Tuesday 13 Sep 2011 by Orphi the AweKid.

OK, so here’s a giggle.

Depending on who you ask (!!), the RDA for iron is about 18 mg.

OK, cool. Now suppose that today I eat 12 mg. Is that bad? Or is that OK? How about if I eat 19 mg? Is that alright? Or am I in danger of iron poisoning? Because, you know, too much iron is fatal pretty damned rapidly.

And that’s my problem, really. The RDA is one number. It tells you what to aim for. But it gives absolutely no indication of how near to that mark you need to be.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Science | Print | 4 Comments »

Wednesday 04 Jun 2008 by Orphi the AweKid.

Yesterday night I decided to try out my remote IR thermometer.

Ever wondered just how hot a frying pan is? Obviously this is an important question, so I immediately set to work answering it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Temperature | Print | 1 Comment »

Wednesday 04 Jun 2008 by Orphi the AweKid.

I cannot believe this…

I took my environment meter back to the shop last night because the light sensor doesn’t appear to work. I followed the manual to the letter, yet no matter what I do, I always get the reading “−0.02 Lux”. If I unplug the sensor, I still get that reading. If I put the sensor in the light, I get that reading. If I put it in the shade I get that reading.

Anyway, the guy in the shop played with it and got the same thing. He got a new one out of its box and get the same reading. (!) And then another shop assistent comes over and goes “that’s because you gotta take the cap off”. With that, she grabbed the sensor and pulled at the two tiny slits on the edges that I hadn’t even noticed. The entire top of the pod came off, revealing a transparent window onto the sensor!

I looked at the guy, the guy looked at me, and we’re both like “OMG, how could we be so stupid?” I LOLd. Very hard. Almost as hard as the two chav kids next to me.

I am astounded that the manual doesn’t mention the cover. There is no indication that there’s anything removable other than two tiny slits in the side. No markings on the pod, no mention in the manual. The guy in the shop even double-checked the manual and confirmed that there is no mention. WTH?

Posted in Science | Print | No Comments »

Tuesday 03 Jun 2008 by Orphi the AweKid.

Last night, I went to Maplin and I bought… a remote infrared thermometer!

Now I can find out the temparature of everything! Muhuhuhuh!!!

I also bought myself an environment meter. It measures temparatures. (Even somes with a metal probe.) It measures humidity. But most of all, it measures light. And sound.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Science | Print | 3 Comments »

Tuesday 04 Sep 2007 by Orphi the AweKid.

I really must get my cup washed. After a while, the inside becomes encrusted with tea stains. But I’ll tell you what… when I take the cup home, I fill it with a mixture consisting of a tiny amount of Milton® and lots of water. And within minutes the cup is sparkling.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Science | Print | No Comments »

Saturday 01 Sep 2007 by Orphi the AweKid.

I just ate an entire Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Excuse me while my pancreas explodes…

Apparently a full wash cycle on the dishwasher uses 1.17 kWh of power. (It idles at 3 W, and while I was watching it went up as high as 170 W. However, apparently there’s a heating step which I didn’t see, so I’m presuming that’s where all the power gets used. But for that it would be lower power than the clothes washer. But the dishwasher fills using only cold water, while the clothes washer has a connection to the hot water system…)

PS. I make my therapist laugh. Like a little schoolgirl. Should I be concerned?

Posted in Power, Real | Print | 2 Comments »

Monday 27 Aug 2007 by Orphi the AweKid.

I turned the toaster on. The meter jumped straight to 2,100 W. In the time it took to make my toast, the toaster used 0.04 kWh of power. Eeek! This was with the toaster set to toast the bread. For some reason, all toasters come with a setting to burn the bread to a horrible crisp that nobody would ever eat. We don’t know why…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Power | Print | No Comments »

Monday 27 Aug 2007 by Orphi the AweKid.

The saga continues!

It turns out that running Counter-Strike: Source still doesn’t put my PC over the 200 W mark. I’ll have to investigate loading the CPU. (POV-Ray?) Anyway, I played CS:S for about 2 hours, and this used 0.17 kWh.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Power | Print | No Comments »