odd dinner conversation

[cellio]

The question (not mine): if you were building a thermometer (the kind that lives in your medicine cabinet at home), what range of temperatures would you support? I said the problem was insufficiently specified, but that my baseline would be 96-106 and if there's no appreciable expense in widening it, I'd go in the range of 90-110 or -120, because why not. But the problem was still insufficiently specified; I was assuming digital readout, not a column of mercury in a usually-illegibly-marked tube. In the latter case, you want the minimum useful range, because you've got limited real estate for the markings. If you could have those 10 degrees occupy 80% of the tube and have the rest be compressed that'd be different, I said.

So Dani challenged that -- why assume that the tube is uniform? I said because otherwise you're out of the price range of medicine-cabinet thermometers. This, in turn, led to speculation about how that type of thermometer is manufactured; I argued for a large uniform (hollow) rod that's cut to length with ends then treated (seal at one end, mercury + bulb at other), while he argued for individually molded. (Insert tangent about plastic vs. glass here.) Of course, neither of us actually knows anything about this; we're trying to make intelligent guesses and apply design principles from other fields.

I don't think we're the only people who have weird speculative conversations like this, but I never seem to notice stuff like this coming from other tables in restaurants. On the other hand, we haven't been kicked out of any restaurants for annoying the neighbors either. (On the third hand, it seems to take a lot to produce that result.)

Comments

[kayre]

We do it all the time.. the kidlet winces when one of us grabs a pen and a clean napkin. Though nowadays she's likely to join in at least a bit.

Restaurant Conversations

[dagonell.livejournal.com]

Try this one! The writer's group I'm involved with, The Thundering Word (Poetry reading on 11/7, published in Artvoice, yes!) was helping one member work on his murder mystery. We said the problem with the chapter was the way the body was disposed of. So, we spent some time discussing how to dispose of the body so that it would be found at the right time plot wise. It was about then that we realized the off duty police officers at the next table were taking an interest in our discussion! :D

[alice-curiouser.livejournal.com]

Ya'll are real geeks, you know that? ;)

[alienor.livejournal.com]

This, in turn, led to speculation about how that type of thermometer is manufactured; I argued for a large uniform (hollow) rod that's cut to length with ends then treated (seal at one end, mercury + bulb at other), while he argued for individually molded. (Insert tangent about plastic vs. glass here.)

FWIW, My guess (as a ceramist who researches bricks, not glass, though I did have a few glass classes) would be for individually molded. The treatment of the ends would require the glass to be returned (at least partially) to the viscous state, which could mess up the hollow tube.


No, I don't think you're the only ones who have those type of conversations either!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I don't think we're the only people who have weird speculative conversations like this,

You're not. ;)

Also, I for one am amused when I hear weird conversations drifing over.

[goljerp]

I think that I'd agree with others here in speculating that the tube is more likely than the mold. As someone else noted, it's easy to heat one end of a glass tube without effecting the temperature of the rest of it; this is especially important when considering that you want the mercury to stay in the liquid state. (Although it's not easy to get Hg to boil (346.68 degrees C), it will evaporate fairly easily. To quote from the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 71st Edition,

Mercury is a virulent poison and is readily absorbed through the respiratory tract, the gastrointestinal tract, or through unbroken skin. [...] dangerous levels are readily attained in air. Air saturated with mercury vapor at 20 degrees C contains a concentration that exceeds the toxic limit many times. The danger increases at higher temperatures. It is therefore important that mercury be handled with care.

(20 degrees Celsius is 68 F, or "room temperature")