Well, not really - if those who are in positions of authority spoke properly and did not give in to the ignorant majority nor copy the U.S.
Yes, not sure when the exceptions were reduced slightly by adding "... when the sound is 'ee'".
wiring 2 loads up in in parallel to drop voltage (ed: he means in series)
- Thread starter AstonHill
- Start date
Sponsored Links
I have mentioned before that it was at a parent-teacher evening thirty seven years ago that my daughter's teacher said spelling and grammar did not matter as long as we could understand what was meant.
I maintain that this meant she, the teacher, did not know spelling and grammar well enough to care.
It is the dumbing down of society ready for who knows what. What about the rest of us?
I maintain that this meant she, the teacher, did not know spelling and grammar well enough to care.
It is the dumbing down of society ready for who knows what. What about the rest of us?
I'm not sure what era you are thinking of, but many of the exceptions to a lot of the 'rules' of English have existed for very many generations, in at least some cases probably from the day that 'the rule was invented'. If you want a language where it's much more the case that "rules are rules" (with relatively few exceptions) I suggest you might look to German.
I have no idea about the 'when', other than that it must have been long after we were taught 'the rule'
Kind Regards, John
That's not all that different from what I often say about my view, namely that the most important thing about language (at any point in time) is that is provides an effective and clear means of communication.
You're obviously free to 'maintain' whatever you want, but I don't think that necessarily follows from what she said. She could personally have a very high level of knowledge of spelling and grammar and yet still hold the view that she expressed to you.
Kind Regards, John
Sponsored Links
- Joined
- 4 Sep 2022
- Messages
- 625
- Reaction score
- 3
- Country
So what are you saying; you are better off with one brighter bulb in the middle of the room or many not so bright lights across the room?
No not at all but you can if you want. What I was expressing was that we need to be aware of such effects in case we want to avoid them. wiring up a chain of lampholders in series and putting different wattage bulbs (lamps) in them to demonstrate such effects is an interesting experiment. Also if you are able to safely change the overall voltage to different ranges or steps it reveals some more of the effects. You could always play safer and conduct similar yet safer experiments with M10 torch lamps and holders and a battery or three etc etc
I have seen DIY jobs where someone has installed two wall lights in series and been baffled by the effects. Similarly wiring switches for same in series too
For what it is worth.
Most of my lamps are filament and wired in pairs to enable them to be dimmed by powering them in series or individually switched to be bright.
Provides a soft warm glow when dimmed.
Most of my lamps are filament and wired in pairs to enable them to be dimmed by powering them in series or individually switched to be bright.
Provides a soft warm glow when dimmed.
Nice one Bernard.
In facts it beats my FRED BLOGGS switch I wired in many years ago for a customer.
Cheapo battery circuit consisting a dome type buzzer two door contacts and a switch. Gave the option of switching a buzzer on via relay and the option of switching the contacts over from series to parallel.
Doors unlocked during the day, the customer was slightly infirm, if someone knocked at door they could shout "who is it" and the answer came back "It`s Fred Bloggs" or whatever. The customer could then decide to switch to parallel and shout for Fred Bloggs to enter but if someone opened the other door to sneak in at the same time the buzzer would sound. Once Fred Bloggs had gone back thru the door and closed it then the switch was thrown again and both doors were alarmed.
PS - The Fred Bloggs switched was actually a two pole changer over switch
Last edited:
A single point source of light, will cause hard shadows, two points of light help, as will having the light fall on light coloured reflective surfaces. Generally the worst possible type of light, are spotlights, shining down from a low ceiling, with lots of dark surfaces.
Uplighters shining onto a white ceiling give superb shadow free illumination of a room, especially when the light source(s) cannot be seen.
Floor standing uplighters in my room ( which has a part sloping ceiling )
Floor standing uplighters in my room ( which has a part sloping ceiling )
Indeed so. As you say, it's most effective if the light sources can be fat from the ceiling and 'not visible', but that's often not practical, but even with visible ones fairly close to the ceiling it can be pretty effective. I've probably posted the below piccie before, showing the situation in my living room. There are eight of these uplighters (four on each of two opposite walls), with 8 x 5W LEDs (previously 8 x 25W golf balls), and it provides a very reasonable level of shadow-free background lighting.
When addition light is needed for activities such as reading etc., this background lighting is supplemented by things which I still call standard lamps and table lamps
Kind Regards, John
Yes, you've shown that before, and it's an interesting approach. It obviously may, or may not, work with LED 'lamps', but I suspect it probably would with the cheap ones that simply have a 'dropper capacitor' to control current.
Technically, I imagine that, with the two 'lamps' in series, between them they would probably consume a fair bit more power than one might 'expect' if they were 'simple resistive loads' (i.e. one quarter of the power they would consume in parallel), since the filaments would be much cooler, hence lower resistance, than when fed in parallel. Conversely, I would also suspect that the total light output (with 'lamps'in series) would be less than one might 'expect' (if one didn't think too deeply), since light output from an incandescent bulb falls far more than 'linearly' as one reduces voltage - indeed, the light output will fall to zero when the power dissipated in the filament falls to the level at which the filament no longer 'glows'.
In another 'lateral thinking' approach (with LED 'lamps') which I have mentioned before, in a good few places in my house I have replaced single SP light switches with 2-gang (for two light levels) or 3-gang (for three light levels) ones, switching one or two capacitors in series with the 'lamp'. The values of the capacitor(s) are obviously specific to a certain 'wattage of LED and, as above, this approach probably only works when the LED 'lamp' uses a simple 'dropping capacitor' to control current - so I use the cheapest and nastiest ones I can find with such an arrangement.
Kind Regards, John
This, among others, is an interesting comment regarding as to how the "Sound Shift" in "English" written vowels has changed from that which was/is "Standard" in Latin, and most other European languages which use the "Latin" (26 letter) alphabet.
(Most of those "European Languages" have resorted to using "diacritical marks/accents" to extend that alphabet.
However, "English" has NOT done that but uses certain "letter arrangements" to indicate the different sounding vowels and to give "English" a way of writing its 42 "sounds" with the 26 Latin letters in about 100 different combinations.
While this may seem complex, it is much simpler than "Chinese", which needs at least 5000 "characters" to even start!"
Apart from Data, "foreign" words such as Nike, Ikea and Wago come to mind.
As for NIKE,
it should be pronounced as in
For IKEA - see
which might be represented in "English" as EEE-kay-ah. (Not "Eye-kee-ah".)
WAGO,
as can be seen in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAGO_GmbH,
should be pronounced as "Vah-go and not Way-go or Wa-go",
(Compare this with VolksWagon, of which the "English" transliteration might be written as FolksVargon).
WAGO is pronounced correctly (as in German) in at about 2:05.
DIYnot Local
Staff member
If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.
Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.
Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local
Sponsored Links
