Befuddling Child Utterances

[pcolbeck]

My nephew (11) has written his Christmas list. He wants stuff for the model railway he is building in the attic. A cottage, a signal box, a cow, a car and a tortoise !
Anyone know where you can get OO scale tortoises

[hellymedic]

My nephew (11) has written his Christmas list. He wants stuff for the model railway he is building in the attic. A cottage, a signal box, a cow, a car and a tortoise !
Anyone know where you can get OO scale tortoises

Make one; small quantities of Das modelling clay and paint are easier to source...

[pcolbeck]

It would be a very small quantity of paint and a very small brush to do one in 00 scale. the whole tortoise (if it was a particularly big one) would be the size of a lentil or split pea. There's an idea a split pea would even be the right shape and colour.

[Arch]

It would be a very small quantity of paint and a very small brush to do one in 00 scale. the whole tortoise (if it was a particularly big one) would be the size of a lentil or split pea. There's an idea a split pea would even be the right shape and colour.

A split pea is a very good idea!  But I bet, somewhere, there is a manufacturer making one - some of the German companies make all sorts of detailed stuff...

Or - not sure what OO scale works out at in terms of proportion.  Dolls House stuff like those below is generally 1/12, maybe too big.  Or they could be giant Galapagos tortoises!


   Terry & Jerry Tortoises (PR) | Other Pets and Animals | Dolls' House Accessories

[Arch]

Hmm, OO is roughly 1:76, so a dolls house one might be too huge....

[Arch]

I also had a slightly befuddling railway request at the weekend.  My sister rang and said "Oli wants to ask you something?", and put him on the phone. (He's three and a half).

"Auntie Sue, have you got any bridges?"

I couldn't quite make the last word out, and asked him to repeat, and then had to ask him to put Mummy back on, and ask her.  When she explained that he'd said bridges, I was still a bit bemused, until she said that he's been having trouble with the lowish bridges that come with the cheap Ikea Brio knock off track sets, and some of his bigger locos not going under them.  So what he was asking was actually "Auntie Sue, will you buy me a better bridge for my railway for Christmas?".

I asked her to put him back on, and said I didn't have any bridges right now, but I would see if I could find one or two by the time I saw him at Christmas, was that a good idea?  He was quite silent, but sis assured me that he was nodding earnestly at his end of the phone....

I have a fab lifting bridge on order now, and I've got the dimensions of the substandard bridge, so that I can check if the simple arch ones on the local wooden toy market stall are bigger.

[Butterfly]

You can rest (or glue) the feet of the low bridges to some jenga or similar to raise them. I usually rest them on stray stickle bricks at the moment, due to lack of jenga bricks. 

[Kim]

Pah, you've got your railway engineering all backwards.  Much easier to simply cut away the carpet under the bridges where the loading gauge is insufficient for the new rolling stock.

[CrinklyLion]

Littly has a very impressive Brio collection, given to him by his elder brother 'now that he's too big for Brio' over a couple of Christmases and birthdays - Zak collected it from his second birthday onwards.  I can have a rummage for duplicates if you like, as we'd struggle to fit a track that uses all of it at once into our house!

My favourite of this weekend's EldestCub-isms:

(slightly wistfully)

"I wish I had a single-speed mountain bike...."

(to add to the recumbent trike and the kiddyback tandem and the recumbent trike tandem and the bmx on his n+1 wish list)

Our work here is done.

[Arch]

You can rest (or glue) the feet of the low bridges to some jenga or similar to raise them. I usually rest them on stray stickle bricks at the moment, due to lack of jenga bricks. 

Yes, there is that - I think the only issue is then whether the bits of ascending and descending track rise up enough at the right angle.  Anyway, there's a great lifting bridge on it's way, I think he'll like that - and I like giving him train stuff - a Brio set was the one toy I longed for but didn't have as a child.  I think, being a dull sensible child, I never thought to ask for any, and I suspect it might have been a bit much for our frugal budget. Now I get to play with it when I visit! 

Kim, I like your idea, I'll mention it to my sister.... She did say that they are having a similar problem on the real local trains, with a lot of bridge works going on at the moment.

CL - I'm not sure I should come between the Littly and a single piece of his Brio!  Oli used to get stroppy enough when you used a straight bit when he wanted a bent bit (track assembly for a while tended to be him ordering any local adult to put it together for him.  Now, he can do it perfectly well himself - oh how quickly they grow up....)

[pcolbeck]

We have a blanket box in the attic stuffed with Brio and the cheap copies. Pcolbeck junior loved it when he was little and I am never throwing it away. It goes to the first grandchild if we ever get any.

[CrinklyLion]

Biggun (who is in the middle of cooking lunch for himself, his dad and his brother - only pasta and sauce, but we all start somewhere) got into a conversation with his dad about evaporation and states of matter and just explained to us that a non-newtonian liquid behaves like a solid under pressure.  And that custard is an example of this.

[hellymedic]

Has he seen that video of the chap running across the pool of custard?

[CrinklyLion]

I believe his information to have come from the 'how to cross the pirahna infested water in order to get to the PIES' section of the Science Museum's 'Don't try this at home' DVD, which came with his Science Museum 'Do try this at home' book purchased on a recent-ish trip to the big smoke.

[clarion]

Wait till he gets onto Bingham plastics

[Arch]

I believe his information to have come from the 'how to cross the pirahna infested water in order to get to the PIES' section of the Science Museum's 'Don't try this at home' DVD, which came with his Science Museum 'Do try this at home' book purchased on a recent-ish trip to the big smoke.

The logical spoilsport in me suggests that filling the pirahna infested water with custard powder might solve the problem of the pirahnas, without having to run across it.  Can fish breathe in custard?

Sounds like a good book though! 

[Kim]

No idea about piranhas, but Dangermouse fans know that hamsters can eat hundreds of times their own bodyweight in custard in order to save themselves and their secret agent companion from drowning.

[rower40]

No idea about piranhas, but Dangermouse fans know that hamsters can eat hundreds of times their own bodyweight in custard in order to save themselves and their secret agent companion from drowning.

"Crumbs, DM!!"
"Penfold - Shush."
 

[matthew]

Biggun (who is in the middle of cooking lunch for himself, his dad and his brother - only pasta and sauce, but we all start somewhere) got into a conversation with his dad about evaporation and states of matter and just explained to us that a non-newtonian liquid behaves like a solid under pressure.  And that custard is an example of this.

As someone who spent two years post-grad working with non-newtonian fluids his example is good but his definition is too tight.

Non-newtonian fluids simply do not behave newton equation that sheer rate is proportional to Sheer stress at a constant temperature independent of time. i.e. take two flat plates with a layer of liquid between them and holding the bottom one still rotate or slide the top.

Newtonian fluids have a straight line relationship between the speed and the force.
Sheer thickening fluids (custard or Cornflour in water) will get harder the faster the movement and may appear solid.
Sheer thining will get easier (I can't remember the common examples).
Bingham plastics have a straight line relationship but not through zero, it takes a minimum force to start moving. eg toothpaste, take the lid off and it won't flow out until you squeeze the tube.

Here ends the introduction to rheology 

[clarion]

I knew you were going to use toothpaste as the example of a Bingham.

It takes most kids about ten seconds to think of another one

[PaulF]

My favourite of this weekend's EldestCub-isms:

(slightly wistfully)

"I wish I had a single-speed mountain bike...."

Nothing wrong with that

Extra points if it's a 29er

[CrinklyLion]

As someone who spent two years post-grad working with non-newtonian fluids his example is good but his definition is too tight.

But not bad for a 9 year old!

[rr]

Mini (9) "You're mean, you're Margaret Thatcher"
Got to get the politics right early.

[Oaky]

Mini (9) "You're mean, you're Margaret Thatcher"
Got to get the politics right early.

Had you just taken the milk away?

[mrcharly-YHT]

Non-newtonian fluids simply do not behave newton equation that sheer rate is proportional to Sheer stress at a constant temperature independent of time. i.e. take two flat plates with a layer of liquid between them and holding the bottom one still rotate or slide the top.

YYou missed out the other fluids - the one's who's viscosity drops with shear stress (quicksand, salad dressing, drilling mud, etc). Or do they have a different name?