Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2016 April 24

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April 24

Help Identifying a Mysterious Symbol.

My crude rendering of the symbol in question.

I've been seeing this symbol lately, as a graffito at my workplace and later as stickers on cars. I have asked basically everyone I know if they could possibly tell me what it is, to no avail. I'm certain someone must know the answer.

Chris16447 (talk) 06:07, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Well, I don't think it's a set of cookie-cutters. --69.159.61.172 (talk) 07:33, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

A similar symbol was used by the Rajneesh movement in the 1970's. Tevildo (talk) 08:23, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Compare with an expired Marconi trademark. AllBestFaith (talk) 08:53, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

The Marconi trademark to me is very obviously about radio. As with File:RKO Radio Pictures logo.jpg And as with WiFi symbols. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 09:36, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

What are you analogizing to "with [RKO logo]" and "with WiFi symbols"? —Tamfang (talk) 06:28, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

The series of sort-of concentric circles (or parts of them), symbolizing radio waves. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 11:23, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

That whoosh was my grammar snark going by. —Tamfang (talk) 21:42, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Yeah - I've seen this around in various places too - I hadn't paid much attention to it until you mentioned it, and (of course) now I can't find any examples of it! SteveBaker (talk) 19:40, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Hawaiian earring?John Z (talk) 22:30, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Proxemics drawing? See pic here. Raquel Baranow (talk) 23:31, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

No, not like either of those things - the image I saw (darn-it - I don't recall where) had broken circles with a dot within the break, just like our OP's drawing. SteveBaker (talk) 04:12, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Thanks to a co-worker, I have finally found out that it is the symbol for the DJ Bassnectar, as seen here: [1]. Case closed, I can finally rest. Chris16447 (talk) 07:13, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Double bicycle

I just saw two men riding a double bicycle, it looks like they were really enjoying themselves.

But from an efficiency perspective, is there less energy expenditure on a multi-occupancy bike. After say 4-5 people, do you then perhaps hit a law of diminishing return where the longer the bike you have and the more people you put on it, the great the net expenditure of effort on behalf or the riders. You've got to account for the power to weight ratio I assume...

For simplifies sake, let's assume all the riders are of the same weight, level of fitness. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Groatsofjohn (talk • contribs) 10:48, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Do you mean one of these? KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (もしもし！) 11:42, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

Assuming that you mean a Tandem bicycle, there is some information at Tandem bicycle#Performance: "Compared to a conventional bicycle, a tandem has double the pedalling power, without necessarily doubling the speed, and with only slightly more frictional loss in the drivetrain. It has about the same wind resistance as a conventional bicycle. High-performance tandems may weigh less than twice as much as a single bike, so the power-to-weight ratio may be slightly better than that of a single bike and rider. On flat terrain and downhill, most of the power produced by cyclists is used to overcome wind resistance, so tandems can reach higher speeds than the same riders on single bicycles." Alansplodge (talk) 11:49, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

See also The physiological effects of cycling on tandem and single bicycles (Department of Physical Education & Sport Science, Human Performance Laboratory, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN): "Cycling on a tandem resulted in lower physiological stress than when cycling at the same velocity on a single bicycle. Cyclists were able to ride from 4.8–8.0 kph faster on a tandem than on a single bicycle at similar physiological stress. Apparently, stokers can add to power output on a tandem without adding significantly to wind resistance." Alansplodge (talk) 11:59, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

As far as adding more to the train, each new person would add less, that's true, but they would still add something (positive). Eventually the frame may need to be made thicker to support the forces involved, and that might be enough to counter the small additional power. However, other practical considerations, like turning radius and the middle wheels leaving the pavement as they go over small hills, may make such a length impractical. Some type of flexible design with hinges between each person and suspension systems to keep wheels in contact with the pavement might help, but again that all adds weight. StuRat (talk) 14:22, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

The Goodies famously rode a trandem. DuncanHill (talk) 20:40, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

The Oriten seated ten but weighed 305 pounds. I would expect modern manufacturing techniques could cut that weight a bit. Rmhermen (talk) 04:44, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

For a bike with n seats, would it help to put the pedals out of phase by π/n? That way there's always one pedaller near peak power. —Tamfang (talk) 06:37, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

Maybe, but there's a usability issue. My tandem has phase-locked cranks (as I think they all do), and it can be tough to start out if both riders don't sync their first few strokes very well. I'd imagine out-of-phase cranks would make that bit harder. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:50, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

That's true with just two seats, but with ten you could vary each set of pedals by just 10 degrees each to have a 90 degree change from end to end. StuRat (talk) 16:34, 25 April 2016 (UTC)

A bar in the city I live has one of these it won't brake any speed records. But when you see it in real life it's almost surprising that it goes at all! Vespine (talk) 05:37, 26 April 2016 (UTC)

They won't break any records if they brake. StuRat (talk) 13:05, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Can people living inside the United States borders be put on the Disposition Matrix?

Or is it just people outside of U.S. Borders? What are the safeguards, if any, against U.S. citizens living inside U.S. borders being put on the disposition matrix and killed by the government? What about U.S. citizens in Canada and Mexico? Zombiesturm (talk) 16:53, 24 April 2016 (UTC)

This article contains the text of a memo from Eric Holder, which apparently answers "yes" (or, at least, doesn't answer "no") to this question, when it was asked by Rand Paul in 2013. Tevildo (talk) 19:23, 24 April 2016 (UTC)