Home Definition and 525 Threads

I recently bought my first home chemistry kit and the alcohol burner is part of it. my questions are: what should I do with any leftover alcohol in the burner after I finish an expiriment? after treating the alcohol in the burner is it okay to bring it back into my room (where I keep the chem...

I read 80% of Radon that can get into the house is from U-238 isotope. But how about Radon 223 (from U-235). Does this comprise the remaining 20% that can get into a house? If it doesn't, then what components are the remaining 20%?

I am seeing lots of brands of home portable air conditioners to cool rooms. They are sold through well known nationwide chains such as Currys, Argos in the UK. Customer feedback shows that they really work. But why would they work??? Surely, these portable aircons need to take away heat from...

Apparent meteorite crashes through roof of home: "It was warm" https://www.yahoo.com/news/apparent-meteorite-crashes-roof-home-132553636.html

I put a russet potato in a clear plastic container with a dish of water. It had sprouted potato tubers(I think that's the right term) but I waited too long... it now has roots and white fur. Is there a reasonable change I can still get a plant out of it, or should I just start over?

I am a client who bought a new house and the cavity in the wall was not insulated. I can calculate the U value of the uninsulated wall and the U Value of the wall if it were insulated correctly. front the two different U values I want to calculate how much extra energy is being lost through a...

Would it be a feasible power source to have several Stirling Engines sticking through an outdoor wall near your fire place in a cold climate? Issues I can think of: Presumably it would be a heat sink and require you to consume more firewood. Engineering it to not have passive leaks might be...

Hi all. I'm designing a custom spare wheel carrier for my 4wd and currently seeking knowledge on which bearings to use, so I need to work out what force on the bearings will be when it's open (closed will be locked and fully supported!) The example image is simplified for calculation. Close...

There is no laboratory in my school ,looking for best chemistry project ideas for the 12th class students at minimal cost and that can be prepared at home . need suggestions on this,response would be appreciated

My wife just bought a new Dell computer because the HD on her old computer went bad. The computer is a minitower. She is using the old VGA monitor through an HDMI adaptor (using HDMI to VGA cable). Could that be the problem? Occasionally, the monitor screen goes blue and she has to restart...

Hi guys, thanks for helping me! I am working on a home project that includes a privacy shade for my backyard. I have a 6'x15' vertical shade attached to two portable posts that are held up right by four legs ("X" shaped footprint). the surface footprint of the legs covers an area of 46"x70". I...

I just got back from the cinema - really enjoyed this one! Very simple concept but well executed, with a good mix of both comedic and poignant moments (along with a hearty portion of fan-service). And, as you come to expect from Marvel, impressive VFX (especially whenever Dr Strange & the mirror...

I am mystified. My number-combo door lock (one of two I have) is powered by 4 AA batteries. It has been working for so long I don't remember when I installed it - musta been ten years at least. The batteries have begun to run down - it labours to retract the dead bolt now - so it's time to...

I am doing a project for Physics at the moment, and I am really struggling to come up with ideas. By that I mean, I have plenty of ideas but none of them are really feasible for what I am doing, i.e., impractical to do at home (too much work in doing the actual experiment), or that the actual...

I've Googled this a little bit after an old college friend mentioned to me that her parents supposedly used some method like this to reduce their taxes regularly (she seemed to imply they did this "frequently" on the recommendation of their accountant - maybe not every year, but it sounded like...

Hello, So I know that a ceiling fan either operate clockwise (winter mode) or counter-clockwise (summer mode) and while the fan is meant for just moving air around, I'm wondering if utilizing a ceiling fan and an opened skylight window only a few feet near the ceiling fan would help move the...

I don't own a home and do not plan to in the near future. However, I've been working on some pet DIY projects with my uncle on my father's house, some church and other properties of mutual friends/acquaintances. My dad's not in the greatest health and doesn't have much home repair and...

Hi everyone! Hope you all are doing well in these tough times. Currently my country is going through one of the toughest second waves of Covid and frankly seeing the news is terrifying to say the least. Being at home, I've noticed that I haven't been able to study for a significant period of...

Why house is important?

Dear all, could you kindly recommend Physics Demo home kits (mechanics, Optics, Sound, Electricity/Magnetism) for secondary school level, to practice and learn at home? many thanks

Hello Forum, Some of my electrical outlets (3) in the kitchen stopped working (one of them is a GFCI outlet). Reading online, I found out that outlets are generally connect in a daisy-chain fashion and if one goes back they all stop working. See the figure below showing a daisy chain...

Nature recently published this piece with another physicist (Ole Peters from the Santa Fe Institute) trying to 'fix' economics: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-019-0732-0 With a short paper that, to my reading, just comes up with a toy model of geometric brownian motion with a small...

Over the Thanksgiving holidays, I had a heated argument with my parents in their home (where I reside temporarily too). Out of anger, I physically slammed my arms down on their dinner table extremely hard. I was in a rage (b/c they went out during COVID's surge when we've already lost a family...

You have to pay $100-$200/year. You get one annual inspection. IF you are found to have termites, they will only treat your house to kill the termites. They are not responsible for the damage done to your house. So, if in November 2020, your termite company inspects and sees no termites (or...

Ok so I am an 8th-grader in Pakistan and I am highly interested in chemistry. I am also thinking about majoring in chemistry for 9th-grade. I watched some of NileReds videos about some chemical experiments like the chemical traffic light (chemical oxidization) and others. But I don't know where...

Been looking up cockroach solutions and came across the use of mothballs (as they dislike the smell that is apparently poisonous). Quick question: Given these mothballs are poisonous, how safe is it to use them? How many would you use and how often - it any/at all? Thanks in advance for your...

I'm looking to learn how to do basic home maintenance such as: Roof repair Bathtub install Tile flooring Install wood flooring Shower stall demo and install How to add ceiling lights Driveway install Basic things that come with owning a home. I believe that the people who do these type of...

Hi ... air resistance is the reason that objects of different mass fall to Earth at different speeds. In a vacuum all objects fall to Earth at the same rate regardless of mass. OK - I get it but all the experiments that illustrate this tend to rely on tall buildings or massive vacuum chambers...

Thought of doing this one years ago! Basically, I want to 'see' the magnetic force lines that surround a conductor when energized (with an alternating current). I appreciate that what I will see (or at least I am hoping to see) is the pattern formed by the iron dust in response the the field...

Hello, I'm the head of youth scientific club at my High School. Because there's a pandemic going on, schools are closed and god knows when they reopen. Earlier before, I have a couple of programs that are being planned to produce scientific papers but they are all postponed. Now, all my...

Hello there, I am a physics undergraduate and one trying to be very practical. I try to study a lot, to understand the principles and everything and get how all this knowledge came to existence. However, except for the little and not-very-modern experiments we carry out in our school I have no...

I guess this applies to wood-burning fireplaces as well, but they will require more frequent reflector surface cleaning. Our gas fireplace is fairly warm, but it's clear that it's not as efficient as it could be. It seems like reflective back and side inserts would reflect a lot more of the IR...

Hi I’m making a custom lamp for a Christmas present and want to create a custom on off switch to go with it. The switch part is easy, just make a mechanism that breaks or completes a circuit, but I’m not sure what to do to insure it doesn’t electrocute the user, or burst into flames. If I...

As discussed in this thread, I could convert my desktop PC to a WiFi hotspot, and it is working fine, with a more-or-less good range and a good speed. Connectify, the software that I am using, is advising me to install a VPN and is advertising their own VPN software (which, by the way, goes by...

Now home water filter is ubiquitous using almost every family. I am wondering who designed such systems (and become its standard form used today) ? I think after second world war the New York water is pretty dirty hence the development of such filter. But I am not sure whether it is correct or not.

I visited a friend who has a very nice solar installation. He also has the software to do data collection and presentation. I thought it would be nice to share some of his data here. Perhaps we can link to this post as a reference in future solar discussions. First, some background. The...

I am from Germany and have tried these router brands: - AVM - Telekom - TP-Link - Asus I like AVM the most because it has a clean web interface with many functions and detailed information. I wonder what router brands there are in your countries and what your favorite router brands are? It...

I have a socket on the wall , because of the size of the adapter, the switch on the socket is always stayed between "ON" and "OFF" while it serves and works. From the electrical point of view, is it a complete circuit inside? is there any partial complete circuit which may be a problem?

Hi, I'm remoting from a Windows 10 Home laptop into my office Windows 7 Pro desktop using mRemoteNG on the Windows 10 laptop. I get a super tiny mouse in the remote session. Back in the laptop all is fine. Its so small and annoying! Everything else is fine, but the teeny mouse is a real...

Given that: When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished? "The new formula is modified from the Klass model and thus assumes a continuous compound rate and computes fossil fuel reserve depletion times for oil, coal and gas of approximately 35, 107 and 37 years, respectively." [bolding mine] 36...

Hi everyone. I was just out in my back garden and was watching the water from someone's shower pour down the pipe and out into a drain. I was thinking if all of the used water from my house just goes down a drain then why not try make use of it. If the water system continues after use and takes...

Hello, I have pure KCl, but its natural radioactivity is low. I would like to increase it at least by a factor of 10. Is there any simple way (diy) for enriching the natural KCl in 40K? Alternatively, is there a compound with higher concentration of potassium (in volume) than KCl, and that you...

I searched for dummy loads and found nothing on point. If there is and I missed it I apologize. If this is not correct section let me know and I will re-post. We need a high power dummy load in the 4kw range. for the amateur hf bands. The oil cooled "cantenna" type are at the most 1.5 kw...

Wow, what amazing flying skill, and at high altitude no less! :smile: https://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2019/01/09/french-alps-helicopter-rescue-ns-roth-orig.cnn

hi guys Some serious storms from West Ryde, NSW, Australia today, 15 Dec 2018 from home and wharf at end of my street. The lightning strikes are frame grabs from video All images from a Canon 6D

I am interested in learning astrophysics and all the associated sciences and math, though I cannot afford schooling and am not nessecarily interested in a degree in the field. I have been interested in science fiction and the prospect of exo-planets and space travel for many years and would...

Recent experience has shown me just how true this is. Last week, We took a short trip to the beach. We took a different route than we usually do, one that took us through an area where I lived from 6th -12th grade. I took the opportunity to drive my wife past the house we used to live in. It...

Our home food freezer (ca. 14cu ft) is bigger than we really need. I am planning to fill one shelf with 8-12 gallon jugs of water, with the intent of using its high latent heat of fusion to help keep the contents cold during a power outage. Is this volume actually enough to make a meaningful...

I have noticed a number of Skywatcher mounts in pictures posted on this thread so I guess there must be quite a few 'EQ' owners with loads of experience in these mounts. I know how to polar align and how to input location and time details. Also I often successfully do 3 star alignment and...