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

[anonymous-user]

Where do flies go in the winter? How do they manage to survive?

[Speed 3]

sleepera6 said:

Where do flies go in the winter? How do they manage to survive?

Lanzarote

[handpaper]

kowalski655 said:

What might have happened if I refused to pull over though? I'm on MY side of the road so ,apart from me being lynched by the people stuck in the ensuing traffic jam, shirley they can't make me move!
(

Short answer, yes, they can make you move. You're in a smaller vehicle, it's easier for you to give way. Unless you're towing, in which case a rigid HGV gives way to you.
What happens when an artic meets a caravan on a single track road in Devon I have no desire to find out!

[CoolC]

deltahotel said:

Why do some vans in parts of Europe have a glazed side window (you know so you can see what's in the back), is it for tax purposes?

Usually to help them see at junctions.

[Dr Jekyll]

If I'm designing a space craft to be pressurised to 15psi, how thick do the walls need to be purely to stand the pressure? Not considering complications like heat insulation. My guess is a few mm.

[Nimby]

Dr Jekyll said:

If I'm designing a space craft to be pressurised to 15psi, how thick do the walls need to be purely to stand the pressure? Not considering complications like heat insulation. My guess is a few mm.

Pressure cookers typically go up to 15psi so about the same thickness should do.

[oceanview]

Russia: car insurance!

Does anyone know what the car insurance premiums are like in this crash happy land?? Do you even have to legally have it??

Is drink-driving tolerated?

We've all seen the dash cam videos that make the UK ones look like good, considerate driving by Miss daisy!!

[JustinF]

Dr Jekyll said:

If I'm designing a space craft to be pressurised to 15psi, how thick do the walls need to be purely to stand the pressure? Not considering complications like heat insulation. My guess is a few mm.

Very very thin, a 2-3mm wthick rubber bicycle tyre can take 120 psi

[Exige77]

JustinF said:

Dr Jekyll said:

If I'm designing a space craft to be pressurised to 15psi, how thick do the walls need to be purely to stand the pressure? Not considering complications like heat insulation. My guess is a few mm.

Very very thin, a 2-3mm wthick rubber bicycle tyre can take 120 psi

Is it not about the pressure difference ? Will space being a vacuum not make a difference compared to normal sea level atmospheric pressure ?

[MartG]

Dr Jekyll said:

If I'm designing a space craft to be pressurised to 15psi, how thick do the walls need to be purely to stand the pressure? Not considering complications like heat insulation. My guess is a few mm.

The Apollo Lunar module had a wall thickness of about 0.3mm and was pressurised to 5psi

[Fugazi]

Exige77 said:

Is it not about the pressure difference ? Will space being a vacuum not make a difference compared to normal sea level atmospheric pressure ?

If a bike tyre was pumped up to 100 psi on Earth at sea level and then taken into space, the pressure difference relative to the vacuum outside is exactly the same as pumping the tyre up to 114 psi at sea level.

[227bhp]

In F1 why is it now called 'box' when it used to be pit?

[DocJock]

Short for 'pit box'.

'Box' is less likely to be misunderstood over the radio.

[Einion Yrth]

DocJock said:

'Box' is less likely to be misunderstood over the radio.

Why?

[DocJock]

When you have a driver concentrating on a complex task, in a noisy environment, with radio of variable quality, you want the word with the fewer homophones or quasi-homophones, to reduce the risk of mishearing.

[Einion Yrth]

DocJock said:

When you have a driver concentrating on a complex task, in a noisy environment, with radio of variable quality, you want the word with the fewer homophones or quasi-homophones, to reduce the risk of mishearing.

So how is "pit" worse than "box"? That's the question; not the meta, that's obvious.

[DocJock]

Because phonally, words ending with the 'x' sound are a lot rarer than those ending with 't', and the 'x' sound is more distinct and less easily confused with another than the 't' sound.

Remember when pit to car radio started, the quality was rather poor. That is why/when 'box' was adopted.

[Einion Yrth]

Thank you for your response; I don't actually think that your assertion is correct, but I find I'm not interested enough in the subject to dig out counter evidence, certainly I don't find it difficult to think of English words that end in "x" or "cks" which is equivalent. Given, however, that I can't be bothered to seek out contrary evidence I'll stick it on my pile of things that might be true. I don't want to get into a pointless flame war.

[djc206]

The cars stop in the pit box, the marked area where the engineers fiddle with the cars. Surely it's that? alternatively the German for pit stop is boxenstopp (sp?)

[majordad]

It's because Box is German for pit.