General Questions

[kikie]

I guess so... .


I want another tongue!

 

[Famine]

However, what I must add (good point, though) is that these indents are not rough; they appear to be natural indents about 0.7mm thick and spaced apart by 7mm along my left thumbnail, in my case. My friend said a while back that it was a zinc deficiency...

Causes vary - zinc deficiency is one, but if they only appear on one or two nails it's more likely an impact on the part of the finger/toe just below the nail. I've got one right now, about 1mm wide and nearly 1cm long, 2/3 of the way up my nail.

What is the right way, the best way to physically pronounce - thr - correctly for non English speaking people?

What do I have to do with my mouth, tongue, air in my mouth to make it sound right? E.g three, through, ...

I don't seem to have much problems with the - th -, I just have to stick out my tongue and press the air outwards between my tounge and teeth.

English is peculiar amongst European languages for having the "th" sound anyway. Other languages have the letters, but pronounce them as a hard "tuh" sound. So you're fighting against the tide already.

As for the "r", it really depends upon your accent. More "refined" accents roll the r, so it sounds like machine gun fire (or a cat's purr). Less "refined" accents don't. "Received pronunciation" (more or less my accent but without some of the Yorkshire) wouldn't roll the r. It's your choice - three or thrrree. "Three" sounds less stupid though.


If you really want to blend in with most English English speakers, pronounce the "th" as an "f" too. But I will hit you.

But actually I just want to ask this:
How do you calculate rpm? (Revolutions per minute)
If it can be calculated, how do you determine how much rev can an engine take? (before the engine blows up or something happened to the engine)

Calculating it is easy. Every time the crankshaft turns once, that's one revolution. You count how many it does in a minute. That's revolutions per minute.

How do you determine how much an engine can take? Bench testing. Get the engine out of the car, put it in a rig and rev it until it assplodes. Do it at least 200 times. Take 10% off the average and that's your fuel cut-out/rev limit.

Here is one I've always contemplated: Suppose one placed two perfectly round marbles on a perfectly flat table, 20cm from each other, and left them there in a sealed room. Would they ever move, let alone touch each other? Surely the extremely minute amount of gravitational pull that both the objects possess would eventually pull them towards each other?

No. Unless the table was frictionless.

Assume the marbles weigh 20 grams each. The gravitational attraction between all objects is the Gravitational Constant multiplied by the masses of the two objects multiplied together, divided by the square of the distance between them

F = G (m1m2/r^2)

In this case it's G(0.02x0.02/0.02^2), resolving to G x 1. So the gravitational force between them is the same magnitude as the Gravitational Constant - 0.00000000006.67N.

The frictional force between a marble and the table is roughly 1.3% of their mass - 0.0027N - which is 40 million times stronger. The marbles won't move together without any external influence.


If you assume the table is frictionless, then yes, the marbles would gradually come together. Though it'd take nine and a half years.

I remember reading an article about particles that copy eachothers movements even though they are in completely different places. They suggested that they were linked by an invisible force which meant they reacted to eacothers movements even though they were hundreds of miles apart. Can anyone provide any more information on the subject?

Do you remember what the particles were?

 

[wfooshee]

No. Unless the table was frictionless.

Assume the marbles weigh 20 grams each. The gravitational attraction between all objects is the Gravitational Constant multiplied by the masses of the two objects multiplied together, divided by the square of the distance between them

F = G (m1m2/r^2)

In this case it's G(0.02x0.02/0.02^2), resolving to G x 1. So the gravitational force between them is the same magnitude as the Gravitational Constant - 0.00000000006.67N.

The frictional force between a marble and the table is roughly 1.3% of their mass - 0.0027N - which is 40 million times stronger. The marbles won't move together without any external influence.


If you assume the table is frictionless, then yes, the marbles would gradually come together. Though it'd take nine and a half years.

Need to be in a vacuum, too, probably.

how do you determine how much rev can an engine take? (before the engine blows up or something happened to the engine)

Engine speed is limited mostly by valve action. Valve springs can only move so fast. When the cam lobe drops to close the valve, does the valve follow it? At high speeds it does not, and you get valve float, which really messes up things that are supposed to happen in the combustion chamber. You get flame in the intake manifold, loss of compression, blah blah blah.

That's why Formula 1 engines, and now most MotoGP as well, use pneumatic systems. The valve is closed by air pressure, not a metal spring, which allows the valve to follow the cam profile. Now you've made the bottom end the part that has to hold together.

Other engine speed problems are simply how much mass is moving, and how hard a force does it take to change that mass's direction of travel. Pistons go up and down, and connecting rods, wrist pins, and bearing have to take that load, on the order of 10,000 g's at the wrist pin (not a typo: 10 to the 4th power!) The conn rods actually stretch and compress under the load, and how much of that they can take determines when they come apart and go through the side of the block.

A Formula One engine has a very short stroke, around 40mm, specifically to limit the load on conn rods. The piston moves slower than an engine of longer stroke but smaller bore. With such a short stroke, even at 19,000 RPM the piston speed is about the same as a high-performance street car.

Engine failures aren't always parts failures directly. You have timing errors, oil loss, overheating, etc.

The obvious question is: Why do you need all those revs? Simple answer. RPM=Horsepower. The amount of power an engine produces is directly proportional to the engine's speed multiplied by the torque it produces at that speed.

 

[Rykon Zero]

What are the lightest glasses one can buy? Mine are 7 grams.

 

[daan]

Though it'd take nine and a half years.

Did you calculate in the extra 2 days, or maybe even 3, when you hit a leap year?

Or is it really only 9 years, 5 months and 27 days?

 

[Rykon Zero]

9 years, 5 months, 27 days, 14 hours, 22 minutes, and 3.141592653589793238462643383279502 seconds.

 

[buickgnx88]

Pi seconds? You're kidding!

 

[Mark T]

Do you remember what the particles were?

I'm not sure but I found an article, a quote from it below. Source New York Times

IT was as if some ghostly bridge across the city of Geneva, Switzerland, had permitted two photons of light nearly seven miles apart to respond simultaneously to a stimulus applied to just one of them.

The twin-photon experiment by Dr. Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva and his colleagues last month was the most spectacular demonstration yet of the mysterious long-range connections that exist between quantum events, connections created from nothing at all, which in theory can reach instantaneously from one end of the universe to the other.

In essence, Dr. Gisin sent pairs of photons in opposite directions to villages north and south of Geneva along optical fibers of the kind used to transmit telephone calls. Reaching the ends of these fibers, the two photons were forced to make random choices between alternative, equally possible pathways.

Since there was no way for the photons to communicate with each other, ''classical'' physics would predict that their independent choices would bear no relationship to each other. But when the paths of the two photons were properly adjusted and the results compared, the independent decisions by the paired photons always matched, even though there was no physical way for them to communicate with each other.

Albert Einstein sneered at the very possibility of such a thing, calling it ''spooky action at a distance.'' Scientists still (somewhat shamefacedly) speak of the ''magic'' of ''quantum weirdness.'' And yet all experiments in recent years have shown that Einstein was wrong and that action at a distance is real.

The idea behind Dr. Gisin's experiment was not new. Since the 1970's, physicists have been testing a prediction of quantum theory that ''entangled'' particles continue to communicate with each other instantaneously even when very far apart.

Entangled particles are identical entities that share common origins and properties, and remain in instantaneous touch with each other, no matter how wide the gap between them.

Although the article doesn't mention them copying eachother it still mentions communication between them.

 

[Rykon Zero]

Nevar mind.

 

[Loon]

If you really want to blend in with most English English speakers, pronounce the "th" as an "f" too. But I will hit you.

Who does that?

So the = Fee, that = faat, them = fem.

I think you mean replace th with a d

So a sentence would look like this...

Whats a matter with de car, dat thing is always breaking, dem some nice wheels dough.

 

[Famine]

I think you mean replace th with a d

Yes, of course I do. Since I don't speak English or in fact live in England.

 

[Diego440]

Like that guy in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels saying "He's a [effing] fief!"


I find it odd that the 'General Questions' thread has become the 'Mostly Inane and Time-Wasting Doubts that Affect People Who Have Too Much Free Time" thread.

 

[superberkut]

I find it odd that the 'General Questions' thread has become the 'Mostly Inane and Time-Wasting Doubts that Affect People Who Have Too Much Free Time" thread.

Well then, why is it that if you play in an all-star game in high school that you would be banned from playing college hoops? (LeBron James did this)

 

[Loon]

Yes, of course I do. Since I don't speak English or in fact live in England.

...ok, no need to be a little touchy when someone doubts you.

 

[Rykon Zero]

You just got Famine angry. I thought Vulcans had no emotions?

 

[Famine]

...ok, no need to be a little touchy when someone doubts you.

Doubting me is fine. Correcting me on the basis of... nothing?

So please, enlighten the audience as to your expertise with English as commonly spoken in the United Kingdom.

 

[superberkut]

*requesting deletion of post, not account*

 

[Loon]

Doubting me is fine. Correcting me on the basis of... nothing?

So please, enlighten the audience as to your expertise with English as commonly spoken in the United Kingdom.

You'll notice that I didn't say you were wrong, in my post I put, 'I think', not that, you're wrong and this is what you mean. As in it's my opinion that you may be wrong.

So please, enlighten me and everyone else as to why you're in such a pissy mood?

 

[Famine]

You'll notice that I didn't say you were wrong, in my post I put, 'I think', not that, you're wrong and this is what you mean. As in it's my opinion that you may be wrong.

So please, enlighten me and everyone else as to why you're in such a pissy mood?

Ah yes. Of course. Your error is my fault because I'm in... some kind of mood or something. You know, that mood where I could give out Infractions to someone using the word "Japanese", but instead choose to edit it out and politely let them know the difference. Or where I answer people's questions for them. Straw man, at all?


Seriously - you know so much about the English language as it's spoken in the UK. Enough to tell everyone exactly what you think about it. So please come forward with the origin of your knowledge - I'm sure it exceeds mine, since you saw fit to correct my statement with your thoughts.

Do you remember one of the central tenets of GTPlanet? "If you don't know the answer, don't give it."

 

[Beerz]

*gets bucket of popcorn*

 

[superberkut]

Wrong thing to say, Loon. However, I think the phrasing was just a bit off. Seeing as Loon clearly meant something else than what was suggested by how he phrased his statement, I believe that there should not be much of a reason now to argue, other than what he just said.

 

[Famine]

*gets bucket of popcorn*

Grab a corn dog - it's not liable to be feature length.

 

[Loon]

Ah yes. Of course. Your error is my fault because I'm in... some kind of mood or something. Straw man, at all?


Seriously - you know so much about the English language as it's spoken in the UK. Enough to tell everyone exactly what you think about it. So please come forward with the origin of your knowledge - I'm sure it exceeds mine, since you saw fit to correct my statement with your thoughts.

Do you remember one of the central tenets of GTPlanet? "If you don't know the answer, don't give it."

I based it on my opinion, I tried saying it in my head it didn't seem like something anyone would say it that way. But still, I said I think. Not that you were 100% wrong and that was 100% right. Obviously I was a little fuzzy on it.

And if I've broken one of the rules then give me infraction and lets be done with this.

 

[Rykon Zero]

Please stop. This is a poor reason to go on arguing.

 

[Famine]

I based it on my opinion

I'll ask again - your opinion of English as spoken in the UK originates from where?

I tried saying it in my head it didn't seem like something anyone would say it that way.

Now try with the two words kikie was using as examples - three and through.

To me "fawcet" doesn't seem like something anyone would say instead of "tap". I wouldn't stretch as far as saying I thought they were wrong about how their own language is spoken in their own country.

And if I've broken one of the rules then give me infraction and lets be done with this.

Since obviously I'm a supermoderator and that means disagreeing with me gets you an Infraction? Dismal.


Now, your accusations of my "pissy mood". Here are all of my posts since yesterday (if that link doesn't work, Advanced Search, Famine, Yesterday are the options you need). Have at it.

 

[superberkut]

Got a blended drink for this. Why is it that today's blenders are made, of all things, out of plastic? Wouldn't that be a less durable and now more expensive alternative to glass?

 

[Famine]

Got a blended drink for this. Why is it that today's blenders are made, of all things, out of plastic? Wouldn't that be a less durable and now more expensive alternative to glass?

Glass is harder (and thus more expensive) to mould into shapes like that. For mass production you just want to stamp out a bunch of jug-shaped things with a hole in the bottom, and plastic's the winner there.

 

[Loon]

I'll ask again - your opinion of English as spoken in the UK originates from where?

I suppose no where. Just my opinion based off that I speak English.

Now try with the two words kikie was using as examples - three and through.

To me "fawcet" doesn't seem like something anyone would say instead of "tap". I wouldn't stretch as far as saying I thought they were wrong about how their own language is spoken in their own country.

That's different though, thats two different words meaning the same thing. We were talking about changing a couple letters.

Since obviously I'm a supermoderator and that means disagreeing with me gets you an Infraction? Dismal.[/color=indigo]

No, you're the one who decided to pull something from the AUP.

Now, your accusations of my "pissy mood". Here are all of my posts since yesterday (if that link doesn't work, Advanced Search, Famine, Yesterday are the options you need). Have at it.[/b]

I accused of that since you got a little touchy because of my first comment, and decided to drag it out to here now. Plus you closed the 'would you' thread, in my opinion, no reason.

So, why don't we take this to pm's since we've taken up so much of this thread with useless ramblings.

 

[Famine]

I suppose no where. Just my opinion based off that I speak English.

So you're fully conversant with all forms of it then?

That's different though, thats two different words meaning the same thing. We were talking about changing a couple letters.

"Free" is a different word to "three". But in parts of the UK they mean the same thing.

No, you're the one who decided to pull something from the AUP.

Really? Which AUP is that then? Nothing I've said so far comes from our AUP.

I accused of that since you got a little touchy because of my first comment, and decided to drag it out to here now. Plus you closed the 'would you' thread, in my opinion, no reason.

I see. So my not liking you correcting me on how my language (not yours) is spoken in my country, combined with me closing some thread somewhere means that I am in a "pissy mood"?

I guess all the posts I've made today helping people out, tidying up minor errors and approving posts for the forum don't count then.

So, why don't we take this to pm's since we've taken up so much of this thread with useless ramblings.

Nah, I'm good thanks.

 

[Rykon Zero]

If one gets a post deleted, does their post count go down one, or does it just not show up?