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

The rule given in http://helicomnet.com/grammar/sect4.html is that a word ending in *y after a vowel* goes -ys. Currency doesn't.

Post 121!

A3796301 - Static Electric Discharges and how to prevent them (for the scouts)

Traveller in Time spinning off in all directions
"It is not your doings that made the 'long' list.

Was more thinking about the plural of money, I would use either 'large amounts of money' or 'many currencies' (which I have not both <emr&gt "

Any other comments?

I really want to know that this is finally finished

Have you seen DazzlingLizardLady's Entry on Raising Silkworms'? She talks about static electricity being a problem when incubating eggs.

It's at A4312360.

read and commented

Wow! A cracking article and loads of wonderful comments in PR, too. Excellent stuff, Galaxy Babe!

Paully

Thanks!

I'm dreading someone showing up and asking for more science

"All matter is made up of atoms, which in turn are made of positive and negative electric charges. Atoms themselves are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons..."
Atoms aren't 'made' of positive and negative charges.
'All matter is made up of atoms, which in turn are made of particles that have either a positive charge, a negative charge, or no charge at all. Protons...'

There are many short, staccato sentences that really need to be amalgamated into longer ones to make the entry, and therefore the information, flow more smoothly.

"the atom itself has no overall charge, it is neutral"
'charge; it is neutral'

"Some materials hold their electrons very tightly"
It says in the previous paragraph that some electrons are held loosely, without any reference to the fact that some aren't.

"Some materials hold their electrons very tightly. Electrons do not move through them very well. These things are called insulators. Plastic, cloth, glass and dry air are good insulators. Other materials have some loosely held electrons, which move through them very easily. These are called conductors. Most metals are good conductors"
Do electrons move *through* atoms when an electrical current flows? I don't know if that's an accurate analogy/statement. I think it would be good to switch the 'conductor' and 'insulator' descriptions in that paragraph, and reword it in places:
'The atoms of some elements have loosely held electrons which can move from one atom to another very easily, allowing an electrical current to flow. Materials and compounds made from such elements are called conductors. Most metals are good conductors. Some elements however, hold their electrons much more tightly, restricting the flow or electrons from one atom to another and preventing a flow of electricity. Materials made from these elements are called insulators.'
That might need amending if some physicists would care to look over it. For instance: oxygen is a constituent of air, and air is a very good insulator, but oxygen is also a constituent of water, which is a good conductor.

"If they are made of different materials, and both are insulators, electrons may be transferred from one to the other"
Wait... it said in the previous paragraph that the atoms of insulators hold their electrons tightly and don't like to give them up.

"The more the rubbing, the more electrons move, and the larger the charge builds up"
'The more you rub, the greater the number of elctrons that move from one to the other, and the larger the charge that builds up'

"If you ever end up"
'If you end up'

"What does all this have to do with shocks?"
That's one of the few occasions when a sentence will work as a one-sentence paragraph - it needs to be separate from the paragraph it's currently in because it's introducing us to the next section of the entry.

"Whilst driving" (and other instances)
"Please use while rather than whilst, as the latter is considered to be antiquated now" Subeditors-Style

"Your shoes are probably insulating"
'Your shoes are probably acting as insulators' or 'insulating you'

"a dangerous explosion"
Are there any explosions that aren't dangerous? Particularly in the context of refuelling a car?

Has it been either proved, or agreed upon by those in the know that static electricity ignited the dust in the Lusitania's hold? A naked flame or extreme heat (such as that from the explosion of a torpedo) can also ignite fine dust particles, and I'd have said that that explanation was more likely than static electricity.

'Has it been either proved, or agreed upon by those in the know that static electricity ignited the dust in the Lusitania's hold?'


GB didn't state categorically that this was the case; she said it MAY have been the case, meaning that it is open to speculation (and has been speculated upon).

Off topic (but I can't help myself) - but pure water is a miserable conductor. It is salts that are disolved in water that conduct electricity. So pure-salt/pure-water are insulators and salt-disolved-in-water is a conductor. This is because salts disolved in water are free to socialise with each other (and thereby share electrons) rather than being held in a strict electrical repulsion crystal lattice structure.

Hmmm... This really is off topic so I shall stop now.

Traveller in Time walking in a cloud
"Water vapour is a good discharger for static. "

It's going to take me a while to get over the fact that the language I use is considered antiquated now.

"Water vapour is a good discharger for static. "



Yesterday I was trying to do a static electricity expt with Year 10's. It didn't work due (presumably) to high atmospheric humidity

Traveller in Time entering whispor mode

Lets stop making this complex again. The entry does not have to cover the fact that free moving isolators are as good in transporting static electricity as a conductor.

"Heat the room and throw some salt on the floor "

'Heat the room and throw some salt on the floor'

Unfortunately, this remedy is too expensive in a school where we're expected to do micro-chemistry to cut down on the money spent on chemicals (I did try using a hair dryer though, and this wasn't particularly effective

Use a hair-drier for what?

This entry has been in PR 4 weeks... are we going for the record-longest thread in PR ever?

I'm no sure what the record is for the longest PR thread, but I'm pretty sure this is way short of it. Nor is this anywhere near a record for the length of time an entry has been in PR - there have been instances in the past of entries in PR for more than two years.

Traveller in Time in a cloud of moist air
"Relative humidity. .

There is always some water present in the air. Under normal conditions this is present as vapour and wil not have effect on charging balloons or such. The current weather conditions are cooler then the recent days, lots of the vapourised water in the air becomes condensed tiny droplets of water floating in the air.

Heating the air will make the water in the air to stay vapourised, it becomes a gas, cooling the air will let it condense again.

Heating a room will make sure all the water present in the air becomes vapourised and as such not able to have a charge, the cold windows will probably get wet, and drain the water vapour out of the air.

A hair dryer (or paint stripper) is a way to heat up the air fast. My suggestion of throwing salt on the floor is to let it soak up the water and prevent it from getting airborn again. "