Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 4]

[gazzarose]

droopsnoot said:

alorotom said:

GIYess said:

I've never owned a convertible or open top car but I've always wondered what happens if you at caught in a thunder shower? In our fine country its bound to happen quite regularly? Does it get into the electrics, make the interior smell?

Keep driving. As long as you’re over about 20mph as the interior doesn’t really gets wet!

I usually find that as soon as the rain starts, all the cars in front of me slow down, making a quick dive to a convenient parking spot necessary. It hasn't happened often enough for me to figure out whether they're doing it on purpose.

In any case, mine's getting on a bit now and lets a fair amount of rain in even when the hood is up, what with the door seal problem and the rear screen coming away from the hood slightly.

I've found with our mx5 that 30 plus is fine for a light shower and 40 plus if it's a bit heavier. The only time I've ever got wet was on the way to work one sunny Saturday and just as I passed a motorway junction and came round a bend the sky went all apocalypse dark and the rain was so heavy and so much standing water that I couldn't see the lines on the road and I had to slow down. I pulled off at the next junction and went under the motorway to put the roof up.

[steveo3002]

MartG said:

steveo3002 said:

at what weight do fattys need to spec special bog seats and baths etc

Asking for a friend ?

havent broken one yet lol

[captain_cynic]

MartG said:

steveo3002 said:

at what weight do fattys need to spec special bog seats and baths etc

Asking for a friend ?

They order them by phone... but first they need to get a special dialling wand which can be ordered by mashing the keypad with their palm.

[P-Jay]

Vipers said:

Question. Knowing that a time/heat will almost ignite a piece of bread, why do they have such a high setting?

I suspect it's to allow for the element degrading, or whatever causes them to become st.

I keep meaning to get a new one, but ours has been st for a few months now, I used to char everything if you were mad enough to put it up to 2 (ours only goes up to 6 I think) but now its between 4 and 5, takes ages and occasionally just pops out warmed bread.

[captain_cynic]

P-Jay said:

Vipers said:

Question. Knowing that a time/heat will almost ignite a piece of bread, why do they have such a high setting?

I suspect it's to allow for the element degrading, or whatever causes them to become st.

I would have gone with things like Pop Tarts and other American breakfast tat.

I also suspect its because of the size of the resister they need, I hate how all toasters just use a variable resistor rather than using temp sensors like toasters of yore. To get a crumpet perfect requires two goes at low heat settings.

[McVities]

Lazadude said:

TazR6 said:

What would happen if an immovable object was hit by an unstoppable force?

The immovable object moves and the unstoppable force stops.

Surely the unstoppable force is deflected by an angle of less than 90-degrees?

[hairyben]

Foliage said:

How do solar panels work?

vast subsidies

[anonymous-user]

gazzarose said:

droopsnoot said:

alorotom said:

GIYess said:

I've never owned a convertible or open top car but I've always wondered what happens if you at caught in a thunder shower? In our fine country its bound to happen quite regularly? Does it get into the electrics, make the interior smell?

Keep driving. As long as you’re over about 20mph as the interior doesn’t really gets wet!

I usually find that as soon as the rain starts, all the cars in front of me slow down, making a quick dive to a convenient parking spot necessary. It hasn't happened often enough for me to figure out whether they're doing it on purpose.

In any case, mine's getting on a bit now and lets a fair amount of rain in even when the hood is up, what with the door seal problem and the rear screen coming away from the hood slightly.

I've found with our mx5 that 30 plus is fine for a light shower and 40 plus if it's a bit heavier. The only time I've ever got wet was on the way to work one sunny Saturday and just as I passed a motorway junction and came round a bend the sky went all apocalypse dark and the rain was so heavy and so much standing water that I couldn't see the lines on the road and I had to slow down. I pulled off at the next junction and went under the motorway to put the roof up.

I got caught out in a huge rainstorm around the Edinburgh bypass a few years ago in a mk1 with the roof down, there was nowhere to stop and quite heavy but moving traffic so I just stuck a cap on to keep the rain out of my eyes and got (very) wet. Ended up with about an inch of water on the passenger seat squab, by which point I was so cold I'd had given up caring and did the rest of the trip down to Co.Durham like that. Car interior seemed to dry out fine however.

[glazbagun]

Do the military still use shields? Watching the latest avengers (and the old Star wars prequels) where they use fancy "energy shields" to protect them from sci-fi weqpons, I wondered if it happens in the real world too.

Riot police clearly still use them when faced with thrown objects, and I think Swat teams may use them- are there battlefield ballistic versions too?

[Willy Nilly]

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

[V8mate]

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

No health & safety.

[Tony Angelino]

When driving, do you have a 'duty of care' or similar to try and avoid an accident? Often either on my way to or from work I see a car nosing out of a junction/driving over the white line/pulling out infront of somebody at a junction and have to slow down or stop to avoid driving into them, if I was so inclined and I just drove straight into them despite it being their fault for breaking the Highway Code would I be at fault for doing it on purpose?

[SpeckledJim]

V8mate said:

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

No health & safety.

Stuff was heavy and simple, with little-to-no electronics to develop, re-develop, re-develop again, and then hone.

If you had a machine shop and a small team of bloke in brown coats, three days later you were onto prototype six.

If there were, say, 100 systems in a WWII aircraft carrier, I bet there's a hundred thousand in today's. And each one is many many times more complex, sophisticated, and specialised.

[Speed 3]

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

Necessity

[glazbagun]

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

More shipyards, more labour and a near as damn it blank cheque!

[MartG]

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

A level of technology which drafted sailors could operate after a few hours of instruction - unlike today's kit which requires a lot of training due to its complexity

[JustinF]

given immediate need the competency requirements would diminish dramatically. someone somewhere senior would be calling shots about it'll do vs it'd be ideal; it'll do would win for immediate needs.

[captain_cynic]

Tony Angelino said:

When driving, do you have a 'duty of care' or similar to try and avoid an accident? Often either on my way to or from work I see a car nosing out of a junction/driving over the white line/pulling out infront of somebody at a junction and have to slow down or stop to avoid driving into them, if I was so inclined and I just drove straight into them despite it being their fault for breaking the Highway Code would I be at fault for doing it on purpose?

Yes.

Just because an object shouldn't be there does not give you the right to plough right into it.

General rule of thumb, if you hit a stationary object it's your fault regardless of whether that object should have been there.

[FN2TypeR]

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

A far more simpler machine back in't day. The Americans were churning air craft carriers out at a tremendous rate but a lot of them had wooden decks, they were just a hull with decking and minimal forecastle/upper body works - really simple stuff.

Edited by FN2TypeR on Tuesday 8th May 10:26

[captain_cynic]

SpeckledJim said:

V8mate said:

Willy Nilly said:

I watched a bit of the documentary about our new aircraft carrier and (lets put politics aside) it's taken years to design, built and train the crew. So, in WWII, how did both sides churn out military hardware so quickly and get personnel trained so quickly?

No health & safety.

Stuff was heavy and simple, with little-to-no electronics to develop, re-develop, re-develop again, and then hone.

This.

Designs didn't radically change during WWII, most new ships were minor variations on the ones that came before. Few radical designs were finished during the war. Also remember that during the war, the scientific and industrial might of an entire nation was geared towards producing new designs and building them, even though some designs went into production with incomplete testing and some pretty bad flaws because the design was needed to fill a gap (I.E. the Sherman Tanks tendency to catch fire when hit but the Americans needed something to face German Pz IV's).

There was also a lot of re-use between designs, how many different vehicles did a RR Merlin engine go into? One of the key things British military command did at the outbreak of WWII was reduce the number of different designs being produced, the RAF went from producing a myriad of designs to two fighters and a bomber.

However it still took time to produce a new design, the Avro Lancaster started design in Febuary 1937 and the first production aircraft flew in October 1941. The American Essex class aircraft carrier, based loosely on the preceding Yorktown class started design in 1936 and was not first commissioned until 1942. Many of the designs used in WWII, were in the drawing board before the outbreak of war.

Military hardware designed today is designed for peace time (those given to ranting on Twitter in their pants may add something about the Military-Industrial Complex). Wartime designs will need to be simplified massively to be mass produced.