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[Loki]

I have seen quite a few versions of the "the evolution of the potato math problem" joke, but none as amusing as Variation #3 in this one: http://www.pleacher.com/mp/mhumor/teachmth.html

[LeeC]

Brian Williams Live!

[Blue Kitty]

Why rely on ducks when you can use the strength of GORILLAS?!?!

I’m going to be an incredible parent

What a beautiful day

[Aziraphale]

I call it gaffer tape and avoid the whole duck, duct, grey tape controversy. I believe "duck" is the original, however.

Not to nitpick, but there are differences between gaffer's and duct/duck tape; they're not quite the same thing. Gaffer's tape has a matte finish that's easier to grip, the cloth part is thicker and less stringy, and the adhesive is both a bit weaker and leaves less residue.

[Masterpiece]

Gaffa is for quick setup and clean up. Also not as sticky, rather for securing things.

Great for film crews

This message is coming from Tapatalk inside my phone!

[Nikolai]

In the US military it's called 100mph tape, and is usually green.

[hedgie]

I call it gaffer tape and avoid the whole duck, duct, grey tape controversy. I believe "duck" is the original, however.

Not to nitpick, but there are differences between gaffer's and duct/duck tape; they're not quite the same thing. Gaffer's tape has a matte finish that's easier to grip, the cloth part is thicker and less stringy, and the adhesive is both a bit weaker and leaves less residue.

Since I tend to have rolls of both around, and most of my duck/duct tape is black, I have confused the two before, especially when my mind was wandering.  Always a bad idea.

[Akima]

Not to nitpick, but there are differences between gaffer's and duct/duck tape; they're not quite the same thing. Gaffer's tape has a matte finish that's easier to grip, the cloth part is thicker and less stringy, and the adhesive is both a bit weaker and leaves less residue.

I did not know that until I looked it up in Wikipedia yesterday. Duc(k/t) tape works IN SPACE!

[explicit]

Oh yeah, it saved a spaceship and everything. I forget which one, was it one of the Apollo missions?

[Aziraphale]

Oh yeah, it saved a spaceship and everything. I forget which one, was it one of the Apollo missions?

That would probably have been Apollo 13, since the other missions that had catastrophic problems (Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia) didn't end nearly as well, to say the least.

[Masterpiece]

I think it held together the improvised air filter they had to build?

This message is coming from Tapatalk inside my phone!

[Kugai]

Yup, they used it on the cobbled together 'Filter Pac' they had to make in order for the square CM Filters to fit the round LEM Filter system.

"Tell me this ain't a Government job." Gene Kranz, Flight Director (Lead) Team White.

[Sorflakne]

If you ever see duct tape on the wing of the airplane you're flying on, it's there because it makes the plane go faster.

[cesium133]

"Those are speed holes. They make the car go faster."

[jwhouk]

Truth, actually. NASCAR teams cover their front air dams & radiator grills with duct tape for qualifying attempts to get the car to move quickest through the air. They take it off during the race.

[explicit]

 If you're ever in an apocalyptic scenario and you don't have any duct tape you mine as just off yourself there.

[Masterpiece]

One of the items you can find in the Last of Us is duct tape.

[Grognard]

NASCAR loves the stuff...



and y'all are right.
the proper name is DUCT tape.  It is made by many manufacturers, including DUCK TAPE brand.

[Jimor]

Tape works better in a vacuum, because yes, air sticks to tape and forms a thin layer between the adhesive and the stuff you want it to stick to. Of course, the reason WHY things are sticky in the first place gets into all kinds of weird physics, materials, and chemistry issues. Just ask a gecko.

Also, that "100 MPH", "150 MPH", etc., tape thing is something you hear about in NASCAR a lot, too, because they need tape that can handle the speeds, which standard duct tape can't.

I'd say we go through nearly a roll of duct tape per shoot (strapping down legs of tripods, etc.) when we televise local high-school sports. We save the gaffers for specific places where the non-stickiness is required to not damage property because compared to duct tape, it's expensive!

[Masterpiece]

Expensive, but so good

[Masterpiece]

I always thought the main differentiator of Gaffa tape was that it can actually be torn by hand no problem.

[LTK]

I thought duct tape had its reputation partly because it can be torn by hand no problem. I also thought it was called that because it has tiny ducts in it, which are easy to tear with perpendicular force but strong against whatever stress it's under when holding stuff together.

[jwhouk]

Actually, it's because it is supposed to be used to seal gaps in air ducting. When you're constructing a vent for your dryer, for example, you're supposed to use duct tape to cover the seams between pipe segments.

[osaka]

Truth, actually. NASCAR teams cover their front air dams & radiator grills with duct tape for qualifying attempts to get the car to move quickest through the air. They take it off during the race.

I remember that in a particularly cold day of racing in some national touring car cup in Madrid (day was like -15C), one dude decided to cover half the cooling system for the race (10 laps) in order to get the car to basically work. Obviously, with duct tape. He actually got DQ'd shortly thereafter.

[jwhouk]

The problem with duct tape is that though it's called "200 MPH Tape" in NASCAR, sometimes it doesn't hold if it's not applied properly. And when it comes off.... things can happen.

[osaka]

Don't NASCAR vehicles top at 205MPH? That can also be part of the problem.

[explicit]

Knowing that not even duct tape is perfect makes me sad... Now I know for sure I'll never be perfect either...

[Orkboy]

No one ever said duct tape is perfect, but as the Mythbusters have shown, it's a fairly good solution to nearly all problems, which is somewhat miraculous by itself. 

[hedgie]

Like The Force, it has a Light side and a Dark side and it binds the galaxy together.

[explicit]

Also, sometimes you use it for wicked funny practical jokes.

[Method of Madness]

http://questionablecontent.horse

I love not only where that link leads, but that .horse is a thing.

[explicit]

Much seizure, very bad.

[SubaruStephen]

Actually, it's because it is supposed to be used to seal gaps in air ducting. When you're constructing a vent for your dryer, for example, you're supposed to use duct tape to cover the seams between pipe segments.

Except duct tape is the wrong type of tape for sealing ducts!(?) It doesn't handle the heat and will dry out and crumble.

For actually sealing ducts you use foil backed tape made for sealing metal work:


Yeah, I don't understand how the name duct tape got stuck on something that's not meant to be used on ducts either.

[Blue Kitty]

I love this story because this guy in the early 1800’s had so many great childhood memories of this tree and wanted to make sure it was protected no matter what. So he deeded the ownership of the tree to itself and everyone just went with it.

Then in 1942 this intense windstorm came and knocked the tree over. And people were bummed. But someone had saved an acorn from the original tree, so they planted that and now Son of the Tree That Owns Itself is over 50 feet tall.

And since this new tree is technically the offspring of the original tree it’s considered to have legally inherited the plot of land it’s inhabiting.

Two generations of trees owning land is amazing and if you don’t think this is the coolest thing get right out of my face.

[Dalillama]

NASCAR loves the stuff...



and y'all are right.
the proper name is DUCT tape.  It is made by many manufacturers, including DUCK TAPE brand.

Nope.  Duck tape precedes duct tape by between 1 and 6 decades, depending on how you count (duck tape initially meant just strips of cotton duck, which usage dates to the late 19th century.  Adhesive duck tape was introduced in WWII, and was later released under the brand name Ductape in the 1950s, which quickly mutated to duct tape. 

The problem with duct tape is that though it's called "200 MPH Tape" in NASCAR, sometimes it doesn't hold if it's not applied properly. And when it comes off.... things can happen.

Well, they doubled the number, that's the problem.  They used to only call it 100 MPH tape.

[explicit]

People do a lot of research and have really strong opinions about tape.

[Method of Madness]

Much sticky. Very tape. Wow

[Stryc9Fuego]

Someone at the courthouse I was working at for a time tried to ship a package off sealed with gaffer's tape. They couldn't find any packing tape, and had plenty of gaffer's tape. Needless to say they were given a hell of a stern talking-to, and a written warning.

The primary concern their supervisor had wasn't so much the fact that gaffer's tape is so expensive as much as the box coming open and the sensitive materials they were shipping spilling out.

[tragic_pizza]

Don't NASCAR vehicles top at 205MPH? That can also be part of the problem.

Not these days. Restrictor plates on superspeedways keep the speeds down in the 180-190's. Before restrictor plates, though, yes.

[Blue Kitty]

[osaka]

Don't NASCAR vehicles top at 205MPH? That can also be part of the problem.

Not these days. Restrictor plates on superspeedways keep the speeds down in the 180-190's. Before restrictor plates, though, yes.

What kind of bullshit is that? A motorsport with restrictor plates?

(I know that truck raids also have them, but some dude flew over a dune at 150mph with a 2000bhp truck and literally broke the truck in half, killing himself in the process, so it makes sense. Also, it doesn't, there are better ways to restrict that)

Seriously, what's really the point of that. Rulings are one thing, but a speed limitation on a speed competition is absurd.

[Akima]

Absurd? Maybe, but it's done all the time, even in Formula One. Sometimes for "safety", sometimes to make the racing more exciting for the spectators, sometimes to contain costs.

[Method of Madness]

How does a maximum speed make things more exciting? Doesn't it make any sort of comeback impossible unless the driver in front messes up?

[pwhodges]

Having a maximum speed on the straight isn't limiting the use of skill to achieve the maximum possible speed round bends or through chicanes.

[jwhouk]

What kind of bullshit is that? A motorsport with restrictor plates?

Dale Earnhardt, Rodney Orr, Neil Bonnett, Tiny Lund and Joe Weatherly would say hi, but they're kinda dead.

[ev4n]

Ayrton Senna.

Every sport has rules.

[LeeC]

[osaka]

Ayrton Senna.

Every sport has rules.

Absurd? Maybe, but it's done all the time, even in Formula One. Sometimes for "safety", sometimes to make the racing more exciting for the spectators, sometimes to contain costs.

F1 doesn't have a top speed limiter on race. Massa's 235mph mark on Monza would say that.

(Before we go any further with power to weight ratios and how an F1 should be faster down a straight - consider the aerodynamics of every open wheeler as those of a gold bar. An F1 car is pushed to the ground by air so hard you could drive it upside down at roughly 65m/s)

Having a maximum speed on the straight isn't limiting the use of skill to achieve the maximum possible speed round bends or through chicanes.

It's an oval.

And also, MoM's point. I've seen it happen too, it's nigh impossible to overtake on circuit truck racing because the trucks are limited to 100mph so you can't use speed to overtake. And then you have dudes that are driving 10 ton machines pushing each other around. Which isn't exactly safe either.

What kind of bullshit is that? A motorsport with restrictor plates?

Dale Earnhardt, Rodney Orr, Neil Bonnett, Tiny Lund and Joe Weatherly would say hi, but they're kinda dead.

That's why the sport has risks. F1 is ages faster and nobody's died since Ayrton Senna* mentioned earlier. Who would've died with that restrictor plate anyways because his suspension gave up and his front wheels weren't touching the ground. And once again, a restrictor plate at such a high speed doesn't really reduce the problem that much. You're crashing at about 80m/s. You're blowing up, and that's almost final.

I know it's not the best thing, but motorsports, just by their very nature, include a risk of death. Trying to "eliminate" said risk putting restrictor plates is futile. Unless the restrictor plate is set to 20mph.

*Jules Bianchi, while not dead, could be in the near future (let's hope he doesn't die). But one would argue that it was a massive failure from the entire safety apparatus on Suzuka, which is actually where Daijiro Kato died about 15 years ago.

[K1dmor]

 

[cesium133]