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Everything is harmful to humans in excess. You can overdose on water and oxygen. Petroleum jelly has a long history of providing health benefits. It has also been consumed in small quantities by some who believe it is good for the digestive system. If taken in excess, it is harmful. --Kainaw(talk)00:32, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Are you asking why it might contain polysaccharides and monosaccharides? If so, then here is my answer. Sugars are usually stored as polysaccharides (why that is, I'm not exactly sure); glycogen is the main storage form in animals, and cellulose is for plants. To be used for an energy source the polysaccharide has to be broken down into a monosaccharide (usually glucose). So when a cellulose molecule in a plant is broken down, you could have both polysaccharides and monosaccharides at the same time.Dimblethum05:02, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
That's only half the reason. The other reason is that glucose is quite small, so it can be easily lost by the plant to the environment, along with your oxygen and carbon dioxide. -- Natalinasmpf22:07, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
AOL installation dies on me
What's up with these errors?? I have no idea why i'M getting them, AOL has always installed just fine in the past (AOL spyware not withstanding), and now everytime I start the process I get these..
As an alternative, would anyone know where I can find a much older aol installation? online? something like AOL 5.0 or 6.0, so I don't have to put up with all the addweary goodness that is 9.0b-SE--Aolanonawanabe23:49, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I can't help with the error message, but there appears to be an AOL 5.0 version for download at this site. I've never used it before, but it looks to be fairly legitimate. --ParkerHiggins01:06, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Well, a quick google determined that "AOL 5.0 has resident broadband support capability" (from this site with the annoying pop-up). I think that means you're a go, but I can't be sure. You can check on the article, if you're in doubt. --ParkerHiggins01:27, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Windows is a very broken thing hobbled by having to be backward compatible and a certain amount of poor design and failure to iron bugs out, so I'm surprised you would even ask why. On top of that, various installs and uninstalls of other software could easily leave your system in a broken state, that could interfere with the current install. The only solution to some windows failures is a clean install, but people will tell you that can be very risky as the distributor that installed in the first place had worked out all the driver issues etc, and probably had an image they ghosted onto the drive. You don't have that, so the reinstall could be risky. That said, I've used the OS reinstall disks that come with dells several times and they general work pretty well. So I'd say backup backup, get all your application install cd's and have a clean go at it. - TaxmanTalk13:59, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Medical/psych question
Hey, this probably isn't the right place to ask this, but I have a question re mental health,fulfillment, and psychiatric meds.
I've got a great psychiatrist. He brought me back from a really bad place. I'm taking four different meds every day to keep things in the old brain operating normally, and as long as I do so I am able to deal with my feelings that life is utterly meaningless and lagerly devoid of pleasure and happiness.
That's what the meds are supposed to do - allow me to handle my feelings. Here's the thing - I'd like to enjoy life and be happy sometimes, not just not be overcome. I'm currently in therapy, and practicing cognitive behavior therapy. It is interesting but not efective in making me happy.
Is there any medicine that makes you happy? I have a _large_ family to support, and would rather not just exist as the food, shelter, and cash producing machine. I'd really like it if I could enjoy life as well.
I wouldn't say there was. Besides, medicines that make you "feel" happy IMO would be kind of an empty, meaningless happiness....I am reminded of the "happiness" induced in Huxley's "Brave New World". Medication to relieve depression is one thing, but to seek happiness I would indulge in philosophy, metaphysics and Nicomachean Ethics, not medication. -- Natalinasmpf04:51, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I think there's a middle ground in there. I agree with Natalinasmpf that there are no psychiatric medications that make you happy, nor would you likely want them if there were. At the same time, many people, myself included, have better experiences with meds than something that merely allows you to function while still having depressive feelings. It's a fine line to draw, I know, but my experience is that the medicine didn't make me happy, it allowed me to be happy. On medication, I wasn't some unnaturally cheery person who was always happy regardless of the circumstances; but I was happy some of the time, more or less when you would expect a normal person to be, whereas when I had been depressed and not on any medication, I was constantly sad, even when I had no reason to be. If that's something you want to explore with your psychiatrist, talk to him/her about either increasing your dosage or switching medications. The danger is that the reaction to psychiatric medications varies greatly from person to person--what works wonders for one person is completely ineffective for another, and vice versa--and the only way of knowing what works best for you is experimentation. So if you do try switching medications, the danger is that you may give up even the functionality you've achieved so far. Whether that's a risk you're willing to take is between you and your psychiatrist. 12.223.56.10609:26, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Taking medication that makes you feel happy is just kidding yourself. Perhaps if the therapy works your psych will decide to lower the dosage somewhat. Still, the best way to feel happy is to do stuff you like to do with friends and family. - Mgm|(talk)11:20, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Meds, shcmeds. Philosophise. "Depressed" is a feeling; that "life is utterly meaningless and lagerly devoid of pleasure and happiness" is a thought, and it's obviously wrong. Think it through....
It can take a long time to develop an optimitic philosophy that can stand up to negative influences, and a longer time to translate that philosophy into positive emotions.... start by accepting that your happiness is your number one priority, more important even than "the truth". Exclude negative influences from your life (a friend of mine now refuses to watch the news; he's ill informed, but it doesn't matter, and people like him a lot more....) Learn to nip all negative emotions in the bud.... they're highly addictive, and entirely useless. TheMadBaron02:02, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
This might sound a bit trite but I'm happy if I wake up in the morning. My life is hard. My work is hard. I also feel that I am just a machine to produce money, food, shelter, for a bunch of leeches but when I look back to my dad I can see that he too must have felt the same. In time I have grown to understand that I was not as considerate as I could have been when I was young. That keeps my hopes up as regards my own little leeches in that over time they will be more considerate. In the mean time I take pleasure in the little things and those odd moments when I get to watch the sun going down. Take pleasure in the little things and the big problems are easier to handle.--Eye23:16, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Prolog
Is it possible to implement an equality check for "arrays" in Prolog? I am running into a problem where my particular version of Prolog is comparing memory addresses instead of the actual array contents in the recursive check. Any tips? --HappyCamper03:11, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If you're using "A == B" (A identical to B) you might try "A ?= B" (A unifiable to B). If you're actually using lists, and they're fully instantiated (no uninstantiated elements), "A ?= B" should tell you whether the lists contain the same elements (recursively, all the way down to atoms) in a single expression. -- Rick Block (talk) 03:24, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Active polymer material which acts as an antiback agent in textile washing industry
Will pressure different inside and outside a building?
Will the air pressure different inside and outside a building?For a building near the sea,will the air pressure different too?
For the most part, no, there will be no difference. Buildings are not airtight, and even if they were, the pressure would rapidly equalize as soon as anyone opened a door. One exception to the general rule would be inflatable domed sports stadiums, such as the RCA Dome, where a roof of flexible fabric is held up by air pressuree. In these, the pressure is retained while people enter and exit via revolving doors. There are also conventional doors which can be used as emergency exits, but the pressure difference does create a stiff breeze if these are opened. Chuck09:09, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Skyscrapers also seem to have a stiff breeze when doors are open; perhaps they have trouble equalizing pressure because the external pressure is different between the top and bottom? -- SCZenz09:15, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It shouldn't be because of the pressure difference between top and bottom, either externally or internally. The difference in pressure due to altitude is an effect of gravity, and it would have the same effect both inside and outside the building. (That is, the external pressure at the top of the building will be less than the external pressure at the bottom, but at the same time the internal pressure at the top will be less than the internal pressure at the bottom.) I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that skyscrapers, while not perfectly airtight, have few enough spaces for gas to escape that it is possible for a pressure differential to build up, just as a result of ventilation, possibly with effects due to heating or cooling the air inside the building too. Note that skyscrapers also generally don't have windows that can be opened, limiting the ways in which the external and internal pressures can equalize. Chuck09:32, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
No, tornado damage is caused by the wind. It was at one time thought that when a tornado was approaching, one should open a window to "equalize the pressure," it's now known that this is unneccessary, and in fact it is strongly recommended that one not open a window. See here and here for examples. Chuck13:46, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
All that says is that openning a window is pointless and would just scatter broken glass anywhere, it doesn't say anything about there not being a preasure difference, not to mention wind is a preasure difference--Aolanonawanabe15:43, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Air flow, such as wind, causes pressure to drop (this principle is also used in wings). So if a wind starts blowing, there will be a difference in air pressure, causing air to flow out at a rate dependent on the size (and location?) of apertures. And when, after satbilising, the wind (suddenly) drops, there will again be a pressure difference. About the location of the apertures. Suppose they are all at the windward side. Then I suppose air will get blown in, causing air pressure inside to actually increase despite the decreased outside pressure. DirkvdM14:25, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
That is very correct. A house cannot adjust pressure immediately. Wind also creates lift on the roof. Combined, many roofs give way and blow down the road. --Kainaw(talk)16:57, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If your building is large enough then you may notice a Helmholtz Resonator. If this is the case then pressure in the building will periodically move up and down. For the Helmholtz Resonation to work, you need a dominant opening (ie a big door) and for the rest of the building to be virtually sealed (note: a shopping centre provides perfect conditions). When wind hits the opening it goes into into the building and sqeezes/compressses the air inside - increasing the pressure. The air then expands back, and the pressure drops. The process repeats itself.
Helmholtz resonation occurred at a local shopping centre. When it was raining it was noticed that the rain was getting "sucked" about 10 metres into the building - and stores were getting soaked. In the neighbouring post office the rain was only getting sucked in a couple of meters - the large, sealed nature of the shopping centre was allowing resonation which periodically sucked in air (and rain), and peridocially forced out air (but not the rain, which was saturating the store displays). The solution was to reduce the size of the dominant opening, with a glass wall replacing to old big door, and a side door installed. This is illustrated below, not to scale.
_______________
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|____ ___|
new door => /_______|
It is worth noting that the barometer is one of the few weather data recording instruments that meteorologists prefer to have indoors. Obviously instruments such as thermometers need to be outdoors, but for one that would get the same reading both indoors and outdoors, why expose the instrument (or, for that matter, the human observer) to the elements? EWS23 | (Leave me a message!)03:59, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Kerosene and burning it.
I have searched everywhere but was not able to find the answer I was looking for.
If I pour kerosene (ordinary kerosene) into a cup (a standard cup in which you drink tea) and then bring a lighted matchstick over it, will it burn? I am sure it will not, but my friends at work say it will and have bet me one cup of tea. I also remember doing this exact thing when I was a young kid and it did not.
Various web pages, such as this one, give the flash point of kerosene as 110° Fahrenheit (which is 43° Celsius) or somewhat higher. In order to start it burning you would have to warm some of the kerosene to at least that temperature. A match held very close to the liquid might very well do it: after all, people light kerosene lamps easily enough. But a match held "over" the cup at a short distance might not (even though a more dangerous fuel like gasoline would ignite). I would not want to speculate as to how close you bring it in safety. Indeed, I'd say "don't try this at home, kids." --Anonymous, oh my look at the time, 10:10 UTC, December 6, 2005
I think the vapour pressure of kerosene at room temperature in low enough that it is actually pretty hard to light. I have seen someone demonstrate this by dropping a lit match into a container of kero. The match went out. Kero lamps use presure or wicks to help vaporise the kerosene before burning it. --Martyman-(talk)11:03, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Keep in mind that the liquid does not burn. The vapor/fumes/gasses burn. In a lanp, you light the wick, which heats the kerosene that has crept up the wick. At first, you are burning cotton (or something similar). As the heat builds up, you begin burning fuel instead. On a similar topic, I did an experiment with lighting a milk carton full of gas and one with just a little gas in the bottom. The full one caught on fire and made a mess. The empty one exploded and left a hole in the ground. Once again, the reason was that the fumes burn - not the liquid. So, going back to the original question, holding a match over the liquid to try and get it to start evaporating should get a flame started, assuming the match doesn't burn your fingers first. --Kainaw(talk)16:52, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
"How can i make women attracted to me"?
If you want the slimy method of doing so, do a Google search for "seduction" and there's all manner of people who are prepared to sell you all sorts of grooming, conversational, and body-language tricks that are supposed to help seduce women. The proprietors swear by them; independent endorsements are a little harder to find. If you want a little chemical help of the legal and ethical kind, there are other people who sell pheromones which are supposed to mimic the natural pheromones that women find attractive. You mileage may vary. Personally, I very much doubt there's any magic short cuts; dress sharp, be nice, be confident, and search for women who are interested in the same thing as you (be that a one night stand or a longer-term relationship). --Robert Merkel10:56, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Pretty much the biggest attractors (varying in importance for a given woman) are a great personality, confidence, money, looks, and talent. If you have at least one of the five and are persistent enough, at least some women will be attracted to you. Playing the numbers game works pretty well to, partly becaue it takes confidence. Ask 20 women out and have something interesting to say and you'll probably be successful with a lot more than one. You can of course work to improve on as many of the above five as possible, but confidence alone does work. - TaxmanTalk13:37, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
great summary :) "confidence alone does work" is only too true, sadly leading to the spawning of legions of male jerks. So if the question is intended to read "any woman" rather than "a particular woman", your best bet is to become a megalomanic jerk. dab(ᛏ)13:43, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks :) The problem is compounded by the wierd fact that a large number of women are attracted to "bad" guys and some even to guys that treat them like crap. Of course nice guys that figure out a bit of the game are much more likely to end up in a fulfilling relationship, and the jerks get their due in the end. Good stuff below too. - TaxmanTalk22:35, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
(assuming you're a guy) I once did a little unofficial field (street) study of what type of men walk around with pretty women and I found that they could be roughly classified as either 'bikers' or 'yuppies' (this was in the early 1990's). So my conclusion was that (pretty) women are attracted to men with power, be it physical (old style power) or financial (new style power). In an evolutionary sense this makes sense because the offspring needs to be protected. That creating offspring is nowadays hardly a reason to start a relationship is irrelevant. It's the environment we evolved in that determines our sexdrives (which 'love' and such basically come down to - excuse me for being so down to Earth). Of course this is related to the confidence thing; you can also fake it. And the 'dressing sharp' fits in with the yuppie type (for the biker type 'sharp' is not quite the word). Finding a woman who is interested in the same things as you sounds logical, but I have my doubts. Studies have shown that people can 'sniff out' those with a different DNA-makeup, to whom they are more attracted. This also makes sense evolutionarily. If same-type people were mutually attracted that would be sort of inbreeding. I mean the 'sniffing out' quite literally - smell seems to be an indicator for this. So if you want this to work, you shouldn't really wash too often and certainly not use soap. So why don't I have a woman then? :) DirkvdM14:47, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Alternative answer: You probably can't make women attracted to you.
This is not the answer you want to hear, but I'm of the "Tough Love" school of anonymous advice giving. If I told you to "be yourself" and "have self-confidence" you would probably just groan. God knows I heard enough of that as a horny youth, and despite it being true, it still didn't help me worth a damn. You want an instruction list, you want something to do, and you want to feel that it will work. That I'm prepared to offer you. You also probably want something cheap, simple and guaranteed effective; and that is exactly what you will not get from me or anyone else. Anybody selling you a guaranteed effective way to get women is selling you snake oil. Harsh.
I am assuming the question is being asked from a heterosexual perspective - if it is not then I can't tell you much of use as I'm afraid I am congenitally ill-equipped for lesbianism.
Now, here's the harsh truth: You can't make women attracted to you. You think that many women can make you be attracted to them, but they can't really. Sexual arousal is something that happens in your brain. It's something you do to yourself, not something they do to you. Men and women alike usually think that men have a button that you can just push that makes them horny while women don't have one, but this is nonsense. I know I sound like that cliché "the most important sexual organ is your brain" stuff, except that it's not a cliché. It is true for very sound, straightforward physiological reasons that ought to be a part of basic sex-ed but somehow aren't.
But that's not what you mean. What you mean is that you see an attractive woman, and you feel aroused. It doesn't matter if she's trying to be sexy - if you have any awareness of what she is trying to do at all - or whether she has the slightest interest in you. You are just turned on and you don't care about neuro-physiological modelling. What you want to know is how you can make her feel the same way as you do just by coming in contact with you.
Next harsh truth: Unless you have the body of a professional underwear model, a successful career as an actor in romantic comedies, more money than you can hope to spend, or your name appears towards the top of this list, you probably can't make them feel as helplessly attracted to you as you feel towards them. The reasons for this rather troubling but entrenched bit of gender inequality are complicated, controversial, and in my opinion primarily sociological. (Although the popular media has been covering a lot of evolutionary and biochemically-driven thinking on this subject in the last 20-odd years which I must confess to finding almost complete bunk.) However, regardless of its cause you can't do a damn thing about the ugly fact that you are hot for lots of women who have no idea you exist, so there is precious little point in dwelling on it.
But, even if you can't make women interested in you, there are a number of things you can do that improve the likelihood that they will become attracted to you without you having to make them do anything. Women, you see, are sometimes interested in men without men actually having to do anything in particular. It's a novel concept to a lot of men - I know, it took me a while to cope with - but heterosexual women sometimes feel about men much the way men feel about them. Actually, they do fairly regularly. Not with quite the panicked obsession that men feel towards them, but western society rewards female sexuality differently than male sexuality so that is to be expected. Otherwise, they are, in fact, a lot like men in terms of sexual responses. It's a strange sort of symmetry, but it's kind of neat that it works out that way.
The things you can do to make women more likely to actually want to be interested in you are, in my experience and roughly in order of importance, as follows:
Try not to smell bad.
Shave your nose hair.
Maintain fresh breath at all times.
Lose weight and try to stay in shape.
Listen carefully when they talk or at least have the courtesy to pretend.
Dress well.
Get a decent haircut.
Have good posture.
Why these simple, straightforward, uncomplicated facts are not introduced to young people at an appropriate age through the public school system is beyond me. It is as if the entire function of sex education is to prevent people from having healthy, happy, reasonably fulfilling and self-esteem reinforcing sex lives. Certainly making a point of this type of thinking earlier in life would save young men enormous amounts of pain, embarrassment and depression.
Alas, some of these things are not easily changed from one day to the next. Breath mints are cheap, and do try to floss. Use deodorant. Expect to pay at least €20 for a haircut - and not at that discount place by Walmart. A nose hair trimmer will set you back circa €10. Staying in shape if you are under 25 and metabolically normal will likely require a commitment of at least 5 hours a week and more if you are older, and may take months to have sufficient effect. Exercise will, however, probably help with your posture too.
An adequate wardrobe requires the advice of a friend or two and probably several hundred bucks. I'd try to get one before they raise tariffs on Chinese textiles again. My advice is to cultivate a small circle of women in whom you are not sexually interested and to whom you are not closely related - e.g., not your mother - and get them to help you pick some clothes and a decent cologne. This is - and you should be taking notes now! - exactly how women go about learning to make themselves attractive to men. They have friends - older or more experienced female friends - who help them shop for clothes, perfume, grooming materials, haircare products and who go with them to stylists and help them to pick out a 'do. Indeed, many women - quite possibly a large majority - seem to actually enjoy this sort of thing. I can only presume men do not take advantage of this resource because they are unaware of it or because they foolishly think they will get better advice from other men.
As for the paying attention part, it is a bit of a trick, especially when it's all you can do to keep from staring at her breasts. The best way to go about it that I've found is to have the sense to look sheepish and like you are trying to hide it when you are caught checking out her breasts and/or butt. That way, women can feel that you find them attractive without feeling that you are creepy, and it helps to manage many of those moments when organs other than your brain have immediate motor control.
Actually showing interest is not so easy and takes some practice. But, start with remembering that no matter that your interest in them may be limited, their interest in themselves is as considerable as your interest in yourself. Women are a lot like men, just with breasts and without penises and usually with better hair. Except that they can't easily pee while standing up, they relate to the world in very similar ways to men. Try to relate to women the way you might relate to men who have something you want and that they might give to you if you cultivate them carefully - like potential employers or teachers or other men that you treat with some consideration - and you will stand an okay chance with women.
Well, if it's on this page it's all GFDL, so go for it. Actually, I've been wondering if I can find a gig as an advice columnist somewhere, seeing as how I'm between engagements at the moment. --Diderot18:35, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
My turn! Instead of grooming tips, which actually are good ideas all around, because stinky overweight people do not usually get offered good jobs. I am an engineer, so I am disqualified from giving grooming tips. If you want a shallow relationship I can't help you. Find someone like you. You would be surprised. There is some girl out there who is looking for a guy with your interests. By this I mean, there are few girls out there looking for a guy to hump her leg, find a girl who likes the things you like. If you are not meeting people, then go out and meet people by being active in the things you like to do. I like gaming, and I go to gaming conventions, but if I want to be social, I may go to book oriented activities, these are related to the things we do in gaming, but are bound to be more social than gaming with six people and a DM.
So meet women, lots of women. Making friends with no dating interest should be the first goal. Even if you meet a lot of other guys, thats OK. They may know girls that have your same interests. If you go to bars, you will meet people who like that. If you go to churches you meet church people. The moral there is the same. You will meet a lot of girls who you have no interest in or have no interest in you. I estimate the odds are a million to one. There are a million girls who do not want to date you, and one who does. Start working your way through the million. If you lock yourself in a closet, your chances are poor.
One other thing, if she isn't interested move on. Don't fixate. A girl will want to be with you as much as you want to be with her, if it is right. Don't chase a woman based on looks. All women eventually get older, and will looks more like grandma, and so will you (well like grandpa). If you are lucky enough to date Sophia Loren or Raquel Welch who age better than most then good. A good woman who likes you will look better than they do anyway. Dominick(TALK)18:02, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I might ask if your background includes any significant number of men of Central and Eastern European ancestry? I assure you, there are communities where even the women need to trim their nose hair. Alas, I am from such a community and that particular lesson was a hard won one. --Diderot23:16, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Those of us with large hands, but no other attractive characteristics, know that you can start a girl's attraction to you simply by putting your hands on her shoulders and moving her someplace, gently. (It normally helps if there's a logical reason to be doing this.) For me, getting them attracted is the easy part; doing and saying the right things to actually satisfy hormonal instinct is the hard part, and I suck at it, a lot. --YixilTesiphonSay helloConsider my Wikiproject idea03:16, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
What a way to start a conversation here...may I request that some of the material here be moved to the main article space if applicable? I'm sure there is at least something worthy of an article here. :-) --HappyCamper01:04, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Choose your target. There is no man on this planet in whom all women are interested. A particular woman, however, may be interested in you, especially once she knows you're particularly interested in her.
Make her laugh. Women go for men with a sense of humour (whereas men tend to go for women with outsized glands).
Make lots of eye contact.
Smile a lot. (Pick the cabbage out of your teeth first, but don't let her see you do it.) If you don't much feel like smiling, and you think it will look forced and fake, open your eyes slightly wider instead. At least try to be open to smiling.
Pay her a compliment. Okay, maybe it will sound cheap and tacky, but she'll be more interested in the fact that somebody noticed her dress....
Touch her. Touch is important. (You can touch her shoulder as you say goodbye, you don't have to grab her glands or anything.....)
Agree with everything she says, even if it's stupid. If you can't agree verbally, just nod a lot.
For every ugly man there is an ugly woman. She will choose you. You will not choose her. If you change your self to attract a woman you were not ment to have then you will not have a woman for life.--Eye23:22, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I would say we are still very far. Computer vision is widely regarded as an AI-complete problem, and right now I doubt there's a program that can even reliably tell if a face is frowning or smiling (anyone want to contradict that?), much less tell whether two images are of the same person. —Keenan Pepper17:47, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I think face recognition was implemented commercially at many major american events after September 11. I believe the first case I can think of was at the superbowl. I seem to recall there is a proposal to implement it as part of the London Tube security upgrades. See: Facial recognition system. Of course the reliabilty of these systems is questionable. --Martyman-(talk)21:11, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
There must be differenced between Computer vision (which allow computers to "understand" image content or content of multidimensional data in general) and a Facial recognition system (that works by comparing selected facial features in the live image and a facial database) which is a lot easier to realise. --helohe(talk)14:38, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Microsoft word
I do not have Mkicrosoft word on my computer and I wish to have it as what I currently have isn't getting me anywhere. Does anyone know any sites that you can download Microsoft Word, not some update, on to their computer. I really need it. Thanks!--XenoNeon17:59, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Hm, I use OpenOffice; didn't know about AbiWord. Anyone care to compare the two? Does AW have sufficient advantages over OO to make it worth my time to download it, set it up and try it out? --Trovatore19:33, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Abiword is merely a word processor - OpenOffice.org also contains functions for spreadsheets (like Excel), presentations (like PowerPoint), databases (like Access), among others. What will work for you depends on what you want - sometimes the multi-tool is ideal, sometimes you want something specialized. Just download and try it to check if it suits you - it won't cost you very much unless you're on dialup or pay per megabyte downloaded. TERdON20:41, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
There's also a free Microsoft Word Viewer available for download from Microsoft.[1] It won't let you edit documents, but it's a convenient little tool for reading them. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:32, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
How does Arm and Hammer Washing Soda Dissolve an Olive Oil Stain (Just it and Hot Water)
Dear Happy Camper,
I wasn't sure how to answer your response to my December 1, 2005 , 1.15 question, so I edited it there and wrote this as a "new" question to a question. If wrong, I am sorry since I am new to this.
The laundry detergent used was good old fashioned Arm and Hammer Washing Soda.
A 1/2 tablespoon was put in 16 ounces of hot water with no other detergent (water is "soft") to remove an olive oil stain from cotton. A half an hour later, Voila,! No stain. How did it dissolve the stain.
Hi again! Sorry, I almost missed your question! I have been dabbling around different places on Wikipedia lately. No need for apologies - I'm glad to see you're around and enjoying the reference desk :-) Regarding your question, this is what my hunch is regarding what is happening -- Washing soda is really just sodium carbonate. It acts as a water softener. It also does a few other things too. When it dissolves in water, you get some carbonate ions (CO32-) through this process:
Na2CO3 -> 2Na+ + CO32- -- The sodium ions doesn't really do much. In this case, they are known as spectator ions. What happens to the carbonate ion? It reacts with the water in an equilibrium:
CO32- + H2O <-> HCO3- + OH-.
What does the hydroxide (OH-) ion do? It encourages the trans fatty acids in olive oil to dissociate. Let's represent this trans fatty acid with this:
/\/\/\/\/\/\COOH
and what happens is this:
/\/\/\/\/\/\COOH + OH- -> /\/\/\/\/\/\COO- + H2O
What is /\/\/\/\/\/\COO- ? Not exactly soap, but something that acts pretty much like soap.
In other words, the washing soda is slowly converting the olive oil into something that acts like soap, and this helps remove more olive oil from the shirt. This process happens continually until the entire stain is removed, or the washing soda is used up. The result is an emulsion of oil in water, stabilized somewhat by the washing soda. I must be a bit honest here - I'd be interested to test this out myself under more controlled conditions, as I think most of the work is actually being done by the hot water, and not so much the soda. The preference for the olive oil to stick to the cotton seems marginal to me based on just chemical structure alone. Finally, why is washing soda a good choice for things this? For one thing, it is a rather gentle compound - you would not want to wash cotton in a strong base, say something like lye - otherwise, the shirt might get damaged! I hope this helps, but if not, I hope it encourages you to learn a little bit more about the fascinating world of chemistry! --HappyCamper01:38, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Regarding nuclear decay:
In types of decay which emit neutrinos or antineutrinos (beta decay, I believe), where's the neutrino come from, and why does it get emitted?
Also, with types which involve a neutron becoming a proton (such as in beta decay) or vice versa, what causes the change?
I never was able to get an answer to these in any of my science classes.
--Mr. Fluffles20:24, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
One reason, I believe, is that it's necessary for spin to be conserved. The neutron, proton, and electron each have spin 1/2, meaning their spin in a given direction can have a value of +1/2 or -1/2. If you only had n -> p+ + e-, you wouldn't be able to conserve spin; the left half of the equation would have a spin of either +1/2 or -1/2, while the right half would have a total spin of 1, 0, or -1. Photons have spin 1, so throwing one of those in wouldn't help. The electron antineutrino produced in the decay of a free neutron also has spin 1/2, so once that's added to the equation, spin can be conserved.
As for the question of why a free neutron decays, I'd say that If it can happen, it will. The neutron is more massive than the proton, electron, and antineutrino combined, so it gives off the excess mass as energy--in the form of a photon--when it decays. For contrast, compare the deuteron, an atomic nucleus consisting of one proton and one neutron. Because of the binding energy between the two, the deuteron has less mass than its possible decay products of two protons, an electron, and an antineutrino, so the deuteron doesn't break up unless you throw some energy at it. Chuck22:29, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Also, lepton number must be conserved. In β decay, you start with a neutron: there are no leptons, so the lepton number is zero. Afterwards, you end up with a proton (lepton number zero), electron (lepton number 1), and an electron antineutrino (lepton number -1); this adds to zero. The antineutrino also carries away some of the momentum and energy of the reaction; the masses and momenta of the products are insufficient to account for the mass and momentum of the reactant neutron. Free neutrons are inherently unstable and will undergo decay by this process. The "converse" reaction, a proton being converted into a neutron with emission of a positron and an electron neutrino, is much more difficult; since the neutron has more mass than the proton, energy must be supplied to drive this reaction. A variant of this reaction occurs in the proton-proton chain reaction, one of the fundamental nuclear processes of our sun. According to that article, a proton waits an average of one billion years before being converted into a neutron (and combining with another proton to form a deuteron. Hope this helps (and hope I'm on the right track)! — Knowledge Seekerদ05:01, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If you want real anonymity, use Tor (anonymity network). AOL's shifting doesn't really give you much anonymity - we see the same AOL IP address vandalise the same article for days sometimes (I guess others share that address too, and the vandal sometimes gets other addresses too, but by no means is it a "new IP guaranteed for each transation". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk01:36, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Noting, of course, that Wikipedia blocks editing from the Tor proxies precisely because there is no way to tie an individual to his anonymous edits. (There's no way for us to deal with vandals using those proxies, so we block them from editing.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 04:55, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It isn't what you asked but I wonder if what you meant was the way in which AOL users typically have an IP address that changes? If so, the answer is no: AOL are following the standard procedure for ISPs with dial-up users. A few ISPs reserve IP addresses for dial-up users, but this is felt to be a waste of scare resources. Notinasnaid21:04, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It depends; was your assignment more specific? :D See our article on DNA for details—bonds joining nucleotides along one strand of DNA are of one type, and the bonds that join two DNA strands together are of another. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 04:51, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Yvonne, a reader, has sent the following question to the email help desk.
"Supposedly there is only one company in the USA that is allowed to enrich uranium and can you tell me their name? They are a publicly traded company. I am doing stock research. Thank you and best regards."
United States Enrichment Corporation, which was privatized in the 1990's. At the moment, they still use the high-cost gaseous diffusion process for isotope seperation, but they are apparently planning to build a centrifuge plant. See their website for details. I don't know whether there's any rule that says other companies couldn't get a license to start up an enrichment plant, but there would be very, very high regulatory hurdles to climb. --Robert Merkel05:08, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Reader Andy has sent the following e-mail to the Wikipedia help e-mail desk.
"My phalaenopsis orchid is doing quite well and I was wondering how to
go about growing new plants by either forcing a keiki or by self
germination and growth on a nutrient gel."
grin*, Gandalf. Computers are fickle things, and it happens (with surprising regularity) that data on them gets lost. Your computer might crash, you could drop a brick on it, spill coffee on your laptop, or accidentally hit the delete key. If you have backups, you can get the data back. Just imagine what would happen if, tomorrow, your entire hard drive was emptied. What would you no longer have? Your documents? Your music? Your photos? Your programs? So that's why you make backups, so that when (yes, when not if) your computer crashes or dies on you, you will still have your documents stored somewhere safe. — QuantumEleven | (talk)10:07, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
In the same direction, but with a different emphasis. In business, people put a lot of things on computers. Lists of customers, for example, or phone numbers of all the important suppliers. Banks put the details of your account. These days, many businesses, large or small, will simply be unable to work, and go bust, if they lose the information on their computers. So a backup doesn't just spare them from inconvenience: it keeps them in business. I read a news story about a medical researcher who had years of vital research on a laptop that was stolen, and it was all lost. I think the news story was supposed to make us sympathetic, but I think: what an idiot: I hope he has to pay back his research grants. Notinasnaid19:05, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thanx guys the info was of some use and it even put a 'smile' on my face. Charné168.209.97.34
Digital camera and infrared photography
I have an HP R707 digicam. I want to know if it can capture the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum parts. If yes, would I need to use an image editing software to modify the levels etc to view the images? Thanks, =Nichalp«Talk»=10:02, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know if your specific camera is sensitive to the Infra Red or Ultra Violet, though many digital cameras are so there is a good chance it has some response at at least on end of the spectrum. The way that this is normally achieved is through the use of a filter that will block all visible light from entering the lens. A peice of totally exposed developed black and white film actually works as a pretty acceptable filter for IR photography. Surprisingly it is hard to predict what colour CCD elements will respond most strongly to these wavelengths that depends on the composition of the CCD filters used in the particular model camera. Some cameras (for example many nikons) can be disassembled and the IR filter removed from in front of the CCD. This greatly increases their Infra Red sensitivity and means normal shutter times can be used, otherwise you can expect shutter times signifacntly longer than for visable photography. --Martyman-(talk)10:27, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The CCD is sensitive to IR. A typical digicam has an optical filter to restrict IR exposure. You need to remove the IR filter and Bayer mask (for the absolute majority single CCD color models) and then install a filter that blocks visible light. This is surely not an easy job to most models. You could damage your digicam if you don't have the required resources (manuals, tools, cleanroom, skill ...). Anyway, you will lose you warranty. And if you want to do serious IR photography, you need cooling. However, withour proper tools, your digicam can be spoiled by condensation. Some videocams have a low light mode. I think that's IR photography at work. Maybe you can find yourself a cheap or used grayscale surveillance camera and modify it. -- Toytoy14:47, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Note that with a typical CCD camera, even in the best conditions you'll only get sensitivity in the near-IR up to about 1.1 μm. You won't be able to see anything in the dark unless you illuminate the scene with something like an IR LED (camcorders that have "nightshot" capabilities do this sort of thing.) For real "thermal vision", you need a cooled camera sensitive to mid-IR, which is an order of magnitude more complex and expensive. --Bob Mellish17:04, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Then how do we get a filter that only has one window at near-IR so it blocks visible light and mid-IR as well? I also don't know if a peice of totally exposed developed black and white film can be used as the filter because I am not sure if the silver particles would block all the light. Anyway, the wavelength of near-IR is longer so it can be less of a problem. You may want to attach the filter on the surface of the CCD to prevent loss of optical resolution. -- Toytoy00:27, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Electronic devices and circuits
What article titles would you say that is an interesting, important one for electronic devices and circuits, especially talking about analogue devices and circuits?
Oh, I know why. The chloride is a better leaving group than the trihalomethyl group, so it leaves giving you trihaloacetic acid and chloride, instead of haloform. —Keenan Pepper02:23, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
(since this might be an interesting addition to Lava lamp)
I purchased a desktop USB lava lamp during the summer, and was disappointed that the "lava" (in this case little reflective dots that are convected around in the denser fluid) would settle out of suspension after a few days. However, with the onset of winter and a colder office on average...the lava stays suspended and all is well.
I'm wondering why that is. Nothing else has changed in the setup. The lavalamp stays on all the time because my computer stays up all the time, so its not a case of thermal interia. The temperature drop in my office is at maximum perhaps 4 degrees (77F to 73F).
My guess is: unlike a normal lavalamp, the USB lamp is much smaller. The temperature difference between the area heated by the bulb and the outside surface of the lamp isn't that great, so larger convective patterns cannot develop in a warm office and the dots settle out.
The problem is that lava lamps are highly dependent on specific gravity. The density of the lava must be carefully balanced with that of the remaining fluid; otherwise the lava will have the wrong buoyancy and either float or settle. Changes in temperature will change the density ratio between the lava and fluid. ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ16:42, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
...but if the colloid is broken down by heat it seems like a poor design for the lavalamp. There probably isn't much of a delta in the overall temperature of the resevoir when the lamp is placed in an environment that is 4 degrees colder, in comparison to the heat generated by the bulb itself? ie would the put a colloid in there that breaks down at say 79 degF but is stable at 76 degF? --Syrthiss21:40, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I was curious as to what year this information came to light?
"With chronic low-level exposure, similar neurologic injury may occur. Carbon monoxide acts as a potent neurotoxin, creating irreversible lesions in the brain's white matter (i.e., the myelin sheath). Such lesions, which are similar to those found in multiple sclerosis, can result in severe cognitive impairment."
I wouldn't believe it without sources. The article is pretty awful in many other parts and gives no impression of being well researched. Some information can be gained at Carbon monoxide and the pages it links but I have never seen any claim that carbon monoxide is neurotoxic in the true sense of the term. Physchim62(talk)15:55, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Sewage Treatment
Where do people find the Bacteria that are used for cleaning the sewge.I can not fully understand the biological stage in sewage treatment.Could someone explain it to me?
Thank you
I suspect they are just there, in the environment. I did hear an interesting tale about cheese: apparently the hygiene requirements on cheese makers are tending to eliminate the bacteria which are otherwise just everywhere; this can stop the cheese from making correctly. Don't know it's accurate. Notinasnaid21:01, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Magnet
Is there any thin material that a magnet will not go through?
The term cyborg, a portmanteau of cybernetic organism, is used to designate an organism which is a mixture of organic and mechanical (synthetic) parts. Generally, the aim is to add to or enhance the abilities of an organism by using technology. - From the cyborg article.
But what about the other way around? What would you call a computer that uses biology to enhance its function? For example, look at this news story of a group of 25,000 rat neurons hooked up to a flight simulator program. Imagine that a robotic drone or missile would use such a biological part (or even regular computers in addition to a synthetic CPU). Would you call these cyborgs or something else? Biocomputers maybe?
I recently installed an update of tabbrowser extensions which broke my version of firefox. I'd love to keep using this extension but it's just too unstable. Does anyone know of other extensions that have a similar range of features? The ones I'm most interested in are Duplicate tab (opens new tab with an identical history) and being able to reorder tabs in the tab bar (via drag 'n drop). I've checked the mozilla site but nothing seems to offer the reorder tabs feature... -User:Lommer | talk23:30, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, grabbed the newest version and all is good. Still missing that duplicate tab function though. I'll see if I can find an extension that fits the bill. -User:Lommer | talk23:45, 7 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I went through the same process with Tabbrowser Extensions; it was great for a while, then kept getting more complex and less stable. Check out Duplicate Tab and Tab Clicking Options from Twanno's Mozdev page. —HorsePunchKid→龜2005-12-07 23:54:08Z
Hmm, that looks interesting. Incidentally, I use tabpreview, which gives you a nifty pop-down thumbnail of each tab when you mouseover it, making it easier to find the tab you want, particularly when you have dozens of tabs with the same title open at once. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk00:03, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Ok. A little question. What are the 3 most abundant of "Phosphorus's" isotopes? And at www.webelements.com, it said Phosphorus's crystal form is triclinic. So what could I rely more on, this site or webelements? I guess the majority who say a certain thing wins. Please help. (71.253.225.174)
I think he/she was referring to our page on Phosphorus, which says it's monoclinic, in contradiction to www.webelements.com. Both are misleading because the crystal structure of phosphorus is so complex — it has at least three allotropes (different crystal structures of the same element) and probably more weird hybrid forms and stuff. So, it can be either monoclinic or triclinic. —Keenan Pepper02:00, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It tells right there at isotopes of phosphorus that 31P is the only naturally occurring isotope, for all practical purposes. (The articles themselves aren't the proper place to leave comments, by the way, use the talk pages.) 32P and 33P are also created in trace amounts as decay products by cosmic radiation. Femto12:53, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
How long can the hepatitis B virus live in a droplet of blood?
I'm having difficulty verifying the information cited on the Ohio State University site, but according to this source, "...The hepatitis B virus (HBV), on the other hand, can remain infective for days in dried blood, months in serum stored at room temperature, and even decades when frozen."-- Mark Bornfeld DDS dentaltwins.com Brooklyn, NY 04:50, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
science - volcanoes
hy i am in grade seven and my text book doesint say why so if you could help me out than ...yah :-p why are some volcanoes more explosive than others?--24.64.223.20303:59, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
if this could be answered by ...tomorow that would be wonderful thankyou
by the way GREAT website its helped me with sooooo much stuff :-)
oh and how do i find the answer to this LOL ha well anyways thxs
The explosiveness of the volcano tends to be due to the amount of gas that is dissolved in the magma, or how easily the magma plugs up causing pressure build up, and this is directly influenced by how viscous the magma itself is, which itself is strongly influenced by the mineral content of the magma at the particular location. Volcano is a good article to be reading, as well as the links at the end of it.--Fangz06:18, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The composition of the lava also plays a role. Volcanoes with acid lava tend to erupt much more violently (eg Mount Etna, Mount St. Helens...) than volcanoes with basic lava, where a gentle eruption lasting months at a time (eg Kilauea on Hawai'i, the Icelandic volcanoes...) are not uncommon. Whether the lava is acid or basic depends on where the volcano is situated — acid volcanoes are generally found on plate boundaries, while basic volcanoes form over mid-plate hot spots. — QuantumEleven | (talk)08:51, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
pains
i ahve a pain in my lower left side.. i was just wondering waht was there that could possibly be giving me these pains?
There is a great variety of possible causes for your pain. Wikipedia does not give medical advice, nor can conditions be easily diagnosed over the Internet. Please speak with your physician. — Knowledge Seekerদ06:19, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Most abdominal pains (including chest pains) are digestive (stomach/intestines). That creates a problem - when do you have a heart attack and when do you just have bad gas? --Kainaw(talk)21:02, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
V/f curve
What is a "V/f curve" or "V/f characteristic curve? Is there a WP article where I could read more about it? --Angr (t·c) 09:19, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
On second third thought, my answer is making less and less sense the more I think about it, since molar volume over fugacity, wouldn't actually have any significance that would make such a notation useful--Aolanonawanabe02:04, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I suck at science. And I really have no idea what your talking about, however. Maybe this Link may have some relavancy? :D --Yardan \ Talk
More details about context would of course be helpful but let me point out a commonly known application where the V/f curve (voltage to frequency curve) is important: FM radio. The WP article doesn't mention the V/f curve but in short the relevancy is the following: FM is frequency modulation, which means that the signal (music e.g.) is broadcast by varying the frequency of a carrier wave. The receiver must than take this variaton in frequency and change it into variation in voltage. The loudspeakers will then take the variation in voltage and produce sound. If there is to be no distortion the receiver should have a linear V/f curve, i.e. if a change in frequency by one unit causes a change in voltage by one unit then a change in frequency by two units should cause a change in voltage by two units. The link [3] seems good, take especially a look at the section Receiving FM. Stefán Ingi14:55, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
To make it clearer: The V/f curve is used in frequency inverters to control the relation of the frequency and the voltage of the electrical energy pushed to the motor. A three-phase asynchrone induction motor generally can't be fed with nominal voltage when running in subnominal speed. That would mean the current through the motor would be higher (there is a classical curve on the connection between rotation speed of an induction motor and the motor current available, unfortunately it's not depicted in the induction motor article). Basically, if you wouldn't use a lower voltage at speeds below nominal, the motor current would grow much larger, resulting in some black smoke and a broken motor. Because of that, you use a V/f pattern (in simple frequency inverters) to make sure the motor isn't treated badly. Sometimes it could be preset, sometimes you have to make one for yourself (specifically tuned etc). More advanced frequency inverters implementing motor current supervision aswell, not always need this setting to be made (they use other control types than a simple V/f pattern - like open loop / flux vector / pulse generator feedback etc). TERdON 23:41, 8 December 2005 (UTC) PS: Regular inverter (the digital, negating kind) as far as I know, aren't related in any way), they only deal with digital logic. TERdON23:44, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
MS-DOS Prompt
For example, I am now in the C drive, I want to go to the folder "WINDOWS" in the c drive, so I type "cd Windows", and the command line intepreter turned into "C:\>WINDOWS>. I then do the stuff I need to do, and want to leave this directory to go back to C:\, how do you leave a directory and go back to the original directory? i tried "cd C:", and "C:" but it didn't turn out to be working... How does one return to the previous directory?
please correct me if i am wrong, but i came across the fact that electromagnetism is a stronger force, compared to gravity.
for instance, i have a negatively charged piece of material, and throw a positively charged material into the negatively charged piece (both have same size, mass). The negatively charged material is placed on the floor, and one drop the positively charged materil above the negatively charged material, will it repel? by repel i mean the positively charged would be "bounce" off from the negatively charged.
if this is true, we human, when falling off a cliff, should be able to survive. because we are composed by atoms, and at the exterior of the atoms there are electrons. the floor is bonded so that the electrons are circuling the floor. in theory, when i fall, the electrons in my body should repel the floor's electrons as both is at the exterior, am i right?
In response to your first question, "electromagnetism is stronger than gravity" is not exactly true. More correctly, you would say that "electromagnetism prevails at small distances, gravity at large distances". It's true that, for two object close to each other, the electromagnetic forces between them will be stronger than the gravitational forces between them ("electromagnetism prevails"). However, for the same two objects at very large distances from each other, the electromagnetic forces are much smaller than the gravitational forces between them ("gravity prevails").
In response to the second half of your question, you are correct: the repulsive forces between the electron shells in the atoms of the ground and the electron shells in the atoms of your body repel each other. But all this means is that the two will not pass through each other - you stop when you hit the ground, instead of passing through it. All the atoms composing your body will come to rest at ground level (your body will still be there!). What kills you when falling off a cliff are the forces acting on your body to cause you to stop so suddenly - your body will be crushed and deformed, and this kills you.
(aside: what happens when two atoms are mashed together strongly enough to overcome the repulsive forces between their electron clouds is called nuclear fusion, and it's the process which powers the sun. But the energy needed is much, much greater than someone falling off a cliff!) — QuantumEleven | (talk)10:33, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I screwed up on my first explanation (and I didn't read your question properly :( ). Whether or not the object will "bounce" depends on how much charge it has - the repulsive force between it and the object on the ground must be stronger than gravity. However, in most everyday situations, you should be able to give an object enough charge so that it will be repelled by an identical object lying on the floor. It won't 'bounce' straight back up - that kind of repulsion is not stable - it will most likely be deflected and land to the side of the object on the floor.
Concerning whether the electromagnetic force is 'stronger' than the gravitational force, yes it is (see Fundamental interaction) - by about a factor of 1036. So for objects which have about the same amount of mass as they have charge (so on the order of 1 Coulomb per kg), the electrostatic forces between them will greatly outweigh the gravitational forces between them. For many everyday objects, this is the case, so the electrostatic force between them will dominate the gravitational force (why, for instance, your hair will stick to a balloon which you've rubbed on your sweater). However, when you start talking about very large objects (planets, stars, solar systems, galaxies...) they have much, much more mass than they have charge, so despite the fact that electromagnetism is stronger than gravity, the gravitational forces between them dominate, and the large-scale structures of the universe are almost entirely determined by gravity alone. — QuantumEleven | (talk)11:00, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know much about these forces, but I thik there is another problem here (we know there is a problem, since we don't survive falls from high cliffs in general). This is assuming that if you bounce you aren't hurt. It's easy to assume that the bouncing is what matters (e.g. jumping from a cliff onto a trampoline.) But you could also jump into soft materials and not bounce and perhaps survive. What injures and kills on a fall is the sudden stop. The edge of your body stops, and your bones and organs keep going, smashing into the bit between themselves and the ground. They damage other parts of your body, and themselves. By making a stop less sudden, we reduce this injury. In some cases, the thing we land on takes up our energy and we bounce, but that's just a side effect. Subatomic forces might stop you (well, I guess they do: it's really hard to make the atoms from two solids mix; but I don't know if they are the same forces as mentioned). But they will probably not take effect until you are a fraction of a millimetre from impact, and so the stop will still be sudden and uncomfortable or fatal. Notinasnaid11:17, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I personally believe that the whole "gravitational force" theory is bunk. You can produce the same effect and keep all the same gravitational formulas using kinetic force of atomic and subatomic particles without gravity. But, until Einstein is reincarnated and says so, nobody will consider it. --Kainaw(talk)15:48, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
From strongest to weakest, the fundemental forces of nature are the strong nuclear force, teh weak nuclear force, EM, and gravity. Their strength is also inversly proportional to the distance they act over -- the strong nuclear force acts across distances proportional the size of a proton; on the other end of the scale, graivtyu acts across billions of kilometers. Raul65416:18, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
what is SPAM?
'Sup,what is spam and how do you delete it? Can you also tell me how messages in the email system managed?what's the difference between spam and junk mail? could you possibly list the default settings on a computer and kinda explain them to me? thanks a million...i will appreciate any feedback and assistance a.s.a.p Charné168.209.97.34
What is spam? Mail you don't want.
How can you delete spam? In your e-mail program there will be a delete button or similar.
What you didn't ask: how can you prevent spam? You can't completely, but there are many programs and services which screen your mail and try to recognise spam, then delete it. These will unfortunately sometimes delete real mail (e.g. a joke from a friend that mentioned viagra). You can also prevent or reduce spam by keeping your e-mail address a secret and making sure it can't be guessed.
Spam and junk mail are probably the same thing for your purposes.
No, I don't think we could list the default settings on your computer. Firstly, you don't tell us what kind of computer you have, and what software you have on it. Second, modern computers have thousands, or tens of thousands of settings. This is a major series of books, not a reply! If you have more specific questions, please ask.
Spam is electronic junk mail — a bit more precisely, spam is e-mail you don't want and didn't ask for. It can be any number of things - advertisements, invitations to fraudulent schemes... (we have very good articles on Spam and E-mail spam). To delete spam, (assuming you're using an e-mail client, such as Outlook Express or Mozilla Thunderbird), just click on the offending message and press the delete key on your keyboard. :)
As to the rest of your question, I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Which "e-mail system" are you referring to? Which e-mail program do you use? I am going to go out on a limb and guess that you are getting lots of Spam mail and want it to stop. Welcome to the wonderful world of the internet...
Dark humour aside, spam is a real nuisance to many e-mail users. The spammers (people who send you the trash now cluttering your inbox) probably got your address by 'harvesting' (reading) it off a messageboard or something, so, first rule for avoiding spam: never post your e-mail address on the internet if you can (in chat rooms, messageboards, on wikipedia...). Perhaps get a second e-mail address for "internet stuff", you know, to sign onto websites and such, and keep your main e-mail address for e-mailing your friends - that way, your main e-mail address stays clean of spam. Free e-mail services like Hotmail are great for getting a second (or third, or fourth) e-mail address.
Spammers use other evil tricks to get your address. They will send out messages to millions of e-mail addresses, most of which will be wrong or nonexistant. The messages they send often include a link to "unsubscribe" - but what often happens is that, by clicking the link, all you do is tell the spammer that your e-mail address is 'real', so encouraging more spam. Therefore: never click on any link in a spam e-mail (and, for heaven's sake, never buy anything advertised in spam!)
Check with your ISP (the company you get your internet connection from) - many now offer spam filters for their e-mail addresses, see what they offer. Alternatively, you can try to do some e-mail filtering on your own computer. Filtering is a fancy name for an automated process whereby your computer tries to guess if an e-mail is Spam or not, and then does something to it if it thinks it is (deletes it, moves it to a different folder...). It's still not 100% accurate, but getting better. However, if you want to set up filtering yourself (as opposed to just using your ISP's filter) it up can be a bit tricky, and it's hard to recommend a specific program without knowing more about what kind of computer you have, what kind of e-mail you use (from your ISP, web-based...). Maybe some of the more informed people on here can give you a few tips.
One last word of advice: be wary of anti-spam solutions that look too good (yes, I know, that's a very vague criterion) - scammers are now trying to bait you with phony "anti-spam" programs which, at best, do nothing (but sometimes costing you money!), and, at worst, install all sorts of nasties on your computer. Check with any computer-savvy friends (or ask here!) before installing any anti-spam program you're not sure about. Good luck! — QuantumEleven | (talk)11:27, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I have actually received spam advertising anti-spam software. Aside from their mere nerve to do it annoying the hell out of me, I am sure that if I were to buy and install their software, all it would do would be to purposefully attract more spam. — JIP | Talk11:51, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Lots of good advice up there. There's several approaches you can do.
Help put a SPAMMER in the SLAMMER ... visit www.ftc.gov to see how you can help your government apprehend criminals ... there's various things you can do when you get spam that is obviously criminal, to help see to it that the criminals get reported to agencies interested in apprehending those criminals ... be prepared to be frustrated, the e-police are often like keystone cops.
Learn how to communicate on the Internet without publicizing your e-mail address to lots of strangers, which is a huge topic by itself. Then after having done so, go thru the process of changing your e-mail address to one in which you will practice what you learned. Notify legitimate contacts of your new e-mail address, and discontinue using the one that is now glutted with spam. Expect to have to change e-mail addresses every few years just because of this problem.
It may be of interest to you how I protect myself. Incidentally I have been using the Internet since the 1970's and have been using computers since the 1960's. I have a multi-leveled defense against viruses, hackers, spam, and other variations of malware.
I use an ISP which intercepts a lot of this garbage before it even gets to my home.
I have a hardware firewall that intercepts a lot of this garbage before it even gets to my PC.
I use a lot of tools connecting to the Internet which involved encrypted communications so that anyone listening in on my Internet communications is going to have a hard time, and be tempted to move along and attack some easier target.
I have a suite of Internet security tools running in the background on my PC all the time to try to intercept this garbage before it can do any damage.
I have more than one anti-spyware product on my PC which I run periodically.
I keep my anti-virus definitions up to date and run a total scan periodically.
I stay informed on the inadequacies of these tools so that false positives are less likely to bite me.
Ouch!i'm new at this computer geek thing so don't bite my head off plz?Could you at least list 5 common default settings.Could you also help with the procedure on what to do if your computer is infected with a virus(and what not to do)? what precautions should you take when opening an email message? my research report has to be in by 15h00!THANX Charné168.209.97.3411:36, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not going to bite off your head, but I will ask you to DYOH (Do Your Own Homework) - see the instructions at the top of this page. To get you started on your second question, you can try reading our article on computer viruses, or this. A Google search can probably help you with your third question. Good luck! — QuantumEleven | (talk)12:52, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If your computer is infected, run a virus scan with a anti virus software (ie norton, kaspersky.) What not to do? Well, it greatly depends on what kind of virus your infected with. Don't send emails (cuz' virus may auto attach to them and infect the reciever.) To be on the safe side, don't do anything at all.. run teh virus check! precautions before opening a email, well.. check the subject line, if the subject looks doubtful, don't open it? I'm far from any security expert myself, and I doubt the 'random' pc user is. But these tips just seem logical. --Yardan \ Talk
Since you said your report has to be in by 15:00, I'm assuming you're writing this on the same day it has to be finished. Usually, it's a good idea to start these kind of things earlier. It makes finding the required information a lot easier. - 131.211.210.1608:45, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Eyes and shifting perspective in photographs
Caldera or Hills? (on Olympus Mons)
This has been bugging me for a while. As a space enthusiast, I love looking at pictures of features on other planets and moons. However, often I find that when I look at pictures of three-dimensional objects (such as the caldera of Olympus Mons, on the right), about half the time my eyes seem to suddenly 'shift', and I'm seeing things 'inside out' (in this case, it seems as if the caldera depressions are suddenly hills!). I know that they're supposed to be depressions, and sometimes I can force my eyes to 'shift' back to seeing them as depressions, but not always. Is there something wrong with my vision? Or is it a peculiar features of pictures taken from high altitude? — QuantumEleven | (talk)13:21, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
This is a pretty common bit of visual trickery - I've a map-reading manual from the twenties which discusses it in some depth, suggesting it's common, but never thought to look for it elsewhere. Try finding a topgraphical map and looking at it, not paying attention to anything but the contours, and you'll find that the valleys suddenly become ridges, the hills bowls... It's normally not a problem in the "real world", as we have things like rivers and streams and puddles - glancing at the watercourses always makes it obvious which way is down. It is pretty neat, though. Shimgray | talk | 13:57, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I can't remember the name of it but it is a noted thing in psychology. There is a way of using this to test how introvert/extrover you are. Basically you get a drawing of a wire frame cube and put x marks in the top corners of one of the squares, over the course of a minute you then note how many times the crosses switched from being on the front square to the back square and vice versa (its easiest if you signal to someone else when it changes and get them to count and time). I don't know how reliable it is, but it seemed to work for our class of ~25. IIRC the range was from about 30 to about 115 flips per minute, with introverts at the low end and the extroverts at the high end. I'll look this up when I get home this evening, unless someone has beaten me to it. Thryduulf14:16, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It doesn't just "help", it's the answer to the question. If you know the direction of the light you can easily distinguish between the two, because it tells you whether a lit surface is interior or exterior. --Fastfission21:34, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Normally when we look at geographic features, there are additional depth cues on which we can rely. The little bit of scattering provided by atmospheric dust and haze–even under very 'clear' conditions–is enough to let us know which parts of a scene are farther away. (Artists use this all the time in painting landscapes, see atmospheric perspective). If you're moving, parallax gives you an additional cue—relative to the surrounding terrain, a hill will 'move' differently from a crater.
When you look at an overhead photograph of Mars, the Moon, or some other astronomical object with little or not atmosphere, you don't get either clue. There's no way for your brain to decide which part of the image is nearer to the observer, so it pops back and forth.
I notice that if I rotate the image to have the lighed parts facing up the features look like hills and just the opposite if rotated 180° (lighted parts facing down the fearures appear to be depressions). --hydnjotalk15:34, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
That's probably just because it is less intuitive to assume light coming from the "bottom" of a picture (even though in reality, with 2D aerial maps there is no reason to assume one direction over any other). --Fastfission21:34, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I have tried and tried, but whenever I look at the image I just see hills, I can't get it to flip to craters. I have looked at Image:Olympus Mons.jpeg, so I know they are really craters. I have also tried different rotaions. Is there something I can do? I know I have trouble seeing stereoscopic images, so can someone tell me if it still flips with one eye open.--Commander Keane23:57, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
oh, I remember this picture... I see hills usually, but occasionally they become craters instead. It's an interesting phenomenon; if you're attentive enough, you may notice the flat surfaces seem to drift in a particular direction when the image flips, indicating there's some postprocessing going on in your visual system. If you have trouble seeing both orientations, try focusing on a small area until you can get that part to flip; the rest may follow. Defocusing your eyes briefly may help too. ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ03:41, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Here's another instance of this sort of reversal. Go to the Google Maps web site and choose a large city that you're familiar with, and a location in the city with tall buildings. Zoom in all the way, and go to the satellite image. (This won't work everywhere in the world, as their coverage is uneven. Note that in some places, like Paris the last time I looked, they have good satellite coverage but not good map coverage.) Anyway, if the location is in the northern hemisphere, when you look at the satellite image the buildings are likely to look weird. In some places where tall buildings are close together, you may see buildings in what are actually the spaces between them. This is because they show north at the top, but the sun, being over the tropics, is lighting the images from the south. If you have a program that can invert the image, putting south at the top, it will look more natural that way. --Anonymous, December 9, 2005, 07:15 UTC.
SATELITE DISHES
What material do they use for making satelite dishes
Are oil or fat stains converted to "soap" (saponification) when detergents or cleaners (such as sodium ccarbonates, percarbonates, etc.) are dissolved in water? Is this an ester and/or process of hydrolysis? Thank you.
I was reading about gluons on this site, and I found that there are 8 types. There are 3 "colours" in quarks and gluons: red, green, and blue. I already know 6 types of gluons:
Red-Antigreen,
Red-Antiblue,
Green-Antired,
Green-Antiblue,
Blue-Antired, and
Blue-Antigreen.
What other types could there be? Can someone please help me?
Thanks-Max
P.S. Do photons have volume?
As to whether photons have volume, well, the question is pretty much meaningless. Photons aren't like little spheres; they don't have an inside and outside, so they can't really take up space. They are governed by a probability wave which says what location they would most likely be if you measured it, but you can't really call that a "volume"... —Keenan Pepper23:57, 8 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
And while you're at it. Most atoms aren't really spheres either even though they're often depicted as such for ease of use. The area in which the electrons can be found (around the nucleus) may differ depending on other atoms in the area. A lot of it is empty though, so it wouldn't really be fair to count that space as volume either. - 131.211.210.1608:50, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
First, recognize that you don't know what a particle is. In quantum theory, a fundamental particle is something that might be either wavelike or a particle-like, but not both; or else it might be both wavelike and particle-like, or else it might not be either. Dig deeper, and realize that a fundamental particle is an irrep of a symmetry group (or rather, a quantum field valued in an irrep of a symmetry group). Then, follow electroweak theory and QCD to see why the symmetry group in question has to be SU(3). The gluons follow. It's a long path, so be patient. -lethetalk14:47, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
December 9
Home made clean room
It has been suggested that running a hot shower will raise the humidity in your bathroom (assuming thats where your shower is) and in turn the humidity will drive dust out of the air, making it a semi-clean environment. Is that possible? Logic would suggest that more humidity would raise the Specific gravity of the air and in turn make it easier for dust to stay airborn. It would raise the temperature (and hence lower the sp.grav.), or possibly the humidity would condense on the dust particles and cause it to precipitate. Which one of these theories is correct? As a bonus, what are some low cost methods someone could use for running a clean room, aside from a hot shower? WP does have a moderately informative article on Clean Rooms. Thanks! --Jmeden200000:07, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The trick isn't the elevated humidity precisely; what's useful are the very fine droplets of water created by the shower. The droplets are pretty big relatively to most of the other dust and crud in the air, and they fall fairly rapidly. So if you run the shower for a while and then turn it off, you get two handy effects. First, the dust in the air will tend to get stuck to the droplets and get pulled down with them; this gives you nice clean air, relatively speaking. Second, the droplets–as well as any water vapour that condenses–will form a temporary barrier that binds and settles dust on the room's surfaces. Hmmm...I'm not sure precisely how much benefit you get from dust particles acting as nucleation sites for new droplets; the importance of that process probably depends on how efficiently your shower generates its own aerosolized water droplets.... TenOfAllTrades(talk) 02:03, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting... So in essence you need to make it rain in your bathroom, by creating a warm humid air mass circulating into a colder region so that the vapor condenses into a mist and precipitates taking the dust with it, in much the same way that full scale rain pulls pollen out of the air. I wonder how effective this is compared to doing something like running a low-micron air filter taped to a box fan (a trick i used when painting cars in my garage). --Jmeden200014:39, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
palm pilot
I would appreciate a concise explanation of what a palm pilot is and can do. Thank you.
Is there any easy way to do this? Or do I need to use sql? I want to load a bunch of books to a website to let people purchase them.
You should be able to use an Excel database as a data source in ASP. You need to instantiate an ADO Connection object, and install the Microsoft Data Access Components on your Web server. You will need to use SQL as part of the ASP script to query the database. --Canley06:02, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Identification of planes
I took these photos at the War Memorial in Canberra, and I was wondering if anyone could identify the machines?
I'm searching for a category name for explosives that could be made at home. Best idea at the moment would be "Homemade explosives". Anyone has a better idea? --helohe12:07, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
We done most of this dangerous stuff at school and therefore its quite legitime to have this as a category. Also its up to the one who creates this stuff if he wants or not. Also the articles are not step by step instructions so you need a chemical knowledge anyway. I think it is quite interessting what can be made at home with very simple things.
99% of all explosives produced by mankind was made only for the killing of people. Why would you want to make explosives? --Eye23:38, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
"Es gibt viele Arten zu töten. Man kann einem ein Messer in den Bauch stechen, einem das Brot entziehen, einen von einer Krankheit nicht heilen, einen in eine schlechte Wohnung stecken, einen durch Arbeit zu Tode schinden, einen zum Selbstmord treiben, einen in den Krieg führen usw. Nur weniges davon ist in unserem Staate verboten." - Bertolt Brecht. -- helohe(talk)02:31, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Snakes don't have external ears, but they can sense sound. I remember hearing (HA!) that they pick up vibrations through the ground with their bodies. TheSPY18:05, 12 December 2005 (UTC)TheSPY[reply]
Particle Language
I humbly apologize for this intrusion into your life.
I am in need of your assistance.
I have tried to search the web and other material, in relation to an experiment or a paper.
The nature of which: - a group of particals in one part of the world were interacted on to alter their spin. As a result a group of particals in an other part of the world were observed to change at similar instance.
For visualization purpose of the article I seek : -
That is to say that the particales at one end were red and blue at the other end.
At the moment of change the red turned blue and the blue turned red.
Could you please send me a link to a page were I might find said such.
I thank you for your time and patience. And shall at all times remain in your debt.
Bows b4u i am humbled by you. I have been to look at your pro.......very nice indeed oh wise one.
Smiles.....I have not forgoten this deed you have done... and shal get back to you.
Yes this link has helped........I still search for this latest paper as describe...bows Bless'ns.
Can you tell me what possible birth defects could be involved if a father had extreme exposure to agent orange? Specifically lung envolvement in the son.
My e-mail is (email removed). Anything would be helpfull. Thanks Kim
Our agent orange article says "The VA has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, and spinal bifidia in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as side effects of the herbicide." -- Finlay McWalter | Talk14:48, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Wikipedia does not give authoritative medical advice. If you are personally worried about this, I recommend you consult a doctor. --Fangz02:46, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
usually such extreme cases aren't that useful for normal use and as it's the best very expensive. also i believe there is more to a good digital camera then just a high resolution. Boneyard13:37, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Shure high resolution is not everything. But it is very useful if you want to create real big images of landscapes etc... . Btw. I just found that Phase One has a digital back (P 45) with 39 MP. helohe(talk)14:24, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
organic chemistry
Although Acetyl Chloride has a keto-methyl group, it doesn't give haloform reaction-why?please give me the mechanism also.
See the responses to your identical question above;
What protocol/encription is used in the communication with sattelites that are used by live tv broadcast teams (mostly mounted on tv-cars)? Is it possible to capture/'listen' to this signals with help of some computer equipment? Is it possible to transmit custom data to this sattelites? Are there differences by country? Where (coordinates) are this satellites located.
And in general does there exist any software that can be used for data-capuring with as input a card for the pc with connection to a satellite dish so this data can be analysed? helohe(talk)16:12, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Infrared and Ultraviolet
The limits to colour vision could not be the exact same for everyone. So there must be some wavelengths of UV and IR that only some people can see but would be invisible to others. Is there anything that effects one's limit? Would a baby exposed to wavelengths above red or below violet have more sensitivity? Wouldn't they make the ultimate spies? And is there somewhere (e.g. a website) where one could test their vision limit.
I'd like these questions answered about sound also. Thanks. EamonnPKeane18:35, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
For vision I the range is limited by the absorbion spectra of rhodopsins, although I don't know if age-related changes in the availablility of the photoreceptor cell cause a preceptual change. As to sound, young humans can (theoretically) hear in the 20 Hz to 20KHz range, and that top value reduces as the child ages. I don't know why, but I'd guess it's due to the increasing size (and thus mass, and thus inertia) of the ossicles. There's a bit more at the hearing (sense) article. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk18:45, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
(1) I've been told that newborn babies see in the ultraviolet range, but lose this ability within a few days. (2) The outer edges of human vision occur at/around 400 (very dark red) and 700 nanometers (violet). As far as people who can see this, I am not sure. (3) As far as sound, it has been claimed that certain children can hear up to 25 Khz, but those claims are debatable. Once sound gets to a certain very high frequency, it becomes less about "hearing it" than percieving it (I can say this first hand -- I had the precise range of my hearing tested a while back. I heard up to 16,750 hz, but above 15,000 it was virtually impossible to localize the noise) Raul65418:50, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The short-wavelength limit of vision is about 390 nm and is set by the UV-opacity of the cornea. (The S-cones are actually sensitive down below that, but no light can get to them). People who have corneas thinned due to disease or surgery can reportedly see some UV light down to about 300 nm. The long-wavelength limit is less sharp - about 780 nm is just visible, but sufficient intensities (e.g. lasers) up to about 800 nm can be seen (though this is very dangerous to your eyesight). --Bob Mellish18:59, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
That said, there is one group of humans who have different colour perception than most. Although our color vision article doesn't mention it, there is a rare mutation which (only in women) causes the formation of a fourth cone cell type. This cell's spectrum peaks in at a point between blue and green. Such people can perceive the difference between a blob of light from a bluegreen laser and one made from the mixing of the light from a blue laser with a green one (something we mere trichromats can't). Most of the people who have this mutation don't know they have it, and scientists find them by looking for a specific genetic disease in men - in their fathers and brothers, for whom the same mutation has pathologic effects instead of interesting quadchromatism. Darn, we really need an article about this (or we have it, and I've not found it yet). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk18:55, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. It's impossible to google for things when you don't know what they're called, but armed with tetrachromat I found a rather preliminary thing about women (well, a woman) with tetrachromatism: http://www.cs.utk.edu/~evers/documents/tetraChromat.txt It seems the affliction the males have is just a special kind of colour blindness, which isn't as dramatic as I remember. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk00:09, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Early cataract (?) treatments, IIRC, involved removing the lens and replacing it with an artificial one made of polymethyl methacrylate. This had the same optical properties with regard to visible light, which is why they used it, but was co-incidentally transparent to some UV; as a result, the patients were able to make out UV lights. This proved very useful - a couple found a job in wartime, reading "invisible" signal lamps on dark coasts... Eventually, it became common practice to treat the new lens with a UV-opaque coating, to prevent this (UV isn't very good for the retina) and eventually changed to a different material.
The retina can see the near-UV okay (at least in some people), but the lens cuts it out, so as Bob says above the variation in sensitivity between individuals is irrelevant, because that light just can't reach you to be seen. Shimgray | talk | 17:13, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Edible Seeds- including Bitter Almonds
I wish to make an old Italian cookie recipe that calls for 'Bitter Almonds', any suggestions for substitution?
Do you have any idea if apricot kernels can be a substitute, and/or are they also illegal in the U.S.?
Last question, in my search I have found information explaining that these two things, bitter almonds and apricot kernels, can be toxic. Are the seeds of apples, pears, grapes...things commonly sold in stores also toxic if eaten in quantity, and if so, what quantity?
Thank you in advance for any help in answering these questions.
MRI
Both bitter almonds and apricot pits (and other seeds of the genus Prunus) contain amygdalin, which can decompose into hydrogen cyanide when acted upon by certain acids or enzymes. Bitter almonds (but perhaps not apricots?) contain such an enzyme, so they contain free cyanide, according to our article Almond as much as 8%.
Amygdalin was actually explored, under the name laetrile, as a cancer treatment (the cancer cells have more of a certain enzyme that breaks down the amygdalin into cyanide, killing them), but it wasn't shown to be effective enough. So, it might kill you, but it might stop you from getting cancer.
I don't see how apricot kernels could be illegal, because there's one in every apricot, but IANAL. Apple, pear and grape seeds should not contain any amygdalin or cyanide because they are not from the same genus, but for the same reason, they might not taste or smell the same. Cyanide itself has an unmistakable almond smell.
IIRC, the recommendation here in Sweden (where bitter almonds are available) is not to eat more than one of them a day, to be sure not to get poisoned. (insert medical disclaimer here, I'm not sure). Also, I would guess sweet almonds are the best substitute for bitter ones, if you don't really have the choice to use bitter ones. I'm not sure what apricot kernels taste like, but sweet almonds are probably closer than them... TERdON01:32, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
the psychological term for believing that one is satan....
i'm doing a psychoanalysis of a character in a play and he believes that he is satan... i need the term for such a delusion. please help. thanks.
Not sure if there is a term specifically for this type of delusional disorder. Try Narcissistic personality disorder.-- Mark Bornfeld DDS dentaltwins.com Brooklyn, NY 22:32, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
thanks you guys..
wave mechanics and my handheld radio set
I have a little hand-generated, solar-powered, battery operated radio. (It's one of those "survival radios".) It's quite portable in my room. However, I notice that it's very susceptible to changes in reception. Plane flies by (at about medium-low altitude) - some noticable interference - I actually heard a few seconds of muffled talking when it was supposed to be classical radio! But that's not the main thing I'm interested about. Apparently, if I put my hand on it, it might either help it, (louder), or soften it immediately. If it's sunny, it will change frequency (it's analog) to a higher one, but drop in volume - if it is night-time, it will drop in frequency, but raise in volume. If I touch it, it will either drop or raise in volume, or either both remove or add static. It's so very fickle. I have found there are certain intervals. If I walk away - it might become softer. I walk some more, it becomes louder. I walk away more, it becomes very loud - then very soft, then very loud, then very soft again (as distance). The intervals are about roughly a cubit (which it itself differs but that is just the idea of how long it is) - is that roughly how long radio waves are? I know some are kilometres in length but I haven't checked the EMF scale recently. 1-10 metres sounds about right, although I'd say it would be closer to a metre. I was wondering if my body was affecting the amplification or resonance of the incoming signal. Note that most experiments I've done with this is linear - I have not brought measuring tape, not tried experimenting in the second or third dimension (in the sense of making detailed observation) - although I've noticed effects. I *know* it has something to do with wave mechanics. I just don't know how my body is affecting the resonance and harmony of the incoming signal. -- Natalinasmpf20:21, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Well I understand that sort of stuff is mighty complicated. But there's some purty pitchers (interactive applets) at this here site: [7]. You'll probably only need the first couple for wave mechanics, there's a whole bunch of topics covered there. Tzarius22:28, 9 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
weather
What are you doing when you are measuring air pressure?
I'd say exhaustion played a big role. Did the guy eat properly and did he go to the toilet? I'd say lack of enough food and drinks for 10 days could contribute as well. Not going to the toilet could stop his body from cleansing itself from harmful products. - Mgm|(talk)12:48, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It is imaginable that someone might die of uremic complications of complete physical obstruction of the urethra or bladder within 10 days, but not imaginable that he would have continued to play games nor that he would not have involuntarily urinated or defecated long before that. I think a pulmonary embolism is not a bad guess, but the sleep deprivation may have had more to do with it than the immobility. The cause of death isnt obvious. alteripse23:29, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Tuned Length Exhaust Systems In Four Stroke Internal Combustion Engines
What is the theory and how can one calculate the length of exhasut system downstrean of the manifold or header for maximum (or optimum) power delivery in a naturally aspirated four stroke internal combustion engine?
This question also relates to the positioning of crossover pipes in systems with two exhaust pipes.
A full answer to this question would cover at least the common four, six and eight cyliner engine configurations.
I think These guys can help. The problem is that it's a very complicated thing to model, the math involved is rather intense. In a 4-stroke engine, you have the exhaust valve(s) opening on a regular basis, from different cylinders. As each one opens, it releases a lot of pressure which in turn compresses the air in the exhaust system to its elastic peak, and the air then gains momentum as it lunges outward toward the exit. There is a brief moment when there is actually a drop in pressure, at a certain point in the pipe, due to this momentum. It travels like a massive sound wave, the pressure building and cascading outward. If the exhaust pipes are arranged in just such a way, this effect (known as Scavenging, a stub article sadly) will cause the pressure in the exhaust system to drop at the right point just as the next cylinder is ready to open, so that the exhaust gains momentum on its way out and creates an even stronger wave for the next cylinder. This is a basic rundown, the actual considerations for an exhaust system are many, from cam timing, header size and arrangement, total length to muffler, muffler design, and H-pipe or X-pipe design (often only done for efficiency and aesthetic reasons). Its important to remember that any exhaust system is merely a balance between power optimization and aesthetic efficiency (sound deadening), since for extreme power applications the exhaust is deleted from the car allowing the most flow possible. --Jmeden200002:33, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
determining if stdin is a file or a console
I am writing a C++ utility that takes its input from the command line. So when someone types
myprogram < input.txt
it works fine. However, I want the code to be able to tell when someone has just typed
myprogram
so that it can print an appropriate help message. However I can't work out how to tell whether cin is attached to a console or a file. How do I do this? Thanks Dmharvey04:29, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I'd use _isatty(_fileno(stdin)) to be sure, but basically the same idea. Likewise, I've no idea if the C++ cin/cout stuff works differently. (printf for ever!) --Bob Mellish04:55, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks so much peoples. I checked out the "Hackers' Lament" -- it's pretty hardcore. I think the simpler solutions will do just fine for what I need. Dmharvey05:27, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Microsoft Outlook
I have just bought a new computer with Windows XP Media Center as its operating system. I also installed Microsoft Outlook 2003 on this computer.
How can I move the contacts, journal entries, notes, tasks, etc. to this new computer from my old computer? My old computer is also a desktop with the Windows XP operating system. Of course, my Outlook stuffs on the old computer are on Microsoft Outlook 2003 as well.
I have an external hard drive (Maxtor) and rewritable disks; I don't have a cable to use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard; I have got USB cables, though. Can someone enumerate the steps?
--John Doe on 9 December 2005
I believe the F&ST Wizard has "removable media" as one of it's options, so you should be able to just use it to save the settings to your external HD, and transfer them that way. --Bob Mellish05:06, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. It did not work; maybe I don't know how to use my external hard drive properly. Right now, both of my computers have Microsoft Outlook 2003 and the e-mails are working. Is there an easy way to send the 100+ contacts from the Outlook on one computer to the Outlook on the other computer? I don't have a PDA to synchronize it with the old computer and then sync the new computer with the PDA.
What do they mean by "see" in this snippit from the google article:
Position: name, age, compensation in USD (as of June 2005)
CEO: Eric E. Schmidt, 50, $1 see [12]
CFO: George Reyes, 51, $781K
President of Technology: Sergey Brin, 31, $1 see [13]
President of Products: Larry E. Page, 32, $1 see [14]
Sr. VP of Worldwide Sales: Omid Kordestani, 41, $572K
VP of Corp. Development, Secretary and Gen. Counsel: David C. Drummond, 42, $776K
I think this might be a table of earnings after the IPO. --Shanedidona05:01, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
And as for what it means, if I recall, Brin and Page both decided to take $1 as salary as a gesture of their faith in the company — all of their income is through stock holdings, so if the company went down the tube they'd have nothing. Or something like that. --Fastfission15:05, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
heliocentric orbit of moon
we know that the heliocentric orbit of earth is an ellipse. what is the heliocentric orbit of earth's moon and is it a periodic or aperiodic orbit? dhtcpalyer
The Moon orbits in an ellipse around the Earth, but its period is incommensurable with that of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, so in relation to the Sun it traces out a weird loopy path that doesn't repeat. —Keenan Pepper07:14, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Well, I bet that if you look over a long enough period, it will repeat itself. Unless you measure really precisely, but then if you measure really precisely, nothing ever repeats itself (on this scale). Sorry about being such a nitpicker :) . And while I'm at it, can this really be called an orbit? DirkvdM20:54, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Good point. Nothing ever exactly repeats, it just gets close to repeating at some period, and then that correspondence drifts off and comes back around so it's better approximated by a longer period, and the whole thing is determined by the continued fraction of an irrational number. Isn't that neat? —Keenan Pepper05:16, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
An interesting factoid is that, despite being a satellite of the Earth, the Moon's orbit around the Sun is still convex, i.e. it always curves towards the Sun, never away.[8] This, and the fact that there are about thirteen sidereal months in a tropical year, suggest that the Moon's heliocentric orbit should resemble a rounded triskaidecagon — although, as stated above, the figure isn't quite closed and will form a spirograph-like pattern over several years. In practice, however, the distance between the Moon and the Earth is so much smaller than their distance from the Sun that even the Moon's heliocentric orbit is very close to circular. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 12:46, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I understood that the Moon doesn't rotate about the Earth, but that both rotate around their common C of G; however, since this is well inside the Earth, Luna appears to rotate around the Earth. Add in the fact that the Earth rotates around the Sun and you may well observe retrograde motion. Alphaxτεχ07:52, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
How come the Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard has about 20 patents on the bottom of its box, yet Microsoft Excel or the Windows XP operating system are only copyrighted? Shouldn't all softwares be either patented or copyrighted?
--John Doe
In the U.S., software can be protected by copyright, patent and trade secret as well. Copyright protection is mainly used to against piracy. Software patents and trade secrecy are used to keep competitors from copying an inventor's solutions. Trade secrets may include many undocumented features. Adobe is actually a holder of lots of software patents. You can visit the USPTO patent database and input "Term 1: Adobe" and "Field 1: Asignee Name" and see for yourself.
Would it be possible and beneficial for Microsoft to obtain patents for the Windows operating system? --John
Aren't very simple, almost trivial, things, like double clicking on an icon, patented in the United States? I have sometimes thought I'd file a patent for branching instructions in programming languages. — JIP | Talk10:02, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
You can only patent novel solutions that help people in someway which have not been invented before. They could've patented the windows layout when they created it, but now other OS systems use it, so double-clicking and the like can't be patented. Clicking is related to a mouse, not the software. - Mgm|(talk)12:51, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
But there are plenty of frivolous patents related to computer software. Because such actions can be described in purely functional terms rather than necessarily referencing any existing technology, they seem ripe for this sort of thing. See for example Amazon.com's 1-click patent (clicking a link once with a mouse allows you to purchase the product! so innovative!), or SBC's attempt to cash in on a patent for HTML frames. --Fastfission15:02, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Microsoft have lots of patents. Far too many to list on the box. Here are some that can be licenced: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/tech/. They aren't under any obligation to tell you about them. But, if you accidentally copy any patented idea or invention, you can be sued. Really, Adobe are just being helpful by drawing your attention to patents. I guess. Notinasnaid13:38, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Just a note: Software patents don't just keep competitors from copying an inventor's solutions, they also prevent people who independently developed the idea from using it. Ojw14:26, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I read somewhere that the future low cost versions of Windows would be able to run only three applications at a time compared to any number of applications other standard editions can run.
I just want to know why such a move by Microsoft?
>Is it technically not possible to create such a software
Or
>Is it a canny move by microsoft so that people who could afford standard versions of Windows will not buy low cost versions?
While I don't have any links to the version right now, I do remember the discussion you're talking about, and it seemed to be in response to African schools deciding to use Linux-based operating systems (for various reasons: cheaper software, better software, able to use cheaper computers, and no danger of "we're not supporting that any more, buy the new version!").
e.g. there were schemes like the $100 laptop project which are linux based and in danger of becoming quite popular. I imagine Microsoft didn't like the idea that a generation of children would grow up to be experts at using a non-Microsoft system.
The software wouldn't replace any "low cost" Windows (e.g. Windows 98, Windows XP Home) that you can buy here, it would be a completely new product, intentionally crippled to avoid competing with anything sold in developed countries, and aimed squarely at African schools.
The obvious question is why would somebody used it when they can get something like Ubuntu Linux (which is developed by an African, b.t.w.) for free, which is so powerful that many people are using it as an alternative to Windows XP Professional or Windows 2003 Server
The software you're referring to is called the starter edition (see our articles, XP and Vista). In addition to being aimed at emerging markets (mainly the East/Southeast Asia, but also Africa), not only as a way to fight open-source OSs (such as Linux), but also against pirated copies of Windows. Piracy is rampant in many of the markets targetted, and Microsoft thinks that one of the reasons is the high cost of Windows. It's of the opinion that many of the users in these areas have no need for the advanced features of a 'full' version of Windows, so they're selling them a severely stripped-down version more cheaply. Of course, they don't want to impact their profit margins in the wealthier parts of the world, so this Starter Edition won't be available in wealthier countries. — QuantumEleven | (talk)21:57, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Impact of a Photon
The formula for force of an impact is the well-knowen F=ma. A photon has no mass, but it can impact with measurable force. However, it accelerates to the speed of light instantly. Therefore, it has infinite acceleration. The wikipedia article Infinity states that 0 times infinity is undefined. How can a particle have undefined force. Please help. Thanks 216.209.153.1414:11, 10 December 2005 (UTC)Max[reply]
With the example of the photoelectric effect, whether the photon is able to move something or not depends on its frequency. Various other properties such as polarization, amplitude and other properties of a photon might be a factor. Because of the entire anti-classical nature of wave-particle duality, the classical definition of F=ma does not fit in, and there is no 1-1 correlation between mass, acceleration and the properties of light/photons, although these properties will factor in towards whether a photon has enough "force" (in the now technically incorrect sense of the word) to knock out an electron. -- Natalinasmpf14:59, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Photons are not little balls which hit something and bounce off. When a photon hits something, it is absorbed by an electron (usually) and it is entirely converted into energy. In fact, you can think of a photon as a little packet of electromagnetic energy. F=ma is not involved. —Keenan Pepper17:22, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If it's unobservable, invisible, and totally unprovable? If so why does science always rush to the defense of Darwinists? Do they have ulterior motives? Political motives? Are they being paid off? Don't want to lose their cushy 'science' jobs so they spread this pointless banter to make their side look like it ears a living?--152.163.101.1215:08, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Some people are just narrow minded hypocrites, don't let them get under your skin so easily, they can keep pushing their evolutionary theory, and intelligent people every where will keep pushing it back in their faces, 'scientists' ha, some people watch too much TV--Ytrewqt15:26, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Evolution is not "unobservable, invisible, and totally unprovable". It is well supported by a wealth of evidence. It is science, it's at the core of all biological sciences. And science jobs are not cushy - earning $30,000-$60,000 a year after 7 years of grad school and as a postdoc is not cushy. Guettarda15:39, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Why do Christians insist upon the existence of some unobservable, invisible, and totally unprovable god? why must they inflict their mythology upon everyone else and cause hatred in the world? Why are they afraid of science? --Nelson Ricardo17:00, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Because of the incredible amount of evidence in favour of the existence of God. It's people like yourselves who claim to know what the other side thinks but in actual fact have no idea whatsoever that cause the hatred. Alphaxτεχ07:59, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Just because something is invisible and can't be directly observed doesn't mean it's impossible to know anything about it. Do you believe in quarks? You can't observe an individual quark, almost by definition, but the quark model has predicted things later shown to be exactly right. —Keenan Pepper17:15, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Nothing is provable (outside mathematics, where that only works because you create the world in which you want to prove things). I don't know what you are thinking of when you say 'Darwinists', but evolution (if that's what you're thinking of) is not unobservable. Fruit flies are very popular for genetic research and one reason is that is that they have such short lives. So in the course of one year (let alone one lifetime or the lifespan of science itself) one can go through many generations, enough to see evolution at work. But bacteria are even better for this because their generations are extremely short. Why do antibiotics not work anymore where they did before? Because the bacteria have evolved to survive in an environment with antibiotics. On a much larger scale, though, domestic animals are a nice example of evolution put to work for humans. In stead of letting nature do the selecting we've started doing it and lo and behold we can create our own species. Hmm, am I exaggerating now? Of course in the end we could create new species, but have we technically? Domesticated cows can still create offspring with wild ones (ehm, bulls, I mean :) ). Any better examples? DirkvdM21:07, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
One criteon that makes something scientific is measurability. Does Darwin's evolution have more measurements and numerical approximations or traditional religious accounts of creation? Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) astutely stated:
:"I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of Science, whatever the matter may be."
--John Doe
Also, radio waves are invisible to the naked eye, yet they can be detected and measured with instruments unlike ghosts.
--John Doe
We turned our backs on god when we started to embrace science. When science can no longer provide us with the answers we seek then we will turn to face god again. Such is the human need to find answers to life, the universe, and everything. But for the time being I'll stick with the science thing.--Eye00:00, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The original question makes me wonder "Does this person know anything about the data sets that are the basis for the theory of evolution?" Such strong statements about science are worthless unless you are up to speed on the topic. I suggest you go and do research before making assertions that expose your own ignorance of the topic at hand. Actually there is a good article in wikipedia, evolution, why don't you read it? Then come back and rephrase your question. David D.(Talk)00:45, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If you ask a scientist about something that hasn't been discovered, then your answer will be, "I don't know." If you ask a religious scholar about something, then you always get an answer. So then you might say, "What is the catch?" It is quite simple: Religion is a system of uproveable statements. Bertrand Russell
--John Doe
Troll or not, the question "How can something be scientific?" is an extremely good one. It's not always obvious how science actually "works", and some of its most important aspects are not widely known. Our article on the Scientific method contains some good discussion, but needs more work.
Besides observability and testability, another vitally important aspect of science is an element of doubt. Science is always supposed to be able to question its assumptions and its prior results, is always supposed to be open to new explanations, is never supposed to take anything on faith. (One might note that there are other modes of thought with just about exactly the opposite traits.) Now, it's true, scientists are people too and don't always manage to uphold these lofty goals perfectly (which is to say, there is unfortunately more than a little inertia and politics and fashion and unquestioned faith when it comes to the day-to-day practice of science), but good scientists do at least try, and over the long run, scientific truth will out.
Some might ask, "if science is really open to new interpretations, why is it so opposed to Intelligent design?" But what you have to realize is that ID is not some brand-new idea that was first hatched in Dover, PA a few months ago. The "intelligent design theory" we've heard so much about recently is merely a rehashing of several ideas which have been debated (in stodgy, acedemic style) in the evolutionary biology community for decades. (Indeed, William Paley was musing about a watchmaker -- the same watchmaker Dawkins discusses in his popular book -- over two centuries ago, in 1802.) Those ideas have been put forth, held up, analyzed, dissected, explored, elaborated, and discussed at great length. Some have resulted in changes to the current state-of-the-art in evolutionary "knowledge", some have been rejected. They have not been rejected out-of-hand, and if in their "renaissance" during the Dover trial they seemed to be rejected out-of-hand, it was only out of exasperation given the wholly unscientific nature (the courtroom drama, the media circus) of the reemergent "debate".
When a proton transforms into a neutron, it goes through the process: P -> N + e+ + νe. P=Proton, N=Neutron, e+=Positron, and νe=Electron Neutrino. When a neutron becomes a proton, it goes through the process: N -> P + e− + . e−=Electron and =Electron Antineutrino. So P -> P + (e− + ) + e+ + νe by substituting P + e− + for N. P + (e− + ) + e+ + νe = P + (e− + e+) + (νe + ) = P + ENERGY (The particles and antiparticles annihilate). Doesn't that violate the conservation of energy? 216.209.153.14417:22, 10 December 2005 (UTC)Thanks - Max[reply]
As for the answer to your question, the decay of the neutron happens spontaneously and energy is released, but the decay of the proton is not spontaneous and requires energy input to occur. That's why the hydrogen nucleus (a single proton) is stable. See beta decay. Energy is always conserved. —Keenan Pepper17:42, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Nuclear Fusion
This is a reply to the above question. If , then wouldn't be endothermic, not exothermic (P=Proton, N=Neutron, e+=Positron, and Ve=Electron Neutrino)? Can someone help? Thanks 216.209.153.14418:27, 10 December 2005 (UTC)Max[reply]
Fusion of hydrogen into helium is very exothermic, because of the strong nuclear force, which you are not taking into account. Two protons changing into two neutrons would be endothermic, but the energy released when the two protons and two neutrons fuse into a helium nucleus far outweighs that. —Keenan Pepper19:07, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Recently, google is offering free wi-fi in mountain view in california.
Is it supported by advertisements?
If yes, then what type of ads are they serving?
You may want to write out your question more fully in the future (I'm having to guess what you mean...). In my opinion, you mean bit and byte by your first and third items - the articles on these subjects are pretty good. kbps and Mbps and units of data transmission rate - the speed at which information is transmitted. They stand for kilobit per second (1000 bits per second) and Megabit per second (1000000 bits per second). As for snd, I'm afraid it could be any number of things. If you saw it in the context of computers, it could be an abbreviation of send... — QuantumEleven | (talk)22:05, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Snd is a powerful sound file editor that can be customized and extended using the Scheme programming language.[9] I definitely think it was a typo though. =P —Keenan Pepper05:07, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Fusion and Fission
Sorry I had to post three questions in a row, but if nuclear
fusion gives off energy via the strong force, then why does nuclear fission also give off energy. Wouldn't the opposite process have the opposite effect? I heard that it has something to do with iron. Please help 216.209.153.9221:42, 10 December 2005 (UTC)Max[reply]
The answer is rather complicated, but to give a greatly simplified version: Fusion of light elements (to heavier elements) gives off energy, as does fission of heavy elements (to lighter elements). Fission of a light element or fusion of a heavy element is endothermic - it requires more energy than it outputs. If you keep fusing light elements, eventually you will get to iron, at which point further fusion becomes endothermic. The same happens when you fission heavy elements - the reaction gives off energy until you get to iron, at which point is becomes endothermic.
The reason for this strange phenomenon is that, for elements lighter than iron, the binding energy in the nucleus increases as the element gets heavier, so that energy is released in the fusion reaction. As you go down the periodic table, the binding energy increases until you get to iron (the most stable nucleus, with the greatest binding energy), and then it starts decreasing again (so fissioning heavy elements also moves from less bound nuclei to more bound nuclei, releasing energy).
More or less, of course a zero potential system would't have enough energy to form 'clumps' so probably a better word for it would be an infinitely dispesed cloud of inert metal at temperatures near 0K.--Aolanonawanabe01:48, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Kaonic Hydrogen
If you were to create larger atoms, like carbon, with kaons instead of electrons (like kaonic hydrogen), would there be no analogy of electron shells because kaons, being bosons, are not subject to the pauli exclusion principle?
And so wouldn't molecules made form kaonic atoms be much denser than normal molecules?
And wouldn't the strong force help two kaonic atoms to bond?
That's what I thought; thanks. The article hadn't made it clear that it was talking about the residual strong force. ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ01:28, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
At a distance, the interactions would be primarily electromagnetic, i.e. mediated by photons, just like between protons and electrons. However, at close range protons and kaons will also interact via the nuclear force (residual strong force, mediated by light mesons) as well as the weak force (W and Z bosons). At even closer distances the component quarks may interact via the strong force (mediated by gluons), although at this point it may no longer make sense to speak of the proton and the kaon as separate particles. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 07:11, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Heh, thanks. What I was really after is the mesons that should mediate the nuclear force between them; which should those be? Would they have to be kaons as well? ‣ᓛᖁ♀ᑐ07:29, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I have 4 computers set up with a KVM. I am adding a BEEP in the programs that I will run on them to let me know what it needs me to answer a question. The problem is that I don't want to have 4 sets of speakers. So, which is best: get a 4-way splitter and plug one set of speakers into all 4? Since all have a line-in and line-out, can I jumper from one to another to another and put the speakers on the last one? It isn't just which setup makes noise. I don't want to mess up the soundcards (or speakers). --Kainaw(talk)23:25, 10 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
If the computers are in the same room as you, you could make your program use the built-in speaker in the computer instead? The one that is connected to the mainboard. TERdON01:46, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It may be too late, but there are KVM units that include audio switching. I am doubtful that you can just combine the signals with a simple splitter: that doesn't sound a good thing, even if the computers take it in turns to speak. Combining audio is of course possible, though a mixer unit. But daisy chaining line out-line in? That does sound attractive. Notinasnaid19:03, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I'd go beyond Notinasnaid's "doubtful" and say that trying to use a 1-to-4 splitter "backwards" would almost certainly not work properly, since you'd have four speaker outputs all trying to drive the same line to different voltage levels. I'd guess the effect would be that you'd get sound from one of the computers, but which one would essentially be random. I'd either go with daisy-chaining the line-in/line-outs, or if you want a solution which doesn't need all the computers to be on, I'd get a 4-to-1 mixer cheap off eBay. -- AJR | Talk19:51, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
How to make an icebox?
I need to know how to make an icebox - used to keep food cool in the 19th Century by farmers in South Africa who had no electric power. It involved using charcoal. Any suggestions? --
Large ice boxes are not popular in rural/desert areas of Africa where electricity is unavailable. Instead, they use clay pots wrapped in moist cloth. The heat evaporates the water from the cloth, removing heat from the clay pot. The pots can be very large, but a walk-in icebox would be unreasonable to keep moist. --Kainaw(talk)05:33, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Disable windows system redundancy check?
Ever since my reformat I've been getting a system redunancy check any time I try to copy/move/download any file greater than 200MB,
yes I know, I know your hard drive is bad, well it doesn't seem to be, it just seems like one of those settings that gets messed up/reset to default after a reformat..
..is there any way to disable system redundancy checks?--Cyclic check01:57, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It's probably a cyclic redundancy check performed either by the filesystem or the drive controller (you've not said enough about the context of this message to make it clear which). Either way, the drive is definately bad, and you should chuck it away. There's no way to disable the CRC checks: they've at the very fundament of how data is stored on magnetic media, and they're there for a very good reason. --
It can't be the hard drive. becasue the same thing happens when I try to save/copy/download anything to an entirly different external drive, it has to be an OS thing, can I just turn it off? at my own risk?--Cyclic check02:09, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It doesn't really have to be the disk (especially if you have the same problem with several different ones). You could also have a problem with the disk controller. Or the RAM. Or the CPU. Or the mainboard in general. Possibly connected to high load of the computer as you don't get errors when dealing with small files. What is sure though, CRC errors mean something really doesn't work, and if you get them often something in your computer doesn't work as it should (it could possibly be the OS, but then it would be really unusally severe and I don't really think it's likely...) TERdON02:17, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It could be aproblem with your DMA settings of the hard drive controller. Check the device manager and turn of, or lower your DMA setting. —R. Koot02:29, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I had a very similary problem due completely to DMA. I fixed it by getting a proper UDMA IDE cable (one with a blue plug on the end). I know it sounds stupid (a cable is a cable), but the UDMA IDE cables have a ground-wire for each pin and that does make a difference. --Kainaw(talk)20:54, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Automatic querying
How would I go about automatically retrieving information from a website at regular intervals, more specifically, the Wikipedia statistics (number of articles, etc.)?
--Borbrav06:47, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Me, I would write a shell script to invoke a noninteractive webpage fetcher, such as wget, or lynx -dump. I would then arrange to have the shell script invoked periodically by putting it in my crontab. I would do this under Linux or Unix. I tend to suspect none of this will be applicable for you, but since you didn't say which operating system you're using, I can't be sure. Steve Summit (talk) 18:08, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Create an empty text file, and rename it to a filename ending in .bat or .cmd. Then, edit it using something like Notepad, and put in the commands you want to run, one per line, just as if you were typing them at the command prompt. If you don't already have software for automatically downloading data, I second the recommendation for wget. As for running your script at regular intervals, you'll probably find that Windows' Scheduled Tasks feature works pretty well. —David Wahler(talk)01:25, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
for instance, i created a questionnaire, and i written it in qbasic. one must run the program to see the questions. how do you save the answers the people insert?
You'd have to save them in and load them from a separate file. The QBasic help files should provide you with help on handling of external files. - Mgm|(talk)11:10, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
i don't want to sound too negative, but we live in 2005 (almost 2006), do you really want to have people fill in a questionnair made in qbasic? if you are starting programming then it would be wise to do it in something that supports drawing windows and such. you could do something like this with a webpage and some scripting also. Boneyard13:44, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Hey! I program in QBasic just for fun! As for the question in hand, you need to save them to an external file, because I'm afraid that there is no way to have them stored in memory. You should do something like this:
outFile$ = "Insert name and path of output file"
.
.
.
OPEN outFile$ FOR OUTPUT AS #3
.
.
.
PRINT #3, varToPrint$
i often heard of the word firewall, i know it means it sort of get rid of the viruses and allows us to read the correct message, but what exactly is a firewall? how do people bypass a firewall?
actually, if a person filters certain webpages, and you desperately need to use that filtered website, how do you go to it? i tried using different web browsers and it seems it has no use...please tell me! i am desperate! i need to do my work in www.ibiblio.org and somehow my school administrator filtered this web!
If you want to connect to blocked sites, talk to your school administrator or connect from somewhere else (like home or an internet cafe). If you start trying to bypass this stuff you could get in serious trouble. Notinasnaid11:18, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Windows XP Help
How do I create access to an item from C:\Program Files on the All Programs menu of the start button on the Windows XP taskbar?
My Norton SystemWorks program is in the Program Files folder, but it isn't on the All Programs menu.
--John Doe
The "All Programs" menu is located at %userprofile%\Start Menu\Programs. %userprofile% is usually something like C:\Documents and Settings\Joe or your username. Stuff in Program Files do not necessarily appear on the Start Menu unless the installers put them there. Try putting the program in C:\Documents and Settings\Joe\Start Menu\Programs or similar. -- Daverocks11:56, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I was able to add Norton SystemWorks to the All Programs menu of the start button. However, it is not like the other programs. It is impossible to actually launch the program and start using it. When I click on Norton SystemWorks, I see sub-menu items like NSWRes.dll, readme, wgsplugin.nsi, and lots of other items with the .dll extension.
I copied Norton SystemWorks from my old computer, which is not networked to the new computer I am currently using, on an external hard drive. Then I connected the external hard drive to the new computer and pasted Norton SystemWorks in C:\Program Files. I prefer not the use my installation CD for Norton SystemWorks. Is there any method to launch the Norton SystemWorks program on my new computer?
--John Doe
You need to install SystemWorks from the original CD. Just copying the files from one computer to another is not sufficient, as there are registry entries which are not so simple to copy, and there may be configuration files which are specific to the first computer. This advice applied to most Windows software.
You should also consider whether you have a licence to run SystemWorks on a second computer. Most likely, you had a licence to run it on the first computer only, and the licence is not transferable to another one.-gadfium00:37, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Do I have a license to completely delete the Norton SystemWorks from my old computer and install it from the original CD on my new computer -- since I have a license to use the utility software on a single computer; so by deleting it on the old computer, then I will still be using the software on a single computer, that is, the new computer?
I can't tell you what your licence says. Most likely, the licence agreement for Systemworks varies from one release to another, and may have different clauses for different countries. Anyway, I don't have a copy here. You may consider that you have a reasonable moral right to delete it from one computer and install it on another, and you most likely have a legal right to reinstall it if your hard disk crashes and you replace the disk, but you probably don't have the legal right to reinstall on a new computer even though you are uninstalling it on the old one. I am not a lawyer, so this doesn't constitute legal advice. The licence agreement may make claims which limit your rights which are not legally enforceable. The safest advice is for you to consult a lawyer, but that will likely cost you more than the software is worth. It's up to you to decide what's right.
Depending on the version of SystemWorks (after 2003 if I recall correctly), you'll have to reactivate it after installation. It is possible that you won't be able to do this because the licence key is tracked and has already been used. In this case, there is probably a mechanism for you to contact Symantec and explain the circumstances of the reinstallation to get a new licence key or unlblocking of the old one.
Does the Bering Strait ever freeze over, so you could theoretically walk across it? This picture makes it look like the strait is covered with ice in the winter, but I'm not sure. Has anyone actually walked across it, or driven a sled, etc.? —Keenan Pepper22:56, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
While it may be possible for it to freeze over, I don't believe it is allowed to do so due to naval traffic. It is a major seaway for oil tankers from northern Russia, Alaska and Canada. --Kainaw(talk)22:58, 11 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Why do my downloads begin at a relatively high speed and then progressively slow down, usually by 1 KB at a time? I'm using DSL if that has any bearing, and the last time this occurred nothing else was using my connection at the time. --Impaciente00:11, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
It may be due to a number of factors. One possible factor is that when you click on a link, but before you find the location to put it in and click Save in the dialog box, some data has been downloaded by your computer, thus accounting for the apparently increase in speed initially. It may also be due to your ISP or other points along the way between your computer and the server slowing the connection down. Enochlau01:52, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Keep in mind that the "speeds" you see in KB/s are usually calculated by taking the total amount of data downloaded and dividing that by the total amount of time elapsed. An unusually high speed at the start of a download is often an inaccurate reading if data has already been downloaded with less time elapsed. This is particularly noticeable with my artificially limited 256k DSL where there is no way the speed should go over 32 KB/s, but seems to anyway sometimes at the start of a download from the inaccurate reading. The "slowing down" you are experiencing is caused by the total time elapsing at a constant rate, but the download speed being a lot slower. The actual download rate hasn't slowed down, but the KB/s reading is, as a result of naturally correcting (through time elapsed) the original misreading at the start of a download. -- Daverocks09:44, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Could someone please tell me what a magnetic field is made of. Wikipedia doesn't seem to say. By "made of" I mean communication between two points. Photons? Electrons? Virtual particles that come in and out of existance and "touch hands" as a way of communication? If it's a wave, what frequancy? Thanks 153.111.60.1500:47, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
The four fundemental fources of nature (the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagetnic force, and gravity) all form fields of potential, and each has an associated particle which mediates its force. (See List of particles). For the electromagnetic force, the force is carried by photons. Raul65400:51, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I have read the beginnings .dll article, but I got confused. Can someone delineate to a layperson the importance and function of .dll via an analogy or another way for explaining it? I know about computer applications software and use them well, but I am not a computer scientist.
Reading the article (I'm no expert on this), it seems that each DLL is a module (piece of a program) containing often-used code that can be shared among lots of programs. It saves memory because different programs that use the same instructions don't have to store those instructions over and over. --AySz88^-^02:26, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Kaplan-Myers analysis
What is the Kaplan-Myers analysis? It is referred to all over the place but I cannot find a definition of what it is. Help please.
The Dinosaurs article has a section on extinction theories. According to that, an asteroid crash could have caused mass extinction, so in a way, yes gravity did cause the death of dinosaurs. - Akamad10:50, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I've always understood that in eucaryotes, the DNA was only transcribed in the nucleus of the cell, because the necessary transcription proteins only occurs on the nucleus. How then does a DNA virus manage to get its genome transcribed and translated? Does it carry its own transcription proteins (or catalyse its own transcription in some way), or are there such proteins available within the cytoplasm too. Or does it somehow move its genome into the nucleus?
My question is: My understanding about the herpes virus, after reading much about it, is that the virus hides in the nucleus of the nerve cell.
Then when the body is stressed, etc or when the virus itself "decides" to shed some of its cells through the surface of the skin, how long does it live? In other words how long can it live outside the body?
I am not asking about the virus that comes out of an active lesion although that would be pertinent and important information.
However, I am more interested in "shed virus cells". How long do they live when they are on the surface of the skin or on your towel or toilet seat or whatever?
The issue of whether a virus manifests "life" per se is a bit controversial; perhaps a more relevant question is the period of time the virus remains infective outside the body. Also, viruses are not composed of cells; I assume you mean "cells that are infected by virus" rather than "shed virus cells". In any case, the survival time of herpes simplex and other viruses of the herpes virus group (herpes zoster, Epstein-Barr, cytomegalovirus, and human herpesviruses 6 & 8) outside the body is quite brief. Infectivity of the viruses depends on their glycolipid envelope, which is destroyed by desiccation. The speed with which that occurs depends on the ambient environmental conditions-- heat, light, air convection, and atmospheric humidity.-- Mark Bornfeld DDS [Brooklyn, NY 17:31, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
The article doesn't suggest that cells are released from the body, but rather that individual viral particles are expelled. These particles are susceptible to desiccation and denaturation through various means, including heat, acids, bases, detergents, alcohols, heavy metal salts, reducing agents or certain chemicals such as urea. Additionally, virusses can be destroyed by radiation or other mutating agents which can rip apart the rather unstable (RNA-)genome quite easily.
Chemical Reaction of Sodium Carbonate Dissolving Oil Stain
I would appreciate if someone with a chemistry background could help me. I plan to do a science fair project where I will dissolve just sodium carbonate (washing soda) in hot water to remove an olive oil stain from cotton fabric. No other detergents or laundry boosters will be added and the water is soft and the sodium carbonate will not have to worry with "neutralizing" the magnesium and calcium deposits, etc. I plan to use different amounts of the sodium carbonate to see if a larger amount will dissolve the stain faster.
My dilemna is that per my research via the internet, science dictionaries and even "Wikipedia's" archives, I could not get an explanaation on the chemical process. I do not have access to university libraries and the public library is limited in their science/chemistry information. Either none was offered or advanced for my purposes. I have had some chemistry, but will not have a complete chemistry unit until next year in 10th grade.
Per my research, several scenarios should occur:
1) the sodium carbonate should create an emulsion that will list the stain from the fabric;
2) this process is the result of hydrolysis; and
3) a mild saponification could occur and convert the stain into "soap."
Your input and help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
--Scott
It's really cold where I work.
Over the years I have found that the colder I get, the more frequently I need to pee. Why is that? Additionally, I am assuming that pee gets warmed up pretty well while collecting in the bladder (I suspect we've all seen it steam under the right circumstances), so why do I find that I am significantly warmer following urination? I would think that having a sac of warm liquid inside you, as well as the constant muscle tension required to hold a full bladder, would generate a bit of heat.
I don't know why it is, but I find much the same (in terms of frequency, that is). Why warmer? A possibility is that your job is sendentary, and you just sit getting cold. The exercise involved in getting up and walking to the toilet might break the ice. Notinasnaid22:24, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I have experienced the same sensation and wondered about it as well. I'm not sure about the increase in frequency, but I think the warming sensation must be a percieved change in temperature, not an actual change. When you pee you may be losing heat energy, but you're losing mass too. The average energy of the particles in your body, which is what we percieve as temperature, does not change (edit: unless you include the heat lost when exposing yourself in the cold. This loss could be quite large if you're a lady and need to bare your entire bum to pee. Which makes me wonder, do women get the same sensation?). When I get the sensation it is often accompanied by a shiver. Could this generate the heat? Jasongetsdown22:42, 12 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Body temperature is closely regulated by the hypothalamus, which also produces antidiuretic hormone (ADH). One of the responses of the hypothalamus to cold is the inhibition of ADH secretion, with a resulting diuretic effect. -- Mark Bornfeld DDS Brooklyn, NY 23:11, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
As mentioned by Jasongetsdown, shivering is a basic warming function. Activating muscles consumes energy and creates heat. As for ADH, a reduction of ADH will reduce water absorbtion in the kidneys. Since they are not absorbing water, it passes into the bladder and you urinate more often. Does being cold cause the hypothalamus to reduce ADH production? That appears to be what Mark Bornfeld suggested. I do not know. --Kainaw(talk)01:50, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
siamangs (symphalangus syndactylus)
What is the subfamily of siamangs, according to scientific classification? Also, do siamangs have sexual dimorphism in body size? Do they have prehensile tails?
I'm running a batch file at regular intervals using Windows's Scheduled Tasks. However, each time it runs, a console window shows for a split-second. Is there a way to prevent the console window from being shown? --Borbrav04:03, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I haven't tried this myself, but I think this should work. Create a shortcut to the batch file and get Scheduled Tasks to run the shortcut. Now, right click on the shortcut, choose Properties, Shortcut tab. In the Run field, where it normally says "Normal Window", choose "Minimised". Enochlau04:16, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Something else I meant to mention: now that you're getting this working, make sure you're polite and don't hammer the server (whichever server you're querying with it) too frequently. Once a day is almost certainly fine, but if you're tempted to do it more frequently than that, consider carefully whether it's reasonable. Steve Summit (talk) 04:22, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Steve Summit is right, but I'm only retrieving ~8kB (Notice the "split second"), so it's reasonable (And if I weren't doing it automatically, I'd do it manually, so no difference there). As for the creating a shortcut method, it doesn't work. If in the Schedueled Tasks I select the shortcut to be run, then there is not change. If I run the link (i.e. by copying its location) nothing at all runs. --Borbrav05:16, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Hepatocellular carinoma
Pls find the below the CT scan observation..
My father has enormously large mass lesion , which involves the right lobe. It appears to involve segment VIII, segment VII , segment VI as well as segment V.The mass lession has a cephalo-caudal extent about 17cm. In the transverse plane ,the hepatic mass lesion measures about 12.0 x10.2 cm. Along the inferior aspect of the right lobe it projects exophytically from the hepatic surface.It extends up to the hepatic capsule as well.The arterial phase demonstrates evidence of mild tortuosity of right hepatic artery.Marginal dilatation is also seen of the same vessel.Lobular surface of the liver is observed,especially of the right lobe.There is evidence of thrombosis of the right portal vein.The thrombosis extends into the proximal portion of the left portal vein as well.partial thromobosis of the main portal vein is also seen.The superior mesentric vein is normal,the splenic vein is also normal.In the segment IV of the lever there is a subtle 1.0 to 1.4 cm hypoattenuated lesion,which is best appreciated in the portal venous phase and in the delayed phase.In arterial phase of the evalution ,this lesion is marginally hypoattenuated to hepatic parenchyma.The caudate lobe is normal.
Minimal dilatation of the right lobe intrahepatic biliary radicals is seen.The CBD is not dilated .The gall bladder is normal.The pancreas shows no feature of note,The spleen is not enlarged.
Both adrenal glands are normal.Both kidneys are normal.There is no ascites or adenopathy.
You didn't really ask a specific question, but I'm guessing you want something like a translation into non-medical terminology. But that won't help you much. You need to ask your father's physician what the findings on the CT mean in terms of treatment recommendations. Is partial removal of liver (partial hepatectomy) an option? (The involvement of the main portal vein suggests it is not, as does the large size.) Is liver transplant? Would chemotherapy be of use? (Usually not.) Many many factors will go into this medical advice (including your father's age, state of health, other illnesses, etc.). So you'd be best off asking the physicians directly involved - and they may be hepatologists, radiologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and surgeons. They can give you medical advice, and we can't; and they have the facts they need to give you that advice, and we don't. - Nunh-huh04:44, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
I just want to know the survial of this,yes physician has given tests to understand the stage.
Incase the remedy is not available in india where we can approach.
This is still a question your physician should be able and willing to help you with - though really no one can give you a specific number. In general the survival time for a non-resectable hepatocellular carcinoma is months rather than years. - Nunh-huh05:23, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
THC and glaucoma?
If when your vision has glaucoma it gets better with medicinal THC, theni f you don't have any glockoma vision problems, wouldn't THC actually make your vision a lot better? like 200 or three hundred times better? If it can make bad vision from near blind to be able to see, then couldn't it make good vision to VERY good vision? with reular doses? What other medicical problems require treatment with medical THC? Do you know what symptoms they have and where or what kind of doctors prescrime them? Couldn't you say if it makes good seeing intp great vision that THC is like a vitamin and could be given prescription over the counter like a normal eyesight fixing vitamin? - amon
My understanding is that glaucoma is the result of optic nerve damage caused by elevated intraocular pressure—high pressure within the eye compresses the optic nerve and surrounding tissue, causing damage. THC has been demonstrated to lower intraocular pressure (the pressure within the eye) for some patients, which may arrest or delay further vision loss.
What kind of human is described by the Human Genome Project?
I was going to ask whether the Human Genome Project was the genome of a single person or a group of people, but the article says it's "the combined genome of a small number of anonymous donors". What would the imaginary human described by this composite genome look like (what color skin, hair, etc.)? I assume they've sequenced both X and Y sex chromosomes, so it could be male or female.
Well rumour has it that Craig Venter is one of the anon donors.
With regard to the amount of variation, below is quoted from the HapMap project:
"Genetically speaking, humans are incredibly similar to one another. Any two unrelated genome sequences differ at only one position in a thousand, on average. The 0.1 per cent difference, which amounts to about three million base pairs of DNA in total, is what makes each of us genetically unique." [11]David D.(Talk)07:01, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]
wave function
can anyone explain the concept of the wave function and schrodinger's equation in simple laymen's terms? it has too many mathematical terms in wiki, and it's really confusing!
Empirical equation for pressure-altitude
Is there any empirical equation for pressure-altitude?How does the pressure change with altitude in the real world?
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