Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2006 October 6

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What modern science explains work and the use of energy?

We used to call it 'Utilisation'--Light current 01:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

physics? --Robert Merkel 01:42, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Modern physics?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  10:52, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

can it alter?

can genome alter gene expression without changing the dna sequence?

Sure. Gene expression can be changed by many factors, such as environmental reaction by regulators, splicing, gene silencing, XIST, RNAi... Whether the "genome" is in direct control is arguable, but oragnisms are able to use various methods to control expression without actually altering DNA.Tuckerekcut 11:55, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

See Methylation and Epigenetics.

Atlant 16:25, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

pH scale

why does the pH scale range from 0-14? [unsigned]

Actually, it does not. The pH value can be slightly below 0 or avove 14 in extreme cases. But to answer the question: In neutral water a small part of the H₂O molecules are split into positively charged H⁺ ions and negatively charged OH^/ ions. In pure water there are as many H+ as OH- ions, as an H2O molecule splits into one of each. And it's only very few: Only one in 10⁷ molecules (i.e., one 10,000,000th) splits. As the concentration of H+ ions is 10^-7, we call this pH = 7. If you disolve a chemical which adds additional H+ ions without adding OH- atoms, the H+ concentration becomes much higher, and this is what makes the solution sour. Decreasing the pH by 10 means that you have 10 times more H+ ions, which make the stuff "10 times as sour". Also, the concentration of OH- (which gives rise to the charateristics of bases) goes down by a factor of 10. Due to the dissociation constant of water, the product of the concentrations of H+ and OH- stays the same, no matter what you have disolved in the water. For standard conditions, it is always approx. 10^-14 mol²l^-2. Hence, the pH value cannot go much below 0 [or above 14], because then, there are more H+ [or OH-] ions than unsplit water molecules. Simon A. 07:48, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Just to clarify and make a minor correction to an already excellent explanation, decreasing the pH by 1 (not 10) means that you have 10 times more H+ ions. —Brim 04:34, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure sourness is detected proportional to [H⁺]? Aaadddaaammm 07:10, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

variegated plants

in variegated plants,every plant and every leaf has dissimilar variegation patterns.why is it so?

I think it's typically the result of two different color genes competing with each other. StuRat 11:43, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

are you going for the "cheat on my science homework" trifecta? Xcomradex 05:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

The reason depends on the type of variegation. -THB 08:57, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Calculate Radiation Dosage from X-Ray Machine

Hi, I've been searching the internet but i can't get the information i needed to calculate the Dosage Rate from an X-ray Machine. Examples such as If i am standing 15m away from the X-Ray machine for 15mins how much radiation dose i will recieved. Or if the X-Ray shielding is 15cm of Lead how much leakage radiation is present in the area...

Please help Thank You so much

Ivy61.194.96.93 06:06, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I suspect it varies by machine, so you would need to look at info provided by the manufacturer (which is suspect, at best). A better method might be to use a Geiger counter to measure the radiation level yourself. StuRat 11:26, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

X-ray machines use beams, and that's where the main dose occurs. If you are a bystander then the dose rate diminishes as 1/distance-squared. So at several meters, you are probably at background levels (caused by everyday cosmic rays and radon from building materials). The scattered x-rays cannot penetrate lead shielding. If you work with x-rays, you carry a TLD badge, and have a maximum yearly dose. --Zeizmic 14:20, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

The answer is it depends on a lot of things. X-ray output, which is basically dose per time, is determined by setting the kvp (voltage) and mas (milliamp*seconds, or current). At a distance from the x-ray machine, the dose rate decreases by 1/distance-squared. Your exposure will depend of course if you are exposed by direct irradiation from the beam or if you only get scatter radiation. For patients getting x-rays, the doses received vary substantially from one type of study to another, from approximately 20 millirem for a chest X-ray to more than 600 mR for a pelvic X-ray. —Brim 04:47, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Isaac Newton

How old did Isaac Newton think the earth was?

(spell check by  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ )

He probably didn't give it a lot of thought. He took the Bible quite literally (see Isaac Newton's religious views) and the idea of evolution was still a hundred years away. As far as most people of his day were concerned, the universe was in many respects quite static, so history on that scale was somewhat irrelevant.--Shantavira 12:19, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Newton was very concerned with questions such as how the solar system was put into motion by God. And even by taking the Bible literally there are a wealth of different views one could take (see for example Newton and Leibniz's debates about the nature of God's laws, both which assume an intervening God but have very different interpretations of what intervention means in physical terms). I don't know the answer to this particular question. I used Google Books to search for "Newton" in Rudwick's recently published Bursting the Limits of Time, but nothing of note came up. Part of this may be because much of the scientific work on the age of the earth came from the field of geology, not physics or mechanics, and so wouldn't have necessarily interacted with Newton's own field of study. But that is a very speculative answer on my part; Newton had many, many scientific interests and I find it unlikely that he did not give this question some thought, though it did not come into full prominence until the end of the 18th century, as I understand it. --Fastfission 17:05, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Help from a doc interpreting lab results (not advice)

I was in emerg last night and got a fairly thorough blood workup. The doctor said my kidneys, pancreas and liver were all great, and I'll be looking over the results with my GP when I can get in to see her next week. But I'm just curious about a couple (three actually) items that were outside the prescribed parameters.

1. My Amylase count is 26, with the norms according to the chart being 30-110 U/L.
2. My Basophil is 0.0, with a norm of 0.0-0.2 G/L.
3. My Urea is 2.5 with a norm of 2.5-8.0 mmol/L.

AFAICT, all the other results are very good; the ones that are better low are low, the ones that are better high are high.

Can anyone provide me with any analysis? Thanks in advance. Anchoress 10:25, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

There's nothing to analyze. There are no pathologies associated with low amylase or basophils that I know of. I'm not sure why they even have a lower value of normal. The urea may be low in very special diseases, which I suspect that you do not have (such as genetic diseases). Otherwise, there's nothing more to say. These are good results and should be ignored. InvictaHOG 10:36, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Tee hee. Thanks for the response. May I ask another question? My sodium was 138, with a norm of 135-148 mmol/L, and I've always perceived my sodium intake to be on the high end. Are the two correlated, or not? Anchoress 10:47, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's as simple as "eat lots of sodium salt, and your blood sodium level goes up", no. People's bodies have varying abilities to remove sodium from the blood, meaning some can handle more salt than others. Also, consumption of potassium salts and calcium salts also interacts with sodium in the blood. StuRat 11:03, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

BTW to check my results I used this website, which seems pretty good. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's really easy to use. Anchoress 11:40, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Your body's sodium concentration is tightly regulated. If you eat more salt, you will excrete more salt in your urine to keep the balance right. For basic information about this, see Sodium#Physiology and sodium ions. —Brim 04:51, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

preservation

i read in a site that there was a simple way to preserve fresh flowers along with their seeds ,for ever (the site claimed to do so ) .this is for a bio project that i was thinking of doing . but the only problem is that you had to pay to view the instructions . but i want to get them for free so could you explain how the project can be done . Or could u suggest any other topic .

thankMi2n15 11:47, 6 October 2006 (UTC)you

How about pressed flower craft and the links therefrom.--Shantavira 12:22, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

actually it sound rather kiddish for a ninth grader could u suggest something a bit more toughMi2n15 16:09, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Flowers don't respond well to tough treatment. What was the website you are referring to? It seems rather odd that they should charge for this kind of information. It could be a scam. Nothing lasts forever by the way.--Shantavira 17:09, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Here's a nice website. [1] I'm sure it covers everything your scam website does. Your project could cover the different methodologies for different flowers and leaves. You can also freeze-dry flowers, but that takes expensive equipment. --Zeizmic 17:16, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Pressed flower craft may sound childish, but as far as biologist friends have explained to me recently, it is still a standard technique used in biology -- only that they refer to it using the less childishly sounding term herbarium. A complete collection of pressed plants from a given region is of course most useful to study the kind of plants living there without having to leave the house, and actual pressed plants are more accurate that drawings or photographs. My friend told me that during her studies they were required to collect many types of grass and flowers, dry and press them and then neatly arrange them on paper labelled with correct taxonomy and other information. SO, you see, the challenge is not so much the quite simple procedure, but the selection and collecting of specimen, which should convey a scientific message. Simon A. 19:04, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

You don't have to press them. There are other methods that preserve the flower in a more life-like condition: Preserving Flowers -THB 08:54, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

molarity

what happens to the molarity of 55.5M water if 58.8gms of nacl isadded to it?

The answer or the process with which to solve the problem should be found in your text book. Dismas|^(talk) 13:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

The same question was asked twice on 4 October. Maybe it should go on the FAQ list :)  --Lambiam^Talk 16:00, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

55.5M of NaCl in water? is that possible?

To work it out you need the Volume (V) of water.

n(NaCl)₁=55.5*V N.B. V must be in dm³

n(NaCl)₂=Mass/RMM

C=V/[n(NaCl)₁+n(NaCl)₂]

Answer you're question? Englishnerd 18:33, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Either the teacher who set this question is remarkably stupid, or it has been badly copied by a remarkable number of pupils. The question (translated) is: what is the molarity of a solution of 58.8g of sodium chloride in 55.5mol of water? The answer is only approximately 1M because the final volume of the solution is not known. The definition of molarity involves the volume of solution, and not of solvent. --G N Frykman 19:52, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

immune cell

why and how does the immune cell differentiate between self and non-self?is there any tissue in our body which is/can be non-self?if so,why?

please please help me with the above question.i tried to search for its answer butcould not get it. i have my exams starting in 2 days and i need the answer to this question. please help me out!!

See T cell and it's related articles. That should help you out. As well as going through your text books. Dismas|^(talk) 13:52, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

It does not have to be tissue; it can be any foreign proteins. Have you heard of infectious diseases? What is the whole point of the immune system?  --Lambiam^Talk 20:20, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Food is not "self", but isn't really "inside the body", in a biological sense, either. The same is true of embryos. Sperm and egg cells similarly only share some of the chromosomes of the parent. StuRat 18:27, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Leo Szilard's Cancer Protocol

I would like to find out what kind of protocol Leo Szilard, one of the Manhattan Project's physicists, designed for himself when he was diagnosed with cancer. I'd also like to know what kind of cancer he suffered from. It is said that he designed his own protocol and was cured.

Thank you.Bregi 13:59, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

These sites ([2], [3]) indicate that Szilard had bladder cancer for which he rejected the standard therapy of the era and instead designed his own radiotherapy regimen. He received treatments in 1960 and 1962 and New York's Memorial Hospital, and his cancer was apparently in remission until his death (by a heart attack) in 1964.

I'm afraid I don't have information on the details of his therapy, nor the specific type of bladder cancer. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 16:01, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried looking at some of the many biographies of Szilard? That's probably your best bet. --Fastfission 16:54, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Triple Point of Water

"In physics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance may coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium."

So can water exist simultaneously as a gas, liquid and a solid or is the triple point only that point at which water can go from one phase to the next with little/(no) effort? At the triple point can water actually be a gas, liquid and solid at the same time, thus truely coexisting? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dan Small (talk • contribs)

• Yes, water can coexist simultaneously as a solid (ice), liquid, and gas (water vapor) at the temperature and pressure corresponding to water's triple point. See also the article on phase diagrams for more on this.
  I have never physically observed this phenomenon with water but it is relatively easy to observe carbon dioxide in all three states at its triple point using some dry ice. --Nebular110 15:24, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, of course it's not the same water that's simultaneously in all three phases; I doubt that's what you meant, but just making sure. It's not just at the triple point that water exists in all three phases, either -- you can see that any time you see an icy road with puddles in it, and you know there's water vapor in the air above it. The way you know it's at the triple point is if you take the air away, and the vapor pressure from both the ice and the water is the same as the pressure of the ambient gas. Or something like that (it's a bit outside my field). --Trovatore 17:04, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

The important thing about the triple point is that all three phases will coexist indefinitely (or stably), regardless of their amounts. Without outside intervention, all the ice in the road will melt (or the water will freeze, depending on the temperature); while there will still be some water vapor, there will be a particular amount present and adding more would put the system out of equilbrium. (The new equilibrium might be significantly different; adding a lot of water vapor, even cold vapor, to an evacuated chamber with an ice cube in it might very well melt the ice.) At the triple point, the ice won't melt or sublimate, the water won't freeze or evaporate, and the vapor won't condense. (There may also be some sort of additional freedom in choosing the amount of water vapor or other gas present, but I have become confused as to whether the presence of other gasses changes the equilibrium between, say, water and water vapor. Anyone want to clarify that?) --Tardis 22:00, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

I have never actually seen a demo of a flask of boiling water with ice cubes floating in it, but that is the idea, right? Cool it to just above the (atmospheric pressure) freezing point, then connect a vacuum pump and pump it down to about 1/165 of an atmosphere. It should start boiling,(creating vapor phase) and freezing. If you keep the vacuum pump going, and it can exhaust the vapor fast enough, in the end much of it would have boiled away and ice would be left. Somewhere around 35000 meters above sea level should be a low enough air pressure to observe this, if I calculated right. Cool!Edison 03:32, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

And you won't "see[n] a demo of a flask of boiling water with ice cubes floating in it" as a triple-point demo because such a world-in-a-flask wouldn't be stable. If the water were boiling, you would necessarily be away from the true triple-point. But yes, that's the basic idea: water ice (the solid) floating in water (the liquid) and above it all, steam (water vapor), all happily co-existing stably.

Atlant 16:34, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

ID this beach object

Here. Sorry this is only a blurry detail. The object in question is found on beaches in the eastern seaboard of the states. They are usually 4 inches long, and I believe they are some sort of eggsac. Any ideas? --Andrew c 17:54, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Looks like the eggcase of a dogfish. (Google images for dogfish eggcase to check.)--Shantavira 18:17, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

That helped, its a ray or skate eggcase. Thanks! See Mermaid's purse.--Andrew c 18:28, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Looks like a dogfish eggcase. Common all over the UK.

Word

Whats that word for people who think they have mental illnesses but they don't really? It is not hypochondriac, because that is considered "serious illness"; instead the word for mental illness. Thanksk, Iolakana•T 18:10, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Is it mentally healthy to think you are mentally ill? If they didn't have a mental illness I would call them mentally healthy.--Shantavira 18:21, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Stop this madness. 8-)

I believe Munchausen syndrome is what you're looking for ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 03:44, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes. That's it. Thanks, Iolakana•T 11:36, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

It might have been the word you wanted, but it has nothing to do with the defnition you offered. Munchausen syndrome is deliberately deceiving the doctor into diagnosing you with a disease you don't have, not convincing yourself that you have a disease you don't have. The latter is referred to as a delusion. alteripse 12:50, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

There may be some Munchausen syndrome patients who are also hypochondriacs, and are certain they are seriously ill, even though the doctors say they are fine. Then, in a bid to get the medical attention they think they need (to diagnose and treat their "disease"), they manufacture symptoms. StuRat 17:58, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

The question was in regards to mental illnesses only. If you were thought you had a mental disorder so fervently that you exhibited signs of it (Munchausen syndrome) and since mental disorders are, in effect, "all in your head" compared to other illnesses with external causes (viruses, bacteria, etc) you wouldn't be a hypochondriac and you wouldn't have Munchausen syndrome. You would be right. Ƶ§œš¹ ^{[aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi]} 04:05, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

If it is a psychological illness when someone thinks to be ill although he or she is not, then if someone thinks to be mentaly ill the person is psycological ill! So if you think you are mentaly ill, you are. It seems somehow similar to the Liar paradox. 14 October 2006 (UTC)

ph

why is the pH of distilled water 6? [unsigned]

• Simple answer. It isn't. If the pH is low, you may have some Carbon dioxide in the water, which has formed carbonic acid. [unsigned]

It's true that distilled water has a pH which is a good deal below 7. I don't remember the value but I don't thin it is 6 -- maybe 6.7 or so. The reason, as already stated is that some carbon dioxide from the air will always dissolve and form carbonic acid. Simon A. 19:15, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

pH also varies with temperature. Boiling, pure, water has a pH significantly below 7.0 despite it still being neutral. --G N Frykman 19:44, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

PH SCALE

Wikipedia seems to be getting a lot of ph scale questions recently. Ok heres my question: if 14 on the PH scale of extreamly acidic then how come at school when we use universal indicator paper on something like sulphuric acid and it definately says that it is ph 14, when i stick my finger in it i dont fell a thing???--84.66.253.156 19:15, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

• Well, a couple points. First, the lower the pH value, the more acidic the substance is. Second, the stuff they have at your school is most likely diluted to some great degree (probably because students like to stick their fingers in it). While acids in real life are not at all like the horrific stuff they call acid in the movies, pure strong acids, like fuming sulfuric acid, are very unpleasant to be around, and would probably cause terrible burns quite quickly if they touched your skin. I've never tested it personally, but I've accidentally caught whiffs of the fumes and seen the stuff melt my gloves, and I can imagine what it would do. Maybe not a great answer, but it's all I can offer. – ClockworkSoul 19:33, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

• 14 is alkaline! Sulphuric acid definitely not have a pH of 14! see sulphuric acid. you should not be putting your hand in acid, but it would be dilute, and thus if you wash your hand in reasonable time, then no damage will occur. Englishnerd 19:30, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

sorry i ment ph 0--84.66.253.156 19:37, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

• The pH if the dilute acid I use in the lab is about 1, and the pure stuff is 0. You would feel something if you put your finger into pH 0 acid, but it still wouldn't be nearly as dramatic as what you would see in the movies (just like just about anything else you see in movies). – ClockworkSoul 19:45, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

The pH of 1.0M HCl is 0.0, and it's pretty dilute stuff still. To have a pH of 1.0 you are talking about 0.1M HCl, which is even more watery. The acid in the stomach is much more concentrated than this, for example, and you might think that the pH will just go down and down, but it doesn't - it reaches a minimum of about -0.5 for 5M HCl and then starts to rise again, purely due to the fact that there isn't enough water to ionise the HCl properly. Not that I would recommend it, but HCl of most concentrations won't hurt - unless you get it in a cut, and then you will hit the roof. The situation with sulphuric acid - a dehydrating agent when concentrated - and nitric acid - an oxidising agent - is completely different. Do not allow these acids to come into contact with your skin. --G N Frykman 20:07, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Also, the indicator strips are only designed to be sensitive and reliable within a certain range of values. Beyond that range, you may get other colors or otherwise-invalid results because extreme pH conditions might damage the color indicator chemical. DMacks 20:49, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

This is depressing. Students really do this? Why am I surprised? My first dealing with HCl was forgetting that it was HCl, and thinking it was water. I dried something off with one of those brown-paper-bag type paper towels, and the acid went right through. Oww! I had blisters all over my fingers on both hands for a week or two. If you really want to see something cool, stick your finger in fluoroantimonic acid! By that I mean, make that the last thing you ever ever ever ever do. — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)01:34, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

There is still a great deal of confusion around. The fact that fluoroantimonic acid is a very strong acid does not mean that it is corrosive to humans. It just means that it provides a lot of protons. --G N Frykman 08:24, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

But are you ruling out its human-corrosive properties? Just because it is a very strong acid does not mean it wouldn't prove harmful? — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)

Absolutely not! But HF is a weak acid, but corrosive, and HCl is a strong acid, and less corrosive. You can't make generalisations. --G N Frykman 20:02, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

OIL

What is the chemical equation/formula/whatever im talkin about for oil. Like water is H20 and oygen os 02--84.66.253.156 19:31, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

What kind of oil ? (list) Hyenaste ^(tell) 19:35, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Petroleum, if that's what you mean, is a mixture of hydrocarbons. That page should help you on your way. – ClockworkSoul 19:36, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

• OIl is a mixture of substances and thus doesn't have one single formula.see hydrocarbon for some of them! Englishnerd 19:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Terms like "salt" or "acid" refer to a chemical property of chemical compounds. In contrast, "oil" in a general sense is used for chemically completely unrelated substances. What they have in common is not a chemical but a physical property: oils are liquids that don't mix well with water.  --Lambiam^Talk 19:50, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Teleportation

Recently, stories of teleportation have made headlines. Apparently though, scientists are just teleporting the "quantum state" of atoms or photons. This isn't the same as teleporting matter, right? Delta 19:45, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

That is correct; quantum teleportation does not transport energy or matter, nor does it allow communication of information at superluminal speed. See our article Quantum teleportation.  --Lambiam^Talk 19:53, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

In science fiction the transporter gimmick would sometimes be described as scanning and destroying the original and sending the information to the remote end, where a duplicate was synthesized from matter already there. Thus information was transmitted, not matter. Other writers had the person turned into energy, the energy transmitted, and reassembled into matter at the other end. A 100 kg person would be a lot of energy to transmit: 9*10^18 Joules, or 2500 megatons of TNT. A large nuclear reactor would take many thousands of years to generate that much power. Of course there is no fundamental reason why the remote end could not create a copy of the original without destroying the original if the information transmission idea is used, if a sufficiently broad info channel were devised. It would just be a problem if they both showed up at the same place.Edison 03:16, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I have an anatomical question about the Spinal discs.

Friday, 10-6-06; Portland, OR; 12:57pm West Coast Pacific Time

Original entry in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Dematt#I_did_further_research_on_Spinal_Disc_Herniation

From: MyPresentCPUisTooSlow, new registered user since 9/06

I have an anatomical question about the Spinal discs: there is another anatomical part known as the "bursa". As I understand it, the bursa acts as a cushion, and its primary purpose is to reduce accumulating friction of repetitive joint movement. The structure of the bursa consists of a glycol-protein and synovial fluid for plyability; Is this structure the same for the Spinal discs? If not, then what does the disc's physical structure consist of?

--MyPresentCPUisTooSlow 20:38, 6 October 2006 (UTC)MyPresentCPUisTooSlow

A bursa is a sac, and there are two types in the body. One is the omental bursa, a (potential) space in the abdomen. The other type of bursa does indeed act as a cusion, primarily between bones and the ligaments that slide over those bones. These bursae are filled with synovial fluid just like many joints, and glycoproteins are most likely present in that fluid, as well as on the membranes of cells in the area. Bursitis is a disease associated with this second type of bursa. In my books and experience, there are no vertebral bursae in humans. However I was able to uncover some information here [4] which suggests that dogs and horses do have bursae associated with their spinal columns. Spinal discs are not bursae, as they cusion the interface of bone and bone. These discs are composed of two main parts. The anulus fibrosis, the outer part, is made of concentric sheets of fibrous cartilage, and is mostly collagen. The inner part is called the nucleus pulposis, and is mostly (almost 90%) water. This inner part is more aptly described as cartilagous than fibrous. It's elasticity contributes to the flexibility and resilience of the discs. The cells in the vertebral discs are mostly chondrocytes.Tuckerekcut 22:15, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Whistling effect?

What is the effect that produces the whistling sound when wind blows through flagpoles or a ship's wires?

It's the same as the sad, lonely sound of the wind whistling over empty beer bottles. --Zeizmic 21:46, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

No its not!. They're called Aeolian tones caused by aeroelastic effects. See Aeolian harp--Light current 22:11, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

See whistle. I don't know if there's a name for the effect, but a thin obstruction will cause a turbulent vortex just behind it, and at the right frequency the vibrating air makes a whistling sound.--Shantavira 08:20, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

If anybody konws anything, add it to wolf-whistling — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)09:14, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

Stepping-up voltage.

I know exactly how it's done with AC. What about DC? how do you step-up 12V DC to about a hundred volts or more AC or DC. i've seen a transformer device they sell in stores for plugging regular north american electronics (110-120V AC) into car lighter 12V outlets. im basically asking how this works? a detailed explanation or a link to some possible circuit digriams would be wonderful.

Try switched mode power supply or DC-DC converter first--Light current 23:34, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

For DC to AC, an inverter is used. -- AJR | Talk 23:43, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Basically they electronically or mechanically switch the dc current on an off rapidly. This pulsating dc can be stepped up with a transformer to whatever voltage is needed, then changed to dc at that voltage via rectification. Wave shaping and smoothing are refinements. There are other tricks. In the late 19th century and 20th century, motor-generators were commonly used. You could run the motor on ac or dc and the generator coupled to it could produce dc or ac or 3 phase ac. A few utilities actually generated 1000 v DC, transmitted it a considerable distance to a substation, charged up a battery of many cells in series, and had a switch to disconnect the batteries from the 1000 volt line and discharge them at 120 volts dc at the remote substation, to back up the generators there.Edison 00:54, 7 October 2006 (UTC)

I have actually used that kind of motor-generators in the 21th century. :-) My university has a bunch of them in the cellar to create AC voltage of arbitrary frequency and amplitude. You go to the outlet panel, which may be on another floor, and tune in the parameters you want. Then one of those large motors (about the size of a small car) starts revving up and soon you get the signal that your voltage is ready. :-) When investing in new equipment, they go for more modern versions, though. But they sure are fun to see. (But the hall where they sit is an awfully noisy place to work in.) —Bromskloss 13:24, 7 October 2006 (UTC)