[HN Gopher] 2+1=4, by quinoa
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       2+1=4, by quinoa
        
       Author : efavdb
       Score  : 72 points
       Date   : 2020-07-03 21:17 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
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 (TXT) w3m dump (www.efavdb.com)
        
       | ChrisKnott wrote:
       | I always liked this problem...
       | 
       | What packs more efficiently in a barrel; tennis balls, marbles,
       | or a mixture of tennis balls and marbles?
       | 
       | It feels like the smaller marbles are denser but obviously they
       | actually pack the same efficiency as the tennis balls or any
       | other sphere, the mixture packs more efficiently.
        
         | Kednicma wrote:
         | Yes. I really like the metallurgy version: An alloy can be
         | denser than pure elements.
        
           | jld wrote:
           | I was just talking to a friend about how 1 part water plus 1
           | part ethanol becomes 1.92 parts solution.
           | 
           | This raised a question for me that I have yet to
           | research/answer. Maybe one of you knows... if the above
           | solution is 50% ABV, what happens if I add one more part
           | alcohol to the solution? Is it now 66.6% ABV? More? Less? How
           | does ABV take into account the fact that this solution is
           | packed together tighter than its constituent parts?
        
             | tedunangst wrote:
             | The wikipedia article has all the charts and formulas you
             | need. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_by_volume
             | 
             | (To make the above solution 50% abv, btw, you need to keep
             | adding water until it's 2 (liters, whatever) total volume.)
        
       | koolba wrote:
       | This is why baking instructions are done with weight, not volume.
        
       | hirundo wrote:
       | .2+.33=8, by popcorn
        
         | lostlogin wrote:
         | It's winter here - I'm pretty sure that firewood bought by
         | "thrown" volume uses the same maths. You stack it and it all
         | vanished.
        
       | PopeDotNinja wrote:
       | I wonder if the mass stays roughly the same.
        
         | brianberns wrote:
         | It loses a little mass due to water boiling off, but other than
         | that the mass has to stay exactly the same (barring nuclear
         | reactions, which typically don't make for good quinoa).
        
       | gus_massa wrote:
       | It's an interesting observation. Can you add some close up photos
       | of the quinoa grains before and after cooking? (With something
       | that does not change of size, for scale.)
        
         | efavdb wrote:
         | thanks for your comment and suggestion. unfortunately we ate it
         | all, but I'll try to add such a picture next time. The truth is
         | that they aren't exactly spherical, but squished in on one
         | side.
        
           | lostlogin wrote:
           | Eating ones own workings is a new take on "the dog ate my
           | homework".
        
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