TonyMcC

I am far from rich - but do rejoice at being alive in the present time. I have had a heart operation - free. I need 7 different drugs which I get - free. I have an internal examination of my gullet every other year because I am at above average risk of cancer - free. I have very regular health checks and blood tests - free. I live with my wife on a modest pension, to which I contributed 6% of my salary, and never go hungry or cold and can afford to run a family car. My wife is diabetic and gets regular health checks - free. My wife has a medical condition (CLL) which is monitored regularly - free My wife requires quite a lot of medication which she gets - free. On the other side of the coin my father died in 1948 at age 39 of meningitis, which today rarely kills. This left my mother in extreme poverty - I know what it is to be really hungry and clothed in rags and cast offs. Todays people living on benefits live in luxury by comparison. Looking at things over the last 20 or 30 years, there may seem to have been little progress, but looking over the last 60 or 70 years it can be seen there has been a great deal of improvement in the lot of the common man.

Consider a four digit decimal number abcd. Think of " most significant " meaning "most important" or having "most effect". Which digit a,b,c, or d do YOU think would be most significant and which would be least significant ? Give YOUR answer and I am sure you will get a response.

First thing - the hexadecimal system lets you count using base 16 instead of base 10. Least and most significant digits are the same for any number system. Hope this helps.

Although I have never seen it used in practice the following link explains what the original question might have been getting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_wiring Look under Aluminium Conductors. In fact it seems that what happens is more of a problem than a benefit!

Are the aluminium wires allowed to touch each other - what might that imply?

Oh my gosh!!! Thank you swansont and sorry everyone else - lol

I suppose the first question is "Do they?" After coming near to death and been given some sort of reprieve they might have a somewhat different view on life. They may well have a different view of what is important in life. I haven't had a heart transplant, but have been ill with chronic heart disease that required a relatively minor heart operation (fitting a stent to an artery) and enforced early retirement. I believe that my underlying personality is unchanged, but my attitude toward family and friends is more relaxed and mellow. Also my work which occupied almost all of my waking moments in thought and deed now seems so less important. People seeing these changes might describe them as a personality change, but I see it as an adjustment in attitude.

Three fifths of 24. 0.6 * 24 = 14.4 hours 0.4 of an hour = 0.4 * 60 = 24 minutes. Time on is therefore 14 hours and 24 minutes.

Would you like to define the word "nope"? I rather suspect your answer will be "Nope". I have followed your link and it seems James Clerk Maxwell didn't try to quantify the amout of energy input provided by the Demon's work in controlling access to rooms and preventing the molecules returning to the central pool. Masaki Sano's experiment seems quite suspect. The minute polystyrene bead would require an extremely small amount of energy to move and the circuitry providing the necessary detection and timing together with the production of voltage pulses would (imo) be providing more than sufficient energy input. I have to agree with alpha2cen that in order to come to a general decision in this matter we need a clear definition of "information". It is possible that my definition of "information" is too narrow - but I don't really think so. I can certainly provide a system where information can change although any form of energy held in the system doesn't change. I do hope your answer to the first question is not "Nope"!

Mr Skeptic. If energy carries information are you saying information does not carry energy? I can see that the construction and recording of information uses energy. I can also see that anything that can be done with information will need an input of energy, but what about the information itself? You seem to be saying any structure contains both information and energy. Also that the amount of energy involved is the same whether we can use that information or not. In particular would you agree with me that a computer's RAM will not have an increase in energy just because we have arranged the data it holds so that the contents are meaningful to us (e.g. we have loaded a program)? I realise the actual arranging of the contents will need an input of energy, but how does the energy state of the RAM compare before and after the rearrangement? Thank you for your thoughts on this matter.

Mrs Zeta - I shall have to say that what follows comes under the description "in my opinion". The second computer with the programs installed doesn't actually provide energy to"do stuff". The list of instructions which is the computer program has only a controlling function which in fact needs externally supplied energy to be able to influence the computer circuitry and any externally connected peripherals such as a printer. As an indication of this consider how much stuff the computer can do with a flat battery and not connected to the mains. What follows may not be a good analogy but comes near to what I am saying :- You decide to have a bath and to do this your brain will have used a little energy derived from your food. You walk to the bathroom and turn the taps - again using energy derived from your food. Water gushes from the taps using energy driving the water supply using gravity or a pumping station. etc.. I don't think the thought "I would like a bath and how to achieve my objective "actually supplied any energy. If anything having the thought used energy rather than supply it. Mr Skeptic - I would appreciate it if you would expand your thoughts on this topic - whether you support me or not - regards.

Because pure water in ice form can exist at temperatures below zero and in liquid form can exist above zero, for simple lab experiments zero is usually assumed when ice and water exist together as the ice melts. However I doubt this would be acceptable for calibrating instruments.

In a typical cathode ray tube (CRT) electrons are emitted from the cathode because it is held at a high temperature by a filament heater. They have a negative charge and in the absence of any other influence would form a space cloud of electrons around the cathode. However a very large positive potential attracts the electrons up the tube towards the screen. The tube contains a vacuum so that there is nothing for the electrons to strike. Because of the very high positive potential and the ease of movement through the vacuum the electrons rapidly accelerate and may reach 1/10 the speed of light before striking the screen.

I don't think we are on quite the same wavelength but you might find the following action relevant:- Search "Fermats Last Theorem Simple Ideas" and then look at entry 23. This shows curves for a, b and c for different powers of a^n+b^n=c^n. These were built up from triangles formed from a, b and c.

In computers each bit of information was (and presumably still is) held in a bi-stable circuit known as a "flipflop". When flipped one way the circuit "remembers" "1" and when flopped the other way it "remembers" "0". In general the circuit takes as much power from a supply to "remember" "1" as it does "0". Perhaps the principle can be examined with a mechanical bi-stable device based on a child's see-saw (see diagram). If you want to change its state you do have to do some work. However once in the state you want, it will sit in that new state until you want to change the information. Surely each state has the same condition regarding any form of energy stored? At least in theory you could make a computer made of millions of these see-saws and just flip them back and forth in the correct sequence to do anything a computer can do! If a multitude of these devices can store any desired information doesn't this show that the information itself has no energy content? They say when an old man dies a library burns to the ground - I'm quite old but my brain doesn't seem to have gained energy lol.

Some applications use counterclockwise rotation as a matter of convention. I don't know why. I am thinking of voltage and current phasor diagrams. I quite like the sundial theory but interestingly some churches had sundials on their south facing walls where the movement of the shadow was anticlockwise. This link shows an example http://pandy.me.uk/sundials/carston.htm

Consider this to see if has a bearing on the discussion:- You write a letter conveying information and put it in an envelope. In another envelope you put a blank piece of paper. Two people carry the two envelopes to a destination by walking briskly. The two people will get warm, but the two envelopes will arrive at the destination at the same temperature. You will not be able to devise a test to determine which envelope contains information before opening it. I think its ok to rule out weighing the two envelopes to detect the weight of ink. There would be ways to carry information without using ink - e.g. folding the sheet of paper a number of times according to a pre-arranged code.

I thought the guy in post 8 was referring to my earlier post. I would not be surprised if airships had disappeared, however a quick scan on google only provided me with tales of the "ghost blimp". This particular airship didn't actually disappear without trace - only the crew. Hi Newbies_Kid, Where did you get the information regarding disappearing airships?

D H is almost certainly correct in what he says. However if you think the journey itself may be interesting even if the destination seems always just out of reach you will join a happy band of pilgrims! If Fermat really did prove what has become known as his last theorem it is accepted that his proof must have been much more simple than Andrew Wiles'. If you use the forums search facility and tap in "Fermat" you will find some of us pilgrims. My particular thought at the moment is that he may have found a relatively simple proof that the solution to the nth route of A^n+B^n (n being larger than 2) must be irrational. It is quite easy, for instance, to prove that the square root of many numbers must be irrational by quite unsophisticated means. If you can accept that this is an extraordinarily simple question with an extraordinarily difficult (probably impossible for the likes of you and me) solution then have a shot at it. Warning - you may become hooked!

Fill the memory of a computer with a random sequence of "0"s and "1"s this would represent gibberish. Now rearrange the "0"s and "1"s into a meaningful pattern, perhaps a computer program, would this increase the energy within the memory. In my opinion it would not. For one thing the random sequence might have bits of information here and there (no pun intended) . Also different methods of interpretation (e,g. different computer languages) might change what is gibberish and what is information. If it is impossible to decide what is gibberish and what is information then we can't (imo) expect levels of stored energy to change,

I said some people think that a huge release of methane hydarate from the sea bed could result in SHIPS sinking. I don't know who has suggested it could cause AIRSHIPS to disappear!

Gosh - that trailer must have good brakes!

This potato gun could obviously fire potatoes by the sackfull. If you used the bolts at the muzzle to hold a grid of strong wire it could easily be converted into a potato chip producer of industrial proportions. Patent it and make some money!

A small shark has recently been discovered that also walks on the bottom. It is called the Epaulette shark. Google - epaulette shark walking - for more information.

I don't know what it is made from but you can buy simple cooling mats for laptops and also some incorporating fans that can still be used on your lap. Google "NEWlink Laptop cooling" for one example.