What is the newest installment of 'Random Thoughts' on Physics Forums?

[Algr]

Why can't you go metric like any sane person in the world? Don't be afraid, it doesn't come with bare breasts or in rainbows!

Ha! You need three digits where one will do.

BTW, I can do metric fine, but I've never heard of other cup sizes. Why would they even define a metric cup? Wouldn't that be like saying that 25 cm was a metric foot?

 

[pinball1970]

I understand Alan McManus quite well, and John Higgins not at all. Can someone explain this to me? I looked it up, their birth places are only 23km apart.

Just listened to both.

John Higgins talks a little faster, plus more pronounced Glaswegian accent and also more dialect, so actually saying a different word, an example.

Instead of "I hope he doesn't mind.."

He says " I hope he does ne mind"

"All I need is to pot the black" becomes, "Ol a need is to pot the black."

 

[pinball1970]

I thought a YT video on sounds of the rainforest would help me sleep, relax. Instead, I feel like peeing every 10 minutes.

I use Bart Ehrman discussions.

He talks on different topics on ancient history.

His voice is soothing but engaging and somehow this makes me drift off.

 

[Grelbr42]

Was it qualified to survive the BLEVE from the gas truck catching fire and burning for a bit (then exploding)?

Yes.

Ten feet of specially reinforced concrete with 2 inches of armor plate steel inside and out. Standard CANDU containment.

Indeed, the modeling of the gas truck explosion was quite drastically conservative. There was some question as to where the worst point in the process of burn-then-explode was. A later explosion means more fuel has burned so the vault has had more time to heat up but less fuel to explode. But having to model that was tiresome. So they found a short-cut. They modeled a full load burning in place. Then a full load exploding in place. Effectively it's *TWO* gas trucks full of fuel, one to heat and one to explode. Not even a scratch.

My industry is good at finding conservative shortcuts of this type.

And the experiments are a lot of fun to watch. From a good safe distance. Here are a few tests of transport casks. Info from this type of test is used to validate the models of the containment. A CANDU vault is similar to these flasks except the walls are ten feet thick.

 

[berkeman]

Here are a few tests of transport casks.

Wow, gotta love the creativity. Rocket-propelled locomotive!!

 

[fresh_42]

Just listened to both.

John Higgins talks a little faster, plus more pronounced Glaswegian accent and also more dialect, so actually saying a different word, an example.

Instead of "I hope he doesn't mind.."

He says " I hope he does ne mind"

"All I need is to pot the black" becomes, "Ol a need is to pot the black."

I understood his [Higgin's] post-game interview in the studio rather well. Not perfectly, but better than usual. There have been other times, especially when interviewed in the Arena, that it was far more difficult.

Btw.:
a) Whom do you want to win?
b) Who do you expect to win?

My answer (Ronnie, Si). And I insist to note that I was a Ronnie fan long before it became a trend! I remember the times when he was annoyed and left the game in the middle of a session!

 

[BillTre]

 

[Astronuc]

Colorado Is Not a Rectangle—It Has 697 Sides
The Centennial State is technically a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-colorado-a-rectangle

there are only three states whose borders are entirely made up of straight lines: Utah, which would have been a rectangle if Wyoming hadn’t bitten a chunk out of its northeastern corner; Wyoming itself; and Colorado.

Except that they aren’t. for two distinct reasons: because the earth is round, and because those 19th-century surveyors laying out state borders made mistakes.

Congress defined the borders of Colorado as a geospherical rectangle, stretching from 37°N to 41°N latitude, and from 25°W to 32°W longitude. While lines of latitude run in parallel circles that don’t meet, lines of longitude converge at the poles.

This means that Colorado’s longitudinal borders are slightly farther apart in the south. So if you’d look closely enough, the state resembles an isosceles trapezoid rather than a rectangle. Consequently, the state’s northern borderline is about 22 miles (35 kilometers) shorter than its southern one. The same goes, mutatis mutandis, for Wyoming.

There's more.

 

[pinball1970]

I understood his [Higgin's] post-game interview in the studio rather well. Not perfectly, but better than usual. There have been other times, especially when interviewed in the Arena, that it was far more difficult.

Btw.:
a) Whom do you want to win?
b) Who do you expect to win?

My answer (Ronnie, Si). And I insist to note that I was a Ronnie fan long before it became a trend! I remember the times when he was annoyed and left the game in the middle of a session!

Ronnie is a nut job, we do not understand him but when he is happy to play he is unparalleled.
To break the record would be something so I hope he does it.
I do not know enough about the other players form- been a while since I watched closely. Very surprised Judd Trump went out early.

 

[fresh_42]

Ronnie is a nut job, we do not understand him but when he is happy to play he is unparalleled.
To break the record would be something so I hope he does it.
I do not know enough about the other players form- been a while since I watched closely. Very surprised Judd Trump went out early.

I remember the time when you could predict the result of a frame by looking at his face while sitting on his chair.

 

[pinball1970]

I remember the time when you could predict the result of a frame by looking at his face while sitting on his chair.

Yes he can get so angry over nothing, at himself at everything!

He also does things like this, remember the left handed controversy?

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news...aims-ronnie-osullivan-antics-rattle-robidoux/

 

[fresh_42]

Yes he can get so angry over nothing, at himself at everything!

Angry was ok, bored was the problem!

 

[Rive]

Old school power supplies needed to warm up before use.

Then there was some decades when they were just available right after switching them on.

These days they are booting up.

 

[dlgoff]

Went morel (morchella) mushroom hunting today and realized I'm just getting too old to do all that walking

 

[Rive]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

 

[Tom.G]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

Frustration!

 

[DrGreg]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

I know, from witnessing a family member's dementia, that memory problems can result not only in forgetting things that have happened, but also remembering things that haven't happened.

 

[WWGD]

I wonder if I have something of an autistic thing going. I went to the store to look for something I thought I had left there a while backIt involved providing my credit card number or remembering the employee I had dealth with. I couldn't remember anything about the employee, but I had no problem remembering the 14 digits of my credit card, one I hadn't used in a while. I have trouble remembering faces, which doesn't quite help me become popular.

 

[collinsmark]

I wonder how is it called when you feel forgetting something you have never known.

"Déjà foo"?

 

[fresh_42]

"Déjà foo"?

You meant "Déjà fou" or "Déjà folle"?

 

[collinsmark]

You meant "Déjà fou" or "Déjà folle"?

Those are fine choices too, I suppose.

I was thinking of "foo," an intentionally meaningless placeholder word. But I suppose they all work.

 

[Rive]

"Déjà foo"?

That's actually quite fitting

It was just a sudden impression (and a panicky impulse to recall and salvage it) of a so ill-logical and badly fitting memory that I'm sure I've never actually had anything like that, ever - gone

Frustration!

Sure it is

 

[Astronuc]

Interesting perspectives on life, evolution, intelligence and technology; history and future.

 

[dlgoff]

My Pilot daughter is working on her CFI Certificate.

From: https://www.sweetaviation.com/fligh...,proficiency, and perform insurance checkouts.

A certified flight instructor (CFI/CFII) certificate allows a commercial pilot to be an educator in aviation. A CFI and/or CFII certificate certifies you to teach other pilot certificate applicants, as well as conduct flight reviews, assess aircraft proficiency, and perform insurance checkouts.

 

[WWGD]

Guess I learnt my lesson so I didn't point my QR reader to this lady's pants:

 

[Charles Link]

Interesting calculation of the other day: Using $r^3/T^2=GM/(4 \pi^2)$, I computed $T$ for the earth's orbit around the sun. For $r$, the light takes 500 seconds to reach the earth from the sun, since 93,000,000/186,000=500, so that $r=(500)(3.0E+8)m$. Meanwhile $M_{sun}=2.0E+30$, an easy number to remember, and $G=6.67E-11$ (MKS). The answer of 3.2 E+7 seconds agreed with $T=(365)(24)(3600)$ seconds. For more precision, a google gives $T=3.16 E+7$, (for the circular orbit), so that the distance of the diameter of the orbit is traveled in about 1.0 E+7 seconds. Meanwhile light takes 1000 seconds to travel the diameter of the orbit, so that the earth moves around the sun at a speed very close to one ten-thousandth the speed of light. A google showed this to be 18.5 miles/second, rather than 18.6=186,000/10,000, but the number one ten-thousandth is accurate to better than one part in a hundred. In any case, a couple of fun calculations. :)

 

[WWGD]

Wonder what this is about : Why is Spanish so popular in ( Edit: in Europe).

 

[DrGreg]

Wonder what this is about : Why is Spanish so popular in Spain?
View attachment 325900

Did you really mean to say that? Or did you mean to say "Why is Spanish so popular in Europe?"

I can think of two possible reasons.

1. Maybe in many schools Spanish isn't taught as much as other languages
2. Spain and Spanish islands are popular holiday destinations.

 

[WWGD]

Did you really mean to say that? Or did you mean to say "Why is Spanish so popular in Europe?"

I can think of two possible reasons.

1. Maybe in many schools Spanish isn't taught as much as other languages
2. Spain and Spanish islands are popular holiday destinations.

Indeed, I meant why Spanish is popular in Europe. I would have thought those in the tourist trade would be able to speak English fluently( given most tourists do as well).

 

[fresh_42]

Indeed, I meant why Spanish is popular in Europe. I would have thought those in the tourist trade would be able to speak English fluently( given most tourists do as well).

This survey was among ordinary people, not among those in the tourism industry. It has been asked which additional language would they like to speak. Since basically everybody between 15 and 30 already speaks English - more or less - plus their own language, the only reasonable languages in Europe are the three that have been listed. And Spanish is the logical choice because there are so many countries that speak Spanish. The few German ones either want to read Kant and Goethe in their original version or want to work in Germany although there are many reasons to visit Germany as a tourist. The Dutch know this.

 

[Borg]

This week, I discovered that my car posts inspection messages that can theoretically only be cleared by the dealer when you take it there to have it 'inspected'. A simple 20K check of fluids, etc. is over $400 and some inspections run in excess of $1000! I've been to dealers for repairs before and they use every opportunity to go on fishing expeditions to see how much they can scare you in order to have you do unnecessary repairs.

It took a bit of research but I found that cars in the U.S. are required to follow an On Board Display (OBD) standard for diagnostic tools which led me to this little device for $70 which will clear the "Inspection Due" messages and allow me to take it where I choose.

UPDATE:
I got the scanner today and used it to reset the service interval. Worked like a charm and it even told me about the last trick that the manufacturer had up its sleeve - the service reset can't be done unless the hood is open.

 

[dlgoff]

I watched a PBS program today about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Which reminded me about an interview and job offer as a non-destructive test engineer from Morton Thiokol, Inc. I had before the disaster. I ended up taking a job from a different employer. Thank goodness.

 

[nuuskur]

Wonder what this is about : Why is Spanish so popular in ( Edit: in Europe).
View attachment 325900

I would like to learn Spanish as well. Mainly because it's almost another lingua franca. In some parts of the world it definitely is. Just as Mandarin in many SEA countries.

 

[fresh_42]

This is going to be a tough weekend. Whenever I zap through an English channel I hear or read a word that sounds like a nasty disease or an overpriced beer. Then I realize it's even worse and I wish it was Monday.

 

[fresh_42]

I just read the headline: "ChatGPT for better teaching"

Then I read the little statement to figure out who it said - a university president.

Oops! Then I searched from which department this obviously dull professor came.

Physicist and biologist.

Double oops! What a disappointment.