What keeps me up late!

This is the place for any magazine-related discussions that don't fit in any of the column discussion boards below.
User avatar
Lenp
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:11 pm
Location: Maryland
Contact:

What keeps me up late!

Post by Lenp »

Not really, but just for fun......

If, you could travel faster than the speed of light, could you go somewhere, stop, turn around, and watch yourself arrive;
and, if you traveled faster than the speed of sound, would it likewise arrive after you?

If you dropped a heated sewing neeedle into the ocean, you could claim that you rasied the ocean's temperature and tide, but could you prove it?

A crystal radio absorbs some of the transmitted energy during the conversion of that signal to audible energy, could enough crystal radios absorb all the energy so that nobody hears anything?

Do you weigh an envelope with, or without the stamp? If the stamp places it into the next weight class, do you pay more?

A radio is playing loudly in an adjacent room. You close the door and your room becomes quieter. Does the other room become louder?

Now let's see if that sparks anything here :???:
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
User avatar
CeaSaR
Posts: 1949
Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2003 1:01 am
Location: Phoenixville, PA USA
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by CeaSaR »

Is it wetter under water if you're there when it rains?
Is it faster to New York than it is by train?

(Darn it! How's the rest of that song go? I guess I have to dig out my Dr. Demento tape.)

:D

CeaSaR


*** Addendum ***
Found it!
https://youtu.be/ag10-hcIz4Q
Hey, what do I know?
User avatar
Lenp
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:11 pm
Location: Maryland
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Lenp »

Does it take longer to go to New York from Florida, than to go from New York to Florida, since, on the map, it is uphill? :shock:
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
User avatar
Externet
Posts: 1888
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Mideast USA
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Externet »

Many solutions for all of those questions :

----> https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sleep+pills&t ... &ia=images

:grin:
- Abolish the deciBel ! -
User avatar
dacflyer
Posts: 4748
Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2002 1:01 am
Location: USA / North Carolina / Fayetteville
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by dacflyer »

apartments should be called togetherments.

why do we drive on a parkway, and park in a driveway ?
User avatar
Lenp
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:11 pm
Location: Maryland
Contact:

More..What keeps me up late!

Post by Lenp »

When we learned to count we were taught to say....
One, Two, Three, ... Ten
Then it's, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen...Nineteen
After that we say Twenty One, Twenty Two....Eighty seven ... One Hundred and Thirty Six...
So why does 11 to 19 need to have those special names?
Why do we not say..
Tenty One, Tenty Two, Tenty Three, Tenty Four....
Why Why Why!

Except for carpenters and people who buy 'yard goods'. who uses fractions any more?
Just try to add 1/24 + 3/49 + 5/21 + 2 -7/9 divided by 3/7 ...Sure you can do it but it's all nonsense right!
Now, if you convert it to decimal or metric it's easy, right?
Why Why Why


When CAD first came into use, we had a drawing for a brick wall shown to be 251.15625 (5/32) ft!.
The mason said "If you measure it, and its-a is too short, come-a back in the daytime. If it's-a is too long, measure it at night".

Footnote:
Digital calipers are available with Decimal, Metric, and Fractional readout. Check Harbor Freight, somebody must still use them?
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
User avatar
Clyde Crashkop
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:01 am
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Clyde Crashkop »

If you are traveling at the speed of light and turn on your headlights, does anything happen?

I have a metric Crescent Wrench.
User avatar
Lenp
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:11 pm
Location: Maryland
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Lenp »

Well, I don't know, but, if you were going faster than the speed of light, they would be tail lights :???:



Well now, doesn't everybody have a metric adjustable wrench?. If not, here they are! https://www.amazon.com/8-Metric-Adjusta ... B0184XZ6ZS
And by the way, it's not a surprise that they also make metric rubber bands!
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
User avatar
Externet
Posts: 1888
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Mideast USA
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Externet »

Well... about metric; It is the total reverse. The only place in the planet that does not adopt the metre is the United States. And Liberia, I think. And is not meter, is metre, as in metric

So the weirdos are the ones using inches, feet, fathoms, knots, fluid ounces, furlongs, pints, farenheit, acres, pounds, quarts, grains, AM/PM... and never ends...
And to laugh, Such 8 ounces hamburger has 50 grams of protein... what a stupidity. And I read a loooong time ago that an imperial gallon was defined by the capacity of the urinal of some British king, and the other gallon the capacity of his queen's urinal. And what they call 'mils' as a thousand of an inch is actually 'milesims' or the prefix 'mili' as in milivolts.

We got lucky the US does not have different units for potential, current, capacitance, power, energy, resistance... it would have been really miserable.
The defenders of fractions as 'being a very simple method' to express submultiples... I would like to see them dealing with -7 13/16 decibels !

The French were into defining other units when caught by their revolution and efforts to continue got derailed. Pity.
How I would had liked to see a 100 hours day, with 100 minutes each instead of that 24h and 60m/s crap we deal with daily. We are so used to handle such stupidity that is not perceived any more... Mapping Venus, moon, Mars... with 360 degrees longitude and 90 degrees latitude. The same wrong way they divided the earth; instead of using decimal notation. It would had been nice to divide the globe in 100 meridians and 100 parallels. Too late now.

:cry: :cry: :cry:
- Abolish the deciBel ! -
User avatar
Lenp
Posts: 1529
Joined: Thu Oct 26, 2006 8:11 pm
Location: Maryland
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Lenp »

Completely in unison with those comments!
But did you forget pint, quart, gill acre, rod furlong, caret, ounce, dram...and the list goes on.

My granddaughter was learning fractions. At teacher meeting I asked her why they still taught fractions when fractions are almost obsolete except in some areas, like purchasing fabrics, cooking and carpentry. Her straight faced answer was "It's in the grade requirements'. Oddly enough, cursive writing has been stopped in many schools since it is 'not needed' anymore.

The conversion of fractions to decimal is really quite easy, and after that it's a snap to do anything you need. Yea, adding up crazy fractions or dividing them might drive you to that old black marbled copybook of a long time ago and look at the back to see there is any help, next to that dreaded multiplication table.

As a side comment, Harbor Freight sells a 'Digital' caliper that displays in inches, millimeters and you guessed it....fractions!
I expect that woodworkers will use them to check the 2x4's that aren't 2x4!.

About measurements...
Years ago in the building construction industry was just getting into CAD documents, I well remember a masonry wall that was to be something like 245.0089' The mason wanted to know if he should sift the sand to get the finer stuff so he could be exact. As an inspector I grinned and said Yes, and, we're going to really check it. He said "Well... if it's too long measure again at midnight, and if it's too short, measure it at noon....."

A client came to look at the progress of a building. He walked into an office and said "This office is too small, is there anything you can do about it" I replied, at this point about all we could do is to change the drawing scale!

Enloy
Len

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a big pile of junk.” (T. Edison)
"I must be on the way to success since I already have the junk". (Me)
dyarker
Posts: 1917
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:01 am
Location: Izmir, Turkiye; from Rochester, NY
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by dyarker »

Externet,

I heartily agree with the idea, but -

If you mean a full circle is 100 metric degrees, then longitude would run from -50 to +50 with the fiftys being the same line. And latitude would run from -25 (South Pole) to +25 (North Pole).

If you try to make full circle, longitude and latitude all be max of 100, then you would have 3 different size angles, depending on which way you're faceing. (a bigger mess than now)

Cheers,
Dale Y
User avatar
Clyde Crashkop
Posts: 99
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:01 am
Location: Florida
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Clyde Crashkop »

Externet wrote: The only place in the planet that does not adopt the metre is the United States.
So why are UK speed limits in miles per hour?
Road speed limits in the United Kingdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_spee ... ed_Kingdom
Different types of speed limit signs in the UK
http://mocktheorytest.com/resources/dif ... in-the-uk/
User avatar
Externet
Posts: 1888
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Mideast USA
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Externet »

Hi.
Forget about +/-
Just a 100 degrees for the circumference instead of 360. or 1000, if you prefer. Starting from anywhere you want -Greenwich or Paris or international dateline- from zero to the figure all the way around single direction. Which means a circle has such number of degrees (Another new-defined concept.) Right angles instead of being 90 degrees, being 10, 100, 1000, whatever, but based on 10 instead.

For latitudes, same. Starting wherever, 100, or 1000 at equator or pole. No +/- It is a sphere, can still be subdivided in the same 'units' as longitude if the globe is seen sideways. This stupid archaic methods and figures are so embedded in us that we fail to see beyond.
If there is any other clever method or figure, fine, leave it to experts and mathematicians. The point is to replace 90 degrees right angle, 360 degrees circumference, 24 hours, 60 minutes/seconds... Using base 10.

Pisses me that mapping other worlds they stick to the same earthly stupidity instead of starting new making simple sense. Yes, implies trigonometric tables would be different.
:sad: Too late now. :cry:

Hi Clyde :
If the U.K. speed signs are actually in miles, it is not our work to correct another stupidity. If they drive on the wrong side; have created feet, gallons and fathoms it would not be unusual finding them driving cars with speedometers in Km and road signs in miles. They just continue stuck to their odd ways. As U.S. sticking to Farenheit and all the rest mentioned. I suspect replacing all the speed signs would cost U.K. a pretty shilling and has been postponed.
- Abolish the deciBel ! -
User avatar
Externet
Posts: 1888
Joined: Fri Feb 01, 2002 1:01 am
Location: Mideast USA
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by Externet »

Speed signs ----> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Spee ... road_signs

----> http://www.metric.org.uk/speed-limits

----> http://www.metric.org.uk/road-signage/i ... -expensive

Perhaps I have to change my 'signature' to also abolish 360 degrees, and 24 hours, and 60 seconds... :grin:
- Abolish the deciBel ! -
dyarker
Posts: 1917
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 1:01 am
Location: Izmir, Turkiye; from Rochester, NY
Contact:

Re: What keeps me up late!

Post by dyarker »

If a right angle is defined as 100°, then a full circle would be 400°. It unavoidable.

Or, make full circle 1000°, then right angle is 250°. A right angle is one quarter of a full circle. It is impossible to have both based on a multiple of 10.
It is a sphere, can still be subdivided in the same 'units' as longitude if the globe is seen sideways.
No you can't! Which ever way you define as full circle, the way at a right angle to that can only have half as many degrees. Else each degree of the second way would have two numbers assigned.
Dale Y
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 26 guests