General knowledge questions

[PhDhawk]

No, Mortar is that place Frodo and Sam were trying to take the ring to in Lord of the Rings, I think.

[TDub]

Concrete is cement, aggregate, sand and water with various other additives depending on the use

Mortar is concrete without the aggregate or with a very very fine aggregate. Very similar to grout.

[jhawks99]

I had the grout once. Painful stuff.

[3rdGenJayhawk]

#8 is the only one I don't know - or don't remember. My guess would be about 500 (without looking it up).

I was born and raised in KS, and my dad made it imperative that I knew how to take care of myself (especially as a female) in a car (tires, oil, driving in snow, preemptively avoiding accidents either with animals or other drivers), and how to navigate and read a map - as that's all we had back then... I learned to drive in 1980. To this day I have an uncanny sense of direction - and I pretty much correlate that with my early map learning. I can pretty much tell what direction I am facing no matter where I am. Also unrelated, I can also usually guess to within 10 minutes what time it is, and I don't wear a watch.

[PhDhawk]

Concrete is cement, aggregate, sand and water with various other additives depending on the use

Mortar is concrete without the aggregate or with a very very fine aggregate. Very similar to grout.

technically sand is just fine aggregate.

[PhDhawk]

I had the grout once. Painful stuff.

I don't think so, that's a rich man's disease.

[TDub]

Concrete is cement, aggregate, sand and water with various other additives depending on the use

Mortar is concrete without the aggregate or with a very very fine aggregate. Very similar to grout.

technically sand is just fine aggregate.

True. Technically you are correct

[Deleted User 89]

1. A. Can you name all 50 states without looking them up?
yup

B. Can you point out all 50 states on a map that doesn’t name them?
probably

C. Can you name 10 state capitals without looking them up?
yup

2. With only paper and pencil as an aid, can you add, subtract, multiply, and divide common fractions?
yup

3. Using only sufficiently detailed paper maps and no GPS, would you be able to find and drive to an address over 1000 miles away (assuming you have a car and can drive, of course)?
yup

4. Do you know what the following tools are and how to use them:
A. Plumb bob
B. Chalk line
yup, lol

5. Do you know the difference between concrete and cement?
yup

6. Do you know how to do the following on a car by yourself?
A. Change a tire?
B. Put tire chains on?
C. Change oil?
yup

7. Your at a convenience store and the clerk says your total is $3.27. You give the clerk $5. Without any electronic aid or help from others, can you quickly figure out in your head how much change you should receive?
yup

8. Without looking it up, do you know how many acres are in a square mile?
nope...2.sumpthin?

edit: lol, i was way, way off

9. Do you know how many items are in a gross?
maybe? 144?

funny story related to the counting out change question...once had a college-aged checker tell me she couldn’t figure my change since it was only her first day. that was something i learned in gradeschool...still remember the paper coins

[Deleted User 62]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

[kubandalum]

I googled Plumb Bob and still not sure what it is used for. Was this before they had levels or squares? That doesn't seem like a general question that most people would know.

Before and after, and it’s still in use today. The “before goes back a very long way. Back in the 90s I saw the Ramses exhibit in Dallas when it was on a tour through the US. One small item in that exhibit was a level used in construction in ancient Egypt. It was small enough that I could have held it in one hand, and it incorporated a short string with a weight attached to it. I don’t know a good way to describe it more than that, and I couldn’t find a picture online.

Today the most common use is to find a point exactly above or below another point that is several feet away. Before the advent of laser theodolites, plumb bobs were used to check steel columns in tall buildings for plumb (verticality). They used two rulers and a plumb bob. One worker would would have ruler with a notch cut into it at a specified measurement, and he would hold the ruler against the column, and hold the plumb bob’s string in the notch. The plumb bob’s weight would hang several floors below, and the second worker down below would check to see if the string was at the same distance away from the column as the notch. That’s the method used in building the Empire State Building.

A chalk line is a container small enough to fit in one hand that contains a reel of string inside it. The string has a hook on its end, and the container has a small port with a sliding door through which the container can be filled with colored chalk, which then coats the string. One person holds the string against one measured mark, and the other pulls the string very taut and holds it tightly against a second mark. Then one of them “snaps” the line, i.e., pulls it up and lets it go, leaving a line that can be much longer than one can make with a straight edge.

Tire chains are much better than snow tires on ice, and Lord knows we’ve had enough ice storms in northeast Kansas over the years. Some really brutal.

I’m encouraged by the answers to the geography questions. In the last couple of years I’ve seen major publications mark states wrong on maps. Of course they were east coast publications. Coasties are very often very ignorant about the rest of the country, especially nowadays.

[DrPepper]

Where I’ve seen a plumb bob in use is in hanging and framing doors.

[Deleted User 183]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

Thanks for helping to provide me with my 4th question of the day today!

The day I feel bad about myself for not knowing what a plumb bob is and how to put tire chains on will be the day I know I'm really a goy.
Although, I have little doubt there are some Jews who know what a plumb bob is and how to put tire chains on.

[Deleted User 89]

funny, i woulda thought the acres per square mile was the hang up...not the plumb bob

[TDub]

Where I’ve seen a plumb bob in use is in hanging and framing doors.

Interesting. Ive set hundreds of doors and never used a plumbbob for that. 4 foot level. Torpedo level and jetline for cross stringing the door to check square. I spose a plumbob would work just seems needlessly clumsy in that small of an area.

[Deleted User 89]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

why the fuck would the average person know how many acres are in a square mile?

[Deleted User 62]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

why the fuck would the average person know how many acres are in a square mile?

Seriously?

[jhawks99]

I have no idea. I don't even care enough to google like I did with the cement/concrete thingie.

[kubandalum]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

why the fuck would the average person know how many acres are in a square mile?

It used to be taught in grade school.

[PhDhawk]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

why the fuck would the average person know how many acres are in a square mile?

It used to be taught in grade school.

hopefully curricula have improved since then.

[Deleted User 183]

Seriously, if you are aren't at 100% on these......go ahead and start wearing a thong.

why the fuck would the average person know how many acres are in a square mile?

Seriously?

Yeah, "seriously".
If I'm lying you can cut my balls off and make me eat them.
I just asked 10 random people in my office who graduated from the University of Illinois (2 people), Notre Dame (2 people), TCU, Northwestern (2 people), Miami, Texas, and the University of Chicago and not a single one of them knew.
I can assure you each and every one of them has survived in life and makes a decent living.