My laptop has 3 prongs and the 3rd 1 got cut and fell out. My laptop still recharges fine. Are there long-term disadvantages? My previous laptop has 2-prongs, why do some have 3? This appliance happens to be a laptop but I see it more of a science question. Thanks. [[Special:Contributions/67.173.182.93|67.173.182.93]] ([[User talk:67.173.182.93|talk]]) 11:51, 17 April 2023 (UTC).
Revision as of 11:51, 17 April 2023
Welcome to the science section of the Wikipedia reference desk.
The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
This explains that the relative amount of mica within the schist has a pronounced effect on strength. High quartz content appears to be a strengthening element. Here is a study that provides some strength data for various bedrocks in the New York City area as well. --Jayron3218:04, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
This explains the content of Manhattan schist as well; if I am reading it correctly, the variety of schist is more gneiss-like than other schists. It's important to remember that metamorphic rock exists on the schist-gneiss continuum, and depending on several factors, may lie anywhere on it. My guess is that Manhattan schist is much more gneiss-like in its composition and structure, giving it the strength it has. --Jayron3218:08, 10 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I would assume that most large rock formations are "strong" for building purposes, especially compared to sand ("building on sand") or marshy ground. It's all relative. 10cm of seasoned oak is plenty strong for nearly any bookshelf, but not so against post-19th century battleship guns. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:23, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
April 11
Egg White and Egg Yolk
The egg white becomes feathers and egg yolk becomes body of a bird. If you break the egg looking at the egg yolk all looks same. Now how does the similar part takes the form of different body parts. I have seen videos how it happens. But how is it decided inside egg that which part of egg yolk will take the form of a body part.
Your question starts with a false premise. When you say The egg white becomes feathers and egg yolk becomes body of a bird, I'm not sure where you read that, but it's completely wrong. Yolk doesn't "become" any part of the bird, it just acts as a nutrient source to provide energy growing embryo. Egg white, the clear-ish part between the yolk and the shell, serves also to provide some nutrition to the embryo (mainly in the form of protein, i.e. as a source of amino acids so the bird embryo has the components necessary to build itself) and also to help protect the fragile embryo, acting as a sort of "padding" and "shock absorber" for the embryo. The Wikipedia article Bird egg contains more information about the structure; incidentally, neither the yolk or egg white is strictly the embryo, the embryo itself begins as a single fertilized ovum, which is a microscopic single cell, and too small to see in an unfertilized egg, and will grow through the same stages that all embryos undergo. The ovum when fertilized will form the embryo, which attaches to the outside of the yolk membrane via a structure known as the amnion, which allows the embryo to access the energy source provided by the yolk. --Jayron3214:53, 11 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Topic adjacent, but in trying to make sense of this question, I did come upon the fact that feathers contain a large amount of disulfide cross-links in their β-keratin, and egg white does contain roughly twice the sulfur content as egg yolk. I wonder if that is the source of this idea, that there is (at least potentially) more useful material for feathers in egg white than in egg yolk? Of course, feathers aren't the only parts of a bird that need cysteine or methionine amino acids (and so sulfur in the white will end up in the embryo body), and just because the white has a higher sulfur content than the yolk in no way means that none of the sulfur in the yolk will end up in the feathers. I wonder if anyone has done any isotopic labeling experiments with isotopes of sulfur in egg white and egg yolk to track that metabolic pathway (likely showing that, assuming it is bioavailable, it just goes to wherever it is currently needed in the embryonic development no matter whether it comes from white or yolk)? -- OuroborosCobra (talk) 15:12, 11 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Well, first, I'm not sure that your initial claim is even true. I don't think I've seen anywhere evidence that the egg white becomes feathers and yolk the body. However, in terms of how the nutrients of the yolk become different parts of the growing bird embryo, consider 'anything that you eat, ever. When you eat a steak, how does that material become parts of neurons or liver cells or skin cells? Your body digests the nutrient material and distributes it as needed. An avian embryo is using the yolk as a source of nutrients during growth inside of the egg in much the same way, distributing them as needed, and then going through various processes such as translation in ribosomes to make proteins according to genetic information that the ribosomes receive following transcription. That is an oversimplification, of course, but it gets the general idea across. Egg whites also contain nutrients, including albumin, which are similarly used by the embryo, probably after some form of digestion to break them down into amino acids that are then used in translation to make new proteins. They do not physically become the feathers anymore than any other material useful for feather making in the yolk. Feathers, for example, contain many disulfide bridges in their β-keratin proteins, which means they need the amino acid cysteine. This can either be scavenged from their diet by digesting proteins to get single amino acid residues, or it can be synthesized within the body, though that still requires starting material contained within accessible nutrients, such as sulfur in a useful form. Sulfur can be found in both the egg white and in the egg yolk, and the bird embryo doesn't care which it is coming from. A sulfur atom in a yolk isn't any different than a sulfur atom in the egg white. While it is true that sulfur is more abundant in the egg white than the egg yolk, feathers are not the only structure in a bird that has disulfide bridges, and so that egg white material will also make its way into the bird embryo body. --OuroborosCobra (talk) 15:05, 11 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
More simply put: yolk and egg white are made of the same building blocks (atoms and molecules) that also make up feathers and bones and skin and other body parts. The various body parts don't get "made" from specifically the yolk or egg white; it's akin to having a giant pile of Lego to build things out of. When you digest materials, you're just adding bricks to your pile of Lego, and when you build something new like a feather or skin or an enzyme, you just pull what you need from the giant pile of Lego. It doesn't really matter where the bricks in the Lego came from at a biochemical level... It's all just a reservoir of atoms and molecules, and those atoms and molecules aren't really distinguishable as to where they came from. Methionine is identical wherever it came from, as is Sulfur as is any of the other atoms and/or molecules that any living thing is processing billions of times every second. --Jayron3216:11, 11 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I have just come across this YouTube video of GWR Star class locomotive 4041 Prince of Wales being built at Swindon Works in 1913. From 4:26 to 5:19, a man is shown applying the lettering and coat of arms to the tender, using what looks like a self-adhesive transfer of some sort. I presume that this allowed a printed (or painted?) design to be pre-created more conveniently than having to paint it on a vertical surface in a locomotive works.
According to Decal, this sort of process was invented in the 1700's, but it gives no clue as to the materials used before the development of vinyl and other plastics. What sort of materials or techniques were available to locomotive builders in 1913 ? -- Verbarson talkedits22:24, 11 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The paint is on a transfer sheet, then it is pressed onto the receiving surface. Then the paint is somehow induced to stay on the receiving surface, then the transfer sheet is removed. If the transfer sheet is glass, how would you press it onto a surface without breaking it? How would you get the paint to leave the glass and stick to the receiving surface? How would you pull away the glass? I think it is much more likely that various kinds of paper were used, the common thread between them being that they were translucent so people could see what they were doing, you know, not apply the decal upside-down. Then the paper could be peeled off, or washed away with water. Abductive (reasoning)06:34, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
You lay the glass on a flat surface with the paint-bearing side up, put the canvas over it, and apply pressure. Some of the paint will stick to the canvas, enough to transfer the image. --Lambiam13:32, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The 18th century origin of the process is attributed to Simon François Ravenet, who called his process décalquer, which is the derivation of the term Decalcomania and later "decal". This process involved the transfer of ceramic pigments onto tissue paper using metal plates as with a printing press and mass produced. This then can be lifted from the paper using water (as with a modern decal) and transferred onto pottery and fired. See also: Transfer printing. I don't know if this type of ceramic print transfer was used on metal objects such as a locomotive, but can see no reason why it couldn't have been -- as in a form of printed vitreous enamel? --136.56.52.157 (talk) 06:02, 12 April 2023 (UTC) . . . See also: Industrial porcelain enamel[reply]
In the video, the transfer medium is peeled off (hence it seems to be paper or cloth) and the decal is rubbed down, apparently with bare hands (hence it is dry, and fairly robust, as it does not smudge or tear). I assume that the bare surface it is applied to is paint, or possibly varnish. The whole surface, including the decals, may have been varnished again afterwards, for better protection from wind and weather. -- Verbarson talkedits08:07, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
See also Transfer printing where "Apart from pottery, the technique was used on metal, ...". Transfer printing was used on an industrial scale from the 1750s onwards in England. Although developed for ceramic decoration, it was also used on wood and metal. It's worth noting that the transfers are seen being used for the words "Great Western" and the company crest. These would be applied to all locos, and would be worth printing. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 09:13, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Transfer printing involves ink or pigment. In the video, the decal is more robust than just liquid or powder, it is given no time to dry, nor is it baked on afterwards. -- Verbarson talkedits15:59, 12 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I just now watched the video. It does look like a typical decal was applied using water. Cellophane was available in 1913, so it could have been simply a decal printed on cellophane. --136.56.52.157 (talk) 04:47, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Cellophane was not patented until 1912; I'm not sure a traditional company like the GWR would be using such new-fangled stuff on their top-of-the-line locos, in a fairly tough environment. (But I have no proof; feel free to prove me wrong!) -- Verbarson talkedits09:57, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I couldn't verify, but the railroad industry was considered high-tech in its day, and it could be that "new-fangled" decals were considered "ultra-modern". To this day, metal decals with cellophane backing are used on aircraft.[1] --136.56.52.157 (talk) 12:29, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
April 12
Does Humulus lupulus leaf contain estrogen?
Is the estrogen of Hops in the leaf or in another part/s of the plant?
To clarify, hops are from the "cone" part of the plant (Humulus lupulus); and for example, the leaves of the plant itself are not used for making beer. The leaf-like structures of the strobili are referred to as decussation; which, if I understand correctly, relates to their being a "cross" between a stem and a leaf. All parts of the plant (AFAICT) contain 8-Prenylnaringenin, considered to be the most potent plant estrogen (estrogenic phytoestrogen). --136.56.52.157 (talk) 03:26, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Sources
Milligan, S. R.; Kalita, J. C.; Heyerick, A.; Rong, H.; De Cooman, L.; De Keukeleire, D. (1 June 1999). "Identification of a Potent Phytoestrogen in Hops (Humulus lupulus L.) and Beer". The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 84 (6): 2249–2249. doi:10.1210/jcem.84.6.5887.
Chadwick, L.R.; Pauli, G.F.; Farnsworth, N.R. (January 2006). "The pharmacognosy of Humulus lupulus L. (hops) with an emphasis on estrogenic properties". Phytomedicine. 13 (1–2): 119–131. doi:10.1016/j.phymed.2004.07.006.
AI and gender. Yep that sounds like it would be a winner on Twitter ;-) I think they'd be wishing themselves an interesting life! NadVolum (talk) 11:35, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I asked a trained neural network that insisted that these are real studies that have investigated the neural correlates of gender identity:
Hahn, A., Kranz, G. S., Kublbock, M., Kaufmann, U., Ganger, S., Hummer, A., ... & Windischberger, C. (2015). Structural connectivity networks of transgender people. Cerebral Cortex, 25(10), 3527-3534. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu206
Joel, D., Berman, Z., Tavor, I., Wexler, N., Gaber, O., Stein, Y., ... & Assaf, Y. (2015). Sex beyond the genitalia: The human brain mosaic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(50), 15468-15473. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1509654112
Kranz, G. S., Hahn, A., Kaufmann, U., Küblböck, M., Hummer, A., Ganger, S., ... & Windischberger, C. (2018). White matter microstructure in transsexuals and controls investigated by diffusion tensor imaging. Journal of Neuroscience, 38(44), 9589-9596. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3342-17.2018
Manzouri, A. H., Savic, I., & Berglund, H. (2017). Nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex function and connectivity during visual erotic stimuli in heterosexual and homosexual men. Frontiers in Neurology, 8, 512. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2017.00512
Rule, N. O., & Ambady, N. (2008). Brief exposures: Male sexual orientation is accurately perceived at 50 ms. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1100-1105. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2008.02.002 Philvoids (talk) 14:22, 13 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Most of them do correspond to something real though bits do seem to be changed or made up. I'm impressed, it's a good response to start working from. Kind of what you'd get from an expert who didn't have their notes with them. NadVolum (talk) 11:25, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
April 14
water that has been lingering in the pipes
I'm in bottom floor of 4 story apt building. Landlord notified me that the water would be shut off for part of today for plumbing repairs, but I forgot about this, and needed 2 cups of water to make oatmeal. I turned on the kitchen faucet during the the shutoff period and water came out at about 1/4 of its usual speed, I guess draining from pipes in the building, but I was able to get my 2 cups and the oatmeal tasted fine.
Any idea if there are health hazards from this, such as metals in the water? Not worried about microbes in this instance since the water got thoroughly boiled for the oatmeal, but in other situations I guess those could be a concern too. Thanks. 2602:243:2007:9990:FC12:23ED:462:65F4 (talk) 00:32, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It's highly unlikely to be a problem. For millennia people having been drinking water from water tanks and many other places where the water is stationary for quite long periods. HiLo48 (talk) 02:07, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'm puzzled as to why you think this could possibly be hazardous? Water is "lingering" in the pipes most of the time. It only flows when a faucet is opened. It's just as safe as water that has been lingering in a bottle. Shantavira|feed me08:30, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
One reason is if there is lead in the plumbing. My house receives water from the main in the street through a pipe ("service line") about 30 feet (10 m) long, and it was a lead pipe from 1924 when the house was built until 2008 when it was replaced with copper. At some point the city advised people who had a lead service line that they should run the taps long enough to flush the standing water out of the pipe each morning before drinking any. I only heard about this when the pipe was about to be replaced. I had a blood test for lead then, but it was negative, so I don't imagine the risk in such a case is very serious. But is it possible? Looks like it. --174.89.12.187 (talk) 05:39, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
One possible risk is if someone about you had a hose on a tap running into a bath or something like that. It may siphon dirty water back into the plumbing. But your boiling would most likely render it safe. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:55, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Who says there aren't? Obtain laptop and betavoltaic power sources. Connect these to the laptop power charge socket. This might require a little custom wiring. Voila, tritium-powered laptop. The neat thing about electric power is things that use it don't care what the source of the energy is, and thus you can use anything that provides the needed electrical power characteristics. Sun-powered car, sure why not?
A more comprehensive question in line with what you're probably thinking is, "Why don't people sell a lot of laptops with integrated betavoltaic sources", which is a question at the intersection of engineering and economics. Such laptops would be bulky in order to provide the necessary power—dimly lighting a sign takes a lot less power than a typical consumer computer. The overwhelming characteristics purchasers want in portable electronics are light weight and easy portability. The demand isn't there. And as covered, you can just connect the laptop to pretty much whatever you want, which then lets you connect/disconnect as desired. Power banks and portable generators and fuel cells are all available. (Modern ICEautomobiles double as electrical generators with their automobile auxiliary power outlets. Electric vehicles often have them as well, though in an all-electric you're of course drawing down the vehicle batteries instead.) 47.155.46.15 (talk) 04:27, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
"Who says there aren't?" I'm willing to say it. There isn't such a device available for commercial sale, and nobody has ever chained together enough betavoltaic sources to power a consumer laptop. An efficient low-power laptop might draw as little as 20 watts. The total energy output from tritium decay is something like 0.3 watts per gram, so that's a minimum of 60+ grams of tritium (about 60,000 curies) to get 20 watts of heat. At $30,000 per gram, that's two million dollars worth of the stuff. And that's making the - totally unrealistic - assumption of perfect conversion to electrical energy. (In real betavoltaic devices, I think the figure is less than 1%.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:40, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Right, that's a part of what makes it economically unfavorable. Though, you could charge a battery with beta sources. Even if the lithium-ion batteries in modern laptops are finicky about their charging input, you can always wire up a different battery type that's easy to trickle charge. --47.155.46.15 (talk) 02:25, 16 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Cenozoic dinosaurs
Are there surviving non-avian dinosaurs from the Paleocene? I have heard of trodons, hadrosaurs, surviving microraptors or even small oviraptors that lived long after K-T. BristiBoop78786778 (talk) 07:25, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I have seen some videos on news channels. They touch somebody's hands, they ask them to mention some number and they give personal details which they are not supposed to know. Sometimes they even read thoughts.
Are these staged? Mean the girl among the audience knew the mentalist and she was trained to fool the audience. They are telling this as some art, but they are demonstrated as some supernatural power like telekinesis.
Probably not "staged" in the sense of a shill (stooge). It could also be a case of hot reading which might qualify as "staged" depending on your definition. However, without having looked at the article or video, your description does not seem impossible to achieve by means of cold reading.
In the case of videos, editing also comes into place: in the words of Penn and Teller, if I show you a video of someone picking a card and the magician immediately telling which card it is, that’s impressive, but if I tell you the magician stood for two hours in the street and the camera operator made about fifty takes, less so. TigraanClick here for my talk page ("private" contact)12:53, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I see nothing there that can't easily be explained by the explanations already provided above 1) The person being so interviewed was a "shill" or a "plant" (they were a rehearsed part of the act) 2) The stage performer had prior knowledge of the audience member (she had filled out a survey of some sort, not knowing what it was for, for example) or most likely 3) The stage performer is well-trained in the techniques of Cold reading. Most of the time, this is how they do their tricks. It could also be 4) Cherry picking a specific time that he got it right from among many performances, and only putting that one on the internet for you to watch. Less likely than a good cold reading. --Jayron3215:46, 14 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
In the 20th-Century Western Mentalism and Spiritualism 'industry', many believing customers would attend as many shows and/or seances as possible. Long before the computer age there was an organisation to which the performers would send data about their clients, garnered during or before seances and at theatre performances (by mingling in the foyer, etc.). This was compiled on file cards, and if one or more regular participators were identified as being in the audience of a show, the Mentalist's assistants could phone the organisation and be given all the facts known about them. Sorry for no reference, I've been interested in such subjects for half a century and have long known this.
I think this is a hydrology question? The picture shows the junction of a the Kern River and one of its tributary creeks in the Sierra Nevada in central California. The flow is north to south. The river and the creek run almost parallel for a while, and are separated by a peninsula which comes to a point at the junction of the creek and the river. When the flow of the river is sufficient, the peninsula is mostly submerged and the creek meets the river a ways upstream. The peninsula ends where I've marked the picture in black. Or, at least, it used to. During March's atmospheric river-caused floods, both the Kern and the creek got huge; the combined flow of the river and the creek was briefly 45,000 cubic feet per second (highest flow in 60 years), compared to about 700cfs the day before. When the water receded, to my surprise the peninsula had grown downstream about 100 feet, as marked in the picture in red. The new growth is indistinguishable from the rest of the peninsula, other than that nothing has tried to grow there yet. Sand and rocks. My question is: what's happening here? What makes a peninsula grow like this? --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇01:17, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Chances are it's sediment that was deposited during the flooding events. A great deal of erosion would have occurred upstream and the rivers would have been flowing more quickly during the flooding events, resulting in higher sediment loading. The area just downstream from the tip of the peninsula would not have experienced as high of speeds as areas upstream, so insufficient mechanical energy would have been present there to prevent sediment deposition, resulting in the extension of the sand bar. As a general rule, streams have steeper gradients near their headwaters and erode more sediment than they deposit, while the reverse is true near the mouth. A gradient of sorts exists along the length of the stream: more erosion and higher speeds near the source, and more deposition and slower speeds near the mouth. This is why small tributary streams often have large boulders and cobbles along their banks (which require higher water velocities and more energy to stay entrained, and the lower reaches and deltas of rivers are characterized by fine-grained silt. Deltas are formed when the water from a stream slows as it enters a lake or ocean, and drops all of its sediment because the forward motion of the water is no longer sufficient to keep it entrained. The water where deltas are formed generally has lower velocities than any other part of the stream, so the finest-grained sediment is usually found in deltas. This phenomenon can also be observed on smaller scales: the bottom of the main channel of a large, fast-moving river will often contain large rocks up to around 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in diameter, the beds of slower side channels might be sandy. This is the case for a lot of rivers I've seen in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, for example. — SamX [talk·contribs· he/him] 01:48, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Essentially this is a kind of bar (river morphology). These can form at a confluence when there is a difference between the merging watercourses in speed, sediment load, or other factors, as SamX has discussed. Eventually under the right conditions they can grow into a river island. This image of the confluence of the Blue and White Nile in Khartoum is a nice example. I presume that small island got gradually built up there from these processes. --47.155.46.15 (talk) 01:57, 16 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Is there a particular reason that trans women in particular are so adamantly against the existence of autogynephilia as an actual condition? I was reading around and noticed that some of the most prominent and vocal critics of the concept are themselves trans women and thought it was interesting and possibly worth exploring. Thanks! ZoxxoZ (talk) 14:12, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That some particular trans women are against the idea does not mean that trans women in general are; you may be experiencing a form of confirmation bias. That said, people who are trans women may have a better informed opinion on the matter than people who aren't, and/or some may incorrectly generalise their personal experience over-widely to what is doubtless a complex mix of differing instances. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.213.18.208 (talk) 14:44, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to me a rational explanation might be that trans women are emotionally invested in the subject and resistant to the idea that their trans identity is in fact a paraphilia which they themselves find embarrassing. It makes sense that one would seek out an explanation for oneself that puts oneself in the best light, while rejecting those that they perceive as distasteful. Effectively denial, of sorts. A very effective and coordinated denial, but a denial nonetheless. ZoxxoZ (talk) 15:15, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
On what do you base the assertion that this is a coordinated denial? And why did you write, "but a denial nonetheless"? Perhaps the critics are right and this autogynephilia condition is just as bogus as the hysteria condition, in vogue as a medical diagnosis in the 19th century. The owner of Comet Ping Pong called the Pizzagate conspiracy theory "an insanely complicated, made-up, fictional lie-based story". Would you refer to this statement as "a forceful denial, but a denial nonetheless"? --Lambiam19:33, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The “effective and coordinated” part refers to having a movement to convince enough of society that gender identity is not a paraphilia. Basically, through activism to bludgeon unquestioning acceptance and denial of reality into the mainstream, and sustained to the point where one is labeled a hateful bigot for even questioning the nature of gender identity. It’s a manner of non-debate, wherein rather than refuting a theory through reasoned debate, the theory is discredited by simply applying a pejorative label. For what it’s worth, this response is understandable and well-documented in the context of denial held by large populations. ZoxxoZ (talk) 03:24, 16 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
My laptop has 3 prongs and the 3rd 1 got cut and fell out. My laptop still recharges fine. Are there long-term disadvantages? My previous laptop has 2-prongs, why do some have 3? This appliance happens to be a laptop but I see it more of a science question. Thanks. 67.173.182.93 (talk) 11:51, 17 April 2023 (UTC).[reply]
