Basic concepts that seem to escape the grasp of most people

[Harabec]

If the plane moves forward 1 m/sec and the treadmill moves back 1 m/sec, the net motion is 0 m/sec. No speed, no lift.

The belt\treadmill\green jelly is irrelevant to the plane's motion through the air. The wheels are free to spin in either direction.

 

[edro]

Quick calculation using ratios and or moving decimal places.

What's 10% of $20? Just move the decimal place over a spot. $2
What's 3/5? 6/10ths, or 60% or .60
What's the tip on a $60 bill? 10%+10%, $6+$6=$12 (if you want to tip 20%)

You can always round up or down to speed everything up as well.

 

[SlitheryDee]

But if you increase the speed of the treadmill to be fast enough, you could potentially overheat and seize the wheel bearings on the aircraft, thus transferring treadmill movement directly to the airframe. :awe:

I thought the best argument was the one that assumed the treadmill would be matching the speed of the wheels themselves. As the plane moves forward it adds to the speed of the wheels, which the treadmill then matches, which adds to the speed of the wheels, and so on. The treadmill quickly spins up to infinity mph, the wheels melt off, and the treadmill tears the plane to pieces. I don't know if it would really work that way, but it's the one I like to imagine the most.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Pretty sure CT is smart enough that he is trolling. Otherwise it is pretty concerning.

:biggrin: :awe: :biggrin: :awe: :biggrin: :awe: :biggrin: :awe:

 

[Jeff7]

Such a petpeeve of mine. I was explaining this concept to a friend and he didnt get it. Then I told him I have almost 130K miles still on the factory showroom brakes and that was his proof the concept works.

I also dont get people who need to pedal to metal accelerate and get to a red light only to slam n the brakes. Meanwhile Im cruising/coasting to a red light only to have it turn green as Im getting there. Whose car do you think will burn less fuel and be subject to less wear and tear? Had a lady in a minivan flip out, wave her hands wildly and lay on the horn because Im coasting towards a red light. Some people really need some sense to be slapped into them.

I do it sometimes so that I can get to the loop sensor in the road before the light starts to cycle, thus ensuring that the system will activate the left turn light.



But I do see the people who'll ride someone's bumper on the highway, with the brake lights coming on every few seconds.

if there is a red light ahead there is no reason to speed up to the light. I just let the car coast and the guy next to me who speeds up to the light triggers it.

If you just coast from way back by the time he triggers the light you don't waste your gas/brakes etc and you still have momentum and you cruise on. Most of the gas is wasted on trying to get that 2 ton car moving so the less you come to a complete stop the better.

Sometimes I'll look ahead and see someone in the lane, but once I get there, I find that they've parked with the back end of their car past the heavy white "Stop here, dammit" line, so they're past the loop sensor, and the light doesn't trigger.
Corollary: When someone stops >1 car length in front of the white line, and the light's sensor doesn't register anything at all, and it's a single lane so there's no way around, and there's no proper way to indicate to another driver "Please move ahead by 15 feet," and so the light takes a very long time to reach a secondary timeout and cycle through.

That actually happened to me once on a COLA bump.
It was just enough to take me out of the high end of one bracket into the low end of the next bracket. I think it was only about a $40 loss for the year, but a loss is a loss.

I am prime example! I got $2,000 raise. LAst year my ta return both federal and state combined was a lil over $1,700 This year because of the raise I just got back $400 from federal and 200 from state.

Maybe the withholding amount changed automatically.
You'd have to look at the actual net amount you ended up paying.

If you front them $5k and get back $2k, but next year you end up fronting them $6k and get back $2.5k, you're still paying more in taxes. You just gave them way too much money, so there's more left to refund.



Tax bracket example:
$0-10000: 10%
$10001 - $20000: 20%
$20001 - ∞: 30%


Make $9999: Your tax burden is 10%. $999.90 tax bill.

Make $10000: Your tax burden is 10%. $1000.00 tax bill.

Make $10001: Your tax burden is 10% on the first $10000 and 20% on the remaining dollar. $1000.20 tax bill. Overall rate: ~10.001%

Make $20001: Your tax burden is 10% on the first $10000, 20% on the next $10000, and 30% on the remaining dollar. $3000.30. Overall rate: ~15.001%.

are we really having the plane on a treadmill discussion AGAIN?

Some people here might not have been born when that thread happened. :awe:

I thought the best argument was the one that assumed the treadmill would be matching the speed of the wheels themselves. As the plane moves forward it adds to the speed of the wheels, which the treadmill then matches, which adds to the speed of the wheels, and so on. The treadmill quickly spins up to infinity mph, the wheels melt off, and the treadmill tears the plane to pieces. I don't know if it would really work that way, but it's the one I like to imagine the most.

If they at least approach light speed, the resulting energy release would be enough to lift the plane's vaporized remnants skyward.

 

[WelshBloke]

THE FUCKING PLANE TAKES SODDING OFF!

People were fucking idiots years ago for thinking it didn't there's even less excuse now.

IT

TAKES

OFF

YOU

MORONS

 

[Red Squirrel]

TBH I always thought once you hit a tax bracket the percentage applies to the whole income. I recently asked my tax person about that because I JUST hit a bracket by like less than $100 and was worried I'd get screwed, but turns out you only get charged extra % for anything above. I would not even compare that to the oven door, which is common sense. Taxes are far from common sense. That's why I leave that to the professionals.

As for the whole plane thing, the experiment is all wrong. The proper way to test this concept would be to put a block in front of the wheels (no treadmill). Something tall enough that it can't just roll over. Will the plane get enough lift to get off the ground vertically like a helicopter with the block stopping the plane from moving forward first? I think it really depends on the type of plane. I could see it being possible with light prop planes where the air is being forced over the wings, though I don't imagine it would be very stable. If it did get higher than the block it would then move forward, drop back on the runway and then proceed. At least that's my theory. A jet plane, I don't think it would take off at all. All the force would be horizontal and there would be no air going over the wings. With a treadmill it will always take off, because the ground has no effect on the plane's power and it will still move forward, which is all the plane needs to build enough lift to take off. The wheels are just there to keep it on the ground until then.

 

[Printer Bandit]

what does sodding mean?

 

[Aikouka]

what does sodding mean?

It's when you put sod down, duh.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

TBH I always thought once you hit a tax bracket the percentage applies to the whole income. I recently asked my tax person about that because I JUST hit a bracket by like less than $100 and was worried I'd get screwed, but turns out you only get charged extra % for anything above. I would not even compare that to the oven door, which is common sense. Taxes are far from common sense. That's why I leave that to the professionals.

Ah, but do you still feel entitled to complain about taxes being too high/low on the internet? :awe:

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It's when you put sod down, duh.

Which you do after you lay pipe.

 

[zinfamous]

Wait ...what? Am I understanding you correctly? If someone has been at a 4-way stop for longer that means they got there first. 4-way stops are no different than normal stops as in the first person that gets there goes. If multiple vehicles arrive at the same time, the vehicle on the right goes. If all four vehicles arrive at the same time, well... they work it out. Just to make sure that I'm not being dumb and remembering something incorrectly, I looked it up:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-way_stop


This sounds like the kind of crap that irritates me. I'll visibly get to a stop after someone, and they sit there and wait for me to go. What the fuck? You're there first! GO! I've gotten to the point where if I see any hesitation from people at a stop sign, I just go instead of them. I don't have time to waste on them trying to "be nice".

It's horrible here. In 6 years, I don't think I have experienced a 4-way stop where all drivers involved understand the rule. Usually, it's actually out of "politeness": dude will just sit there and wave everyone else through until the intersections are clear, all the while people behind him politely not honking, or giving a shit. They don't understand that this is actually rather dangerous and confusing. Occasionally, you will get the dude 2 deep to your right, who won't wait for you (to his left), when the guy in front of him goes. He just blasts on through. I think some interpret their initial stop--1 full space behind the stop sign and behind the guy at the intersection--as the real stop. Morans.

Conversely, it seems that the general understanding of U-Turns out here is that U-turners have the right of way, in all situations. Further, oncoming traffic is expected to yield as you are lined up to perform your U-Turn. Don't want to go through this 4-way intersection and do a 3 point turn to turn back around? No problem, just ignore everyone and perform a U-Turn in the intersection. Not like anyone can do anything about it.

 

[WelshBloke]

As for the whole plane thing, the experiment is all wrong. The proper way to test this concept would be to put a block in front of the wheels (no treadmill). Something tall enough that it can't just roll over. Will the plane get enough lift to get off the ground vertically like a helicopter with the block stopping the plane from moving forward first? I think it really depends on the type of plane. I could see it being possible with light prop planes where the air is being forced over the wings, though I don't imagine it would be very stable. If it did get higher than the block it would then move forward, drop back on the runway and then proceed. At least that's my theory. A jet plane, I don't think it would take off at all. All the force would be horizontal and there would be no air going over the wings. With a treadmill it will always take off, because the ground has no effect on the plane's power and it will still move forward, which is all the plane needs to build enough lift to take off. The wheels are just there to keep it on the ground until then.

WTF!

That's not how planes work.

SHIT!

THIS IS WORSE THAN PEOPLE SAYING LEGOS.

 

[TheSlamma]

Which you do after you lay pipe.

what does lay pipe mean

 

[IronWing]

WTF!

That's not how planes work.

SHIT!

THIS IS WORSE THAN PEOPLE SAYING LEGOS.

I dont know if trolling or dumb but either way I'm awarding Red a cookie for his post. Epic conversation starter.

 

[angminas]

Seems like all they'd have to do is list said widget for the "original price" for a while to get around it.

That's different from the story, which involved launching it at the discount price without ever having offered it at the original price.

This thread is why I can't take seriously anyone that still believes in "common sense". There's nothing common about it.

I think it's based on a different meaning of the word common. More like, a noble who ended up lost in the woods would have less chance of surviving than a common person who already knows how to build a fire, find food, etc.

Temp doesn't matter. The answer depends on volume of air at a given temp, and/or total BTUs.

Come on. This is a matter of phrasing. Don't tell me temperature doesn't matter when heating something.

Wait ...what? Am I understanding you correctly? If someone has been at a 4-way stop for longer that means they got there first.

Probably means people who are in a line behind the lead car.



Regarding taxes- they are intentionally designed to be confusing to the average citizen so that rich people and corporations can afford to pay people to find the loopholes. There's no shame in not understanding taxes. Even professionals have trouble with them.

Regarding thermostat settings- remember that thermostats can be inaccurate, leading to the temperature being higher or lower than it's set to be. It's not magically perfect because the indicator shows a certain number.

 

[Blackjack200]

Just seen a Liberty mutual commercial, they said they won't raise your rates if you get into accident or get a ticket (or some BS).

Meanwhile, here I am, Liberty mutual costumer and they raised my rates last year. No accidents OR tickets..

You know what you need to do...

I tried to explain this one to a group of adults and I got a lot of blank stares.

Let alone explaining that in Earth Orbit, if you want to rendezvous with a object and you are trying to catch up to it. You need to slow down which will drop you in a lower orbit and then you will close the distance and then you can increase your velocity when close to match back up your velocity with what you are rendezvous with.

That's actually a really cool one, and one that I didn't realize until I was well into adulthood.

Here's another one (and I think I've posted about this before): where does tidal energy come from? You know, tidal generators are a thing, and even if they weren't there are huge amounts of water moving around all over the globe, generating heat through friction. Look it up, the answer kind of blew my mind.

Spoiler

The energy comes from rotation of the earth, which has enormous inertia but is gradually slowing down.

I thought this was so cool, but when I told people about it, I got a bunch of blank stares.

I am prime example! I got $2,000 raise. LAst year my ta return both federal and state combined was a lil over $1,700 This year because of the raise I just got back $400 from federal and 200 from state.

Sounds like you should go make less money so you'll have more left over after April 15th.

 

[Ichinisan]

Searching Google / eBay:
"cheap Michael Kors designer handbags black or red"

Some people just keep adding terms and using plurals, not realizing that they only risk eliminating the results they're searching for.

 

[MongGrel]

This. I actually had a friend who though you'd be weightless in a vacuum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbJ-y6BWfUc&t=35s

This has got to be one of the worst HISHEs thanks to that same stupid misconception.

What was you're friend doing sucking on himself with a vacuum ?



J/K

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Come on. This is a matter of phrasing. Don't tell me temperature doesn't matter when heating something.

It really doesn't. If you have a main heating system that puts out a crap-ton of air at 90 degrees and a little auxiliary system that puts out a small amount of air at 110, it will still take a lot longer, even if you're just trying to heat from 60 up to 70 degrees.

Try this: Heat a full mug of water to a middle-warm temperature (cool enough to put your hand in) a drop in an ice cube. See how long it takes to melt. Now, heat a mug of water to boiling, take a teaspoon of boiling water, and drop it on an ice cube. See how long it takes to melt.

Air works the same way as water re: transferring heat. Quantity is a quality all its own.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Here's another one (and I think I've posted about this before): where does tidal energy come from? You know, tidal generators are a thing, and even if they weren't there are huge amounts of water moving around all over the globe, generating heat through friction. Look it up, the answer kind of blew my mind.

Spoiler

The energy comes from rotation of the earth, which has enormous inertia but is gradually slowing down.

I thought this was so cool, but when I told people about it, I got a bunch of blank stares.

Probably because tides are caused by the moon.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/tides/tides02_cause.html

The earths spin is slowing, but not that much.

 

[Ichinisan]

Protip, remove the "v" at the end and you can embed it, wrap it with IMG tag, unless, of course, you want to leave it that way

Note: IMGUR doesn't allow it for GIFs over a certain size.

 

[Ichinisan]

Pronouncing extremely simple words incorrectly. Wolf becomes woof. Jaguar becomes jagwire. Toilet becomes tollet. WHY.

"Fur-mil-yer."

 

[Ichinisan]

No gravity in space.

Of course there's gravity in space. If there wasn't the ISS wouldn't circle the Earth, the Earth wouldn't circle the sun, etc.

What people mistakenly call 'no gravity ' is actually free-fall.

A not-very-bright friend made some comment saying a video of weightless astronauts was "fake - because there's air in there." He thought having pressurized air meant they couldn't be weightless / in free-fall. Really. He tried to argue this.

 

[HeXen]

People that drive in the left lane.

People that drive like assholes and don't let people around them merge (or close the gap when you turn on your blinker).

You're slowing the entire highway down.

Most don't give a fuck about anyone else on the highway, they never have, they never will. Deal with each situation as safely as you can and just let it go man. When it comes to dealing with out of control situations, it's a waste of your own time to stress and rage over how others do something they shouldn't. Just know it's because they flat out don't give a fuck.

It's no different than the guy that takes a quick swig from the milk jug knowing his wife wouldn't like it just to save a little time or a dirty dish. Everyone does something they know better on yet do it anyway and this is where ATOT needs to chillax cause you're all a bunch of hypocrites.