Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with temperature

Is my landlord trying to make a soup out of me?

CharlesV42 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:46:03 -0800

Is there a legal maximum hot water temperature for a New York apartment? My hot water is clocking in at 157 degrees fahrenheit, or hotter than the center of a well done steak (measured with a digital thermometer, documented for posterity with a video).

I've found information on the minimum (appears to be 120 / 110 if there's an anti-scald valve), but not on the maximum. And this ruling appears to say that landlords have a responsibility to maintain a safe temperature, but I can't find any documentation on what that is.

Am i being a baby? Additionally, the temperature fluctuates between 110 and 155 so there's no way to take a shower, knowing which end of the spectrum you're on, without getting burned to bits.

I guess I should be happy I don't have the alternative, a cold shower every day.

I'm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn (Kings County), if that helps.

I should mention I asked the super (once in person, once in text so there's a record) if the boiler can be adjusted. She claims it has been, but I am currently ice-ing my back from my attempt to shower this evening.

What are some global warming tipping points?

jefficator — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:32:46 -0800

What are some smaller-scale global warming tipping points that would radically alter everyday life? Last night on NPR's marketplace, a special report from Helena, Montana, described the devastation wrought by the pine beetle in the Ponderosa forests of the West. According to the report, a two-degree increase in average temperatures has prevented the hard freezes that kill the pine beetle. As a result, those pests are now rampant and destroying whole forests.

(The report did acknowledge the dissenting opinion that fire suppression and poor forest management are the culprits, but my question still stands.)

We here a lot about generic ice-cap melting, etc. But I'm imagining, for instance, that perhaps the temperature increase might prevent freezes that control mosquito populations in the South? Etc?

Can anyone identify other small catastrophes waiting to happen as temperatures inch up? Especially ones specific to your region that others might not know about?

Raise the clothing bar, but lower the temperature

Cool Papa Bell — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:45:44 -0800

Cool-temperature work clothing? I want to wear business casual clothing, but it's all so goddamn hot, especially with an undershirt. What's your secret for wearing business dress shirts and trousers and staying cool?

How do I cook a 65-degree egg in my own house?

d. z. wang — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:35:48 -0800

sous-vide-Filter: I have a pot of water and I can buy an immersion heater or aquarium heater, but how do I control it to maintain an arbitrary temperature 40-100C within 1 degree, for cheap? External themostats for homes and microbreweries and aquaria seems to top out at 32C, and cost upwards of 50$. Scientific water baths and ovens cost $800+. And my oven is not accurate enough. The immediate purpose of this setup will be to cook an egg at 65C, but after that I may branch out to meat. For this reason, a big vat of boiling methanol is not appropriate, even though it would maintain 65C quite nicely.

The ideal solution will cost less than $50-$100 and involve lots of equipment I already own or which will be useful to have around afterwards.

Hot or not?

lukemeister — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:14:07 -0800

What was the hottest official temperature measured in San Antonio, Texas each year since the 1950s? Today San Antonio had its 45th day of 100+ degree weather this year. I remember years in the 1970s when SA had no 100 degree days at all, but a friend doesn't believe it.

You stored a red wine in what temperature!?!

titantoppler — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:58:18 -0800

Winefilter: What are the storage conditions for a bottle of 2005 Reserve de la Comtesse, from Château Pichon Comtesse de Lalande? So I got a bottle of 2005 Reserve de la Comtesse, and have been storing it at 13deg Celsius for the last 3 months, until a friend told me that for reds the storage temperature should be higher, and I should only open it in 3 years' time when it becomes fully mature.

Is what he says correct, and if so, have I adversely affected the wine by storing it at such a low temperature?

How to DIY modify my electric smoker to control cooking temp.?

savagecorp — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:07:17 -0800

I have an electric smoker grill, with 2 setting - on / off. Is there a way to regulate how hot the heating element gets, in order to control the cooking temperature? I bought a bullet style electric smoker a little while ago, and it works great. The only problem is that I would like to lower the cooking temperature; It smokes about 25 - 50 degrees too hot, depending on how long it's cooking. The heating element, in the bottom of the grill, is basically an over-sized hot plate.

Is there some kind of DIY modification I can make to have more control over the temperature?? I was thinking there would be some kind of gadget/ electronic something, I can put between the wall outlet and the grill's plug to regulate how much electricity is flowing to the hotplate...? I was also thinking of wrapping the heat element in foil, but not sure if that would work either.

Need a microphone that can survive high temperatures (~500F)

gribbly — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:12:32 -0800

I need to amplify the sound of a carbon arc in a WW2 era searchlight. The mic will be inside the drum of the searchlight, about 25" away from the arc. The temperatures at that distance should be 500F or less. Are there any microphones that will operate happily at that kind of temperature? This is for an art project! I plan to plug it into a standard PA system, and would prefer not to have to supply phantom power.

Curtail computer use during the current heatwave?

Auden — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:18:13 -0800

West Coast Heatwave! I'm worried about my computer's hard drives, should I curtail my downloads and turn some drives off for the next few days until things cool down? So...it's 105 degrees Fahrenheit outside today - with a repeat performance set for tomorrow and thursday. In my non-air conditioned apartment, (with several fans running) it feels at least that hot.

How worried should I be about my computer and its hard drives?
I've got a well ventilated case with plenty of internal fans, but it's record-breaking hot...

Should I turn off the external drives for the next few days? Stop running torrents and video/music downloads? When I poll my internal drives with SpeedFan, they range from 48C to 56C; it worries me, especially since a 2.5" portable drive I was using for back-up sang its click of death swan song yesterday (I've since created a new back-up)... anyway.

Advice?

Saving $$ on AC

terrier319 — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:38:19 -0800

From an energy-/cost-saving POV, is it better to ramp down your AC to a lower temp when you're not in the house or using the space, or turn it off completely and then crank up when you're back? What about, say, if you're away for a week or more. I know this is not like heat where pipes can freeze if you turn off. I should know this by now but I don't. Thanks for any advice.

Why are ironing instructions on cotton shirts inconsistent?

Busy Old Fool — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:48:56 -0800

Why do different pure cotton shirts suggest that they be ironed at very different temperatures? I have 100% cotton shirts with labels that say they should be ironed at one dot (110°c), others that say two dots (150°c) and others three dots (200°c). Why such a range of suggestions for (seemingly) identical fabrics?

Note that I am not asking what temperature I should iron cotton at in general - please don't derail. I am an experienced and capable ironer and am only asking about this discrepancy in labelling!

Wetsuit for lake swimming in Spring?

who else — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 13:53:44 -0800

I am thinking about getting a wetsuit to swim in the lake during the spring. I have never purchased or worn a wetsuit before. I don't know what features to look for, and I don't even really know how much of a difference it will make. I would hate to spend a bunch of money only to find out the lake is still too damn cold.
Bonus points for a website that shows lake temperatures for Ontario (Nottawasaga bay).

An average question, just don't be mean.

doozer_ex_machina — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:23:17 -0800

How much tap-temperature water (say 15 C) would you need to add to 1 litre of water to make a mass of water 80 C? The instructions on my Aeropress say the best temperature say the best temperature for coffee is 80 C. I would imagine a simple average (1*100 + x*15 = 1 * 80 +x *80 => x~.3 litres ) of mass and temperature would not be correct considering I would get a different answer if I chose Kelvin, so what is the correct way? What is a good heuristic?

where in Japan is most Oaklandish?

Infernarl — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:36:47 -0800

I'm from Oakland California but live in Japan. I'm trying to figure out which area in Japan has similar weather to Oakland. I was trying to use this tool to look up various cities in Japan and compare them to Oakland but I wasn't finding any similar patterns. It would help if someone could help me understand what makes weather in Oakland unique to Oakland and what makes weather in Japan unique to Japan. It's possible that Oakland is too unique and there is no similar place in Japan. I would like to know that too. Humidity seems to be a big difference. I live in Osaka where the summer is hotter (more humid), the winter is cooler, and it rains more than Oakland. Meteorologists, amateur of otherwise, please stand up.

google only brings up the Toni Collette movie and the Goo Goo Dolls song

Lucinda — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:51:59 -0800

Black balloons in chilly, sunny weather. Will they pop? I'm marching a St. Patrick's Day parade tomorrow and we will have many green and many black balloons.

I remembered this afternoon that we had trouble with black balloons in the past in sunny weather; we used them for a "stomp the balloon" game at my son's birthday party and they started spontaneously popping almost immediately.

That was in June, though - it's March now and will be probably 25-30 degrees cooler, though probably the same amount of sun.

Do we need to worry about the black balloons popping in the sunlight, or will the colder temperature keep them okay?

Testing the warmth of a blanket.

plasticbugs — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:03:47 -0800

How can I empirically test the relative warmth of a blanket? For science (and for my very strange job), I need to test three different blankets for "warmth".

My plan: to put three different people inside of three separate refrigerators (like cola refrigerators - the ones you see in convenience stores with the glass doors). My test subjects will be wearing nothing but boxer shorts and one of three test blankets. The refrigerators will probably be set to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

I am taking all safety precautions and won't be keeping my subjects inside the refrigerators for more than 30 minutes. Don't worry, there's going to be PLENTY of people on hand to ensure this is done safely.

How best can I test the "warmth" of these blankets? I'm thinking that if each subject wears a large pool thermometer around their neck, I'll get a reading from the amount of heat that exists between the person's body and their blanket.

Am I on the right track? Or will each thermometer read approximately 98.6 (because of its proximity to the body) after 30 minutes of testing?

It's 90°F in Phoenix. In March.

disillusioned — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:42:05 -0800

WeatherFilter: When "record highs" (or lows) are from the early 20th century, does anyone stop to consider that device accuracy and methodologies might have contributed to those records? I mean, I know the basic mechanics of a thermometer have been relatively stable for a long time, but with my lovely town of Phoenix hitting near the record high of 90°F, I'm just a bit curious if 1921 was a bit of an odd year, or if it's more likely there was an aberration in the reading, and how that's taken into consideration?

Were the temperature recorders of yore sworn to a solemn, well-understood duty to ensure that those data points they were collecting would be cast in stone, for future generations to see, examine, and Ask Metafilter about? Or was it a bit more slipshod or haphazard, or might someone have been prone to exaggeration? Where would I find more on the practice of temperature logging from back in the day, to determine just how seriously "they" took it. (They, in quotes, simply because the groups responsible must vary wildly throughout the country.)

It's still 72. Why am I cold?

chundo — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:07:06 -0800

Why does my apartment feel colder in the winter than in the summer, when the thermostat reads the same? My apartment is roughly 72 degrees (fahrenheit) year round. In the summer, I'm perfectly comfortable sitting around in shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals. But in the winter - although the temperature reads the same inside - I need pants, warm socks and possibly a long shirt to feel comfortable (even if I don't leave the house at all during the day). What's going on here? Is there a scientific explanation?

The relation between temperature, ballistics and sonic booms

Punkey — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 02:11:16 -0800

Need to get a double-check on some extracurricular science number crunching. A friend and I were wondering about how much effect cold temperatures would have on the speed of sound, and I had the idea to see if some handgun calibers could go from subsonic to supersonic at reasonably cold temperatures. After some extensive calculations, I think I have a pretty good set of numbers, but I want to make sure I'm not wrong. Anyway, the practical formula for the speed of sound in dry air, as given by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound#Practical_formula_for_dry_air) is: c = 331.3*sqrt(1+T/273.15), where c is in meters per second and T is in degrees Celsius (yes, I know T is supposed to be in Kelvin but I don't have a theta key).

Working backwards from that, the equation for the temperature at which the speed of sound is a given velocity is: T = (((c/331.3)^2)-1)*273.15. Now that we have that equation, here's some of the temperatures I got for various calibers. The temperatures stated are the temperatures below which a given round is supersonic, all speeds are stolen from Wikipedia unless otherwise stated, and I tried to find the most common bullet weights.

9mmx19 NATO (military spec): 385 m/s, 95.73 degrees C
.45 ACP FMJ, 230 gr.: 250 m/s, -117.61 degrees C
.38 Special, 158 gr.: 290 m/s, -63.86 degrees C
.40 S&W, 164 gr.: 350 m/s, 31.70 degrees C
.44 Magnum, 240 gr.: 470 m/s, 276.59 degrees C
.22 LR, 40 gr.: 330 m/s, -2.14 degrees C
And just for fun: 5.56mmx45 NATO, 62 gr.: 940 m/s, 1,925.79 degrees C

The one that I find most interesting is .22 LR. I was really skeptical about how close it is to 0 degrees C, so that's why I made this post. This means at reasonable conditions, a really cold day or the inside of a walk-in freezer, a completely suppressed .22 LR pistol, firing a standard .22 LR 40 grain round, which would normally be subsonic, would actually produce a sonic boom, which would make a good deal of noise and possibly give you away. Not nearly as much as an unsuppressed gun, but more than it would otherwise. Of course, there's a few other issues, like the effects of humidity (although at these low temperatures, it might not be as much of an issue due to the air drying out from the cold), the actual volume of the sonic boom created and whether or not it would be enough to give someone away, but these are things that either require more math skills than I can rustle up at this late hour or actual testing. If these numbers check out, I might just take this over to the Mythbusters message board and put it up there for them to test the next time they decide to do a firearms special, since I don't have access to a suppressed .22 LR pistol or a freezer large enough and with an understanding enough owner to let me shoot a gun inside of it.

Bath once was hot but now is not.

ottereroticist — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 18:59:30 -0800

Why is my bath not hot anymore? My bathtub, which once filled so delightfully with steaming hot water, now fills only partway before the water gets cold. What hypotheses should I consider in diagnosing the problem?

The tub is located on the second story. The hot water knob behind the tub is open full-bore. The water heater, located in the basement, is electric and about 10 years old. The temperature and quantity of hot water elsewhere in the house seems unchanged.

I want to have my cake & frost it, too!

numinous — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:23:27 -0800

[Cupcake-Filter]: Why is my cream cheese frosting an irreparable mess? How can I make some that is temperature stable? Great culinary minds of the hive, I beseech you! I recently finished a test-batch of Mummy cream-cheese frosted red velvet cupcakes that I plan on making again for my younger sister’s halloween party in two weeks. They are darling and festive, and she is over the moon with the presentation. However, frosting them and having them retain their shape is a NIGHTMARE!

While the recipe I used results in a delicious frosting, it ends up being a hugely goopy mess when it warms to room temperature. Getting the ribbons to keep their shape is difficult; even applying the ribbons in the first place was a challenge, as the frosting kept melting in the bag while in my hands. Making cupcakes should never be this frustrating! (I want them to taste like love, not bitter resentment.)

I’ve tried refrigerating them first to “set” the frosting, but 20 minutes after being set on the counter the frosting begins to melt. This is problematic as these cupcakes will have to sit out in room temperature for approximately 2 hours during the course of the upcoming party.

The recipe I used is as follows:

12 ounces or 1-1/2 packages of Philly cream cheese
1/2 stick Smart Choice (Vegan Butter Substitute)
4-5 cups sifted powdered sugar
seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

What is the secret to finding a temperature-stable cream cheese frosting?
Should I substitute the vegan butter with vegetable shortening? Should I be using more of something, and less of another?

I know that there must be some solution, as evidenced by the numerous cupcake bakeries (Magnolia, Sprinkles, Miette, Yummy Cupcakes, etc.) that leave their cream-cheese frosted cupcakes on display with great success (and no melting!). What is their secret? I would like the frosting to be as close to this recipe as it can be (no HFCS if at all possible, for instance), but I am definitely open to suggestion. Thank you!

heat pump vs. Vornados

diode — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:26:41 -0800

Is it cheaper to run a full house heat pump during colder months, or use Vornado heaters to heat subsections of the house that we are in at the moment. I've got a two bedroom house with an attached studio apartment, all heated by one heat pump. Our climate is Pacific Northwest....kind of rainy and cold about 6 months of the year but not drastically freezing except on rare occasions.

We have a pair of 1500 Watt Vornados that we move around the house. They do a fair job of keeping rooms fairly livable without using the heat pump. These are older Vornados....once you turn them on they stay on full blast and do not cycle the power or wattage depending on temperature.

I don't know what the studio dweller uses for heat, but it would probably be useful to find out.

So, I'm wondering, how can I figure out which is the cheaper alternative, using the Vornados or the heat pump?

How do I find out when the morning fog will be the thickest?

querty — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:35:16 -0800

Date for thickest morning fog? During this time (late September / early-mid October) nearby parks and farms (in West Coast Canada), there is always a thick sheet of fog in the early mornings. I want to know / estimate which upcoming days the fog will be the thickest. I'm not sure what temperature and what other factors come into play (ex: weather and humidity levels during the night before, rain).

Any fog / weather experts wanna give me some pointers?

Sleep, perchance to sleep cooly, like Sam Cucumber Marlow

oxford blue — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:06:26 -0800

Will an Ikea Sultan Erfjord latex mattress bake me as I sleep? I'm thinking about buying an Ikea Sulant Erfjord latex mattress.

Doing some quick research on the web it seems some people have problems with latex mattresses being too hot during the night. Are latex mattress (a lot) hotter than traditional spring mattresses?

The Ikea website mentions the choice of materials circulates the air, and from what I remember of the in store display there are numerous holes in the latex body of the mattress for (one assumes) air circulation.

By way of context, I tend to be a warm sleeper (I rarely need more than a sheet and a light blanket or two. I recently bought a new doona/duvet and find it's often too warm for me) and when I get hot it takes awhile for me to cool down.

Two additional bed temperature questions; will my choice of mattress pad/mattress protector effect the overall temperature? One I was looking at (the Sultan Timan) has a foam/wool filling; would this make the bed hotter or cooler? Similaraly would a mattress protector (cotton, or a cotton/* blend) make the overall temperature hotter or cooler?

More generally, does anyone have any experience with this bed, latex beds, ikea latex mattresses, or ikea mattresses? As a poor student it's a fairly sizable chunk of change, and having a goodnights sleep is important for me, so I want to make sure this is the right decision.

Help with hot summer nights.

carsonb — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:17:07 -0800

Why is my bedroom consistently 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the house, and what can I do to cool it off? Here's a rough diagram of my apartment's layout. There are 4 vents for the AC, and the one intake is in the ceiling of the living room. I have vertical blinds on my south-facing window that I keep closed all day, and an oscillating fan that blows into my room from near the door. Trees block the morning sun onto my window, but noon to sundown I get direct sunlight. The vent in my room blows cold, and is not blocked at all as far as I can tell. The problem persists throughout the night. What can I do?