Intriguing questions 🤔

[newts]

We're 60 years into being bombarded with prepacked foods, along the way we've lost some of the ability to taste & smell if food is OK to eat. I know many families that throw away all leftover food after every meal for fear of food poisoning.

We did a big roast last weekend for kids & grandkids. Mrs Newts & I had roast pie on Tuesday & Thursday with the remaining meat, veg & gravy. Only the lamb bone & veg peel went into the food bin.

 

[briantrumpet]

Mod note:

Thanks for your observation.

I have to confess that I was caught in two minds about that thread and this re merging.

I left them unmerged as I think that 'trivial' and 'intriguing' are sufficiently differentiating.

I may be wrong, of course, but let's see how they go and should they ever become too closely aligned we can merge at that point.

I'll grant you that hummus might or might not be trivial, but I'm expecting matters of great philosophical import here. Maybe.

 

[Moon bunny]

I know whether or not to eat hummus by carefully inspecting it. If it’s hummus I don’t eat it.

 

[Moon bunny]

Anyway why are soldering tools called soldering irons when they are made of copper?

 

[briantrumpet]

Why did 'equation' end up with the pronunciation 'ekway-zhun' for its 'tion ending, but 'liquation' is still the normal '-tion' sound 'likway-shun'?

English is bizarre sometimes.

 

[Pblakeney]

Why did 'equation' end up with the pronunciation 'ekway-zhun' for its 'tion ending, but 'liquation' is still the normal '-tion' sound 'likway-shun'?

English is bizarre sometimes.

Read rhymes with lead, while lead rhymes with read.
You may have to think about that one. 😉

Spoiler: pronunciation

ee v eh

 

[Reynard]

Only the lamb bone & veg peel went into the food bin.

Could've made some good stock with that...

I yellow sticker, so am buying a lot of my food at the point where most people are throwing it away. Although I mostly tend to buy fresh ingredients as opposed to ready-made stuff.

Made a batch of hummus yesterday. I don't think it will last long enough for it to develop language skills.

 

[sungod]

Anyway why are soldering tools called soldering irons when they are made of copper?

perhaps from the use of 'iron' as in a hot metal thing used for ironing, which dates from way back, and i'd guess is itself descended from fire-irons, pokers etc., which were made of iron

plain copper is a poor choice for soldering: it's great as the core metal for heat conduction, but is rapidly corroded, to avoid this it's almost always plated with metal(s) better able to resist damage from being dipped in molten metal

 

[briantrumpet]

perhaps from the use of 'iron' as in a hot metal thing used for ironing, which dates from way back, and i'd guess is itself descended from fire-irons, pokers etc., which were made of iron

plain copper is a poor choice for soldering: it's great as the core metal for heat conduction, but is rapidly corroded, to avoid this it's almost always plated with metal(s) better able to resist damage from being dipped in molten metal

A quick Google:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldering_iron

Seems there was quite a lot of iron used.

Before the development of electric soldering irons, the typical soldering iron consisted of a copper block, with an appropriately shaped point, supported on an iron rod and held in a wood handle. Immediately before use, the iron was heated over a fire or in a charcoal brazier, and it had to be reheated whenever it became too cool for use. Soldering irons were primarily used by tinsmiths and coppersmiths to work with thin sheet metal.[3]

A large copper block was required in order to have sufficient thermal capacity to provide useful heat after removal from the fire, and copper is expensive. This led to the development of soldering irons that had a small copper tip attached to an inexpensive cast-iron block.[4] Some irons even had removable and replaceable copper tips.[5]

 

[briantrumpet]

Interestingly, the spelling with the L only became established in the 19th century, up till then it had been 'souder', 'sowder' or 'sawder', and the irons were called 'soddering irons' in the 17th century.

 

[Mike Ayling]

Anyway why are soldering tools called soldering irons when they are made of copper?

And why do those in the land of Trump refer to tyre levers as tyre irons when they are made of plastic?

 

[briantrumpet]

And why do those in the land of Trump refer to tyre levers as tyre irons when they are made of plastic?

They were made of metal when I was a yoof.

 

[ColinJ]

Interestingly, the spelling with the L only became established in the 19th century, up till then it had been 'souder', 'sowder' or 'sawder', and the irons were called 'soddering irons' in the 17th century.

Ah - I was going to chime in with the fact that Americans still seem to call them that!

At least , that is the way they pronounced the word in numerous YouTube videos that I have watched...

For example:

 

[Mike Ayling]

They were made of metal when I was a yoof.

I still use metal ones.

 

[Accy cyclist]

We've got a similar thread here:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/q...gardless-of-how-trivial-they-may-seem.274840/

I suppose it's not so annoying, when you think of folk like a friend of mine who owns a ladies wedding dresses and outfits shop and now someone else has opened a shop selling wedding dresses and outfits, across the road from her! 🧐