Author |
Message |
Bandit
Member
07-29-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 8:46 am
I'm sure there are things that you have seen your whole life that maybe the reasoning behind it has never been explained. Take for instance, gasoline. Why is gasoline measured in 9/10 of a gallon? It's been that way my whole life buy no one has explained why. Anybody else have anything like that? Or can explain why gas is measured in 9/10 of a gallon?
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Cathie
Member
08-16-2000
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 9:10 am
I'm not sure I'm understanding your question--I thought gasoline was measured in whole gallons. Do you mean when we think we are putting a gallon of gas in the car we are only putting in 9/10 of a gallon?
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Bandit
Member
07-29-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 9:20 am
Well, I'm not sure. I was at the gas station with my DH the other day, and he posed that question to me. As I said, it's never been explained! 
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Lancecrossfire
Moderator
07-13-2000
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 9:31 am
A number of years ago, when gas was pumped, it was metered to the nearest 1/10 of a gallon. Now it's typically metered to the nearest 1/1,000 of a gallon. Also, for a long time, gas prices ended in a 9 per gallon. Such as $1.39 per gallon. Or more recently $2.39 per gallon--lol.
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Crossfire
Member
08-07-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 10:56 am
Great, something else to keep me up at night. Hehehe. Cathy: Do you mean when we think we are putting a gallon of gas in the car we are only putting in 9/10 of a gallon? Not quite, when you pump a gallon, you get a gallon at least within the acceptable tolerances of the measuring device, which apparently are maintained to be accurate to within one cubic inch+one cubic inch per indicated gallon. For example, if you pump 10 gallons, you can assume that you got 10 gallons±11 cubic inches. And lets not even get into temperature compensation. Now the effect of the 9/10's pricing scheme, is that it is not possible to pay the listed price for a single gallon of gas. The price gets rounded up or down, which bears some explanation itself. Evidently, from what I read, the retail gas industry does not use normal rounding rules. The rules are such that the price is rounded up to the nearest whole cent for purchases in multiples between 1 and 5 gallons, and rounded down for purchases of multiples between 6 and 9 gallons. Which is odd as they round depending on volume measured in whole gallons as opposed to the remainder based on the final tally of the purchase price. (Just in case you are wondering what they do with a purchase volume of less than a gallon, I don't know.) I hope this is accurate, I read it on the internet. 
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Cathie
Member
08-16-2000
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:10 pm
Crossfire, I don't think that, I was asking if Bandit thought that (this is really getting confusing now, lol.) Bandit, maybe your DH meant the price being in 9/10 rather than the gallons being 9/10? The prices are usually $1.99.9, $1.83.9, etc, ending in a 9/10 of a cent. IMHO this is a marketing ploy to make you think you're getting a bargain (they assume you would prefer to pay $1.99.9 instead of $2.00 per gallon.) In my foggy memory of high school retail jobs we used to price a lot of things ending in 99 cents rather than rounding it up to the next dollar.
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Crossfire
Member
08-07-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:18 pm
Ok, don't mind me. I was just looking for half an excuse to post what I had learned when trying to find the answer. 
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:20 pm
My poderable has always been why the public restroom toilet seats are split in the front.
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Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:20 pm
The fractions are making my head spin.
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Rache
Member
05-20-2004
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:21 pm
Ok, here's one... Why did they change phone numbers? Now, this is waaaay before my time, but no one ever explained it to me. It used to be your phone number was something like "Murray Hill 5099" and now its something like 555-555-1234?
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Crossfire
Member
08-07-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:25 pm
Split seats...I'm just making this up as I go, but that would be for sanitary reasons. To keep things, and stuff from making inappropriate contact. Phone numbers...making this up as well, but I think that goes to creating a standardized yet globally unique addressable phone system.
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Rache
Member
05-20-2004
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:29 pm
Thinking back to American Idol Why is it that our voices sounds so good to us, but so bad to everyone else?
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:30 pm
Here's a ? that I'm sure everyone knows the answer to 'cept me...lol ;) Crossfire, are you and Lance brothers? You appear to share the same surname 
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Crossfire
Member
08-07-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:38 pm
Hehehe. Nope, my only sibling is a sister.
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 1:56 pm
Actually I have been wondering about that for the longest time, believe it or not and if Bandit hadn't started this thread...I'd still be wondering ;)
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Mware
Member
09-14-2001
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 2:03 pm
Rache - With regard to the phone numbering system, the first two numbers in the phone number used to identify what neighborhood you lived in. If you look at most phones, you'll see the letters of the alphabet over each number. Murray Hill 3-5099 would simply have been 643-5099, with the M being found over the 6, and the H being found over the 4. Ralph Cramden's phone number was Bensonhurst 0-7741, for example, which would have been 240-7741. And on the Honeymooners show, any other numbers they dialed started with Klondike 5-XXXX, which is really 555-XXXX, just like on many shows that have been on since then.
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Bob2112
Member
06-12-2002
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 2:56 pm
Ophiliasgrandma: Because if they were split in the back they would hurt your ass when you sat down! OK, I really think it's because many public toilets have the plumbing open and the split allows the seat to be raised further back. This would also mesh with Crossfire's for sanitary reasons answer. Mware pretty much answered the phone question about the 2 letter neighborhood codes. I would add that at first you did not have to include the neighborhood code if you were calling locally (similar to an area code), but it was later changed to require the 7 digit number. Do you remember when you did not have to dial 1 for a long distance call? All area codes used to have a 0 or 1 as the second digit and that is how a long distance call was determined. This severely restricted the number of possible area codes, so dial 1 for long distance was added and the second digit of the area code could be any number. This basically allowed for 5 times as many area codes and temporarily eased the phone number problem. 20-25 years ago a family likely had one home number and one work number. Today a family can easily have 5 or more phone numbers (and even more with teenage children). Big cities are running out of phone numbers and have been adding area codes, but we are also running out of area codes. Combine that with people wanting to keep phone numbers when they move to new areas and it will not be long before all phone numbers will be 10 digits. For some big cities (or high density population areas), this is already the case. The days of phone numbers mapping to some geography are quickly fading away.
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Costacat
Member
07-15-2000
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 5:39 pm
Rache, cause they were gonna run outta numbers using the old "exchange" method! My question... and this has been a long running joke in my family... do chickens "do it"? I mean, do they really do it, or just spit at each other across the barnyard? We swear they don't. Then again, can you tell I was NOT raised on a farm? <snicker>
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Jbean
Member
01-05-2002
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:37 pm
this thread feels like school to me. it's making me confused! 
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Hermione69
Member
07-24-2002
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:41 pm
Dear Gawd, Jbean, me too! I used to be a stellar student, but my head is spinning round and round like a mad top when I read this thread. I think my brain cells are full to bursting and cannot take anymore!
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:41 pm
LMAO! Funny Beanie! Costa-- I always figured the rooster...the rooster has a (rhymes with rock...thats what their also called, right?) ahhhh....'visited' the hens to fertilize the eggs but they lay unfertilized ones--those are the ones we eat, I think... Or...I could be making this all up à la Sanfranjoshfan...lol ;)
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Texasdeb
Member
05-23-2003
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:43 pm
Costacat - I'm pretty sure they do it & it ain't purty to see. I was raised on a farm. All I know is that the poor hens (girl chickens) sure look war tore (missing feathers, scratches, etc.)
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Sanfranjoshfan
Member
09-17-2000
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:49 pm
Here is something that has never been adequately explained to me - Why the heck do we continue with daylight savings time and have to change the clocks twice a year? For the life of me, I can't find a reasonable explanation why this continues.
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Rupertbear
Member
09-19-2003
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:53 pm
Cos in the summer we want to be able to stay out later at night and in the morning in the winter time they want it light out so the kids don't have to go to school in the dark.
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Lumbele
Member
07-12-2002
| Thursday, June 03, 2004 - 6:54 pm
Another reason - supposedly - was to save energy.
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