Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 4]
Discussion
Flibble said:
gazzarose said:
popeyewhite said:
Suppositories bypass the liver and stomach. Some medications, such as particular steroids, are particularly hepatoxic. Some substances are best injected intramuscularly, some subcutaneously, some are swallowed, some are absorbed under the tongue etc etc.
I knew there would be a reasonable explanation, lol. So the old thing if having the tetanus jab in the bum cheek is because it's one of the muscle ones then. I assume that none of the class As are much good up the old rusty trombone then otherwise there'd be turkey blasters littering canal tow oaths instead of syringes.
Side issue, carrying a quantity of very strong pain relief tablets when travelling can lead to some interesting discussions with customs officers. One time, suspicions having been raised led to a long discussion about the thickness of business cards. Pass, no me neither!
captain_cynic said:
mike74 said:
Why was the picture quality so poor on American tv broadcasting or recording?
Even programmes from as recent as the 80's and 90's still look far inferior to the standard of UK tv from the time.
The picture quality just has that certain 'look' about it where you can instantly tell it's American.
Willing to bet its due to NTSC.Even programmes from as recent as the 80's and 90's still look far inferior to the standard of UK tv from the time.
The picture quality just has that certain 'look' about it where you can instantly tell it's American.
The US used the NTSC standard for TV broadcast which had a faster frame rate but lower quality (fewer vertical lines), PAL which was used in Europe had more lines (higher resolution) but a lower frame rate. This was mainly due to the different electrical frequencies, the US ran at 60hz whilst the UK and Europe ran at 50hz. This hasn't been relevant for decades, especially not with the switch to digital TV, but that's the origin story. Today with digital TV it matters less, we use DVB-T and DVB-T2 as the digital standards in the UK.
So shows recorded primarily for the US domestic market were filmed to conform to NTSC standards, shows filmed primarily for the UK or European market were filmed to conform to the PAL standard. Older shows recorded in the NTSC (525 lines) have noticably lower quality than PAL (625 lines) resolutions, even when converted to be transmitted on modern digital standards.
PAL was widely considered the superior standard (smug mode on).
Edit: Damn you CC... Missed it by that much.
Edited by captain_cynic on Friday 19th July 16:12
NTSC was known as Never The Same Colour in the TV biz.
PAL (phased Alternate Line) tried to fix the NTSC issues (think they were called artefacts) by sending out half a frame at a time. Line 1,3,5,7,9 etc as first frame, then line 2,4,6,8 etc as next frame. At 50Hz you got 50 x half frames a second or 25 full frames.
PAL still had some issues So the French then developed another system called SECAM. It was never fully developed and was a bit crap. I think Greece used a modified version of it.
Japan also adopted NTSC but made in work better than the Yanks.
By late 1980s Europe was already developing HD tv with a Pan European project (Eureka project). It took more than 20 years of fighting / politics to finally agree on a new HD system.
Exige77 said:
NTSC was the first colour tv transmission std. There where some issues with it so when PAL was developed, it tried to address those issues.
NTSC was known as Never The Same Colour in the TV biz.
PAL (phased Alternate Line) tried to fix the NTSC issues (think they were called artefacts) by sending out half a frame at a time. Line 1,3,5,7,9 etc as first frame, then line 2,4,6,8 etc as next frame. At 50Hz you got 50 x half frames a second or 25 full frames.
NTSC sends interlaced alternate fields as well, you get 30 fps effectively. They both worked that way as it requires half the bandwidth of full frame progressive scan.NTSC was known as Never The Same Colour in the TV biz.
PAL (phased Alternate Line) tried to fix the NTSC issues (think they were called artefacts) by sending out half a frame at a time. Line 1,3,5,7,9 etc as first frame, then line 2,4,6,8 etc as next frame. At 50Hz you got 50 x half frames a second or 25 full frames.
The main difference with pal is the colour encoding (and extra lines), NTSC was particularly bad at blues for instance, as they biased it towards skin tones to make people on tv look better. Pal also has automatic colour correction and lower saturation which tends to prevent colours shifting too far unlike NTSC which could end up really bad on a poorly adjusted set.
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Rostfritt said:
Something I have been wondering for a while, why do most three-door hatchbacks have fixed rear windows? It can be pretty claustrophobic in the back and you can't even pop them out on most cars.
Older cars did have pop open windows. The trouble with them is that rear sear passengers pop them open without warning (which used to scare the s
t out of me as a driver, as the sudden noise made me jump) and then would forget to close them again afterwards, which was a) bloody annoying, b) a security risk, and c) also a problem if it rained. I guess manufacturers concluded much the same which is why you so rarely see them now.
3-door cars themselves are becoming increasingly rare these days too, sadly. I understand that the Mk8 Golf is going to be 5-door only, for example.
shirt said:
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Rostfritt said:
Something I have been wondering for a while, why do most three-door hatchbacks have fixed rear windows? It can be pretty claustrophobic in the back and you can't even pop them out on most cars.
Older cars did have pop open windows. The trouble with them is that rear sear passengers pop them open without warning (which used to scare the st out of me as a driver, as the sudden noise made me jump) and then would forget to close them again afterwards, which was a) bloody annoying, b) a security risk, and c) also a problem if it rained. I guess manufacturers concluded much the same which is why you so rarely see them now.
3-door cars themselves are becoming increasingly rare these days too, sadly. I understand that the Mk8 Golf is going to be 5-door only, for example.
HTP99 said:
shirt said:
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Rostfritt said:
Something I have been wondering for a while, why do most three-door hatchbacks have fixed rear windows? It can be pretty claustrophobic in the back and you can't even pop them out on most cars.
Older cars did have pop open windows. The trouble with them is that rear sear passengers pop them open without warning (which used to scare the st out of me as a driver, as the sudden noise made me jump) and then would forget to close them again afterwards, which was a) bloody annoying, b) a security risk, and c) also a problem if it rained. I guess manufacturers concluded much the same which is why you so rarely see them now.
3-door cars themselves are becoming increasingly rare these days too, sadly. I understand that the Mk8 Golf is going to be 5-door only, for example.
Flibble said:
Exige77 said:
NTSC was the first colour tv transmission std. There where some issues with it so when PAL was developed, it tried to address those issues.
NTSC was known as Never The Same Colour in the TV biz.
PAL (phased Alternate Line) tried to fix the NTSC issues (think they were called artefacts) by sending out half a frame at a time. Line 1,3,5,7,9 etc as first frame, then line 2,4,6,8 etc as next frame. At 50Hz you got 50 x half frames a second or 25 full frames.
NTSC sends interlaced alternate fields as well, you get 30 fps effectively. They both worked that way as it requires half the bandwidth of full frame progressive scan.NTSC was known as Never The Same Colour in the TV biz.
PAL (phased Alternate Line) tried to fix the NTSC issues (think they were called artefacts) by sending out half a frame at a time. Line 1,3,5,7,9 etc as first frame, then line 2,4,6,8 etc as next frame. At 50Hz you got 50 x half frames a second or 25 full frames.
The main difference with pal is the colour encoding (and extra lines), NTSC was particularly bad at blues for instance, as they biased it towards skin tones to make people on tv look better. Pal also has automatic colour correction and lower saturation which tends to prevent colours shifting too far unlike NTSC which could end up really bad on a poorly adjusted set.
The colour subcarrier switched phase by 180 degrees on each line, meaning that any errors in colour information were cancelled out. (It's a bit more complicated than that but in essence that's the idea).
Rostfritt said:
My Saab Convertible has ones that go down, but today was the first time I ever went in the back and noticed the only controls for them are on the driver's door. I suspect they only go down because it would look silly with the roof down if they didn't.
Also the rear windows on that (if I'm picturing the correct model) are quite small - consider something with larger rear windows, they can't slide down very far because the rear wheelarch is in the way. The late-80s Audi coupe (S2-style, not ur-quattro style) had an option for rear quarter glasses that would open, but they'd only open a couple of inches for that reason, so the option wasn't taken up by many buyers. I think "pop out" opening rear quarters are considered a security risk.I think it was either the Datsun/Nissan Cherry or Sunny that my mates dad had when we were kids had remote opening pop out back windows, but they were operated mechanically by 2 levels in the center console. My k10 Micra had pop out back windows as well and they were forever leaking. Had to keep adjusting them and smearing vasoline on them.
StevieBee said:
(IIRC) This is correct although to expand the reasoning, electrical frequency didn't dictate the number of line; they could have run high numbers if they wanted. But the rate at which artificial light flickers in the US (all lights flicker, we just don't register it) conflicted to a degree that it would ruin the image with higher number of lines. Lessening the number dialled this effect out.
I'm pretty sure that the electrical frequency dictated the number of lines they could have with the same bandwidth. NTSC produces 15,750 horizontal lines per second, whereas PAL produces 15,625. So NTSC has slightly more bandwidth but effectively the same. They used the power frequency as the refresh rate as you then had a convenient reference point with the supply power. Interestingly the horizontal frequency causes the high pitched hum you could always hear on a CRT screen. I find it odd that I never really found it that annoying at the time, it was just the sound of a TV being on, like an engine is the sound a car makes, but recently I noticed it when walking past a CRT screen for possibly the first time in years and wondered how we ever put up with it.Clockwork Cupcake said:
Rostfritt said:
Something I have been wondering for a while, why do most three-door hatchbacks have fixed rear windows? It can be pretty claustrophobic in the back and you can't even pop them out on most cars.
Older cars did have pop open windows. The trouble with them is that rear sear passengers pop them open without warning (which used to scare the st out of me as a driver, as the sudden noise made me jump) and then would forget to close them again afterwards, which was a) bloody annoying, b) a security risk, and c) also a problem if it rained. one gets broken and no one has them in stock.
I spilled some food colouring on a pair of light coloured shorts yesterday, so rather than give up on them, I got some Dylon and dyed them blue. However, the stitching has not dyed and it still bright white. They look really good now, so I’m chuffed with my £1 fix, but why would the stitches not have coloured too?
gazzarose said:
I think it was either the Datsun/Nissan Cherry or Sunny that my mates dad had when we were kids had remote opening pop out back windows, but they were operated mechanically by 2 levels in the center console. My k10 Micra had pop out back windows as well and they were forever leaking. Had to keep adjusting them and smearing vasoline on them.
A mate of mine had to a Cherry, yes, it had levers by the handbrake for popping out the back windows.Jonboy_t said:
I spilled some food colouring on a pair of light coloured shorts yesterday, so rather than give up on them, I got some Dylon and dyed them blue. However, the stitching has not dyed and it still bright white. They look really good now, so I’m chuffed with my £1 fix, but why would the stitches not have coloured too?
Shorts are probably cotton and stitching probably synthetic. The cotton dyes easily where as synthetic fibres don’t.mike74 said:
I doubt there's a simple answer to this but how does a rocket engine work in the vacuum of space?
If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
Because it doesn't "push against" the atmosphere.If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
Start your research with Newton's Laws of Motion and go from there.
mike74 said:
I doubt there's a simple answer to this but how does a rocket engine work in the vacuum of space?
If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
Newton's third law.If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
mike74 said:
I doubt there's a simple answer to this but how does a rocket engine work in the vacuum of space?
If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
it's actually fairly straight forward...Google the Rocket Equation and Newton's 3rd law.
Rockets don't push against anything, they're firing mass out the back of them. The reaction to that is for it to push you forward.
mike74 said:
I doubt there's a simple answer to this but how does a rocket engine work in the vacuum of space?
If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
It pushes against the front of the rocket, the rocket blast is going forwards as well as backwards. The fuel burns so fast it's effectively exploding, the pressure on the side of the rocket would push the rocket sideways if it wasn't also pushing on the other side, the pressure on the top is equally counteracted by the pressure on the base. But the pressure on the front isn't counteracted because there is a hole in the back.If there's no atmosphere for it to ''push against'' how it able accelerate, decelerate or otherwise manoeuvre a space vehicle?
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