Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 2]

[rohrl]

Ayahuasca said:

Bicycle brakes. When the front brake is applied hard the bike wont be pushed forward but will quite happily slide backwards. Similarly when the rear brake is applied hard the bike won't move backwards but will quite happily slide forwards. What's going on there?

I think what is going on there might be physics.

When the front brake is on and you attempt to push the bike forwards you are creating a moment around the front wheel and your force is directed quite steeply downwards as well as forwards. You can't force the bike through the ground so it just resists your input and stays still.

When you push the bike backwards it will move much more easily because the moment created around the rear wheel is at a much shallower angle so the vast majority of your force is directed forwards.

[illmonkey]

Yes, down to where pressure is coming from.

If you were to say, put a elastic band holding the break on, and go to the other end of the bike and push/pull, it'll be quite easy either way.

[Ayahuasca]

rohrl said:

Ayahuasca said:

Bicycle brakes. When the front brake is applied hard the bike wont be pushed forward but will quite happily slide backwards. Similarly when the rear brake is applied hard the bike won't move backwards but will quite happily slide forwards. What's going on there?

I think what is going on there might be physics.

When the front brake is on and you attempt to push the bike forwards you are creating a moment around the front wheel and your force is directed quite steeply downwards as well as forwards. You can't force the bike through the ground so it just resists your input and stays still.

When you push the bike backwards it will move much more easily because the moment created around the rear wheel is at a much shallower angle so the vast majority of your force is directed forwards.

But when the rear brake is on, it wont pushed backwards although you are applying the force to the handlebars at the front.

[rohrl]

Ayahuasca said:

rohrl said:

Ayahuasca said:

Bicycle brakes. When the front brake is applied hard the bike wont be pushed forward but will quite happily slide backwards. Similarly when the rear brake is applied hard the bike won't move backwards but will quite happily slide forwards. What's going on there?

I think what is going on there might be physics.

When the front brake is on and you attempt to push the bike forwards you are creating a moment around the front wheel and your force is directed quite steeply downwards as well as forwards. You can't force the bike through the ground so it just resists your input and stays still.

When you push the bike backwards it will move much more easily because the moment created around the rear wheel is at a much shallower angle so the vast majority of your force is directed forwards.

But when the rear brake is on, it wont pushed backwards although you are applying the force to the handlebars at the front.

I don't think it matters very much where you input the horizontal force.

Edited by rohrl on Thursday 24th April 16:15

[The Don of Croy]

paolow said:

Does anywhere in this nation still operate working air raid sirens in case a foreign power decides a sneak attack?
You saw them working all the time in 60/70 and even eighties 'end of the world' film scenarios........

Some are in use as flood warnings - as seen at Sutton Bridge, Lincs. on the warehouses at the quayside. Yes, we went to see. Yes, one of us (step forward younger son) is fascinated by sirens. We even have one on the shed (bluddy loud it is too).

There used to be one up the road from my childhood home outside a medical clinic, mounted about 15' up a pole, and tested every six months. It's been gone some thirty odd years.

Presumably there's an app for it now?

[CraigyMc]

The Don of Croy said:

Presumably there's an app for it now?

What would you do in the event of a nuclear attack?

1950 answer: Duck and cover.
2014 answer: Die.

What exactly is the air raid warning userful for, anyway?
A total war (WW3) would kill everyone anyway.

[HereBeMonsters]

Do Broadmoor still do their siren every Monday morning at 10?

Big part of my childhood that was

[gwm]

CraigyMc said:

What would you do in the event of a nuclear attack?

1950 answer: Duck and cover.
2014 answer: Die.

What exactly is the air raid warning userful for, anyway?
A total war (WW3) would kill everyone anyway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjO2yCshrc

[ukbabz]

HereBeMonsters said:

Do Broadmoor still do their siren every Monday morning at 10?

Big part of my childhood that was

One of them in Wokingham does at least..

[Looket]

I want to know what happened to CY88 (been lurking for long, read the thread then, re-read it today and felt a burning dissatisfaction).

Well, actually I don't care so much about him per se, but rather what he found in his garden.

Anyone?

Please?

[FiF]

Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

FiF said:

Engineer1 said:

steveo3002 said:

RenesisEvo said:

Easter eggs. The very day after easter, they all vanish from the supermarkets. What happens to them? They don't have shelf lives long enough for another year (one I looked at says it got about 3 months).

they will reduce em prob late on easter or by the day after , crazed gluttons will grab them all and race home to eat them while watching jeremey kile

Edited by steveo3002 on Saturday 12th April 20:39

They hang round maybe a week after Easter at reduced prices but I suspect the big supermarkets have got their orders fine tuned.

They are not really that clever at times . Why do you think Sainsburys are in a panic discount mode with less than a week to go when by rights discounts on Easter eggs should be disappearing. The other year they had so many there was literally no more space to store them. So they made a big display in the front windoww. Yep storing eggs behind a big south facing plate glass window. Good idea morons.

A friend of mine worked at Sainsbury's a while ago - admittedly in the 90's, so things might have changed since then.

He told me that their store managers were responsible for ordering stock for special occasions like Easter etc.

Back when we had the upcoming 'VE DAY' 50th anniversary in 1995, the managers were convinced that the local populace would be in to buy tonnes more food leading up to the day - especially barbecue type stuff - as they thought that everyone would be having some huge parties and celebrations, to mark the occasion. So they went bananas, and ordered in absolutely loads of stuff.

Imagine their surprise, when sales in the week and the weekend of the anniversary, didn't really change much from normal. My friend said that their stock room was so rammed with unsold food, that staff had to literally shuffle along tiny aisle gaps, between boxes and boxes of stuff up to the ceiling, in order to even get into the room.


Very quickly, some wag hung a sign on the stockroom door which read "Never before was so much ordered by so few, for such little point..."

Turns out that the management had a sense of humour and let the sign stay there...but there were a lot of red faces...

Loved that story, it wasn't quite that bad this year.

Had my piggy nose hung over some TTD Dark Chocolate Eggs, but being a tight git waited for the third round of discounts. Too late by half an hour, all gone bar one that was pretty much scrambled in the rush.

[ambuletz]

I've a Q. Is there anything particularly wrong in putting a higher wattage light bulb into a floor/table lamp then they suggest? I'm imagining that they base this suggestion off how much heat it gives off right?

I'm having a fiddle about with lighting for photography, and I need more light. I figure I'll just get a brighter bulb to use. However I'd probably get off the lamp shade.

[leafspring]

Why do automated payments on bank computers follow bank holidays? surely a microchip doesn't need a holiday

[CraigyMc]

ambuletz said:

I've a Q. Is there anything particularly wrong in putting a higher wattage light bulb into a floor/table lamp then they suggest? I'm imagining that they base this suggestion off how much heat it gives off right?

I'm having a fiddle about with lighting for photography, and I need more light. I figure I'll just get a brighter bulb to use. However I'd probably get off the lamp shade.

It's mainly heat, unless you're going up zillions of steps and then cabling/fuses/switches might start to be an issue.

Heat alone can be a big issue - putting a 60w bulb in a 40w light can make it too hot to safely touch.

Depends what you're shooting, but in many cases more lights are better than stronger ones (depends how hard you want the shadows and reflections to end up really).

[lord trumpton]

This little puzzler has always had me, well puzzled

3 Student flatmates go to buy a TV. They arrive at a repo shop and spot a TV in the window on sale for £30.00

They decide to buy it and each put in £10, pay the sales dude and leave.

Sales manager informs sales dude that the TV had just been reduced down to £25.00 and to go find the chaps and refund their fiver.

Sales dude takes out 5off £1.00 coins and sets off. He decides to pocket £2.00 and give each student a £1.00 coin back.

So, each student has now contributed £9.00 to the sale.

£9.00 x 3 = £27.00

£27.00 + £2.00 (from sales dudes pocket) = £29.00

Whats happened to the missing £1.00?

[ATTAK Z]

lord trumpton said:

This little puzzler has always had me, well puzzled

3 Student flatmates go to buy a TV. They arrive at a repo shop and spot a TV in the window on sale for £30.00

They decide to buy it and each put in £10, pay the sales dude and leave.

Sales manager informs sales dude that the TV had just been reduced down to £25.00 and to go find the chaps and refund their fiver.

Sales dude takes out 5off £1.00 coins and sets off. He decides to pocket £2.00 and give each student a £1.00 coin back.

So, each student has now contributed £9.00 to the sale.

£9.00 x 3 = £27.00

£27.00 + £2.00 (from sales dudes pocket) = £29.00

What's happened to the missing £1.00?

Back to school for you young man if you don't know !!!

[leafspring]

lord trumpton said:

This little puzzler has always had me, well puzzled

3 Student flatmates go to buy a TV. They arrive at a repo shop and spot a TV in the window on sale for £30.00

They decide to buy it and each put in £10, pay the sales dude and leave.

Sales manager informs sales dude that the TV had just been reduced down to £25.00 and to go find the chaps and refund their fiver.

Sales dude takes out 5off £1.00 coins and sets off. He decides to pocket £2.00 and give each student a £1.00 coin back.

So, each student has now contributed £9.00 to the sale.

£9.00 x 3 = £27.00

£27.00 + £2.00 (from sales dudes pocket) = £29.00

Whats happened to the missing £1.00?

That £27 is the £25 from the shop & the £2 the guy pocketed... you then added that £2 again

£25 to the shop
£2 for the thief
£3 for the students

£30 total


I await a whoosh parrot for missing the point/joke/obvious

[Carthage]

Single-track roads:
1. Why don't English ones have proper passing places?
2. Why don't they have nice black and white stripy posts to mark them?
3. Why do people go into any spaces on their right? So wrong.
4. Why do English people not know how to overtake/let people pass on a single-track road?

[Silent1]

Carthage said:

Single-track roads:
1. Why don't English ones have proper passing places?
2. Why don't they have nice black and white stripy posts to mark them?
3. Why do people go into any spaces on their right? So wrong.
4. Why do English people not know how to overtake/let people pass on a single-track road?

Around here
1. Ours do
2. They have a post marking them, sometimes it's a blue one with passing place on it
3. The person pulls in who is on the side of the road of the passing place
4. You can't overtake on a single track road as it requires the assistance of the overtakee, slow traffic does pull over though.

[Carthage]

Silent1 said:

Around here
1. Ours do
2. They have a post marking them, sometimes it's a blue one with passing place on it
3. The person pulls in who is on the side of the road of the passing place
4. You can't overtake on a single track road as it requires the assistance of the overtakee, slow traffic does pull over though.

Where's 'here'?
2. Stripy wooden posts are cuter.
3. Agreed
4. Car in front indicates left, pulls in, car behind overtakes. Except in Gloucestershire where you can grow old and grey.