Author Topic: Science that makes you cringe  (Read 48653 times)

Giraffe

  • I brake for Giraffes
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #450 on: 20 November, 2023, 05:11:00 pm »
Indeed. Seems that very few people know how a 'vacuum' cleaner works. I've a mains beasty that'll take a 20mm spheroid of concrete and a cordless wimp that regurgitates 2mm grit, so I go slowly with the wimp to allow the airflow time to move the crud. Biggest drawback to the beasty is that it doesn't want to let go of the carpet; that's set to about 800W - on 1200W it's rather greedy.
2x4: thick plank; 4x4: 2 of 'em.

Kim

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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #451 on: 20 November, 2023, 06:01:04 pm »
Seems that very few people know how a 'vacuum' cleaner works.

They've probably got a Dyson.

Pingu

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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #452 on: 20 November, 2023, 06:07:21 pm »
...'Vacuums don't suck'...

Why does nature abhor them, then?

Mr Larrington

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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #453 on: 20 November, 2023, 06:12:37 pm »
“I can assure you, Sir, that this thing sucks!” — Captain Beefheart trying to sell a vacuum cleaner to Aldous Huxley.  Allegedly.
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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #454 on: 23 November, 2023, 11:19:11 am »
News reports that “oxygen” is being pumped to trapped miners. It’s air. Oxygen would be far harder to get in quantity, adds significant dangers and is no better at displacing the carbon dioxide that builds up and makes people feel breathless.
Quote from: Kim
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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #455 on: 01 December, 2023, 07:29:31 pm »
The woman looking after the self service checkouts in Aldi assured me that the reason why mine kept on whinging was because my rucksack was 'too thick' and that that stopped the items that I was loading into it pressing on the scales in the bagging area.  I managed to prevent myself from recycling the 'too thick' comment and merely suggested that physics doesn't work like that but she wasn't convinced.

Kim

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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #456 on: 01 December, 2023, 07:53:08 pm »
On a related note, I had one refuse to recognise a bag of keto-snacks on the grounds that someone had torn it open and helped themselves to two of them, which I only noticed when I discovered the hole on the third attempt and counted 10 rather than the expected 12.

I then had to explain the problem to the assistant, who was baffled that I'd noticed.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #457 on: 01 December, 2023, 07:56:05 pm »
Kim: I say, Mr Sainsbury, someone has purloined two keto snacks from this packet. This is unacceptable!
Spotty oik: Shit! I'm gonna have to find a new thing to steal for lunch tomorrow!
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Kim

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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #458 on: 01 December, 2023, 08:00:34 pm »
On a related note, they've finally activated the barcode-operated gates that release you from the self-checkout area.  Cue lots of beeping and queueueueueing and rummaging for receipts, and more stressed than usual supervisory oiks[1].  I note that one of gates had its service panel insufficiently attached, so I'm looking forward to a Big Clive style try-not-to-look-like-you've-had-an-electric-shock-in-front-of-the-customers incident.


[1] Who are mostly older women, for some reason.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #459 on: 01 December, 2023, 11:37:50 pm »
Article about moving bagged waste along 'vacuum' tubes said that the bags were moved by negative pressure.

this grinds my gears.
'Vacuums don't suck' is something I'd like taught in all schools.

Regardless of the use of negative, the bags are definitely not moved by negative pressure, but by a pressure differential. In lots of situations, they are moved by the weight of the atmosphere.

One for another thread, perhaps, but ITYM difference rather than differential.
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Giraffe

  • I brake for Giraffes
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #460 on: 02 December, 2023, 04:36:01 pm »
a difference in pressure OR the differential pressure.

Rather OT (maths, perhaps?): Welsh retail sector suffering from 'negative footfall'. How many -persons needed before all previous persons are negated?
Use of positive and negative could occupy a thread - eg, having covid test is +1 (positive test); not having test is 0; how does one have/not have -1 covid test (negative test)? Results are not tests, so positive test could yield zero covid.
2x4: thick plank; 4x4: 2 of 'em.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #461 on: 02 December, 2023, 05:04:36 pm »
^^^Yebbut positive and negative have meanings beyond mathematics. If you look at e.g. Chambers, being numerically greater than zero is only the 10th meaning on the list of definitions. #1 is 'sure, certain or convinced'.  Similarly, the mathematical meaning of negative is only the 6th definition thereof.
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Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #462 on: 02 December, 2023, 06:52:22 pm »
^^^Yebbut positive and negative have meanings beyond mathematics. If you look at e.g. Chambers, being numerically greater than zero is only the 10th meaning on the list of definitions. #1 is 'sure, certain or convinced'.  Similarly, the mathematical meaning of negative is only the 6th definition thereof.
Don't go bringing common sense into a thread about science (or any thread where "cringe" is involved)!
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Kim

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Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #463 on: 02 December, 2023, 08:05:39 pm »
Use of positive and negative could occupy a thread - eg, having covid test is +1 (positive test); not having test is 0; how does one have/not have -1 covid test (negative test)? Results are not tests, so positive test could yield zero covid.

There's a strong positive = good association in BSL.  Which was a big problem in the Deaf community in the early days of the previous pandemic.

Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #464 on: 08 February, 2024, 07:35:26 pm »
I came across a power supply that was specified with a maximum rate of change of voltage, and a maximum rate of change of current, in conditions where the load could vary basically intantly.
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T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #465 on: 09 February, 2024, 08:25:17 am »
Use of positive and negative could occupy a thread - eg, having covid test is +1 (positive test); not having test is 0; how does one have/not have -1 covid test (negative test)? Results are not tests, so positive test could yield zero covid.

There's a strong positive = good association in BSL.  Which was a big problem in the Deaf community in the early days of the previous pandemic.

When I had the cardiac stress test that revealed my coronary stenosis the cardiologist said "I'm sorry, but it's positive".  I thought, and he must immediately realised I thought, that that was good, because he added "positive for a problem, that is - negative for you".
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Giraffe

  • I brake for Giraffes
Re: Science that makes you cringe
« Reply #466 on: 09 February, 2024, 04:56:51 pm »
Article about annie lectric car:  "accelerating at velocity".
2x4: thick plank; 4x4: 2 of 'em.