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I bet you didnt know that

1153154156158159200

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,941 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    How does an amplifier produce a visual effect?
    Like just a wall of them to look more impressive
    Black-Veil-Brides-fake-cabs.jpg
    Ah ok that makes sense, I thought the post said visual effects, plural.

    EDIT: it did


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,070 ✭✭✭bilbot79


    Horses change their gait when the increased speed brings the pressure on their bones to one third of their tensile strength


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,558 ✭✭✭✭Fourier


    Bertrand Russel and Lord Alfred Whitehead at the start of the 20th century set out to prove that mathematics all worked, that there were no hidden flaws in it. In the first volume of their massive work Principia Mathematica on p.379 they finally prove 1 + 1 = 2

    B50yXN.jpg


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,309 Mod ✭✭✭✭mzungu


    Heroin was used to treat children's coughs.

    Although better known today for their slightly less addictive asprin, Bayer commercialised heroin in the 1890s as a cough, cold, and pain remedy. As late as 1912 they were marketing it for children, even though there were plenty of reports by that time on its addictive properties. The FDA eventually called a halt and in 1914 heroin was restricted to prescription-only use. In 1924 they went the full hog and banned it altogether.

    Below are some Spanish advertisements from 1912...

    488515.jpg


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    Most of the huge walls of amplifiers behind and around a rock band on bigger stages like festival s etc don't actually produce sound , they are just there for visual effect

    Only the ones that don’t go to 11.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,891 ✭✭✭prinzeugen


    mzungu wrote: »
    Heroin was used to treat children's coughs.

    Although better known today for their slightly less addictive asprin, Bayer commercialised heroin in the 1890s as a cough, cold, and pain remedy. As late as 1912 they were marketing it for children, even though there were plenty of reports by that time on its addictive properties. The FDA eventually called a halt and in 1914 heroin was restricted to prescription-only use. In 1924 they went the full hog and banned it altogether.

    Below are some Spanish advertisements from 1912...

    488515.jpg

    We dug up tons of old glass bottles on our allotments. Millions of OXO jars but one was interesting.

    I think it was called "Mothers helper" or similar. A Google told us it was a Morphine bottle from the early 1900's. It was rubbed of the gums of teething kids!

    It still had the stopper and a bit liquid in it as did a old Milton bottle. We dumped the Morphine one as we were told having it was illegal.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 49 thewolfisloose


    Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,844 ✭✭✭py2006


    Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

    I was convinced he died earlier this year.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,926 ✭✭✭✭thesandeman


    py2006 wrote: »
    I was convinced he died earlier this year.

    That was his career.
    He received an award for services to the industry or something.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,670 ✭✭✭MikeyTaylor


    Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

    As is Olivia de Havilland


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,733 ✭✭✭StupidLikeAFox


    Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

    To put that into perspective he was 53 when the moon landings happened and in his late 70s when the Berlin Wall came down


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,183 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    To put that into perspective he was 53 when the moon landings happened and in his late 70s when the Berlin Wall came down
    I actually knew that about Kirk. He was born the same year as my oulfella and he mentioned he was the same age as Kirk. He made it into the millennium, not quite as far as oul dimple chin. :D Folks born then who made it into their 80's, even their 70's saw a lot of stuff come along. From canvas biplanes to landing on the moon in one lifetime. Never mind two world wars(just) and all the other stuff of the modern age.I wonder if someone born in 2016 will get to see such massive changes. In some ways, hopefully not.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,300 ✭✭✭✭razorblunt


    bilbot79 wrote: »
    Horses change their gait when the increased speed brings the pressure on their bones to one third of their tensile strength

    Yeah, but if you open their gait too much then they'll bolt.





    :o


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,155 ✭✭✭RiderOnTheStorm


    Fourier wrote:
    Bertrand Russel and Lord Alfred Whitehead ..... finally prove 1 + 1 = 2

    when I worked in IT we discovered a bug in one of the financial packages. After hours and hours of investigations we narrowed it down to the addition of two variables. One contains a value of 4, the other contained a value of 3, and when they were added together the sum was 6.999 ..... We fixed it, but never figured out why.

    Computers can be a right pain!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    when I worked in IT we discovered a bug in one of the financial packages. After hours and hours of investigations we narrowed it down to the addition of two variables. One contains a value of 4, the other contained a value of 3, and when they were added together the sum was 6.999 ..... We fixed it, but never figured out why.

    Computers can be a right pain!

    Rounding can be fun.
    2 (2.3) + 2 (2.3) = 5 (4.6)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,333 ✭✭✭✭JRant


    As late as the mid 1940's radioactive products were still being sold to the general public.

    http://mentalfloss.com/article/12732/9-ways-people-used-radium-we-understood-risks

    Check out No 7 on the list, not for the faint hearted :0

    "Well, yeah, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man"



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,498 ✭✭✭KevRossi


    As is Olivia de Havilland

    Who is also the oldest person ever to be made a Dame and herself and her sister Joan Fontaine are the only siblings to have received Academy Awards in the role of leading actor.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    Vera Lynn is up there with Olivia. One year younger.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Lynn

    WWII seems so long ago. It seemed long ago when I was born. Yet there’s the “forces sweetheart”, a best selling musician (as an adult not a child) during that war. Still alive. Still singing. Released an album last year.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,498 ✭✭✭KevRossi


    A Quadripoint is a point where 4 equal jurisdictions meet. Probably the best know one worldwide is in the USA, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet.


    However, this is well beaten by the Italians who managed to get a Decipoint, by getting 10 districts to meet at the summit of Mt. Etna. It is the only known place on earth where this happens.

    DnJv9trXsAAhfjq.png


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  • Moderators, Arts Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators Posts: 77,192 Mod ✭✭✭✭New Home


    KevRossi wrote: »
    A Quadripoint is a point where 4 equal jurisdictions meet. Probably the best know one worldwide is in the USA, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet.


    However, this is well beaten by the Italians who managed to get a Decipoint, by getting 10 districts to meet at the summit of Mt. Etna. It is the only known place on earth where this happens.

    DnJv9trXsAAhfjq.png


    I didn't know that, and I looked it up - it's actually 11 (and one municipality even has two "slots" - here shown in pale green)! EDIT: No, 10 is right, I looked at a smaller map earlier and didn't notice that one didn't reach the summit.


    800px-Provincia_di_Catania_colori.svg.png
    The borders of ten municipalities (Adrano, Biancavilla, Belpasso, Bronte (from two sides), Castiglione di Sicilia, Maletto, Nicolosi, Randazzo, Sant'Alfio, Zafferana Etnea) meet on the summit of Mount Etna, making this point one of elevenfold complexity, and the most complicated geopolitical multi-point anywhere north of the South Pole


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,126 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    ^^^^

    512px-Antarctica%2C_territorial_claims_including_Brazil.svg.png


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,309 Mod ✭✭✭✭mzungu


    In January 1992 a cargo ship going from Hong Kong to America overturned and 28,000 plastic ducks ended up being lost at sea. Although, strictly speaking not all were lost, as a good few have been found washed up on shores throughout the world and have helped to teach us about ocean currents. Likewise, the ones still floating in the sea have given a deeper understanding of ocean currents. The ducks have washed up along the shores of Hawaii, Alaska, South America, Australia and the Pacific Northwest, Newfoundland, Scotland whilst others have been found frozen in Arctic ice.

    Quite a number of the ducks have been spotted in the North Pacific Gyre (see image below) - thus helping to identify a vortex of currents stretching between Japan to Alaska Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. Roughly, it takes the three years for the ducks to do a full loop in the current.

    Friendly-Floatees.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,498 ✭✭✭KevRossi


    ^^^^

    512px-Antarctica%2C_territorial_claims_including_Brazil.svg.png

    Nope, they are not recognised as jurisdictions, just territorial claims with no legal international standing. Along with this, the South Pole and a distance around it is an international space, so they do not theoretically meet in a point.

    Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty, which preserves the status quo:

    No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in forceternational standing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,941 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    ^^^^

    512px-Antarctica%2C_territorial_claims_including_Brazil.svg.png
    Jaysus, with the amount of random countries laying claim to the place, we might as well just declare a chunk of it to be Irish. Sure why not? I don't see any good reason why Britain would have a better claim than we would.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,183 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    JRant wrote: »
    As late as the mid 1940's radioactive products were still being sold to the general public.
    They do mention clocks, but radium dialled watches were going well into the 1960's. Then for luminous dials they went to Tritium. Far less "hot", but still radioactive. That went on into the 90's in standard form, with a foray into promethium in the 80's(very short half life to drive the glow, two years IIRC). Today you can buy Tritium dialled watches where the tritium is encapsulated in vials to reduce the exposure by a large amount(down to basically nothing).

    With all these "luminous" dials, the radioactive substance itself doesn't luminess, it charges the phosphorescent material mixed with it. You know your usual luminous watch these days that glows after exposure to the sun? Well the old style radium/promethium/tritium takes the place of the sun. Radium was so active it burnt out the phosphorescent material within a couple of years(early wiristwatch adverts guaranteed two years glowing). However, even though the old dials don't glow anymore, the radium, with (IIRC) a half life of over 1500 years is still as active and potentially deadly today.

    Here's one of my personal hoard of World War One "trench" watches. Avec radium dial.
    461543.jpg
    Almost certainly painted by hand by a "Radium Girl". No longer glows, but is hot as fook. The flip top lid is of all things a "shrapnel guard". Like that would help... The radiation is cut quite appreciably when the lid is down. The case and lid is silver so maybe that's it? Silver is quite dense a metal. I'd expect the much rarer gold cases would cut the radiation even more.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,247 ✭✭✭milli milli


    Wibbs wrote: »
    The radiation is cut quite appreciably when the lid is down. The case and lid is silver so maybe that's it? Silver is quite dense a metal. I'd expect the much rarer gold cases would cut the radiation even more.

    Alpha & beta radiation would be stopped by the silver but something stronger like lead would stop gamma & x-rays. I’m not sure what type of radiation is emitted by those compounds you mentioned, maybe they don’t emit the higher energy radiation?

    https://www.mirion.com/introduction-to-radiation-safety/types-of-ionizing-radiation/#


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,024 ✭✭✭Carry


    The Radium Girls, who painted watches and clocks with the radium-infused fluorescent colour, started themselves to glow in the dark, when they went home after work.

    Each girl mixed her own colour, a mixture of water, gummi arabicum, zinc sulphide and of course Radium.
    The paint contained only little radium, but the particles set everywhere, on work desks, hair and clothing. Passers-by saw a golden glow around the girls.

    Some girls reported that when they cleaned their noses, the stuff that came out was glowing at night. Some even rubbed reportedly their teeth with the stuff to have a "radiant smile".

    However, the Radium girls paid a high price. The Radium stored itself like Calcium into the bones. Eventually the bones became brittle like glass and broke at the lightest touch. A horrible death for the sake of luminous clock-faces.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,183 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    IIRC Radium is a bugger because its a heavy gamma producer. Tritium's output would be stopped by the case and glass of the watch. The only real risk would have been to watchmakers who had to open the case to service the movement. The radium mixes also broke down like a bugger. Extremely hygroscopic, so suck up the damp from the atmosphere, which makes them break down even more. into dust that permeates everything. Dust you really would not want to breathe in. Would make a 60 a day ciggie habit look healthy.

    Years back in the 90's a watch of mine from the 1930's was tested by a lass I knew who was writing up a paper on radioactive sources in the home and was described as "low level nuclear waste"(she got quite panicked. And she wasn't the type). I got the dial cleaned and reprinted, but the movement also needed to be stripped right down and cleaned as it was emitting radiation of its own from the accumulated dust. As a kid I regularly used to wear that watch to bed as the loud ticking calmed me....

    Me. Earlier.

    da6b983ced568aa168250b34cd0ee99e.jpg

    :eek:

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,183 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    Carry wrote: »
    A horrible death for the sake of luminous clock-faces.
    The watches were much worse C. Because the numerals were so small, they were instructed to point their brushes by first wetting them with their lips and the ingested crazy levels of radium this way. So may died, but they fought hard in the courts until they did. A landmark case in worker's health. In the face of the 19th century attitude towards workers as glorified slaves. Never mind women workers. Those "radium girls" were true heroines of humanity, the lot of them. Most died and died appallingly, but for me personally what fascinates is quite a few didn't die at the time and a couple lived normal length lives. People differ I suppose.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,138 ✭✭✭✭Tom Mann Centuria


    On a vaguely similar theme (equally depressing anyway), workers, women and children particularly, who worked in match factories in the late 19th early 20th century, were prone to phosphorus poisoning.

    It could lead to multiple problems, one of the worst being phosphorus necrosis of the jaw, as the name suggests, it disintegrated the bottom jaw. They also glowed in the dark.

    Oh well, give me an easy life and a peaceful death.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,625 ✭✭✭✭BaZmO*


    Jaysus, with the amount of random countries laying claim to the place, we might as well just declare a chunk of it to be Irish. Sure why not? I don't see any good reason why Britain would have a better claim than we would.

    Well the first person to discover it was an Irish man from Cork.

    “Edward Bransfield was an Irish sailor who rose to become an officer in the British Royal Navy, serving as a master on several ships, after being impressed into service at the age of 18 in Ireland. He is noted for exploring parts of Antarctica, sighting the Trinity Peninsula in January 1820.”


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,808 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    An Outpost of the Peoples Republic of Cork.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,309 Mod ✭✭✭✭mzungu


    The only non-human or puppet to testify before Congress was Elmo in 2002. He was making an appeal for increased funding for new music education programmes.

    Elmo-Washington.jpg?resize=777%2C437&ssl=1


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Jaysus, with the amount of random countries laying claim to the place, we might as well just declare a chunk of it to be Irish. Sure why not? I don't see any good reason why Britain would have a better claim than we would.

    Uk have the most exciting and easy to reach bit for the ordinary Joe Soap. Stunning place! Ukraine were given a tiny outpost on an island, where they make salty vodka and the only souvenirs actually made in Antarctica.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,523 ✭✭✭✭Cookie_Monster


    mzungu wrote: »
    The only non-human or puppet to testify before Congress was Elmo in 2002. He was making an appeal for increased funding for new music education programmes.

    far from the only muppet to testify though :pac:


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,941 ✭✭✭✭Realt Dearg Sec


    Water John wrote: »
    An Outpost of the Peoples Republic of Cork.
    Maybe we can move them down there!


  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Wibbs wrote: »
    IIRC Radium is a bugger because its a heavy gamma producer. Tritium's output would be stopped by the case and glass of the watch. The only real risk would have been to watchmakers who had to open the case to service the movement. The radium mixes also broke down like a bugger. Extremely hygroscopic, so suck up the damp from the atmosphere, which makes them break down even more. into dust that permeates everything. Dust you really would not want to breathe in. Would make a 60 a day ciggie habit look healthy.

    Years back in the 90's a watch of mine from the 1930's was tested by a lass I knew who was writing up a paper on radioactive sources in the home and was described as "low level nuclear waste"(she got quite panicked. And she wasn't the type). I got the dial cleaned and reprinted, but the movement also needed to be stripped right down and cleaned as it was emitting radiation of its own from the accumulated dust. As a kid I regularly used to wear that watch to bed as the loud ticking calmed me....

    Me. Earlier.

    da6b983ced568aa168250b34cd0ee99e.jpg

    :eek:

    Ah, the auld phosphorous numerals on clocks. My parents refused to have any in our house as they said it had radiation which could possibly cause cancer. My friend down the road had one in her house, and I told her what my parents had told me. She looked up horrified at the thing glowing down at us from the mantelpiece. She thought of turning the clock face to the wall, but knew her father would quickly notice that. She said “we children shouldn’t be exposed to that as we are only growing. Maybe if I turned the clock to face Aunty’s chair it would be best as it would be facing away from Dad’s chair, and it wouldn’t matter as much if she gets cancer as she has no children”. Her Mum was always in the kitchen, never time to sit down on the settee in front the cancer-giving clock.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,808 ✭✭✭✭Water John


    We're not going. If you insist you can come down and say it to Roy Keane next Tues at Liam Miller match.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,192 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords



    512px-Antarctica%2C_territorial_claims_including_Brazil.svg.png


    There have been 11 children born in the Antarctic territories, the first birth occurring in 1978.

    Between 1978 and 1983 there were 8 births in Esperanza Base (Argentine Sector) and between 1984 and 1985 there were 3 births at Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva Base (Chilean Sector)

    The precedent for treating citizenship issues was set at the birth of the first baby Emilio Marcos Palma in 1978. As the Argentine claim zone is not officially recognized internationally, and partially overlaps the British claim zone, his place of birth is inside the disputed zone. He has the right to British Overseas Territory citizenship under the terms of British Antarctic nationality law - but his parents never made any attempt to claim it so instead he is legally a citizen of Argentina by right of the legal concept jus sanguinis (right of blood) as the legal concept of jus soli (right of soil) does not apply to Antarctica.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,670 ✭✭✭MikeyTaylor


    Vince Clarke (Erasure/Depeche Mode/Yazoo) does his songwriting on an acoustic guitar!
    http://www.musicradar.com/news/vince-clarke-im-not-a-good-enough-keyboard-player-to-write-on-the-synth


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  • Site Banned Posts: 1,463 ✭✭✭RIGOLO


    Wibbs wrote: »
    They do mention clocks, but radium dialled watches were going well into the 1960's. Then for luminous dials they went to Tritium. Far less "hot", but still radioactive. That went on into the 90's in standard form, with a foray into promethium in the 80's(very short half life to drive the glow, two years IIRC). Today you can buy Tritium dialled watches where the tritium is encapsulated in vials to reduce the exposure by a large amount(down to basically nothing).

    With all these "luminous" dials, the radioactive substance itself doesn't luminess, it charges the phosphorescent material mixed with it. You know your usual luminous watch these days that glows after exposure to the sun? Well the old style radium/promethium/tritium takes the place of the sun. Radium was so active it burnt out the phosphorescent material within a couple of years(early wiristwatch adverts guaranteed two years glowing). However, even though the old dials don't glow anymore, the radium, with (IIRC) a half life of over 1500 years is still as active and potentially deadly today.

    Here's one of my personal hoard of World War One "trench" watches. Avec radium dial.
    .

    Is that a German or British 'Trench' watch ? Just curious , who were they given too.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 34,321 ✭✭✭✭NIMAN


    Vince Clarke (Erasure/Depeche Mode/Yazoo) does his songwriting on an acoustic guitar!
    http://www.musicradar.com/news/vince-clarke-im-not-a-good-enough-keyboard-player-to-write-on-the-synth

    When did he write his last hit single?


  • Registered Users Posts: 124 ✭✭lan


    when I worked in IT we discovered a bug in one of the financial packages. After hours and hours of investigations we narrowed it down to the addition of two variables. One contains a value of 4, the other contained a value of 3, and when they were added together the sum was 6.999 ..... We fixed it, but never figured out why.

    Computers can be a right pain!

    Problems like this aren't actually that unusual, it's to do with how computers store 'decimal' numbers.

    Most commonly, floating point numbers are stored in two parts, similar to scientific notation (e.g. x * 10^y), but in binary. Each part only has a limited number of bits (the exact numbers depends on the programming language and precision you use, but most follow the IEEE 754 standard).

    Now think about how we represent 1/3 in decimal: 0.333333... You would need infinite digits. The same happens in binary too when trying to represent certain fractions, but the stored numbers have a very finite number of digits.

    If you could only store 1/3 in 6 decimal digits, it would look like 3.33333 * 10^-1. Due to the loss of precision, if you then multiple it by 3, you get 9.99999 * 10^-1, not 1. Similar losses of precision can happen when you divide then multiply floating point numbers on a computer. This is a bit of a simplification, but I hope it gets the point across.

    The values that they are off by are really tiny, but it can still cause problems, the most common are generally when converting them to a whole number (by default, a lot of programming languages will truncate a decimal instead of rounding) or when comparing them to numbers (0.999999 does not equal 1).

    I can't speak to your exact problem, but it sounds like it was probably caused by something similar.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,558 ✭✭✭✭Fourier


    lan wrote: »
    The values that they are off by are really tiny, but it can still cause problems, the most common are generally when converting them to a whole number (by default, a lot of programming languages will truncate a decimal instead of rounding) or when comparing them to numbers (0.999999 does not equal 1).
    The part in bold is true, but as a strange fact 0.9999... (9 repeating endlessly) does equal 1.


  • Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,183 Mod ✭✭✭✭Wibbs


    RIGOLO wrote: »
    Is that a German or British 'Trench' watch ? Just curious , who were they given too.
    That one is British. At that stage they were rarely bought by and issued from army stores in WW1(the Americans sometimes issued them. The US Signal Corp for example). They were almost all private purchases, mostly by the officer class as they were an expensive item. About the equivalent of ten weeks wages for the average worker. Some have engravings that show they were bought by groups of family and friends, or coworkers, for men going to war. Some were bought by groups of soldiers for sergeants and the like who they respected.

    Generally at the start of the 20th century wristwatches were a very rare item for men. They were seen as a "woman's watch". Most men, if they had a watch had a pocket watch. By World War 2 militaries started to issue wristwatches to the average soldier as their tactical advantages were clear. Since many if not most ordinary enlisted men came from less well off backgrounds they didn't have a watch of their own, or they had a more dressy affair not suitable for military use. Most armies, allied and axis had such programmes. Some like the German examples were paid off as a deduction from the soldiers pay. The German issued time only watches cost about the equivalent of 7-800 euro today. US forces got them essentially free as part of their kit.

    These days watches are rarely issued as a Casio costing a tenner will do the job and military time is ever present across radios and satnavs and the like.

    Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    I bet you knew that its not hens that smell but their poo.

    Birds excrete 'urine' in the form of urates (uric acids) - which are semi-solid and white in colour and a clear liquid.

    Birds kidneys extract nitrogenous wastes from the bloodstream like other animals do. However instead of releasing it as urea dissolved in urine, birds excrete it in the form of uric acid. It comes out as a white sort of goo along with the faeces because of the biochemical reactions that happen to process the waste so it can be safely excreted with minimal water loss.

    2817739.jpg


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,812 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    Fourier wrote: »
    The part in bold is true, but as a strange fact 0.9999... (9 repeating endlessly) does equal 1.

    Even though I know this to be the case, it still feels like it should be just a tiny bit less!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,587 ✭✭✭FishOnABike


    Fourier wrote: »
    The part in bold is true, but as a strange fact 0.9999... (9 repeating endlessly) does equal 1.
    I would said it is more correct to say it approaches 1 rather than it equals 1.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,499 ✭✭✭Sabre0001


    And that's not a new trick to catch out fraudsters.
    Dictionary makers put fake words in dictionaries and map makers put false features on their maps so they can tell when they've been copied.

    On a related note, there was a town in upstate New York that was a "paper town." Agloe was created by a mapmaker (Otto G. Lindberg, director of the General Drafting Co., and his assistant, Ernest Alpers) to catch anyone who copied their map.

    When Rand McNally produced its own map of New York, this town was included. They defended its inclusion by stating that they had traveled there and found a general store. Turns out the owners of the store had purchased the original map and named their store after what Lindberg and Alpers called the area, and essentially created a town in the process.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2014/03/18/290236647/an-imaginary-town-becomes-real-then-not-true-story

    🤪



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,558 ✭✭✭✭Fourier


    I would said it is more correct to say it approaches 1 rather than it equals 1.
    Trust me I get the intuition, but bizarrely it exactly equals 1.


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