Comments by "seneca983" (@seneca983) on "Technology Connections" channel.

  1.  @SchlossRitter  Japanese is helped by the fact that it uses logographic script (kanji) for a significant part of the text. I think Thai is probably an even more striking example because the Thai script is not logographic.
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  2. In Finnish it's "hehkusukka", lit. "glow sock".
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  3. Just remove your CO monitor. Then you can rest in peace.
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  4. @John Jenkins "Electrician here, good theory on why wires are uncoiled before use but not the actual reason. If youve ever seen the windings inside a transformer or (electric obviously) motor, you can probably reason out why" I'm fairly sure you're mistaken here. A coiled extension cord has a wire running in both directions so they will cancel out unlike the windings in a transformer or a motor. (And even if that were an issue the heat dissipation issue would still also exist.)
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  5. Though the subtitles render it as "NEMA toads".
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  6.  @PhiloSage  I was responding to comments that talked about the EM field. Of course, the resistance doesn't cancel but leaving the extension cord coiled doesn't increase the resistance (though it can reduce heat dissipation).
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  7.  @hairyairey  That's because a coiled cable can't dissipate heat as well as an uncoiled cable.
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  8.  @joshuaewalker  "We, United States, get a single phase at the residential level of 240 volts. Throughout most of the home only 120 volts are used. We use 240 volts on dedicated circuits for water heaters, ovens, clothes dryers, HVAC systems, and electric car chargers." I think the point was the following. In the US the voltage of a single phase relative to neutral is 120V but you can also use two live wires with opposite phases to get 240V when you need a higher voltage. Similarly in Europe, the voltage of a single phase relative to neutral is 230V but you can also get 400V if you use two live wires with phases 120° apart if you need a higher voltage. This isn't like using a 3-phase motor because it's not using all the 3 phases. It's just using 2 of the phases for a higher voltage. (I agree that you probably don't need all 3 phases at home for any appliance.)
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  9.  @Jdbye  "I always thought it was because a coil of wire is essentially an electromagnet and current passed through it will cause a magnetic field" This is not a huge issue because in a coiled extension cord you have wires running in both directions meaning they mostly cancel out.
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  10. The phlogiston theory is rather old fashioned. I think this newfangled caloric theory is more credible.
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  11. Also, naphtha shouldn't be confused with naphthalene which is the main component of traditional mothballs.
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  12. Wind turbines are just propellers in reverse!
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  13.  @sleeptyper : In Finnish "kapasitori" is also used in addition to "kondensaattori".
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  14.  @MayContainJoe  "Hot air heating itself is very inefficient compared to using water as a conductor to radiate heat" Why is that? Sounds counterintuitive.
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  15.  @travelinghermit  "That's because air is an insulator." But even with a radiator, you're still going to have air between you and it.
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  16. The mending has only started. Have a look at this graph. https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/history_SH.html
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  17.  @reasonsvoice8554  Eddy currents have nothing to do with it.
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  18.  @reasonsvoice8554  In a coiled cable you have a wire running in both directions so they will cancel out. That's not the case for a coil in an induction heater.
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  19.  @reasonsvoice8554  "It doesn't have to be coiled. Magnetic fields will be created as long as you have a current through a wire." Yes, but I was responding to comments about why it says on cables to uncoil them for use. It's about heat dissipation. "Coiling may make the field strength stronger." But it doesn't in this case because the cable has two wires running in opposite directions.
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  20.  @joshuaewalker  The split phase basically becomes two phases that are 180° apart when taken relative to the neutral that's taken from the middle. There's no functional difference to 2-phase power from the consumer's point of view. But if you still don't accept my wording forget this and let me rephrase what I said. In the US, you get 120V when you use a live wire and a neutral wire but you can get 240V if you use two live wires. In Europe, you get 230V if you use a live wire and a neutral wire but you can get 400V if you use two live wires (that are in a different phase). The latter isn't really using 3-phase power because it's only using 2 of the 3 phases (for a higher voltage). I think this is what the earlier comments were referring to, not using 3-phase power at home.
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  21. Btw, how common is district heating in the US? I've seen some comments saying that NYC has district heating. Is it the only place or are there others?
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  22. "But if I ever get an EV, I'm going to have to try to convince the rest of the building to invest in a rewiring project." Can't you just give an estimate of electricity usage and offer to pay according to it (assuming the wiring can take it)?
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  23.  @mjc0961  Yeah, I was just thinking of one (or maybe two cars). If more people want to charge EVs then there's a much better chance of getting enough people to agree to do the necessary installation. In fact, without those it's likely worse than you describe. Too many EVs will likely blow a fuse or trip a circuit breaker which will halt charging entirely.
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  24.  @freeculture : But 60hz means more transmission loss in wires.
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  25. That's not a bad solution.
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  26. If there's really going to be "one cable to rule them all" the connector needs to be fairly thin, like USB-C, so it's good for the thinner phones. TOSLINK seems too thick for that.
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  27. I bet its heat output is a fraction of 1500 W.
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  28.  @roseroserose588  "it is a shame to see the structures go" Aren't they kind of ugly?
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  29. I think the smell of vinegar is kind of nice.
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  30.  vbddfy euuyt  What's worse, the architect (Viñoly) had already made the same mistake before in Las Vegas but he thought that London would be cloudy enough that it wouldn't matter.
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  31.  @joshuaewalker  I meant it's 120V relative to the neutral wire.
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  32.  @joshuaewalker  "it is not functionally the same as "two phase power"" What's the functional difference then? I maintain that there is none. This doesn't matter anyway since in my previous comment I provided an alternative wording that doesn't use the word "phase" (when referring to the US) so that should make it clear what I meant. "So, when we need 240 volts we do not combine those two separate legs we simply use the normal 240 volt single phase that is coming into the house" Those two are the same thing. You can't combine those two in a way that would be different from using the whole 240V phase.
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  33.  @joshuaewalker  "I think we're actually on the same page so I'm not sure where the argument is anymore." It seems to me what we argued about was wording but that's not what my original reply to you was about. In your comment responding to a comment by VorpalGun (which mentioned 3-phase power) you wrote: "Frankly, other than 3-phase motors, I don't see where having 3-phase power would ever be needed or useful at the residential level." Here's my reply: In the US, you get 120V between a live and a neutral wire but you can get 240V between two live wires (disagreement causing words avoided in here). In Europe, you get 230V between a live and a neutral wire but you can get 400V between two live wires (of different phases of 3-phase power). I think this higher (400V) voltage one can get is why he mentioned 3-phase power rather than "really" using 3-phase power (i.e. using all 3 phases in an appliance).
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  34.  @joshuaewalker  I'm just speculating here but maybe they use all three phases because it might be easier to just wire all three phases to the device if needs more than one phase and it doesn't have to use normal outlets or maybe taking in all the phases results in a more balanced load for all the phases. Obviously, at least resistive heating elements don't need all 3 phases in the same way as some electric motors. I was curious and I checked my breaker table and the stovetop seems to have a 3-pole breaker so it's presumably taking all 3 phases but I suspect none of the individual hot plates uses all 3 phases because I have an induction stovetop I'm not sure how that could work. Also, at least my washing machine is plugged into a normal outlet so it's using just a single phase and 230V. It would sound a bit weird to me if a consumer-grade washing machine would require 3-phase power though I can't be sure that it doesn't happen somewhere.
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  35.  @whitetomato  But in Arabic script, if I'm not mistaken, the letters that are at the ends of a word look different from the ones in the middle which basically marks the word boundaries just like a space between block letters. I'd guess that if you wrote Arabic (or Farsi or Urdu) like each line was a single long word it would be similarly hard to read like old Latin or Greek without spaces.
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  36. They're inefficient.
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  37.  @isaackarjala7916 : Whatever one should think of banning incandescent bulbs, I don't think basements should affect that decision very much.
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  38.  @flagmichael : "Blood was shed to gain independence." Not really, or at least not in the way you might think. We didn't have to fight to get our independence. That allowed us to skip right to the civil war part.
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  39.  @kornaros96  But trying to do the reverse would be more problematic.
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  40.  Charlie K : Wikipedia says: " The capacitor was originally known as a condenser or condensator." meaning both are/were used. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor
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  41. 1:00 I have to object here a bit. Heat pumps do create heat in addition to moving it. If a heat pump didn't create any heat it would have an infinite power coefficient. The laws of thermodynamics don't allow that when moving heat from colder place to warmer place.
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  42. 17:30 "It would be great if we could develop some sort of selectable Low-E window. Maybe the glass could be reversible so it reflects short and medium-wave IR only on one side." I think that kind of reversible window is impossible. The reflectivity has to be the same in both directions because physics is time-symmetric.
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  43.  @slipperyavocado9457 : It goes to heat.
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  44.  @slipperyavocado9457 : But I don't quite understand why you're asking that.
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  45.  @slipperyavocado9457 : I guess (though he might run into a problem of the motherboard not having slots for enough GPUs or many PC power sources not being rated for 1500 W). However, I don't see what that has to do with my comments. I was just nitpicking about the fact that while heating his room this way can have the added benefit of also performing possibly useful computations, it doesn't make sense to count that into the efficiency in the form of a percentage of the power consumed.
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  46.  @hairyairey  My point was that air not being good at conducting doesn't (seemingly) make any difference since a radiator also has to conduct the heat into the air (and inside ducts the heat moves by convection, not conduction).
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  47. Have you seen those autonomous cars with googly eyes? Maybe that will get us back to friendly looking cars. I think those cars should have a smile or a grin between the eyes for good measure.
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  48. If the noise is a problem why not make an AC using Peltier elements instead of a compressor. As a bonus, the thing becomes even more inefficient. Who cares about money or the environment anyway?
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  49. 20:55 If you don't want to burn fossil fuels inside your home you could always get an old fashioned wood-fired oven/stove. :)
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  50.  @FaradayBananacage  I think that's less of a problem than word boundaries not being marked. Of course, you could use some other glyph to mark sentences or clauses.
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