Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2010 December 17

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 17

Naval terms used on sailing ships.

I am reading books relating to naval history. Where on the net should I go to translate into modern english naval terms relating to parts of the sailing ship. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.44.17.147 (talk) 11:06, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Glossary of nautical terms has many of the terms you are likely to run into. For technical terms specific to the US Navy, DANFS has some good resources. Individual questions can be addressed here or at WT:SHIPS. Cheers. Haus^Talk 11:38, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

This page has information about the British Royal Navy at the turn of the 19th Century. The "Sailing jargon" link seems to be dead but the "Glossary of Nautical Terms (circa. 1814)" should be useful. Alansplodge (talk) 16:06, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Help in making a calandar

Correct me if I'm wrong. There were 18 years between 10 BC to 10 AD.

205.189.194.208 (talk) 17:18, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Depends on how you count the end years. There are 19 years between January 1st, 10 BC and January 1st, 10 AD, specifically the years: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BC and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 AD. If you were to consider December 31st, 10 BC to January 1st, 10 AD, then that would be 18 years. Dragons flight (talk) 17:56, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Likewise, there would be 20 years if you counted the end years inclusively (thus every day between January 1, 10 BC to December 31, AD 10) would be 20 years. --Jayron32 17:59, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

(Same guy, different IP). Hmmmm. Let's see. Presumably From 1 January 1 AD to to 1 January 10 AD would consist of 9 years, or 3285 days (not including a few leap days). 31 December 11 BC to 1 January 1 BC would consist of 3286 days. Add 364 days from 1 January 1 BC to 31 December 1 BC. Then skip Year 0, and go directly to 1 January 1 AD. That'd be 6936 days. Divide that by 365 days a year and that'd be 19.0027 years, 20 years if inclusive. Okay, I think I have it, do I?206.130.174.43 (talk) 19:29, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Correct me if I'm wrong. While, say, -10.2 is closer to 0 than -10.8, October 10 BC is more recent than February 10 BC.

205.189.194.208 (talk) 17:18, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

That's correct; the months didn't reverse their order upon the crossing of the 0 AD line. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:24, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

What is the earliest event that can be pinned down to a specific day?

We know that Christ was born on neither 25 Dec, nor 1 AD.
Would it be the supernova of the Crab Nebula?
Would it be some solar eclipse (eg Mursili's eclipse)?
Anything prehistoric?
Greatly appreciate it.
Thanks.
205.189.194.208 (talk) 17:18, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Your mention of an eclipse prompts the idea that it would be a simple exercise to list the date of every regular celestial event (like lunar and solar eclipses) going backward in time for eons, far before mammals existed; but it sounds to me like you're looking for unique events. Or are you perhaps looking specifically for events that were written down or memorialized in some way (a statue?) where we currently possess the memorialization? Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:23, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Truthfully, I'm not quite sure what I'm after. I detest Anno Domini and Anno Mundi as it can't be substantiated. The Romans were pretty bad with their calendars, so no AUC. I'm suspicious about Islam, so there goes A.H. and I don't want to comemmorate the last non-Muslim Persian emperor, so Anno Yazdigardi is out too. I'm thinking of something going back, say, a few hundred years to maybe a few 10 000 years. I don't know how far back astronomers could go with solar eclipse--if they could pin it down exactly to the day 10 000 years ago, 100 000 years ago, 1 million, maybe a billion; but I would be interested in an eclispe that occured on a date that astronomers could attest to with certainty, while also noted by humans (humanoids?), even if the latter don't have the exact date. Maybe so pre-Babylonian Mesopotamians or pre-Dynastic Egyptions might have some pictographs that indicate the year, maybe the season or months, and astronomers could fill in the exact date.205.189.194.208 (talk) 17:49, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

We can easily specify the day and time of eclipses to well beyond the 12000 years of civilization. However, even if there were a specific pictogram recording an eclipse, you'd probably have a very hard time determining which eclipse was being memorialized without a more detailed context. Until the advent of written history, you probably wouldn't know which eclipse, comet, or other event the people were seeing. Dragons flight (talk) 18:07, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

(Same guy, different IP) Which takes us to recorded history and hieroglyphs, which takes us to 4000 maybe 5000 BC. According to this article (see Historical eclipses),

Historical eclipses are a very valuable resource for historians, in that they allow a few historical events to be dated precisely, from which other dates and a society's calendar may be deduced. Aryabhata (476–550) concluded the Heliocentric theory in solar eclipse. A solar eclipse of June 15, 763 BC mentioned in an Assyrian text is important for the Chronology of the Ancient Orient. Also known as the eclipse of Bur Sagale.

So if this occured in Year 0, in my calendar, and Year 1 begins in the next winter solstice--in a few days, next week, it will be Year 2772.

Comments?
:-D  (thanks again)  206.130.174.43 (talk) 19:09, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

According to this source, the earliest recorded eclipse whose date is known with some confidence is the eclipse of 5 March 1223 B.C. I haven't been able to find an earlier exact date for any event in a reliable source. Marco polo (talk) 19:17, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Marco Polo. So now in a few days it will be Year 2384 in my calendar.  :-D  206.130.174.43 (talk) 19:31, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Wouldn't it be Year 3233 ? (1223 + 2010) StuRat (talk) 21:08, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

The creation of the world, the night before October 23, 4004 BC. Not sure whether that's old-style or new-style. You didn't say the pinning-down had to be right :-) --Trovatore (talk) 21:18, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

My error Sturat (what was I thinking?) (1223 + 2010 -1 (for AD/BC) =) Year 3232. Thank you too Trovatore. I might reference it in my RationalWiki James Ussher edits.   :-D   . I'll likely be checking this Holocene calendar out too. Thanks again folks.205.189.194.208 (talk) 22:09, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Leaping back to the original question..... (I reckon it's a good one), etymologists seek out the earliest written down usage of a word. Could an equivalent search be done for dates? Newspapers are an obvious source. I don't know where or when to look, but a banner from an old paper would be a start. HiLo48 (talk) 22:39, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Is it important for you to have the current year being a large positive number? If not, have you considered Before Present or Unix time? Both date things from a point in living memory, so they're very verifiable. Marnanel (talk) 22:45, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Apologies for being so late to the party, but are you aware of the Julian Day dating used by astronomers? 87.81.230.195 (talk) 04:48, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

There were several close conjunctions occurring close to 1 AD ± 20 y that could have been the "Star in the East". It could also have been a supernova. ~AH1^(TCU) 15:56, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Relevance? -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 19:35, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

The Star (short story) ties a celestial to a mundane event. ;) WikiDao ☯ (talk) 21:04, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

There's a large body of literary speculation and hypothesis about what the Star of Bethlehem was, and exactly when it appeared - mostly in an attempt to deduce the real birthdate of Jesus. But whatever it was, it occurred in the dying stages of the 1st (and last) century BC. This was far later than the earliest exactly dated event, some better candidates for which are mentioned above. That's why I queried the relevance of introducing the Star at this late stage of the discussion. -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 22:15, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

And the whole idea of a star guiding people from foreign lands to a particular manger is absurd, since all the stars (except pole stars) appear to move during the night. Thus, the only place a star can guide you is to the North or South Poles. Now, if you combine the time with the location of a star, you can get some idea of your current location, but this doesn't help you find another location, unless you already have it on your map. StuRat (talk) 22:02, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

The earliest recorded event in Chinese history which, according to academic consensus, can reasonably be pinned down to a specific day, is the solar eclipse of the First Year in the reign of King Yi of Zhou, which occurred on 21 April, 899 BC. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 18:08, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

tobacco vaporizer

Can tobacco be used in a vaporizer? How much tobacco should be put into a vaporizer, and how much should a person inhale to equivalent one cigarette? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.61.56.34 (talk) 17:29, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

According to this article, Nicotine, most of the nicotine is burned in a cigarette, so you might be getting more than if you smoked it. I also heard somewhere that if the nicotene in one cigarette was injected, it would be fatal.205.189.194.208 (talk) 17:52, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

That is a little misleading. I am reasonably sure that if you injected the fat found in a standard slice of pizza, that too would be fatal. Googlemeister (talk) 20:32, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I just did some math: a cigarette has a bit less than 1 gram of tobacco, at most 3% of which is nicotine, so let's generously say 30 milligrams of nicotine per smoke. The LD50 of nicotine in humans is as low as 0.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. So if you're a wee thing and only weigh 50 kg, then you would need to consume the nicotine of (50 kg * 0.5 mg/kg) / 30 mg = 0.83 cigarettes to have a 50/50 chance of killing you, so .208's claim is plausible. I don't know if the LD50 number is for oral consumption, but certainly injection would lower it. --Sean 18:34, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Although tobacco does not come under the FDA, your question -in my opinion- is medical.--Aspro (talk) 17:54, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

These articles might be helpful. Tobacco water (apparently it's used as insecticide), Electronic cigarette, and Hookah.206.130.174.43 (talk) 19:09, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

(EC) ??? [1] [2] It is true that the FDA can't currently regulate e-cigarettes as drug delivery devices [3] but that doesn't seem to have been what your claim was. E-cigarettes are basically vaporisers AFAIK so perhaps this same some relevance to the OP. Nil Einne (talk) 19:17, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Tobacco consists of leaves of the tobacco plant, and, as such, most of it can't be vaporized (unless you call burning it to produce smoke "vaporizing"). The portions which can be vaporized, however, do include nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco. So, if the nicotine is first extracted from the leaves, then it can be vaporized. As noted above, this is likely a far more efficient delivery method, and, therefore, you get a stronger dose when starting with the same amount of nicotine. Just how much stronger, I do not know. StuRat (talk) 21:00, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

"A vaporizer is a device used to extract for inhalation the active ingredients of plant material, commonly cannabis, tobacco or other herbs or blends" according to our article, which has additional information but not direct answers to the OP's specific questions. WikiDao ☯ (talk) 22:43, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I see. I thought they meant something like the electronic cigarette mentioned above. StuRat (talk) 07:50, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Only about 1/20 of the smoke in tobacco cigarettes is actually normally inhaled by the smoker. Vapourization would no doubt increase this. ~AH1^(TCU) 15:53, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

12th Royal Lancers expedition to Saarbruecken in the 1930's

Before WWII my late father enlisted in the 12th Royal Lancers. As a child I recall him telling me about an expedition to Saarbruecken overland in armoured cars in extreme winter conditions. I would be very interested to learn anything I can about this expedition, it's purpose and modus operandi. Any one out there know anything ? 82.1.196.150 (talk) 20:15, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

See 12th Royal Lancers (2nd to last paragraph) and Saarbrücken. There's limited info there, but it's a start. There's no mention of them having been there in the WW2 time period, but they were fighting in France in 1940, and Saarbrücken is right on the French border, so perhaps they did cross over. France fell to the Germans, and the 12th was apparently withdrawn before that happened and moved on the the Battle of El Alamein, in Egypt. StuRat (talk) 20:38, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

According to this history of the unit, "In 1935 the 12th provided a composite squadron for the International Force which policed the Saar during the period of the Plebiscite.". That's the most likely time for such an event to have happened. They had been using armored cars since 1929. Looie496 (talk) 21:37, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Some details from Hansard, an article from the Sydney Morning Herald and some Pathe newsreels. Alansplodge (talk) 21:55, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

I need directions to cook Udon noodles, please.

All text on the wrapping is in Korean. (Not a surprise, considering that I bought it at Yi's Oriental Market.) I still bought it because I've had Udon before and they are quite tasty.

Now, what are the directions to cook it on a stovetop, and what sauces/ingredients do you suggest I add? Thanks. --70.179.178.5 (talk) 23:27, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Impossible to answer -- every brand has its own recipe. I'm surprised though -- I've made dozens of kinds of oriental noodles from all sorts of countries, and all of them have had some sort of instructions I could understand, even if just pictures. Looie496 (talk) 23:34, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I must readily admit not having any experience of udon noodles, but don't you think they could be prepared just like any other noodle dish? From the article you linked, it does not sound like they are radically different from ramen noodles, at least not enough to warrant any major difference in methods of cooking, at least concerning the hot variants. --Saddhiyama (talk) 23:44, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Udon are quite a bit thicker than ramen, and more rubbery in texture. Looie496 (talk) 00:00, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Udon noodles are just like other noodles/pasta. Boil them in water until they're warm and reach the desired texture/consistency. General recommendation is that when they look done, just test one by biting into it. East Asian-style noodles usually are cooked longer than Italian-style noodles, though if you prefer your udon al dente, there's no law against it. When they're done, dress them however you like. If it's udon soup, just boil up the soup base with enough water to make it taste reasonable, but not so much it tastes watery. -- 140.142.20.229 (talk) 00:58, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Why not just google a recipe that sounds good? Curry udon is always a good choice. Topped with shrimp tempura helps too, but I would just recommend making a good broth for it the first time, until you get the broth right. Usually, the package will say how much water, in c.c.s. And they'll usually tell you how many minutes, which is often a range. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:11, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Beef broth, tomatoes, and some hot sauce with udon is fantastic. bibliomaniac15 06:00, 20 December 2010 (UTC)