Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 June 29

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June 29

Why are refrigerators so cold?

why?

Have you seen our article on refrigerators and refrigeration? — Kieff | Talk 01:34, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

I did but english no good.

Hahaha. The most simplest way of putting is that refrigerators make themselves colder by making the room outside it hotter. Have you ever felt the back of a refrigerator? It's very hot. Or what about when you put ice in the cooler? The ice takes the heat to make things colder, but since it gets heated, it melts! You more about this here. I hope that helps you on your quest! --JDitto 04:42, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Look at the article in your own language's wikipedia --_ʇuǝɯɯoɔɐqǝɟ 07:55, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

You might also like to read the Simple English Wikipedia which explains everything in simple English and has an article on refrigerators. SteveBaker 15:49, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

See also the new simple-English article on Heat pump. (RD regulars: take a look and see if that's too wildly inaccurately simplified. I just wrote it from scratch.) —Steve Summit (talk) 03:25, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Followup question for the Original Poster: Are you wonderying why refrigerators are so cold, or how they do it?

The "why" is easy, of course: because it's their job! They're cold to keep the food inside cold, so it won't spoil.

For the "how", see the other answers above. —Steve Summit (talk) 14:31, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

They're cold because you keep buying cold things and putting them inside!! The myth that all that motor stuff and electricity makes them cold is a LIE told to you by the government! Electricity and motors only make things hot! That's why all the heat comes out the back!! The truth shall set you free!!! [1]Gzuckier 17:15, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

extremely serious and important question

I heard that there is a grid that exists throughout the whole universe, and that anytime that anything moves, the grid vibrates. Does anyone know anything about this universal grid and the effects it has on humans.

There's no such thing according to current mainstream theories. The closest to that concept I can think of is the luminiferous aether, which several experiments have failed to account. Check that article for more info. — Kieff | Talk 01:40, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

no i dont think that's the one.

Or you could mean The Force. That's fictional. --Anon, June 29, 2007, 02:55 (UTC).

Maybe you're thinking about the hypothetical ley lines? Sifaka ^talk 05:37, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

That's funny, no it's not the force. I once saw a video in a Museum of Natural History on this grid and how scientists used length and time tests to prove that it really existed. Whenevere anything moves, the grid vibrates, but it takes a large movement or a large explosion, such as a supernova, to cause a noticable movement in the grid.

Perhaps you are remembering a simplified explanation of spacetime, which is sometimes represented in diagrams and animations by a two-dimensional grid like this one. Gravitational waves are vibrations in spacetime (sort of ...). Gandalf61 14:31, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

String theory? I could be wrong, but isn't that a lot like string theory? Rfwoolf 16:37, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

If an object moves, wouldn't its gravitational attraction on evrything else in the unoverse change (however skight that forse might be)? The "grid" could be an expression of gravity. Edison 19:23, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Maybe the questioner is looking for The Matrix :) No, seriously, I'm with User:Edison, I think what you are looking for is the visual expression of space curving (per Einstein's General Relativity) because of gravity. --Taraborn 06:56, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Assuming it was the American Museum of Natural History you visited, as Gandalf says they portray spacetime like this: [2] And its not gravity that causes it, gravitation is an effect of spacetime being distorted by matter. See also Gravitation. Mhicaoidh 22:43, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Tampering With The Entry On Mood Rings Again

To; All Wikipedians (In General),

Someone has once again, tampered with the Web-entry on Mood Rings. The Mood Ring Color Chart is completely missing this time. Before, it was only partly incorrect, but still there nonetheless. Now it's not there at all!!

A have a proprosal/recommendation to make please- That maybe there should be stricter guidelines & standards to determine just who will be allowed to edit Wikipedia. Right now the process tends to be just a bit messy, if not, maybe even confusing.

Thank you for your time & attention to this.

Signed, Dawnofrabbits 02:07, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

This isn't the right forum for a problem with dispute resolution. Discuss it on the article's Talk page, take it to WP:VP, bring it up at the Help Desk, but this isn't the place. Corvus cornix 03:19, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

It's fixed. What happened is someone vandalized the color chart, then it got deleted by some else a few edits later when it wasn't corrected. Sifaka ^talk 05:21, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Wendy's "Hot Juicy Burger" Commercial

I'm wondering what the "inspirational, motivational, and uplifting" music is called that plays when the man with the Wendy's wig declares he'd like a hot, juicy burger. Is this an orginal score composed just for the commercial, or has this been around for a while? The commercial can be seen here for those who don't know what I'm talking about. Thanks for the help. --71.98.12.11 03:58, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

I very much doubt that it's an original score - there's usually stock music for this sort of thing, and furthermore why spend all that extra money on an original score in this case? That said, I couldn't tell you the name of the piece of music. Feel free to write to Wendy's or their production company to find out Rfwoolf 16:35, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Or you could ask at adtunes.com. Corvus cornix 16:52, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

It appears nobody knows what the music is at adtunes, either. --71.98.24.42 17:51, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Then try whatsthatcalled.com.  :) Corvus cornix 18:13, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

"why spend all that extra money on an original score ... ?" Because it's a commercial playing over the entire U.S. U.S. nationwide commercials are generally the most expensively produced videos ever (in terms of money per unit time). --Tugbug 20:19, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Stallion Behavior

I recently had a stallion kill an old and crippled gelding. There are no mares around for miles. There are about 15 geldings and only the one stud. Was the stallion acting as if the geldings were his herd and the crippled horse was going to slow them down? The old horse was 29 – 30 years old and the stallion is 6 years old. This stallion has been well socialized and is very well mannered when riding him or using him on mares. He loves the babies and his very kind and gentle with his mares. This was very unusual and very out of character for him. I could have under stood if there was mare around but there is none anywhere near. One year when I lived in a small acrage I had him and my mares, minis, and geldings all in one pasture and all he did was keep the geldings at a 50foot distance and never bothered them. What would make him do this I don’t understand?

Happy Trails … 205.200.60.155 04:26, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

yelling at trees in the soloman islands

I recently read a passage from a book called All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten that said natives of the soloman islands could literally yell at trees that they wanted to chop down. these trees would subsequently die. Personally, I'm pretty suspicious. Is there any evidence to support this claim?

thanks, Rob

Sounds a pretty circuitous way of getting rid of a tree. Yell at it, wait for it to die, then what? Wait for it to rot away and fall over, or be blown down in a cyclone? Why not just chop it down and save yourself 20 years? Oh, BTW, also sounds like total BS. --jjron 10:02, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

If one yells at a tree and then chops it down, the tree subsequently dies. DuncanHill 10:43, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

People tend to believe whatever they read in books, even when they're sceptical about things they're told verbally. Perhaps they assume someone must have checked it because it's been published, but that is not the case. I am an editor, and although I check any facts that appear dubious to me, I can't possibly check everything, especially if the writer has first-hand knowledge of the Solomon Islands and I haven't. If you're reading anything that does not cite its sources and that you cannot confirm, treat it as entertainment value only.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 11:04, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. 99% of the time, Occam's razor is correct. Whenever someone tells you a 'fact', consider it as if you're hearing it from the least reliable person you know. If you can't verify it yourself, don't trust it --_ʇuǝɯɯoɔɐqǝɟ 11:09, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Some experiments seemed to indicate that 'stressful' sounds have negative effects on the health of plants, but the yelling at trees thing sounds farfetched. According to the article I found online, the villagers use this technique when a tree is too large to be felled by an axe, and the tree "eventually dies and falls over." Too large to be felled by an axe? I've seen some pretty large trees in my time, but none that an axe couldn't handle, given enough time and determination. As for stressing a tree to death with noise, I think the presence of trees in cities can effectively discount that idea. Even if it were possible, they would then face what jjron pointed out above -- the tree is dead and standing, so how long are they going to have to wait for this tree to fall over? This strong tree that was too large to chop down? There may be people who yell at trees, but I doubt it is very effective as a logging technique. 152.16.188.111 04:22, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Re chopping it down, we should also consider that prior to relatively recent times the Solomon Islanders would have had only fairly basic tools, e.g., no metal for their axes, so it could be possible that there were trees that they couldn't handle with their axes.

So let's assume this legend is 'true' and look at how it could have come about. Way back somewhere some islander, possibly someone with a lot of power like one of the chiefs, gets p'ed off about something and chucks a temper tantrum at one of these big old trees. Now people remember this, cos he's a powerful guy in their society, so this is a bit of in-joke and story they tell when he's not around. Of course any tree will eventually die and fall over, it's just a matter of time, so this tree (or one nearby, who really remembers exactly which tree he yelled at?) just happens to die or fall over at some time shortly after his hissy-fit, say within the next ten years. So now the story changes from the one about the chief yelling at the tree, to the one about the chief killing the tree by yelling it. Over time it keeps getting told and becomes a legend instead of just a funny story. Now people hear this story and believe it, in that they believe that yelling at trees will kill them. It doesn't matter that trees they yell at don't die, there's this legend that it can be done, and that's all that matters. So there's the story that ends up told to foreign researchers in the nineteenth or twentieth century and then gets published in books as a belief of the Solomon Islands, perhaps as an indication of their primitive beliefs. But really it's kind of like how a lot of the legends in our societies and religions probably got started, and at the end of the day is no more silly than most of them.

Oh, and perhaps it also goes to show you that All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten is wrong, there's lots of important stuff you learn after that. --jjron 12:44, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Amir Khan the Indian Actor , director in his recent movie "Taare Zameen Par" referred to this legend of yelling at trees while describing the impact of yelling at children.............Farooq Ahmed Karachi 5:40PM 5th Jan 2008.

WHAT I SAY IS THAT THE TREE DIES AND FALLS IN 30 DAYS, I MIGHT BE THE MOST UNRELIABLE PERSON ON EARTH, SO TRY THIS YOURSELF. BRING A PLANT AND YELL AT IT, EVERYDAY AND OBSERVE IT AFTER 30 DAYS...(Provide about 10 ml water a day)

    There's a research done by Indonesian University that study the communication of a plant (mango trees) with the effects of music. The finding is unbelievable. The mango tree that has been put a radio (music) grows more compared with a tree that without music. The logical findings here we can say that human breathe oxygen, and trees inhale carbons. Human exhale carbon and trees the opposite. Humans grow so the trees.Human dies, so the trees. Human interacts, do you thinks the tree interacts? I think yes even though we cannot hear what they are talking about. (Imagine you can hear the trees talked to you not to piss them.)So, I think there's a credit to this legend.-by chegu82@kl

Death of Dr. Walter Buchstaller

Do you have any information about the death of Dr. Walter Buchstaller? He died April 26, 2006 in Vienna, Austria. Thank you.

I suppose getting in touch with the authorities in Austria would be better than asking us unpaid geeks :D. Splintercellguy 09:52, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

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Thanks, but I saw this topic (Death of Dr. Walter Buchstaller) when searching online on a Wiki site. I just don't know how to pull the info up to read the article/comment. Thought maybe someone who was familiar with that info would see my query since this is Wiki. I'm pretty new to computers and Wiki! Appreciate your reply.

Assuming the Wiki site you read it on was Wikipedia, can you tell us which page it was? Marnanel 15:25, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

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This was the search info I found:

User:202.106.192.42 - Bdmwiki ... murderers death of superman signed poster death of keith moon death of gary paulsen death of dr walter buchstaller death note yaoi doujinshi death metal ... bdmwiki.com/index.php/User:202.106.192.42 - 35k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages

There was another mention on something called "talk train", but I cannot find that Wiki site anymore. The one above will not allow access. Appreciate any help - thanks for your reply. This is all so new to me, it is like a foreign language!

Not every Wiki has anything to do with Wikipedia! There were wikis before Wikipedia came along, and there are thousands of others on the net. I think you should go to bdmwiki.com, whoever they are, and ask there. Marnanel 22:56, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

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I did go there and ask several times, but got no reply. As I said, this is all very new to me and I am confused about wikis. In fact, I never heard the word until I started this search a few months ago, and I am not sure yet what they are. I just stumbled upon these when I entered Dr. Buchstaller's name into different searches and was directed to them. I have no idea who they are, but they do not respond to queries.

I admire those who know all this about wiki, computers, etc., but I wouldn't know where to start to learn it myself. I am a novice computer user, a retired teacher who is not tech savvy.

Thank you for your reply. I am giving up on my search.

Tattoo and Sport

If I got a tattoo on my arm, say, today, could I play competitive sport tomorrow without it affecting my new tattoo? 203.41.139.85 06:32, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

That depends on the type of ink used, size of the tattoo, how deep it is under the skin. Probably, yes, but you should ask your tattoo artist. Wikipedia cannot give medical advice. --_ʇuǝɯɯoɔɐqǝɟ 07:57, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

I suspect it would aso depend on the type of sport. One can imagine someone playing eg croquet without too many difficulties, but all-in wrestling would be another matter. Ask your tattooist, your doctor, and your sports coach. DuncanHill 08:53, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

chicken trap

I would like to know how to build and use one.

Mahalo

Naphthalene = +RON ?

How much truth are there in the myth that if you add Naphthalene balls (Moth Balls) to your fuel tank, it will increase the RON value of the fuel. We live with a very poor 93RON unleaded wich causes a lot of problemes for slightly higher compression motors. I know some people use Xylene but things like these are just as difficouleto get as Aviation and Racing fuel. Regards, Bennie.

There are a number of sources that indicate that mothballs may increase octane number, with a number of important caveats: [3].

• The number of mothballs needed to significantly alter the octane rating is likely to be quite large.
• Modern mothballs are often p-dichlorobenzene rather than naphthalene; the former will produce extremely corrosive products on combustion.
• Naphthalene has a high melting point (about 80°C) and can clog filters and fuel injectors.
• Your engine isn't designed to burn high-naphthalene fuels, and combustion is likely to be very dirty.
• Depending on your jurisdiction, modifying fuels (particularly in ways that increase emissions) may be illegal. It will certainly void your car's warranty.

In other words, it's probably not worth it. The 'add-mothballs-to-your-fuel' advice came from an era when gasoline was much lower-octane (40-60 was the norm in the 1920s), engines were easier to tinker with, and there were no emissions regulations. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:37, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

There are things that are meant to be fuel additives. It may still not be recommended by your manufacturer, but they seem far more likely to be safe and effective than mothballs. Friday (talk) 19:34, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Once again, Mythbusters have already investigated this. They came to the conclusion that it was plausible; the car revved harder, but they didn't think to actually measure the output of the engine. Laïka 17:16, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Graduate School

I am not sure a) whether this question belongs in this section nor b) whether it belongs at the Reference Desk at all, but I haven't been able to figure it out anywhere else. I recently graduated from college (well, university, but as I am an American and everything here applies to the US, I will use the American terminology) with a BA. Along the way I took 3 semesters of Arabic as a language, enough to gain some familiarity with the langauge but not a lot. I now hope to take graduate studies for Arabic; my problem is twofold. First of all, I have not been able to find any resources that rank the programs, and see what I have a shot at. How would I find such a resource? More importantly, most of them require more fluency than I now possess. I am not sure what I can do about that. I sent an email to one school asking if it would be possible to take undergraduate level classes to catch up; their answer (that they generally accept people with several years of study) was useless, unless it means that no one can get into such a program without having studied the language as an undergraduate, which seems odd. Do any programs help with basic proficiency as well as the more advanced studies? Eran of Arcadia 19:38, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, to get better at a language I'm sure some local evening classes will teach the basics. Alternatively, you could buy/download some software such as Rosetta Stone which will teach you basics up to the advanced aspects of languages. I used it to learn basic Italian and improve my competent French. JoshHolloway 20:18, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Apparently the best place for Arabic in the US is Middlebury College although I don't know if they have a graduate program. If you are willing to travel a bit, may I shamelessly plug the University of Toronto? According to Toronto's Near and Middle Eastern Studies website, you can take a two-year MA if you don't have enough undergraduate experience. I am not an Arabic major, but I have taken undergraduate Arabic courses as a grad student, and in my own program where Latin is required, it is quite common for students to learn it as they go along (in some cases with absolutely no previous knowledge of it). Adam Bishop 14:04, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, based on my limited knowledge of Toronto it is a great place to live. That is what I am looking for, basically, somewhere that will teach me as I go along. I know from experience that I have above-avergare language acquisition skills, I just don't know if it is enough. Eran of Arcadia 14:26, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

The best solution in a case like this is to find someone already in the discipline to talk to. Find a full professor of the subject — really one just about anywhere will do — and e-mail them, ask them if you can schedule some time to talk about your grad school thoughts, etc., with them, or if they could recommend someone else. Tell them your situation, ask them their advice. Ask them what programs they think might work best for you. Then call someone from one of those programs and do the same thing. Every person you talk to will tell you slightly different things — there is no "one right answer" for something like this — but taken together it will give you an idea of how things stand. I don't know anything about language programs, but my experience with graduate school in general is that the best way to deal with these sorts of things is over the phone or in person (not in e-mail, which is often deferred and ignored), and that talking with half a dozen people will get you a lot more information than trying to read up published sources (which are often out of date or reflect a singular opinion as if it were generally held). --24.147.86.187 17:20, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, I sent an email a while ago to the Arabic professor I had as an undergraduate, but he wasn't a lot of help. I am still not sure the best way of going about this. Eran of Arcadia 15:27, 2 July 2007 (UTC)

Nursing classes

Dear Sir/Madam,

  Would like to know where to start so I may enroll in nursing classes.

Thanking you in advance for your help.

Christie Navarette (email and phone number removed)

You need to tell us where you are located! JoshHolloway 20:14, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

What, you mean pre-med? Try your state university --froth^t 04:18, 30 June 2007 (UTC)