• 5 Posts
  • 131 Comments
Joined 10 months ago
Cake day: January 2nd, 2024
  • Delta_V@lemmy.worldtocats@lemmy.world•"STOP! You've violated the law!"
    4·
    2 hours ago

    As you’re out hiking with your cat, a lettuce, and a vacuum cleaner, you come upon a river blocking the path. On the side of the river, there’s a boat that’s just big enough for you and one other passenger.

    The cat can’t be left alone with the lettuce.
    The vacuum can’t be left alone with the cat.

    How do you get everyone across?

  • Delta_V@lemmy.worldtoAsk Lemmy@lemmy.world•Why is sucking better than blowing?
    1·
    15 days ago

    While blowing, some of the fan’s energy is spent on increasing the pressure inside your dishwasher, which increases the density of the air the fan blades move through, increasing drag on the fan blades causing them to move slower and create less airflow.

    While blowing, you’re also pushing moist air to the back of the dishwasher, and after that air reaches 100% relative humidity, it can’t hold any more water and will not help dry your plates. Some of it will eventually escape around the sides, but some of the airflow your fan creates just circulates humid air around the inside of the dishwasher.

    Turning your fan around solved both problems. It increased the volume of air flow, and decreased the relative humidity of the air flow.

  • Delta_V@lemmy.worldtoMildly Infuriating@lemmy.world•Element in water heater died; less than two months old.English
    3·
    26 days ago

    A lot of the electricity probably came from burning natural gas at the power plant, and then some of that (~5%) gets lost in transmission. If we assume the natural gas plant is 60% efficient at turning gas into electricity, then an electric heating element in a hot water tank at your house would be about 55% efficient.

    A typical gas furnace is about 80% efficient at turning gas into hot fluid, and a good one can reach 95% efficiency.

    Depending on the fuel mix of your local grid, there’s a good chance that burning natural gas at home will result in less pollution than using electric resistance heaters, either for heating water or the air inside your home during winter. Places like Washington state that generate most of their electricity from hydroelectric power plants will be exceptions.

    However, heat pumps can be higher than 100% efficiency. They don’t use electricity to generate heat, they just move heat from one place to another. You’ll produce fewer emissions overall by using an HVAC heat pump to heat your house, and a heat pump water tank for hot water. Even if you live in a place like Canada, you can reduce emissions by installing a dual-fuel system that will use electricity to run the heat pump weather permitting, and fall back to using gas when the outdoor temperature goes too far negative.

    Using heat pumps to move heat from outside, to inside your house, to inside your hot water tank is more efficient than using gas to heat your home and water, even when the electricity to run the heat pump is generated by burning natural gas.

  • Delta_V@lemmy.worldtoGames@lemmy.world•What are your favorite racing games?English
    1·
    2 months ago

    +1 for BeamNG.drive + Automation

    Recreating production cars and racing them is fun.

    Optimizing track cars for different locations is a LOT of fun. More power doesn’t always mean faster lap times - what matters is power to weight ratio, paired with getting the suspension, tires, brakes, and downforce just right.

    The most fun build I’ve discovered so far is throwing a 2L, naturally aspirated V8 that makes 521 HP, into a Pontiac Fiero with racing slicks. The whole thing weighs just 1159 lbs, and can pull 3 G’s around corners.