Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with ground

grass / synthetic surface run in the bay area?

evanm — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 23:38:59 -0800

anybody know of a grass / synthetic surface for a run in the bay area? I have looked just about everywhere I could think of including the obvious mapmyrun.com, connect.garmin.com, usatf.org, and various google searches -- but I can't seem to find a good area where I can run that would be easier on my lower body, namely my knees.

I fear that my common running routine on very hard surfaces is slowly killing my body.

I'm looking for a grassy area, or a wood chip-rich covering. Dirt is not preferable. Synthetic grounds could also work.

If anyone has found of a good location, namely in the east bay, please share. I'm up for anything in the SF/east bay area. Ideally, I want to run a half marathon, but realize of I find such an area, I'd have to cover the same ground more than once.

GroundCoverFilter: What's the best ground cover for around my newly landscaped front yard?

pghjezebel — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:43:29 -0800

GroundCoverFilter: What's the best ground cover for around my newly landscaped front yard? I just recently re-landscaped the slope in front of my house and was leaning towards mulch to fill in around the plants, but now (after scaling the slope several times already to weed and deadhead) I don't think mulch would be the best idea.

I was thinking maybe a ground cover would make more sense. Something spreads fairly fast and that would survive under the plants once they have established themselves. Also something that could take an occasional trampling since I will need to walk on it occasionally. No vine-like ground covers please...the hill was previously covered in Ivy and it took forever to remove it.

What would you recommend?

(Additional Info: The area is about 20 x 20 and contains a variety of perennial flowers and shrubs. The house faces West, so the front gets strong afternoon/evening sun.)

How to prevent plastic roll static shocks?

attercoppe — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:33:40 -0800

How can I ground a large roll of plastic wrap to prevent static electric shocks when unrolling it? At my place of work (a spa) we have a large roll of plastic, perforated into sheets that are used in some treatments. Every time a sheet is unrolled and torn off, the person doing so gets a good shock from the static electricity. Is there any way to prevent these shocks?

The plastic is wrapped around a cardboard tube, which is strung on a wooden dowel. The dowel sits into a painted metal frame which is mounted on a wood trim piece in the staff room. It's high up, so the girls stand on a metal-framed stepladder with plastic steps and with plastic feet on one side, a metal bar on the other. The ladder sits on the carpeted floor while it's used. We're up in the mountains at about 9000 feet above sea level, a very dry climate, which seems to contribute, especially during cold weather.

The whole apparatus is pretty close to plumbing and electrical boxes, conduits etc, if that helps for grounding points.

Couple of car troubleshooting questions anyone?

dance — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:27:35 -0800

Snazzy Blaupunkt stereo installed in car, but I find myself plagued by a whine which I am assuming is originating at the alternator. If anyone could explain in simple terms how I might be able to eliminate this noise without too much fuss I would be really grateful! I realise it's almost always a grounding issue or speaker/power cables getting tangled together - but I haven't a clue how to go about re-grounding the stereo when it's so tight and dark behind the dash. Strangely the last stereo had no such problems, was also Blaupunkt and the new stereo was able to use the same connectors. Ignoring the fact the stereo itself is changed, the back of the stereo still looks a lot like this.

Plus! Huge bonus points if someone could suggest why my front left wheel sounds wobbly when driving on unmetalled roads even though the roll bars have just been changed....

How do you -really- ground yourself?

GleepGlop — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:11:20 -0800

Help me clear up my understanding of how to ground myself when working on my computer. I generally thought that as long as I touch something metal that can conduct a charge to the earth without being interrupted by say, my rubber shoe soles, then I was 'grounding myself'. And I figured that even if I am not in constant contact with said metal object, as long as I wasn't shuffling around on the carpet in my socks I wouldn't build up a sufficient static charge if I hadn't touched the metal object in a couple of minutes. Now I fear I may be completely off base what with talk of static discharge wrist bands that you attach to your ground plug in your electricity socket, and talk of leaving the computer plugged in to ensure that the ground is being reached through the ground plug...
I generally work on my computer on the carpet but I figure it doesnt matter because usually i will put a metal object under my foot. How does one ground oneself?

How do I test a ground?

blisterpack — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 13:36:55 -0800

How can I test whether something (like a cold water pipe) is a ground? I've assembled a very simple, battery-powered, transistor radio using my Maxitronix 500-in-1 lab... all except for one last step. The instructions state to connect a wire to a known ground (such as a cold water pipe).

The problem is that I have no idea how to test whether something is a ground or not (despite lots of googling). Could someone tell an electronics newbie how to test for this?

I would mainly like to know just for the sake of knowing. I have a multimeter (in case it's relevant).

Thanks!

Help keep my computer from frying.

BrotherCaine — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 21:39:28 -0800

I need to add grounding to an outlet. How bad an idea is it to chain the ground to the ground of another outlet that is on a different circuit a few feet up from that one? Basically I live in an apartment in California. The kitchen and bathroom outlets are grounded. All other outlets have open ground. No outlets have hot/neutral or hot/ground reversed. On the opposite side of the wall that my computer's UPS is plugged into is the kitchen outlet that is grounded. These outlets are on different circuits. I'm thinking about running a wire between the ground terminals on each outlet as a cheap and dirty fix which I will remove when I move out. All outlets are three prong, none GCFI. I intend to do any work with all circuits in the circuit breaker set to off, and will check for voltage in each outlet before starting. I am obviously not an electrician. There does not appear to be any metal conduit around the wires that could be used as a ground.

I found out about the problem because my UPS said I had a wiring fault, but the computer seems to work fine for now.

Also, the circuit breaker is wired oddly (from my limited perspective) in that you need to turn multiple circuits off to cut power to the bedroom outlets.

Where to view London tube posters online

gfrobe — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 11:42:40 -0800

On the London tube there are posters called "Above Ground" that show an above ground view of the route of the train you're riding in relation to various landmarks, museums, major streets, etc. Does anyone know if these posters can be viewed online somewhere? Also, are there separate posters for every train line or just the ones that pass through central London? Here is a link to a small jpg of one of them.

Do you have any suggestions for a concrete yard garden ?

vincentm — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 07:02:43 -0800

Do you have any suggestions for a concrete yard garden ? I recently bought an appartment that have a 35 square meters concrete yard. It is surrounded by some 2- and 3-meters walls (sorry guys for I use the metric system, I'm from France). I'd like to lay-out a small garden out there.

I was thinking about planting Ivy or any other climbing plant that would hide the not-so-beautiful walls. Do you have any suggestions (warning : there's no earth on the ground, the sun's exposure is moderate, and I don't want to destroy the wall).

I'd also like to cover the ground with something else (concrete is too ugly) : wood (deck slabs), artifical grass, ... Do you have ideas or suggestions ?

If you have web resources to share it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Advice on Good Groundcover?

krudiger — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:45:14 -0800

I’m looking for suggestions on what to plant as a groundcover in our backyard. I live in Los Angeles, California and am searching for the ideal ground cover which would: - require little water - not require super drainage (we have a fair amount of clay in our soil) - thrive in a sunny area - handle occasional foot traffic - grow moderately quickly - be evergreen - not be poisonous to kids The real kicker on the ideal groundcover would be cost—if we could plant it by seed that would be superb. Am I asking for too much? Should I bite the cost and buy thyme plugs?

Grounding appliances in a 2-prong apartment?

electric_counterpoint — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:35:04 -0800

Grounding my old Marantz stereo amp in a two-prong outlet? (We're talking American 110v.) Right. So. I've moved into my new, old apartment. How old is it? It's so old that I was greeted with warnings of lead-based paint. Also troubling are the rooms' uniform, two-prong outlets.

I've got an old Marantz stereo amp/receiver through which I run my digital audio (model escapes me; probably has a "3000" in it? Not extremely valuable, but still.). It features a grounding post, to which I've formerly attached a regular three-prong extension cord (with the hot and common wires taped up). Plugged into a three-prong outlet, this connects the stereo's ground to the building's own wiring, and stops the speaker buzz.

Obviously, that solution doesn't work now. I've got a few of the common type of adaptor seen below, which have a little a little metal ground tab and a sternly embossed admonition to connect this to the building's ground. More explicit instructions, I assume, were excised for reasons of space. Such considerations mean nothing here, AskMeFi, so please go to it!

How to detect the neutral/ground in a power outlet?

yeoz — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:32:31 -0800

Does it make any difference if the ground and the neutral in a power outlet are reversed/swapped? Can this be detected somehow? How? (And, if possible, why is it possible? Aren't ground and neutral effectively the same thing? Or, am I completely mistaken?)

Renting at a place where 3-prong outlets not grounded properly

freshgroundpepper — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 21:33:54 -0800

My wife and I recently rented a house in the Phinney Ridge area of Seattle. When renting I saw that all of the outlets were 3 prong outlets and that there was a breaker box and not a fuse box, so I assumed it was all wired correctly. Now that we've moved in, I've found that 6 of the 10 outlets are coming up as "open ground" when using a grounding tester. It looks like the 4 most important outlets (i.e. the ones near water in the kitchen and bathroom) are grounded properly.

The ones that are affected are in the living room and bedrooms and will have mostly computers and stereo equipment plugged into them. Pretty much all of it consists of 2 prong equipment, but the surge protectors all have 3 prongs and the manufacturer’s website state that not having a working ground "may affect the surge suppression capability".

From what I can tell, the outlets don't have conduit going to them, so I'm guessing that just attaching the ground wire to the outlet’s box won't help at all.

I've e-mailed the landlord and they sent a reply saying that they'd "look into it", but I'm not sure if that means that anything will get done, or how quickly it will happen. I’ve been hesitating to get all of our stuff set up here as I don’t want it all to get fried if something happens.

Is this something I should be worried about, or is it not really a big deal for the outlets that are affected? If my landlord decides that it's not a big deal, should I try to get this fixed myself or is it pretty low risk?

If left alone, is there a big risk of electrocution, or of my stuff getting fried with the first thunderstorm to come our way?

Related question that doesn't quite answer my question here.

Laptop Audio Hum

monsta coty scott — Thu, 16 Jun 2005 13:27:02 -0800

I use my laptop in conjunction with midi controllers as a live instrument. When running off the battery it sounds great through the PA system, but when I plug in the AC adapter I get a very loud humming sound. Is there any way to get rid of this? I usually just run the laptop off the battery and hope it lasts through band practice, but lately the battery life has been shorter and I would like to run it off AC power. Is this hum simply a grounding problem? If so, how could I go about wiring the laptop and the PA to a common ground?

Cheap transportation from RDU airport to ECU campus

vignettist — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 09:40:17 -0800

I am looking for an easy and cheap way to get from Raleigh (RDU airport) to the ECU campus in Greenville, NC, the weekend before Labor Day weekend. Appreciate any ideas you can offer. Caveats: I am not an ECU student. Cheapest rental car from the airport at the moment is +$100, and getting to Greyhound seems too convoluted. Do you know of a shuttle between the airport and the campus / greyhound terminal / off-site rental agencies? Thanks.

It's Electric!

tomharpel — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 20:07:46 -0800

The outlets in my new apartment are two pronged. I've been tearing the third prong off of power strips in order to plug them into the wall. Is this bad?

How can I ground my computer and audio setup?

fuzz — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 06:53:20 -0800

My gear is giving me electric shocks, and I don't know what to do. [more inside] I've got a complicated setup with two computers and lots of external peripherals and audio equipment. Cables run in all directions, with everything connected to everything else. The only high-wattage devices I've got are a very old stereo amp and a monitor.

Every once in a while I'll get a small shock from touching something. I've had it happen with a DVD burner, one of the PCs, and an electric guitar (which is plugged through some electronic gear into a PC, not into a guitar amp). It's been going on for about a month.

I haven't gotten fried yet, and neither has my equipment. Should I be really worried? I'm completely ignorant about electricity, so can anyone give me an idea about what might be wrong, and recommend things I can do to troubleshoot this?

Installing window air conditioners

stupidsexyFlanders — Sun, 16 May 2004 09:20:47 -0800

I have an old house with old wiring in the walls. The question inside is about installing window air conditioners. Old wiring doesn't necessarily= dangerous, in fact I have had an electrician go over the house thoroughly, upgraded the service coming in to modern levels, replaced the main box etc. Problem is, the bedrooms have no grounded outlets, and I want to put window air conditioners (with 3-prong, grounded plugs) in those rooms. Ordinarily I would just use an adaptor, but the owner's manuals seem to really freak out about this, seems like more than just the usual liability CYA type of warning language. What exactly is the risk if I use an adaptor, and are there any safe alternatives to ripping out walls and replacing the wiring within? These are small 5000 BTU airconditioners going in bedrooms on the second floor with no easy access to the basement (where plenty of new, grounded outlets exist).