h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you have two identical volumes of water in closed containers to prevent loss due to evaporation I don't care how much you heat or cool each, they will be just as heavy. Yes their relative densities may differ, but their masses will remain the same.

Chevy also made a Nova in the seventies, but they actually sold fairly well with the hispanic community in the US despite sounding like "no go".

If "pinto" means that, it must be a recent slang term because "pinto" refers to small spotted horses. The etymology goes back to obsolete Spanish where pinto meant 'spotted'.


And I just learned a new word: novate: v. to replace with something new.

Ref the heaviness of hot water vs cold: I wonder what could possibly have been the origin of the 'fact' stated in Emmily's book?

However, it does remind me of the fact that (apoparently) hot water freezes quicker than cold water when plavced in the freezer. This carries the name odf [somebody]'s Law, the [somebody] being a school pupil who stated this (apparently) already known fact in class and the physics teacher told him not to be so stupid. When they did the experiment they found that it was indeed true.

I've never done the experiment, so can't vouch for it. I think I may have read about it in the 'The Last Word' of New Scientist.

I HAVE done the experiment!

It's not true either. Another bit of confusion apparently.

Hot water DOES cool faster. This is due to the cooling by evaporation and convection is more active in hot water compared to cool water.

However in an experiment when two samples are observed and graphed with temp related to time you will see that once the hot sample reaches the starting temperature of the cool sample the curves are identical. Cool water freezes sooner than hot but only because it has that head start.

I'm not sure where this idea came from because when you think about it, it's obvious that what should happen does. Was it just confusion about the fact that hot water cools faster? Or does it have something to do with burst pipes? I've heard that hot water pipes burst more often than cold, but I can't confirm that. I could guess that maybe hot water pipes aren't insulated as often, or that the minerals coming out of solution in hot water may make the pipes clogged or maybe the heat makes the pipes more brittle or corroded...

But I do know that cold water does indeed freeze SOONER than hot.

I just found the Q and answers.

It's at http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/article.jsp?id=lw236

Just off to read the answers

I just read them... Ok... They state that hot water CAN freeze faster and give various example of how. Most of those require buckets melting frost to give more contact for direct heat exchange or certain shapes of containers to promote convection.

I will still stand by my statement that under normal conditions cool water will freeze sooner. I see that there are exceptions but those anomalies should not be confused with the normal phenomenon.

So basically..hot water is not heavier than cold water. All this stuff my

I've made at least three mistakes on here today I used to have SEM (Supreme Error Maker) in my name 'tag' I've put it back.

Emmily

Actually, they did the experiment with warm and cold water on Radio 4's Today programme last winter, 'cos people wanted to know if they should fill their bird baths with warm or cold water. On the programme the warm water froze first.

>>Every year, over 8,800 people injure themselves with a tooth pick.<<

This is actually a useful fact. DNA based the character Wonko The Sane on the premise that packs of toothpicks in the US now needed instructions for use on them, and on this premise decided the world had gone mad.

RF

Now I've apparently added a useful fact to the thread of useless facts. *throws dummy out of pram*

Emmily

<>

Freaky! How did they fond that out, I wonder?

They are, in fact, being used inncreasingly in the diagnosis of disease because of their exquisite sense of smell. The same reaon they're used as drug sniffer dogs.

Hitler grew his trademark moustache to look like Charlie Chaplin and be more popular.

95 percent of dieters put the weight back on again.

British intelligence deliberately planted the well-known rumour that Hitler was mono-orchidaceous.

What about the others mentioned in the song?

so does Hitler really have just one ball?

Apparently not.

However, I *did* have a school friend who lost one in a 'bizarre gardening accident.' For obvious reasons, his nickname was Orinoco.

My nickname was Oudya Nickabolokov because I developed a cyst in my sac that resembled a third ball

Like Edward de Bono I was at school with someone who lost a tentacle in a 'bizarre locked in the park and decided to climb over the spiked fence but slipped accident'.

Actually, he never told the full story. I gather it was something to do with his bike.

By the way....has anyone ever come across a guy called Simon 'Reg' Fildes? Last heard of living in Sheffield. He's not on (the dreaded) friendsreunited.