golf on weeds.

Excellent, Excellent. Picked the nickname up in college where we used to party til we were pretty much "inert" on the couch watching TV.

Actually here in the lower 48, what chemicals the farmer's apply to their crops is regulated to the point that we import our fruits and vegetables from South American countries that still apply pesticides which have been banned from our country years and years ago, helps keep the cost to the consumer down.

I'm _assuming_ that it's believed that the chemicals used on golf courses will be filtered before they reach aquifers, while the same chemicals used on produce will obviously be ingested much more directly.

But that's just a guess.

Can't say about the golf courses or Canada's regs regarding farm use chemicals but here the regulation is probably a lot more stringent than most folks realize, I imagine Canada's laws are at least equally as stringent.

Okay, here's my question. And, I'm being serious, believe it or not. This came up at work today.

Why don't school buses have seat belts?

You guys ask a lot of questions.

Mark, since there's a legal presumption of innocence, anticipatory punishment(love it!)isn't permissible, so the guilty pricks are generally entitled to have bail set(state laws may deny it in capital cases or where it's shown that there's a danger to the public)to help ensure that he'll appear for trial(with the encouragement of his bail bondsman, if necessary).

Ken, where an insoluble substance, e.g., sand, is added to water, the volume of the sand plus the volume of water equals the volume of the mixture. Where a soluble substance is added to water the total volume of the resulting solution is typically but not always greater than the volume of the water alone, but less than the sum of the volume of the water plus the added substance. This is because water molecules have spaces between them and the ions of the dissolved substance can react with the water molecules to "squeeze" them closer together. If this effect is less than the volume of the added substance, the volume of the solution is increased above the pure water, but less than would result from simple addition. Some substances, e.g., sodium hydroxide, actually have such a strong "squeezing" effect that adding them to water actually results in a solution having a lower volume than that of the water alone. The sugar in your cup(after any air spaces are gone)results in a total volume increase, but a teensy-weensy bit less than just adding the liquid and sugar volumes.

Chris, when I was in college getting my chemistry degree I worked part-time as a bartender and learned that when guys came in and asked for 100ml of 50/50 pure alcohol and water(real popular)if I just mixed 50ml of each I'd give them just a 96ml drink and they'd yell that they'd been ripped off. So, the answer to your question is 960ml. Just kidding about the bartender bit, of course, but equal volumes of alcohol and water do add to about a 1.92 volume factor.

Argon(18), yeah you're a gas and your electron shells are gorgeous.

Now, my question: how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

That depends. What kind of music are they dancing to?

Brahms Hungarian Dance No.5.

The answer to the angels question is none. Pins do not exist. Everyone knows that.

Peter, in line with preceding questions, I was hoping for a serious scientific or perhaps legal discussion of this issue.

If you can be disgruntled can you be gruntled?

I assume it's because they're so tough that it would take a lot for the seat belts to have any value. Notice how the Joker backed up directly into the bank in the beginning of The Dark Knight? Movies wouldn't lie to us.

Of course, it's not just school buses. Other buses deserve recognition, too.

Apparently, tests have proved inconclusive as to whether seatbelts on buses would help in the event of most accidents or not. The argument being, lap belts can actually cause more damage to the lower back and head without also having the shoulder restraint as well(not practical?). Buses are designed, for the most part, to locate the passengers ABOVE the likely area of impact(they say), however, there's always certain situations where these designs and arguments don't apply.

One of my old health teachers said a peanut butter and banana sandwich was better than sex.

Anyone agree?

Chunky or smooth?

Sex or peanut butter?

Or??? What's wrong with and?

Not I. Your old health teacher either needed a better love life or was trying very hard to convince you and your fellow classmates that premarital sex wasn't any fun.


Here's my question:

I've always wondered how flight plans work. With my only "piloting experience" coming from Microsoft Flight Simulator, I've always been curious as to what the process of "filing a flight plan" involves. I bet we have pilots around here. Do you hand someone a note? Call a phone number? Mail a letter?

You hear it when plane crashes, or disappears - always about checking the flight plan. If you're a pilot, and your intent is to just go up and fly around your 'neightborhood' to do some sight-seeing, what do you file? What does it say? Who gets it? And where do they go?

I've flown with my aunt who is a pilot several times. When we've gone we never had to say anything about where we are going...just need permission to takeoff and land.

Looks like flight plans are optional for civilians, and a damn good idea if you're not going to land at the same airport you're taking off from.

http://www.wikihow.com/File-an-FAA-Flight-Plan

I've always wondered, at least since joining this forum, what does JohnK look like?

Is this him?

That's JohnS.

I think JohnK looks like GeorgeW:

We will likely never know. He's one of those people who think people still have a right to privacy.

*Pfff* As if...

I don't know about better, but it's certainly more within my grasp.

And another thing.
How come I can't get no Tang round here ??????

OK, here's one:

JohnK always touts listening to two-channel music in multi-channel surround as your receiver will extract all the natural ambiance cues and direct them to the appropriate place in the (now surrounding) soundfield. I can understand this with orchestral and classical selections, which (almost solely) enjoys.

But what about Rock and pop recordings? There IS no natural ambiance as the instruments are close miked, recorded on different tracks (to be adjusted by panning after) or recorded on separate days.

The receiver might extract info that it sends to the surrounds, but is there really anything natural or correct about it in terms of simulating a live performance?

No. Next question.


Edit: but seriously...

If the recording engineer mixing the separate tracks has added any reverb or spatialization effects to the mix, then the receiver's software will detect it and move those spatial cues to the appropriate channels. As for trying to recreate a live performance, that's not really the ultimate goal of DP LIIx.

Resurrecting an old thread!

A John Mayer track just came up on Pandora.

Every time I think of John Mayer, I think about how so many people dislike him for some reason.

I must have missed the memo. Does he abuse animals or something?

He sleeps around and says stupid stuff

Sorry Mark, I don't hate him but I find most of his music monotonous. I respect him highly as a musician but something about his voice makes my brain want to shut down.

Plus if Tom doesn't like him, I gotta go with the cool kids.

Ya gotta be able to drive with your top down to do that.

[Whimpers quietly and shakes fist at Fred.] I miss my Jeep....

Speaking of Jeeps, don't you think that Whitney Houston's daughter looks like a Jeep (or, rather, THE Jeep)?

OK, time to drag this thread out into the sunlight again.

Two questions :

1. In hotel bars (and probably other bars too) the happy hour offerings frequently include "you call it's". I gather the idea of a "you call it" is that it is sort of the bartending equivalent of '*' but there seems to be disagreement about whether it only covers "house" or "well" liquor or whether the "call" refers to "call" drinks where you pick the brand.

2. Revolvers have a small but non-zero gap between cylinder and barrel. It seems to me that given the pressure of the gases as the back of the bullet clears the gap any self-respecting gas would go out the gap rather than continuing to accelerate the bullet down the barrel, but longer revolver barrels do seem to produce higher velocities than short ones even so.

It seems unlikely (but not impossible) that the cartridge brass stretches just enough to seal the gap temporarily, but that wouldn't cover situations where a shorter cartridge is being fired, eg .38 special ammo in a .357 mag revolver.

Some pressure is lost through the cylinder gap (which runs around 5 thou), which is why you should never index a finger down the cylinder. A .500 S&W will cut through a finger with the gas pressure alone. The Mythbusters proved that one.

Revolver brass never stretches far enough to close that gap, if it did, it would run into the forcing cone. (plus, if brass stretched that far, you'd get head separation)

So, you do lose some pressure through the cylinder gap, but unless it's out of spec, it's not the issue you'd think. One guy at the range was shooting a Smith Model 19 with a 30-thou gap beside me one day - the pressure wave and lead spalling spitting out the sides of that gun made me wonder if it would be safer to just stand in front of it. I took him off the line until he had the barrel set back and the forcing cone recut.

Bren R.

As a former bartender, no matter in what state I worked, the well liquors are the ones right in front of your sinks. In good restaurants and bars, there are no Mr. Boston's, Gilbey's, etc. In those establishments, well liquors may include the likes of Absolut and Tanqueray. "Call" liquors could be anything the customer names and they are usually on shelves behind the bartender so you can see the brands and know what's on offer.

Your questions were about guns and booze. Are you sure you don't live in Texas?

BTW, Happy Hour has been illegal in Massachusetts since the mid 80's.

No one in Massachusetts has been happy since then.

No, there were brief surges in happiness in October 2004 and October 2007, followed by a quick return to Neurosis Baseballus.

Funny, I always picture him in my mind as JohnH:



John Hodgman, that is. Bestselling author, The Daily Show's "Resident Expert", minor television celebrity, and deranged millionaire.

Last year, JohnH published That Is All, the last book in a trilogy of Complete World Knowledge. Like its predecessors, The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require, That Is All compiles incredibly handy made-up facts into brief articles, overlong lists, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes. It picks up exactly where More Information left off - specifically, at page 596 - and finally completes COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE, just in time for the return of Quetzalcoatl and the end of human history in 2012.

[quote=medic8r Quetzalcoatl [/quote]

Did you have to look that up for spelling, or can you channel ancient Meso-American deities?

Hey, he MEMORIZED all the dialog from Koyaanisqatsi.

I loved that film---when it was new. Never really had much use for John Cage. Sometimes, I've seen it spelt with a 'Q.'

Did YOU have to look it up so you didn't 'mispell' it?

Did you misspell misspell as mispell on purpose?

No, I just had that one in my brain. Stupid brain - always hanging on to worthless crap.

I "set it off" so no one would rag at me about it, Mr. World Gone Crazy.

Edit: But "spelt" was OK witch you's?

We had 3 slabs of St. Louis style ribs with the rib tips today. The tips were smoked for 3 hours then put in sauce in the slow cooker. The ribs were on the smoker a bit over 5 hours.

OMG, I have to go eat now. BRAVO Rick

That is making me hungry, Rick.

That really looks delicious, but you didn't show us the potato salad, and other fixings!

Gary, that was on purpose....(or Rick posted in the wrong thread!).

I've Always Wondered...... what happened to the potato salad?

I've Always Wondered.......why I keep missing out on the invite to Wid's place for dinner?



Ribs and tips look great Wid!

Mark, I can't wait any longer, I'm getting hungry, I'm off to the kitchen to make a baloney sandwich. Come to think of it though, I don't even like baloney.

Why do red colors clash but blue ones don't?

Red can go with blue
but only if your French
or a mime
or, ACK the HORRROR, a French mime.

Mime Hunt was my favorite screensaver.

Another thread resurrection:

There's been a flap over stores opening on Thanksgiving for their Black Friday sales.

I've always wondered:
Why doesn't some store just start their "Black Friday" sale on the weekend before?

They would avoid competing with everyone else (You can't be at Sears AND Home Depot AND Best Buy at 5am on Friday morning) and get "the jump" on the other stores.

Not to mention, they could actually be closed on Thanksgiving day and let their employees have the day off.

I know that Black Friday is the traditional start to Christmas shopping, but it's not like it's such a classic tradition that it can't be changed.

What's so special about great sales having to be in that 12 hour (then 24 hour and now 36 hour) time period?

Some places are taking you up on that idea, starting early this year. From Amazon.com:
----
Black Friday 2012 Deals Are Here
You shouldn't have to stand in a long line to get a great deal. We've been searching for the best Black Friday deals everywhere--including Black Friday deals other stores are planning--so we can bring them to you even earlier.
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