Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

LydiaJ

zagubov wrote: »

I remember them!

The great thing about them was.....well nothing really!

The mirror thing got me thinking, and now I'm a bit puzzled.. Metals and glass feel cooler than everything else to me. I've always understood that to be an illusion, as metals will "suck" the heat out from your skin by virtue of being good heat conductors.

But glass isn't, hence the thin glass at the base of thermometers. Then it struck me that glass can only warm by conduction/convenction and wouldn't absorb heat radiation. Now I'm wondering if they'd actually be really cooler than everything in their surroundings by not absorbing heat radiation from their surroundings and might be objectively cooler.

Maybe Lydia can solve this!:)

Quite a lot of that's right. It's unlikely that the mirror glass would be much cooler than the surroundings unless there's a lot of heat radiation about - basically if it's in sunshine or in front of one of those radiant heaters with electric bars that glow red hot. So it's still down to how much conduction is going on.

You're right that the better the heat conductor, the colder it feels when you touch it - assuming it's at room temperature and you're warmer than that, then you will lose heat to it, which gives you the cold feeling.

You're also right that metals are generally the best heat conductors (although some non-metals conduct very well indeed, especially diamond). Glass is middling - nowhere near as good as metals, but a lot better than wood or plastic or something like that. That's why glass mugs have to have handles - they conduct too well for you to hold the main part of it if it's full of something boiling. Stone and ceramics are a bit worse again, and most plastics conduct quite a lot worse than glass - most plastic mugs are quite OK to hold by the body of the mug, even when full of very hot stuff. Wood's a pretty bad conductor too.

The mirror feels cold to you because you are comparing it with the other sorts of things you touch in the same context - walls, wooden furniture, textiles, plastics etc, all of which are heat insulators and conduct significantly less than glass. A sheet of copper, though, would feel colder than the mirror.

zagubov

LydiaJ wrote: »

Quite a lot of that's right. It's unlikely that the mirror glass would be much cooler than the surroundings unless there's a lot of heat radiation about - basically if it's in sunshine or in front of one of those radiant heaters with electric bars that glow red hot. So it's still down to how much conduction is going on.

You're right that the better the heat conductor, the colder it feels when you touch it - assuming it's at room temperature and you're warmer than that, then you will lose heat to it, which gives you the cold feeling.

You're also right that metals are generally the best heat conductors (although some non-metals conduct very well indeed, especially diamond). Glass is middling - nowhere near as good as metals, but a lot better than wood or plastic or something like that. That's why glass mugs have to have handles - they conduct too well for you to hold the main part of it if it's full of something boiling. Stone and ceramics are a bit worse again, and most plastics conduct quite a lot worse than glass - most plastic mugs are quite OK to hold by the body of the mug, even when full of very hot stuff. Wood's a pretty bad conductor too.

The mirror feels cold to you because you are comparing it with the other sorts of things you touch in the same context - walls, wooden furniture, textiles, plastics etc, all of which are heat insulators and conduct significantly less than glass. A sheet of copper, though, would feel colder than the mirror.

Thanks- this matches what I was thinking except you've described glass as a middling consuctor which I wasn't previously aware of. What about NDG's stones? Are they similar to glass?

Generali

PasturesNew wrote: »

If I remember rightly, when my sister was 8 her main present was an Etch a Sketch.

According to what I can see, adjusted for inflation, I could have bought 3 Etch-a-Sketches for the price of a tablet and receivedsome change. They first came out costing $2.99 in 1960 which is a little under $25 today.

Generali

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

No rush at all, a PM is a communication, not a demand (-:

Rather the camp organisers than me, 3,500 8 year olds sounds merry hell!

I know, it must be mayhem.

We're getting photos on Facebook for the event although get to one of the Generalissimo.

purch

Generali wrote: »

It's not just one: several of his mates have got $000s worth of electronics. On top of that they get all the games and all the accessories. I wonder if these kids will have any appreciation for money at all when they're older.

My youngest sons "best" mate received a Samsung 64 inch HD 3D Smart Telly, along with an XBox 1 for Xmas. Of course this kid (and most of his other friends) also had i-phone 5's the day they were released etc etc.

My son wonders why I don't always buy him the latest gadgets, especially as "you are loads richer than his dad", and I always answer....."that's why I am !!"

He has an XBox 360, HTC One phone, i-plod touch and a decent 32 inch TV all of which are perfectly adequate...........I am such a !!!!! father !!!

michaels

Locally where incomes are more normal it is probably a sign of chaviness to give your kids the really expensive stuff, the middle class will have received hudls/samsung tab etc costing less than 100, those earning less will have given their kids ipads, xbx ones etc. Our kids have 1 wii in the main family room between them with the games and accessories only bought when they were mega cheap (got dj hero this week for 2.50 from Tesco, got bike for free from freecycle etc)

Generali

It's all multi million dollar houses and quarter of a million dollar SUVs at the Generalissimos' school. We're very much the poor cousins.

purch

We feel for you :grouphug:

Generali

purch wrote: »

We feel for you :grouphug:

With that smilie it's more feeling me up than feeling for me!:j

I thought a Nice Story might amuse the Nice People:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/01/08/17/17/csiro-promises-to-step-up-dragon-research-program

The letter, penned by Brisbane's seven-year-old Sophie Lester, had one request of Australia's primary research body – a female, toothless dragon.


"I would keep it in my special green grass area where there are lots of space," Sophie wrote, adding that she would play with it "every weekend".


"I would feed it raw fish and I would put a collar on it. If it got hurt I would bandage it if it hurt himself.


"I would like it if you could but if you can't that's fine." [continues]

In weather news, it may be a bit nippy over there but it's going to be 50C in the Pilbara in WA tomorrow:eek:. That's properly hot. Hotter weather than I've ever been in I think. It might have been that warm in the Middle East I suppose.

silvercar

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Isaac muttered about lots of his mates having an ipad, and he'd quite like one too, for Christmas. He's not spinning a line, most of his classmates do indeed have their very own ipads.

We choked down our initial, "not bleedin' likely, sunshine!" response and went instead for the measured chat - did he know how much they cost? What would he actually want to do on it? What could he do on it that he couldn't do on the normal desktop he has? After answering all those questions, he decided it was a waste of money and he'd rather have a dressing gown with dinosaurs on it and the Walking With Beasts DVD instead. So he got them.

My kids used the family computer for a long time. I think DS1 got a laptop for his 18th birthday - so only 5.5 years ago. DS2 got his laptop when he was 16 - 3 years ago. DS1's was replaced when it was hit by a brick! So they both now have 3 year old laptops. Neither of them have tablets. They both have iphone 4's which are out of contract. I've never thought of them as deprived until now.