Practical things you just don't understand

Bicycle maintenance

Other people.

Yeah I'm with you on electrics...I get 12v DC car electrics (as a former landie owner, almost essential), but AC and house electrics are a complete mystery.  Otherwise, I think I'm pretty practical and logical and will try my hand at lots of DIY stuff.

Yeh electrics I'm no good at (I rewired my van but had help from a sparky mate to make sure I didn't do anything drastically wrong). I can wire a plug and a light fitting etc fine but anything more and nope. I'm totally colour blind so that doesn't help when I'm looking at wires and trying to figure out whats what - shouting at the kids "Ozzy, what colour is this wire?" etc.

bowline knot. just cannot retain the knowledge to tie one.

Bowlines are easy.

Kicking footballs in the correct direction...

The scientific concepts of time travel as explained in films.

My biggest one is throwing stuff. Just an overarm throw of a tennis ball for a dog, or skimming a stone for example. It is quite comical to watch; I just don't have the proprioception to throw something over arm or get that "snap" of my wrist and elbow to fling stuff with power and distance. When I do it, it looks like my skeleton has disappeared suddenly, and whatever the object is flies off at 45 degrees to the intended direction. Or I don't let go in time, and the object just gets absolutely tw**ted into the ground a metre in front of me.

I suffer with tennis too for this reason...but strangely I was alright at passing in rugby with two hands. As long as my 10 was to my left, not my right.

Electrics are a dark art to me too...struggled in school and struggle now. My FIL is trying to encourage me to wire up electrics to my shed myself, but I don't have a clue how to approach it (may make a separate post for advice!). Weirdly I seem to have a good natural aptitude for plumbing and can sort plumbing jobs around the house fairly easily, but I suppose that doesn't come with the risk of a fire or death.

I really struggled to understand bottom brackets and cranks until I built up my own bike.

I still struggle to understand why every single bottom bracket brand needs it's own proprietary tool.

If you can understand plumbing you can understand basic electricity

Volts is pressure

Amps/Current is flow

Ohms/resistance is narrowness of pipe.

So the more pressure you apply to a given diameter pipe - more water flows through it. For a given pressure, decrease the diam of pipe and less will flow through it. etc.

Gardening. I understand broadly how to do it, I just don't understand how anyone derives any pleasure from doing it.

Gardening. I understand broadly how to do it, I just don’t understand how anyone derives any pleasure from doing it.

I can't  understand anyone who can't generate pleasure from it! There is even research that suggests fingering earth is actually extremely good for the mental health.

There is even research that suggests fingering earth is actually extremely good for the mental health....

And you don't even need the word "earth" in that sentence.

Spelling.

Electrics +1.
Basic plug and wire stuff OK. Anything beyond that is invisible magic with a good chance of death if not done right.

Yup,as Josh says,it's less about the gardening and all about time outside (and the fingering earth).

I even do weeding by hand.🙃👍

Meanwhile...

Caving for pleasure😲

It's electrics for me too.
I'll have a go to a certain extent but I think there's always that nagging feeling that getting it wrong can kill someone, which might be a bit of a snag.

If you can understand plumbing you can understand basic electricity

Volts is pressure

Amps/Current is flow

Ohms/resistance is narrowness of pipe.

So the more pressure you apply to a given diameter pipe – more water flows through it. For a given pressure, decrease the diam of pipe and less will flow through it. etc.

Great explanation thanks.

*Goes off to rewire house.

How to neatly fold a fitted bed sheet.

Rock climbing.

Diametric opposite of caving, which also, understand I not.

I can’t  understand anyone who can’t generate pleasure from it

Gardening is just outdoor housework.

kayak23

I’ll have a go to a certain extent but I think there’s always that nagging feeling that getting it wrong can kill someone, which might be a bit of a snag.

I used to hang around with a few electricians, when they were bored they'd set up a live circuit and bet on who could hold on to it the longest

citizenlee
How to neatly fold a fitted bed sheet.

I was with you, but there's an easy method on youtube, and it actually works.

Except electricery isn't like water because it alternates direction?

"I still struggle to understand why every single bottom bracket brand needs it’s own proprietary tool."

Its own. No apostrophe needed. There are many many things I don't understand but this I do.

@honourablegeorge (sorry, I've forgot how to quote on here)

I never thought to look on YouTube, I just accepted that I'd always be shit at it. Might have to check it out and surprise my girlfriend 😀

Differentials

Wallpapering. I'm both no good at it nor do I wish to learn. I'd rather fix things than hide them.

Religion. See wallpapering.

On the electrics front, a little knowledge is definitely a dangerous thing....

As a kid my dad taught me to wire a plug at an early age, but not much else connected. I was fed up spending loads of money on batteries for my Walkman so I cut a 1m length of electrical cord, wired it beautifully to the plug.

I then twisted all the copper wires from the other end together,  shoved them in the adapter socket on the Walkman and switched on the plug...

Goodness, I never knew things could escalate so quickly 🤣😄

Kicking footballs in the correct direction…

I'm very vocal to others about the fact i can't kick a ball. I mean, I can launch a toe punt in 'a direction', but that's it.
Which is odd, cos i'm quite sporty otherwise.

I love learning about how cars work, and really do understand practically EVERYTHING about them. Apart from fluid torque converters (like on the Kournisegg). I've watched countless YouTube vids. Still don't get it.

DrP

Except electricery isn’t like water because it alternates direction?

You could still do useful work with water moving to and fro very fast if you wanted to - but you would need to use the right components.  Actually electricity is just the same.  but a DC electric motor in an AC circuit and it won't work.

How air conditioning and heat pumps actually work. I've read up on them and still don't totally get it.

On the gardening front, I used to agree but since actually having my own garden and lawn etc. and being firmly middle aged, I really enjoy it now.

Gardening. I understand broadly how to do it, I just don’t understand how anyone derives any pleasure from doing it.

See also allotments.

Cosplaying as a medieval subsistence tenant farmer?  How am I supposed to derive pleasure from back crippling work to produce carrots that I can buy for 18p* a bag in Tesco.

*I'm too bougie to know the price of carrots post brexit, probably not 18p anymore.

Rock climbing.

Diametric opposite of caving, which also, understand I not.

I have no issue with ropes and heights although I've never been up anything higher than an indoor wall, but potholing gives me the heebie jeebies even before I watched The Descent or reading about the guy who eventually died of a heart attach after getting wedged down a hole headfirst hundreds of feet below the ground.

+1 on gardening.

I have no interest in it and I'm no good at it. Our back yard has a couple of flower beds and %^&*ing ivy, if I had my way I'd take a flamethrower to the lot.

It's odd really, I come from a long line of outdoorsy types.  My first home was a dairy farm, when they sold up my grandad went on to be a gardener.  But it's a gene that passed me by, if I want to commune with nature I'll go for a walk/ride in the countryside.

A quick scan of all the new bike day pics could have told us nobody ‘got’ gardening…

I’m very vocal to others about the fact i can’t kick a ball. I mean, I can launch a toe punt in ‘a direction’, but that’s it.

I weirdly cannot kick a round ball straight, but am fine with an egg shaped one...

With gardening, i have no interest unless i can eat it, but love having a greenhouse and a few veg beds, homegrown veg just actually tastes of something, especially things like tomatoes, lettuce etc.

A quick scan of all the new bike day pics could have told us nobody ‘got’ gardening…

I've spent 8 years slowly concreting it over so I don't have to garden 😂

That sounds worse than it is, there's probably more biodiversity than there was and it's actually a useable space now.

I have to turn my bike upside down to get the back wheel in 🥴

bowline knot. just cannot retain the knowledge to tie one.

Have you seen Jaws?

"rabbit comes out the hole.. round the tree.. back in the hole - done" (just make the 'hole' loop the right way)

I struggle with electronics. Either a black box of 'no idea' or a system where I can't see what's happening so I struggle to get my head round it until wires are marked/labelled, checked and I have that bomb diffuser feeling moment. I did have a minor mains shock once when much younger so I'm still wary.

And these brands want me to put all that stuff on my bike .. nope. Dynamo stuff maybe but that's it.

If you can understand plumbing you can understand basic electricity

Volts is pressure

Amps/Current is flow

Ohms/resistance is narrowness of pipe.

So the more pressure you apply to a given diameter pipe – more water flows through it. For a given pressure, decrease the diam of pipe and less will flow through it. etc.

See I get all this, but actually applying it to the real world is where it falls down for me. I still have no idea why some things are measured in watts, volts or whatever. Like ok, this thing is 50volts.  Great, why do I need to know the 'pressure' of electricity in this thing but not the amps or the ohms? It all boggles my mind.

I understand everything and can do anything as both my videos and username prove.

Okay, perhaps I am not totally clear on the limits of my ability, bit other than that...

I know that there are words like ‘amps’, ‘watts’, and ‘volts’,

Elec-trickery

Great, why do I need to know the ‘pressure’ of electricity in this thing but not the amps or the ohms? It all boggles my mind.

Did you ever get into photography?  You have aperture, ISO and exposure time.  If you change one, something else has to change to keep it all in 'balance.'  It's kind of a similar idea.  The current (Amps) goes up as the voltage increases and down as resistance (Ohms) increases.

The total power (Watts) available is a multiplication of current and voltage, so (for example) your 2A phone charger supplying 12V will be rated as 24W.

[NB: This is for DC, AC is a whole other barrel of whelks.]

+1 for gardening.

Embarrassing as I work in a  garden centre.  I hate everyday of my working life now.

Last year i worked in customer services. Now I'm expected to know about plants. It is crap.

Embarrassing as I work in a  garden centre.  I hate everyday of my working life now.

I imagine with jobs like that, the staff must go one of two ways.  Like, say you work at Hotel Chocolat, you must either really love chocolate and come home with mad cravings, or you wind up being sick of the sight of the stuff and it's the absolute last thing you'd want to snack on.

Pooters, mental innit all that jiggery pokery in microwotsits and RAMS and internet’s and that and out comes boobies. Mazin’.

Electricity is magic lighting that lives inside walls. Electricians are wizards that can harness said magical lighting. Simple innit!

Wallpapering

I don’t understand wallpaper as a concept. Just paint the wall.

i think the problem for most of us with electricity is the fact that it can kill you if you get it wrong.  ok we understand the water/plumbing analogy, and too small a diameter of pipe will produce less water etc etc, but..... get that wrong with electrics and you get a zap.

if you get the wrong voltage/ampage/ohms, why cant your telly just 'run a bit slow' instead of blowing up?  take 3 hrs to boil a kettle and give you a few minutes to work out what you did wrong?

wire a plug up wrong, why cant it just 'not work' until youve scratched your head to check everythings right, instead of blowing up?

drill through a cable, why cant it just 'leak a bit of electricity' into the ether until youve walked slowly to consumer unit and switched supply off, instead of blowing you up? 😀

the devil's work!

Derailleur adjustment. It's a black art that I've never mastered...if I do manage to "dial the gears in" it's either a completely fortuitous accident or it's taken me several hours of swearing

I can kick a ball, climb and code but electricity more advanced than very basic wiring baffles me. Two/three way lighting diagrams make sense until I unscrew the light switch or rose and look at it, then it just becomes lethal spaghetti.

Also possessive apostrophes, as well as verbs and adjectives. I must have missed that bit of school and now I have to look them up every time I need to know them.

bowline knot. just cannot retain the knowledge to tie one.

Knots of any kind are just something I just instantly forget - it's just completely un-retainable information. Had a notion during a job that had long quiet spells to practice tying one or two useful, simple knots in the hope of them becoming a bit more second-nature. The problem with that is I can't even retain the information long enough to tie the same knot twice in a row, let alone repeatedly.

Its not just tying them - I can't remember the names of them or recognise one knot from another, so now I don't even know what knots I was trying to learn.

I might have mentioned that when I attended school in Canada, we had annual science fairs, of the sort you might see on The Simpsons or other American shows.

One year, a classmate of mine did her project on electricity, and had, as her demonstration, a grapefruit and a bulb with wires attached. She plunged the wires into the grapefruit and we marvelled as the bulb lit up. I still don’t understand it.

What I do understand, though, is what happened when I thought no one else was about. I had a tin of ‘Orange Crush’ which, according to the labelling, contained 10% real juice. So I thought, ‘why not? I’ll just give it a try.’

I picked up the girl’s light bulb, and plugged the wires into my tin. I then learnt that aluminium can actually burn, that lightbulbs can explode, and that I was an idiot.

She plunged the wires into the grapefruit and we marvelled as the bulb lit up. I still don’t understand it.

Presumably had she simply connected a battery you would have said “so what” when the bulb lit up?  In fact the electricity wasn’t the marvellous bit it was the chemistry!  What she did by putting two dissimilar metal contacts into the grapefruit was create a really crude battery.

if you get the wrong voltage/ampage/ohms, why cant your telly just ‘run a bit slow’ instead of blowing up?

actually many appliances will cope fine if you put the wrong voltage in.  I think TVs will even cope fine if you put the wrong frequency in these days.  Realistically though for the scary voltages (ie mains) YOU don’t control the volts.  In any normal domestic situation - the volts are what the power company provides - so you control the resistance (ohms).  And the amps are automatic from those two.

take 3 hrs to boil a kettle and give you a few minutes to work out what you did wrong?

if you put the wrong volts in a kettle it will just take longer to boil (or heat up so quick you melt something - but that’s analogous to putting too much water pressure in and bursting your hose).

wire a plug up wrong, why cant it just ‘not work’ until youve scratched your head to check everythings right, instead of blowing up?

it depends what you wire up wrong.  With a British plug you’ve got a finite number of options.  One right one, one dodgy one that depending what you’ve wired may go unnoticed but could be bad, and the other are likely to affirmatively tell you you are an idiot when you try it!

drill through a cable, why cant it just ‘leak a bit of electricity’ into the ether until youve walked slowly to consumer unit and switched supply off, instead of blowing you up? 😀

maybe better to think of it as some really toxic acid!  If you drill the cable it will at least be bad for the drill, possible painful, potentially lethal.

Time management. I can do it, with constant effort, but seeing others doing it as if it’s nothing it might as well be bloody wizardry.

many appliances will cope fine if you put the wrong voltage in.

"Switching power supplies" are a relatively recent thing.

I used to have a Japanese Playstation which ran at 110V.  A mate plugged it in with a regular mains cable, there was a loud bang and a considerable amount of smoke.

Say you work at Hotel Chocolat, …you wind up being sick of the sight of the stuff and it’s the absolute last thing you’d want to snack on

i used to work at a Trebor factory- you could take as much as you want off the line to eat (not allowed to take it home tho). After a few days initially gorging  most people gave up eating the stuff.

bowline knot. just cannot retain the knowledge to tie one.

Watch someone tiring a bowline one handed- that’ll blow your mind!

My advice on electrics. Let the professionals deal with it!

you can’t see it!

you can’t smell it!

but you can effing well feel it!

If you can understand plumbing you can understand basic electricity

Exactly. Plumbing is about keeping the water inside the pipes. Electrickery is about keeping the smoke inside the wires.

I think TVs will even cope fine if you put the wrong frequency in these days.

My Macbook has been subject to 415V and 115V/400Hz at various times and still works.

Never found electrical stuff complicated.

Radio and speakers. Someone talks into a microphone hundreds of miles away from you, that sound gets fired out of an aerial and picked up by other aerials and sent again until your little radio aerial receives it then powers a magnet on and off really quickly which moves a cone of material and the exact voice sound comes out

i used to work at a Trebor factory- you could take as much as you want off the line to eat (not allowed to take it home tho). After a few days initially gorging  most people gave up eating the stuff.

When i was a kid my Dad worked at the offices at Trebor. He used to bring plenty home (was there a factory shop maybe?) We had a sweet jar as well as a biscuit tin. Then he moved to Philip Morris... where he used to get through 7 packs of Raffles a day.

A mate worked at Cadbury in Hobart where they could eat as much chocolate as they like. He definitely can't stand it now.

Reading manuals for anything especially if it's in 30 different languages and you have to flick back and forward

Building drawings with too many instructions that if you didn't know you shouldn't be taking on the work. It's easy for whoever does the drawing all computerized, old school with a t square and 45° with just the design and sizes, plan, front elevation , end elevation and section through at important bits

Christ, where do I even begin… 🤷🏼

Gardening is just outdoor housework.

No, it really isn’t. Sometimes it’s a bit of a chore, if things get a bit out of hand, but planting things in pots, getting them to grow and flower and thrive is pleasing. I ‘inherited’ a number of plants from my late partner, and most I’ve not only kept growing, but in one particular case it’s thrived, and I’ve taken cuttings which have also grown and I’ve given to friends. I’ve currently got three cuttings which are doing well, and which I’ll be giving to her mum and her daughters, which gives me great satisfaction and joy. Another had about half broken off when a garden parasol got blown down on it, I managed to get the broken piece to root, I’ve potted it and it’s got new growth.

My big Acer has had some of its seeds grow in random places, which I’ve dug up, potted, and some I’ve also given to friends as presents, which they’ve been very happy with - mine’s a specimen tree, Acer Palmatum ‘Osakazuki’, it’s the most glorious red in the autumn, and the seedlings inherited the characteristics from the parent tree. I’ve got three more potted in the garden, and at least one is already worth £30-40, according to a local garden centre.
That’s not outdoor housework, that’s very satisfying indeed.

This is the parent tree:

and here are the three that I’ve grown from seedlings that had seeded themselves in various pots.

Architecture. I understand joining materials together, and how you can stack various joined materials together into boxes. But how you take everything required to build big, interesting buildings and, well, build a big interesting building that people can use and enjoy. Baffles.

Rebound (and compression) damping settings.

I know if I don’t want my fork or shock to return from compression as quickly, I need slower rebound. And when a manufacturer is helpful enough to put a hare and a tortoise next to the dial I’m golden.

But +/- symbols or referring in the guides as open or closed my brain says nope. I read up, I get it, I start setting things up and that falls out my head again. It’s not helped by many guides changing terms while talking.

Ice.

How, if it is the solid state of water, a liquid, it takes up more space.

Fridges. Energy goes in, cold comes out.
Defies physics.
im sure there’s a simple explanation.

but then you have heat pumps. Which helpfully, are described as ‘like a fridge running in reverse”

Ice, hydrogen bonds.

Imagine you're in a crowd and everyone is moving quickly, so quickly you can't fend them off and they keep bumping into you. That's water.

Slow everybody down to a slow walk and you can fend them off with your hands giving yourself more space. That's water as it expands to freezing.

Have everyone stand still with arms up so they have space between them.  Ice.

As I tell my S1 class. No such thing as cold only lack of heat (no such thing as dark only lack of light). Fridges works by moving the heat from inside to outside.

I imagine with jobs like that, the staff must go one of two ways.  Like, say you work at Hotel Chocolat, you must either really love chocolate and come home with mad cravings, or you wind up being sick of the sight of the stuff and it’s the absolute last thing you’d want to snack on.

I worked at Domino's Pizza in uni. Never got sick of pizza, always took some home, it's still my favourite food (pizza in general not Domino's).

Knitting.

My girlfriend starts with balls of wool and somehow she makes sweaters appear.

Pretty much alchemy, as far as I can see.

Gardening. I understand broadly how to do it, I just don’t understand how anyone derives any pleasure from doing it.  Outdoor housework.

100% this. Yet I spent all day yesterday working on a trail. Rebuilt a berm with drainage, cleared a fallen tree, raked great lengths of it, pruned back all the branches along it. it’s a lovely bit of woodland, I even planted up some of the berms when we built it so they’d disappear from view from the path below (which worked really well)

yet I find cutting back the climbers or weeding in my tiny yard back garden is as much fun as cleaning a toilet

can’t tie knots, do anything involving balls (throwing, catching, hitting), and foreign languages are completely beyond me  (you remember another word for everything? And you need to remember that every object has an arbitrary gender? Wtf? How?)

In the past I’ve drunk copious amounts of alcohol, all sorts, some civilised, some dubious, some downright lethal.

Why, if I’ve drunk too much of one thing I end up being sick, ill, “I’m never touching that again!” Some drinks I can drink again. Beer, cider, lagers, wine, rum, gin, vodka, loads of other things. Why can’t I even smell whiskey, brandy, bourbon, without wanting to throw up?

🤷‍♂️

As I tell my S1 class. No such thing as cold only lack of heat (no such thing as dark only lack of light). Fridges works by moving the heat from inside to outside.

yes but how?

Mountain biking - been doing it for years, and still don’t understand how people in videos can float over rocks and roots at speed as if they’re levitating!

That plumbing analogy worked out well 🙂

Heat moves from a hot thing to a colder thing..

Fridges have pipes in them that carry refrigerant - this can either be a liquid or a gas, depending on where in the fridge it is.

Theres a part in the pipework where the refrigerant turns from a liquid into a gas - this process makes the refrigerant get very cold. this cold refridgerant is pumped around the insode of your fridge, 'taking the heat' from inside the fridge'. The pipes then lead outside the fridge, and the gas is then compressed (you may have heard of a fridge having a compressor) back into a liquid. This heats it up. There's then pipework OUTSIDE of the fridge (it's actually a radiator, essentially) that the HOT refrigerant passes through, and the kitchen air is cooler than the refrigerant, so this 'takes the heat' from the refrigerant.

Then, the process continues - the liquid becomes a gas again (gets COLD)...passes through the fridge and 'takes the heat'.. passes outside the fridge and gets turned back into a liquid (gets HOT again)..passes the heat into the room... becomes a gas again (gets COLD)...pasees through the fridge..

DrP

 Like ok, this thing is 50volts.  Great, why do I need to know the ‘pressure’ of electricity in this thing but not the amps or the ohms? It all boggles my mind.

Too much "pressure" on Mr Faraday's Elastic Trickery will melt the wirse through which it flows - that's why you can use a really thin cable for loudspeakers, and e.g. something a bit bigger for a mobile phone, but need a really thick one for an oven etc