Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 November 7

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November 7

Looking for information on civilian submarines

This is kind of an odd question, but then, that's what the miscellaneous Ref Desk is for, right? :)

I'm currently participating in NaNoWriMo and am writing a sci-fi-ish novel on a planet covered with water where submarines are used for travel, shipping, pretty much everything. I've tried to do as much research on my own as possible, but almost every resource I could find online is about military submarines. Does anyone know of a good resource about civilian submarines? Most important to me are how they would be laid out, how large of a crew would be needed for a non-military submarine (depending on the size, of course), how much cargo a submarine could carry, what travel is like in them, how long they can stay submerged for, and how fast they can travel, although any other information someone has would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. 24.247.162.139 (talk) 01:02, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

You may be interested in a previous discussion about submarine trains and the article about Merchant submarine. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 03:23, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

This site has a list of links to Personal Submersibles Organization and various companies that sell or rent submarines; the ones I skimmed have specs. Clarityfiend (talk) 03:28, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

It should be noted that the only compelling reason to build a submarine is to stay hidden. For normal, garden variety trade, where there is no need to hide your ship, surface shipping is FAR superior. Submarines are very expensive to build, to maintain, etc. When considering any form of transport, the important statistic is the cost per passenger per distance or cost per weight per distance for freight. --Jayron32 03:29, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

In the OPs sci fi story, there might be some menace to surface ships (Giant ship-attacking birds? Thick ice? Deadly surface weather? Giant flaming oil slicks? Pirates who don't have sonar or depth charges?), so that travel by submarine is the only safe way to be on (in) the ocean. Edison (talk) 04:39, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Oh, I don't doubt that someone could write a compelling story which would have a reason to have submarine travel. I was just pointing out that on earth today, they make no sense. If people lived in giant air-filled bubbles underwater, then submarines would make more sense. --Jayron32 04:57, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

I was just going to point out that last thing. For some reason, in SF oceanic worlds seem to almost always have underwater cities rather tan floating-platform cities (Mieville's The Scar has an interesting take on this, but that's fantasy rather than SF). TomorrowTime (talk) 09:53, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

(unindenting) Edison's right, the reason surface ships are used rarely is because the surface has various problems (storms and ice in particular), although there are both underwater and surface cities. Also, as it's taking place in the future, I'm being very skimpy on the details of, for example, their propulsion, and just assuming that in the future, we worked out some relatively efficient design of submarines and engines that make them worth it. The Personal Submarine Organization website, by the way, looks incredibly useful--thanks for all the links! 24.247.162.139 (talk) 19:46, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Er, also you might have a compelling reason to build a submersible if the place you intend to sail to is not on the surface. For example if you're a biologist or an oil prospector. APL (talk) 15:12, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to know more about the premise of the story. Was this planet always covered with water? If so, how could humans possibly have evolved? Or did they go to that planet from somewhere else? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 09:35, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

casiotone mt-35 price

i recently bought a casiotone mt-35 and dont know how much it is worth today —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.247.153.92 (talk) 03:50, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

I'd suggest you look at completed listing on eBay or similar - as far as I can see, they don't appear to be worth anything significant, with the few I saw having sold for £10-£30. ~ mazca ^talk 11:21, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

A seller is asking GBP 12.99 for an MT-35. Here is a closeup photo. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 21:04, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

What's "Y30" as a passenger configuration?

I read the article about the recent Cuban plane crash, then followed the link to Aero Caribbean, one section of which discusses their fleet and its configuration. I quote, briefly:

• 1 Ilyushin Il-14M configured for Y40 passengers
• 2 Douglas DC-3 configured for Y28 passengers
• 1 Fokker F-27F Friendship configured for Y44 passengers/freight

Hmm, how many passengers are Y40? No problem, I Googled for "Y30 passengers" (with the quotes), and got two pages of hits -- ALL OF WHICH are back to the Aero Caribbean page or some copy/derivative of it.

What's up with that, and what IS a Y40 configuration that nobody else in the world uses?

DaHorsesMouth (talk) 03:54, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

I have no clue, but Auto & Technik Museum and airliners.net both state that the Il-14M was originally configured for 24 passengers, but this was later increased to 36.

Traditionally, "First" and "economY" class tickets on airlines were abbreviated F and Y respectively; as air fares have become more complicated, other letters have come into use. Maybe Y40 means 40 seats with no first-class section. --Anonymous, 05:27 UTC, November 7, 2010.

First class is J in Air Canada. Y is coach.142.244.35.91 (talk) 19:18, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

MCA

i am already a student of M.Sc. finol year.after that can i get admission in MCA finol year —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.177.151.244 (talk) 05:07, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

This would be up to the admissions office of whatever school/college/university you are talking about. Why not just ask them? --Anonymous, 05:28 UTC, November 7, 2010.

(Tilt)shift lens

Is it in any way potentially or theoretically possible to somehow achieve something like shift on a point and shoot camera like a Lumix ZR1, without resorting to in silico approaches? Aaadddaaammm (talk) 13:12, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

You cannot shift the lens of the Lumix DMC-ZR1 camera relative to its body because it is fixed. However given the camera's wide angle lens ("equivalent to 25mm on a 35mm film camera") and high resolution 12.1MP sensor, there is good scope for cropping and enlarging an off-center portion of a photograph after you have taken it. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 20:53, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

I recently did some searching for information about DIY perspective control lenses for an SLR camera. I came to the conclusion that software will work better; in the past couple of days, I've gotten decent from hugin. Considering the quality of the input pictures (particularly, serious parallax from unsteady hands + nearby objects), I'd say that it did a better job than I would have figured possible. Simply stitching together a couple pictures and then adjusting the projection should give you good shift. Paul (Stansifer) 23:21, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

That's helpful Paul but to quibble, parallax is not the result of unsteady hands. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 08:15, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Oh, right. Instead of "unsteady hands", read "inability to keep the camera in the same place between shots". Paul (Stansifer) 13:31, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Which three English counties do not have a university?

In the Hereford article it says that the county of Herefordshire is one of only three counties in England not to have a university. I was just wondering what the other two are? Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 22:47, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Cornwall has a university college and a partnership of outside universities with local FE and HE colleges but no university as such, I doubt if Rutland has one, can't think what the third would be. DuncanHill (talk) 22:56, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)Rutland only has two towns, and neither has a university. The trouble is that when someone says "county", it's not always clear whether they mean a ceremonial county or a current one; someone of the former persuasion might consider Rutland to be cheating. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:58, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

At the other end from Cornwall is Northumberland, and even with the proliferation of renamings of colleges I don't believe there is a University of Alnwick or whatever. But the definition is imprecise. --Sussexonian (talk) 23:51, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Cornish Nationalists will tell you that they DID have a university, Glasney College, which was destroyed by the English in 1545. I couldn't possibly comment. Alansplodge (talk) 09:32, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

They'd also say that Cornwall isn't in England. DuncanHill (talk) 09:02, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

Wiltshire doesn't have a Uni but has elements of the University of Bath located in Swindon. Nanonic (talk) 19:34, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

The article on University Campus Suffolk claims that its opening left Somerset, Wiltshire and Herefordshire as the three counties without a university. But this is highly dubious - no current definition of Somerset excludes the universities in Bath, while Wiltshire ranks alongside Suffolk, Shropshire and Cornwall, possessing a secondary campus of one or more universities. Northumberland, Herefordshire, Rutland and the Isle of Wight appear to be the four English counties without any university presence. Warofdreams talk 23:36, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

Oh, and Warwickshire only possesses a small corner of the University of Warwick - most of it is in the West Midlands. Warofdreams talk 23:37, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

• The question is unanswerable unless we know what is meant by each of the terms "a county", "in England" and "a university". All three can be rather nebulous, and have different meanings in different contexts and to different people. DuncanHill (talk) 09:02, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

We may not be able to give a single, definitive answer, but it's not entirely unanswerable. "In England" seems pretty clear, and the only question about "a university" is whether it must be a main campus, or whether a secondary campus counts. Although the general confusion on the matter might suggest otherwise, there are only a few possible definitions of a county, so it seems quite possible to list what the possible answers could be. Warofdreams talk 17:34, 9 November 2010 (UTC)