Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Come to think of it, why doesn't rain short out power cables?

  I don't even understand this question. Why should it?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 2 Sep 2009 14:16:50 -0400, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:

>Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Come to think of it, why doesn't rain short out power cables?
>
>  I don't even understand this question. Why should it?

Because when no one tells Andrew to come in out of the rain he gets wet and when
he gets wet he would conduct electricity. ;)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 09/02/09 11:00, nemesis wrote:
> Because it's cool. The whole UFO "I want to believe" mantra as well as
> the "Trust no one" conspiracionist theories were all around in the 90s...

	Actually, the only episodes I enjoyed were the ones that weren't about 
UFO's and aliens.


-- 
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.

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On 09/02/09 11:04, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:48:54 +0100, Invisible wrote:
>> What does "101" actually mean? (Besides being the 26th prime number,
>> anyway.) What do people actually mean when they say "bird watching 101"?
>
> Comes from university systems (at least in the US).  A course number like
> CS101 is essentially "Computer Science for noobs".  PS101 is "Physical
> Science for noobs".

	Yes, but why 101? Why not 100? (I've occasionally seen a 100 course, 
but 101 is much more common).

-- 
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.

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Neeum Zawan wrote:
>     Yes, but why 101? Why not 100? (I've occasionally seen a 100 course, 
> but 101 is much more common).

Because most normal people start counting at one?

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Understanding the structure of the universe
    via religion is like understanding the
     structure of computers via Tron.

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On Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:31:30 -0500, Neeum Zawan wrote:

> On 09/02/09 11:04, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:48:54 +0100, Invisible wrote:
>>> What does "101" actually mean? (Besides being the 26th prime number,
>>> anyway.) What do people actually mean when they say "bird watching
>>> 101"?
>>
>> Comes from university systems (at least in the US).  A course number
>> like CS101 is essentially "Computer Science for noobs".  PS101 is
>> "Physical Science for noobs".
> 
> 	Yes, but why 101? Why not 100? (I've occasionally seen a 100 
course,
> but 101 is much more common).

Maybe the first unis that did this figured people were Pascal-based 
rather than C-based.  (Pascal, IIRC, starts arrays at '1', C starts at 
'0').

Jim

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Neeum Zawan wrote:
> On 09/02/09 11:00, nemesis wrote:
>> Because it's cool. The whole UFO "I want to believe" mantra as well as
>> the "Trust no one" conspiracionist theories were all around in the 90s...
> 
>     Actually, the only episodes I enjoyed were the ones that weren't 
> about UFO's and aliens.

That would be most of the episodes, I guess.  The so-called 
"monster-of-the-week" episodes.  They are still fillers.

I also enjoyed immensely the meta episodes poking fun at the series itself.

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nemesis <nam### [at] nospam-gmailcom> wrote:
> That would be most of the episodes, I guess.  The so-called
> "monster-of-the-week" episodes.  They are still fillers.
>
> I also enjoyed immensely the meta episodes poking fun at the series itself.

Couldn't agree more.  And I feel better now.  It comes on in about 40 minutes!

 - Ricky

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Darren New wrote:
> Neeum Zawan wrote:
>>     Yes, but why 101? Why not 100? (I've occasionally seen a 100 
>> course, but 101 is much more common).
> 
> Because most normal people start counting at one?
> 

Also by convention, 100 is the last (if available) of the remedial 
courses for a topic.

101 isn't usually the "for noobs" section, but rather the "first course 
appropriate for college" level.

If you've failed to master high school material, then you'll probably 
have to go through 60, 70, 80, 90, and occasionally a 100 course to make 
sure you can handle the college courses.

At least, that's the theory.  In reality they often get weird numbers 
(like 126 being the first course in a series, or 110 the first of another).

...Chambers

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> Why do overhead cables never flap around in the wind?

Actually they do, it's just it's usually very fast and very low amplitude 
flapping.  Imagine holding out a stretched violin string in the wind, it's 
not really going to flap is it?

Anyway, take 200 metres of this stuff (which I make weighs 10 tons):

http://www.csunitec.com/saws/new-river-band-saw.html

pull it *very* tightly between two points (I estimate you're going to need 
at least 60 tons of tension in the cable), and then put it in the wind, I 
can't see it flapping about too much personally.  Some of the really long 
cables have dampers on them to get rid of the main resonant frequency, a bit 
like what they put on the Millennium Bridge in London to stop it resonating 
at the frequency people walked at.

> Come to think of it, why doesn't rain short out power cables?

Because air with rain in it is still an insulator?

> Steelworks. They have furnaces hot enough to melt steel, right? So what 
> THE HELL is the furnace itself made of?!

Lots of things have higher melting points than most steels.  Ceramics for 
instance.

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