Part 12 (1/2)
If a pneumatic drill is making a ruckus outside your window, you have a few choices. One is to do nothing, which won't accomplish much until the drill stops. But another option is to go to your stereo and put on a Led Zeppelin record at full blast. The pneumatic drill is still just as loud-you may still even be able to hear it. But the music will certainly distract you (and for that matter, your next-door neighbors as well), so the drilling doesn't seem as loud.
Hooker emphasizes that most of us a.s.sociate warmth with pleasant experiences from our youth. By placing heat on the part of our body that hurts we stimulate the sensory receptors, which tell our brain that there has been a temperature change. This doesn't eliminate the pain, but the distraction makes us less aware of the pain. As our body accommodates to the high temperature, we need fresh doses of warmth to dampen the pain. When we receive the renewed heat treatment, we expect to feel better, so we do.
Why Can't We Use Both Sides of a Videotape like We Do with an Audio Tape?
Don French, chief engineer of Radio Shack, is getting a little testy with us: ”If you keep using me as a consultant on your books, we are going to have to start charging for my service!”
We have read all of the bestselling business management books. They all reiterate that most people aren't motivated by higher pay but by recognition of their effort and accomplishments. So to you, Don French, we want to acknowledge our heartfelt appreciation for the efforts you have expended in educating the American public on the wonders and intricacies of modern technology in our contemporary culture of today. Through your efforts, our citizens will be better equipped to handle the challenges and complexities of the future.
But not one penny, bub.
Luckily, Mr. French couldn't resist answering this Imponderable anyway.
It turns out that even though some audio ca.s.sette recorders require the tape to be flipped before recording on the other side, the recorder doesn't actually copy on both sides of the tape. It copies on the top side of the tape in one direction and the bottom in the other direction.
On videotapes, the audio is also recorded on a small portion of the top side of the tape. But the video, with a much higher frequency requirement and slower recording speed, needs much more room to copy, and is recorded diagonally on most of the remaining blank tape.
Submitted by Jae Hoon Chung of Demarest, New Jersey.
Why Are the Toilet Seats in Public Restrooms Usually Split Open in the Front?
This has become one of our most frequently asked Imponderables on radio shows. So for the sake of science and to allay the anxiety of unspoken millions, here's the, pardon the expression, p.o.o.p on a mystery whose answer we thought was obvious.
Try as they might, even the most conscientious janitors and bathroom attendants know it is impossible to keep a multiuser public toilet stall in topnotch sanitary condition. Let's face it. Pigs could probably win a slander suit from humans for our comparing our bathroom manners to theirs. Too many people leave traces of urine on top of toilet seats. Men, because of a rather important physiological distinction from women, particularly tend not to be ideally hygienic urinators, but most sanitary codes make it mandatory that both male and female toilets contain ”open-front” toilet seats in public restrooms. In fact, at one time, ”open-back” seats were mandated as well, but the public wouldn't stand (or sit) for them.
If they are more hygienic, why not use open-front toilet seats at home? The answer is psychological rather than practical. An open-front seat would imply to the world that one's bathroom habits were as cra.s.s as those employed by the riffraff who use public restrooms. Still, we would think that open-front toilet seats in home bathrooms might lessen the number of divorce-causing arguments about men keeping the toilet seats up.
Submitted by Janet and James Bennett of Golden, Colorado. Thanks also to Tom Emig of St. Charles, Missouri; Kate McNeive of Scottsdale, Arizona; and Tina Litsey of Kansas City, Missouri.
How Are the First Days of Winter and Summer Chosen?
This Imponderable was posed by a caller on John Dayle's radio show in Cleveland, Ohio. John and the supposed Master of Imponderability looked at each other with blank expressions. Neither one of us had the slightest idea what the answer was. What did it signify?
We received a wonderful answer from Jeff Kanipe, an a.s.sociate editor at Astronomy. His answer is complicated but clear, clearer than we could rephrase. So Jeff generously has consented to let us quote him in full: The first day of winter and summer depend on when the sun reaches its greatest angular distance north and south of the celestial equator.
Imagine for a moment that the Earth is reduced to a tiny ball floating in the middle of a transparent sphere and that we're on the ”outside” looking in. This sphere, upon which the stars seem fixed and around which the moon, planets, and sun seem to move, is called the celestial sphere. If we simply extend the earth's equator to the celestial sphere it forms a great circle in the sky: the celestial equator.
Now imagine that you're back on the Earth looking out toward the celestial sphere. You can almost visualize the celestial equator against the sky. It forms a great arc that rises above the eastern horizon, extends above the southern horizon, and bends back down to the western horizon.
But the sun doesn't move along the celestial equator. If it did, we'd have one eternal season. Rather, the seasons are caused because the Earth's pole is tilted slightly over 23 degrees from the ”straight up” position in the plane of the solar system. Thus, for several months, one hemisphere tilts toward the sun while the other tilts away. The sun's apparent annual path in the sky forms yet another great circle in the sky called the ecliptic, which, not surprisingly, is inclined a little over 23 degrees to the celestial equator.
Motions in the solar system run like clockwork. Astronomers can easily predict (to the minute and second!) when the sun will reach its greatest angular distance north of the celestial equator. This day usually occurs about June 21. If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and note the sun's position at noon on this day, you'll see that it's very high in the sky because it's as far north as it will go. The days are longer and the nights are shorter in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun is thus higher in the sky with respect to our horizon, and remains above the horizon for a longer period than it does during the winter months. Conditions are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere: short days, long nights. It's winter there.
Just reverse the conditions on December 22. In the Northern Hemisphere, the sun has moved as far south as it will go. The days are short, while the lucky folks in the Southern Hemisphere are basking in the long, hot, sunny days.
The first days of spring and fall mark the vernal and autum nal equinox, when the sun crosses the equator traveling north and south. As astronomer Alan M. MacRobert points out, the seasonal divisions are rather arbitrary: Because climate conditions change continuously, there is no real reason to have four seasons instead of some other number. Some cultures recognize three: winter, growing, and harvest. When I lived in northern Vermont, people spoke of six: winter, mud, spring, summer, fall, and freezeup.
Why Do Most Cars Have Separate Keys for the Ignition and Doors? Doesn't This Policy Increase the Chances of Locking Yourself Out of the Car?
The automakers aren't so concerned about you getting into your car. They are worried about thieves getting into your car.
Ford Motor Company, for example, now uses one key for the ignition and doors and a separate key for the glove compartment and trunk. Ford once used the same key for the door and the trunk, but changed. A Ford representative, Paul Preuss, explains: At one time, it was a relatively easy matter for a car thief to work open a car door and make an imprint so that it was possible to produce a key that also worked the ignition. Hence, a separate ignition key. Changing from a five-cut key to the present ten-cut key accomplishes the same thing. Five of the cuts activate the door lock and a different five operate the ignition. Taking an imprint of the door lock does not provide the proper cuts for the ignition lock.
General Motors also provides a separate key for doors and ignition and explains its decision as an attempt to foil aspiring thieves.
A two-key approach also allows the car owner to stash valuables in the trunk or glove compartment while leaving only the ignition key with a parking lot attendant or valet. And if you misplace the door key? Well, there's always the coat hanger.
Submitted by Doris Hosack of Garfield Heights, Ohio. Thanks also to Charles F. Myers of Los Altos, California; and Loretta McDonough of Frontenac, Missouri.
P.S. News Flash. Just as this book was going to press, we received a note from the Ford Parts and Service Division. Although the company felt that separate door and ignition keys made sense for security reasons, Ford is returning to its roots: ”The consumer prefers one key for both door and ignition; therefore, we will phase in one key for both in the near future.”
What's the Difference Between Popcorn and Other Corn? Can Regular Corn Be Popped?
There are five different types of corn: dent, flint, pod, sweet, and popcorn. Popcorn is the only variety that will pop consistently. Gregg Hoffman, of American Popcorn, told Imponderables that other corn might pop on occasion but with little regularity.