Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 3]

[Ayahuasca]

Nimby said:

Ayahuasca said:

Airline passenger sitting next to an over-wing emergency exit.

What is to stop a passenger yanking the lever at 30,000 feet and making everyone go whoosh......?

DrTre said:

Air pressure isn't it?

Edit.. Thinking about it, that's a fking stupid thing to say.

No, you are right.

doogz said:

They (aircraft cabin doors) can be opened at altitude...

I did a back-of-envelope calculation that the closing force on an aircraft plug door at cruising altitude was many tons, didn't believe it, then found this which gives a similar result (12.6 tonnes).

My calculation: cabin air pressure at cruise (equiv to 2000m) = 0.8 kg/cm2 (see http://www.altitude.org/air_pressure.php)
outside air pressure @ of 10,000m = 0.3 kg/cm2
therefore pressure difference = 0.5 kg/cm2

If the door is 2m x 1m, force due to air pressure is 200 x 100 x 0.5 = 10000 kg , or roughly 11 tons. You'd have to be pretty strong to overcome that.

A quick look on google reveals that the overwing emergency doors on a B737 (the type I was on) are not 'plug doors'. You just pull the lever and the door hinges outwards by itself. it doesn't come inwards like a plug door needs to. So air pressure would help the door open. It is much less than 2 square metres, maybe half that, still there would be about 5 tons (your calcs) of pressure helping the door to open.

[RobinOakapple]

Yes, seeing as the aircraft is pressurized (way above the atmosphere at cruising altitude), a door would likely open like a champagne cork leaving a bottle.

[grumbledoak]

Have you fellas heard the pilot announce things like "Doors to manual" when they want to let the paying baggage out?

[popeyewhite]

RobinOakapple said:

popeyewhite said:

Ah, I see, how choice. You're quick to post other's perceived errors on the Spelling Police thread; what a surprise to discover you don't like it when your own mistakes are publicised.

Just posting to show that I have read it, and have nothing to say about it,

I thought you wouldn't.

RobinOakapple said:

except

lol

RobinOakapple said:

to point out that you are obviously not the kind of guy to walk away from an unwinnable argument.

No idea what you're on about. I highlighted your incorrect use of rhetoric, just like you highlighted other's (supposed) spelling errors. Which you didn't like. Save the clumsy attempts at a riposte and have some self-respect.

[RobinOakapple]

Like I said, not the sort of guy to walk away from an unwinnable argument. You can't win it because I didn't make a mistake, if you are wondering. Now I suggest you pack it in before we both get thrown off this thread. In order to avoid that, I'm not going to respond to your inevitable must-have-the-last-word response.

[Nimby]

Ayahuasca said:

A quick look on google reveals that the overwing emergency doors on a B737 (the type I was on) are not 'plug doors'. You just pull the lever and the door hinges outwards by itself. it doesn't come inwards like a plug door needs to. So air pressure would help the door open. It is much less than 2 square metres, maybe half that, still there would be about 5 tons (your calcs) of pressure helping the door to open.

True, but another quick look on Google also says the B737 overwing emergency doors are locked by a 28v solenoid deadbolt in flight and cannot be opened (even in the event of a power failure) until the captain unlocks them.

grumbledoak said:

Have you fellas heard the pilot announce things like "Doors to manual" when they want to let the paying baggage out?

That's to disable the escape slides.

[singlecoil]

RobinOakapple said:

...I'm not going to respond to your inevitable must-have-the-last-word response.

Doing the right thing there I reckon.

PEW, enough already, the argument thread is that way------------

[singlecoil]

The thing I want to know is, would a human body float in wet concrete or sink entirely below the surface? The former I reckon, but interested to hear from anyone who has ever tried it?

[TheEnd]

Float.
People float in water, let alone a mix of sand, stones and cement.

Walking around in deep concrete with wellys on and you'll feel the buoyancy.

[singlecoil]

So anyone finding the need to do this would be best to wrap the body with some heavy chain etc. It's as I thought.

Surprising how often the idea of disposing of a body (without the weights) crops up in fiction, though.

[grumbledoak]

Nimby said:

That's to disable the escape slides.

Ah. Close, but no cigar. Thanks for the correction.

[Sir Humphrey]

john2443 said:

You would have 8 billion but they wouldn't be 8 billion different people.

You can't exclude cousin marriages because after a while everyone is your distant cousin. (Well, not quite due to immigration) and every time distant cousins marry that's one less pair of gt gt gt...grandparents to add in.

If my girlfriend were also my first cousin, most people would think it is weird. Clearly we also share some ancestors from when we were monkeys, which isn't weird.

At what point are two people related distantly enough for them to start bonking each other and people don't think it is weird?

[TheEnd]

singlecoil said:

So anyone finding the need to do this would be best to wrap the body with some heavy chain etc. It's as I thought.

Surprising how often the idea of disposing of a body (without the weights) crops up in fiction, though.

It can be a case where things like lower density concrete blocks and bricks end up floating to the top if the concrete is particularly wet.

I guess usually concrete would have enough steel and reinforcement anyway so there wouldn't be many free bits were something would float.
Most concrete has steel about 2-3 inches below the surface as a cage.

[walm]

singlecoil said:

So anyone finding the need to do this would be best to wrap the body with some heavy chain etc. It's as I thought.

Surprising how often the idea of disposing of a body (without the weights) crops up in fiction, though.

Usually (in fiction) they dump the body and then pour in the concrete rather than the other way around, don't they?

And while I guess the body would slowly float to the top the concrete hardens before that happens.

They would probably notice if they threw a body onto wet concrete and it didn't sink!

[anonymous-user]

TheEnd said:

singlecoil said:

So anyone finding the need to do this would be best to wrap the body with some heavy chain etc. It's as I thought.

Surprising how often the idea of disposing of a body (without the weights) crops up in fiction, though.

It can be a case where things like lower density concrete blocks and bricks end up floating to the top if the concrete is particularly wet.

I guess usually concrete would have enough steel and reinforcement anyway so there wouldn't be many free bits were something would float.
Most concrete has steel about 2-3 inches below the surface as a cage.

And the heat generated in the curing reaction would remove many of the identifying features. It's a good way to get rid of someone, I would imagine. Have to tie them in to the cage first, which if done whilst they were alive (as gansters would no doubt be up for) would be a good way of terrorising them first.

[Vipers]

If a friend buys me an I-phone in the states and sends it to me in the UK, will the warranty be valid in the UK.

Secondly any idea what import tax etc would I have to pay. Is it pro rota?

[Dr Jekyll]

Is there a word for someone who is the opposite of paranoid? Someone who assumes everyone thinks they are a great guy when everyone really thinks they are a pratt and fantasises about burning their farms, razing their cities and driving their armies into the sea.

[Jonboy_t]

Dr Jekyll said:

Is there a word for someone who is the opposite of paranoid? Someone who assumes everyone thinks they are a great guy when everyone really thinks they are a pratt and fantasises about burning their farms, razing their cities and driving their armies into the sea.

Its called 'doing a Blair'

[Silent1]

Dr Jekyll said:

Is there a word for someone who is the opposite of paranoid? Someone who assumes everyone thinks they are a great guy when everyone really thinks they are a pratt and fantasises about burning their farms, razing their cities and driving their armies into the sea.

Oblivious?

[anonymous-user]

Vipers said:

If a friend buys me an I-phone in the states and sends it to me in the UK, will the warranty be valid in the UK.

Secondly any idea what import tax etc would I have to pay. Is it pro rota?

Probably. I've had warranty work done on stuff bought abroad (a camera) and there was no issue. Just make sure the warranty paperwork is signed/stamped correctly by the store it's bought from. Also a pair of Raybans bought abroad needed a frame repair, again, done under warranty in the UK with correctly stamped/signed warranty booklet.

And zero - they just write on the customs label that it's a $1 gift.