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February 14 Information
Operation of small-craft marine toilet
The page for "Marine Toilet" redirects to
a page with nothing about the operation of a manual pump toilet as found on small and medium-sized watercraft. The excellent article "Toilet" covers just about all other types, but not that one. Please provide something about how these devices work. I think it would be pretty interesting.
IrlSmith (
talk)
14:12, 14 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Hello, IrlSmith. A request like yours translates to "Would one of the busy volunteers work on this idea of mine please?" It is possible that somebody will see it and be moved to do so, but not very likely.
Three possibilities suggest themselves. One is to post on one of the talk pages, either
Talk:Toilet or
Talk:Head (watercraft) - they will at least probably be seen by people with some interest. Another is to post at
WT:WikiProject Ships, for the same reason. A third possibility is to try to write it yourself. Since it would probably be an extension to one of those articles, rather than a stand-alone article, this is not quite so challenging as creating an article from scratch; but you would still need to base whatever you wrote on
reliable published sources, rather than on your own knowledge.
ColinFine (
talk)
15:21, 15 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Today is both
Ash Wednesday and
Valentine's Day. This coincidence last occurred in 2018 and will next occur in 2029. Those two years (2018 and 2029) along with the current year 2024 are the only three coincidences in the 21st century.
In the following nine centuries of the third millennium, this coincidence will occur in the following years:
22nd century: 2170, 2176, 2181
23rd century: 2238, 2244, 2249
24th century: 2306, 2312, 2317, 2396
25th century: 2401, 2480, 2485
26th century: 2548, 2553
27th century: 2610, 2616, 2621, 2700
28th century: 2762, 2768, 2773
29th century: 2852, 2857, 2863
30th century: 2920, 2925
In general, for this coincidence to occur,
Easter must be on April 1 in a common year (possibly a century year, as it will be the case in 2700, for example) or March 31 in a leap year.
As one could see, this coincidence could occur two, three, or four times in a single century. Is it also possible for this coincidence to occur just once or five or more times in a single century (assuming 01 to 00 as usual)?
9 days every 29,000 years is a better approximation of the deviation of the mean Gregorian year with the current
mean tropical year. However, the latter is not constant. 43,200 years into the future the deviation will be closer to 1 day every 1800 years. --
Lambiam13:57, 15 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Alternatively, we can develop the technology to speed up the rotation of the Earth by about 0.000085% to match the length of the tropical year to the calendar year. The speeding up can be spread over many centuries. Or we can move the Earth to a slightly higher orbit, increasing the major axis by about 85 km. Or use a combination of the two. --
Lambiam14:11, 15 February 2024 (UTC)reply
The percent and kilometers increases over time because days per year declines as friction mostly tidal slows the rotation. I learned the length of the year and Gregorian error from books as the 1900.0 sum 365.242199 and 26 seconds short they copied Newcomb's Tables of the Sun or something long after 1900.0 was replaced by 1950.0 or 2000.0 it's now 365.24218-something.
Sagittarian Milky Way (
talk)
15:02, 18 February 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Lambiam: The years ending in 12 or 96 in your list do not actually work, as they are leap years with Easter on April 1 (like 2040, 2108, 2192, etc.), so Ash Wednesday would be on February 15 (not February 14), and the centuries in your list would actually only have five coincidences of Ash Wednesday with Valentine's Day. But in fact, there are already examples of such centuries in the fifth and sixth millennia. Namely, the first century to have five such coincidences will be the 46th century, with coincidences in 4503, 4514, 4576, 4587, and 4598; while after that, another five coincidences will occur in the 58th century, in 5703, 5714, 5725, 5787, and 5798.
GeoffreyT2000 (
talk)
01:28, 17 February 2024 (UTC)reply
There was a bug in my program. After fixing it, the maximum number of coincidences in any century reported is 5. The first three are:
The above answers the case where there are at least five coincidences within a single century. However, the "just once" case has not been answered yet. Is there also a century that has just one Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day coincidence, or no such coincidences at all?
GeoffreyT2000 (
talk)
03:48, 20 February 2024 (UTC)reply
I think the pattern repeats every 57000 centuries. Easter in year 5700000 + Y is on the same day as Easter in the year Y, so Easter 5702024 is again on March 31st. --
Lambiam19:24, 14 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
February 14 Information
Operation of small-craft marine toilet
The page for "Marine Toilet" redirects to
a page with nothing about the operation of a manual pump toilet as found on small and medium-sized watercraft. The excellent article "Toilet" covers just about all other types, but not that one. Please provide something about how these devices work. I think it would be pretty interesting.
IrlSmith (
talk)
14:12, 14 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Hello, IrlSmith. A request like yours translates to "Would one of the busy volunteers work on this idea of mine please?" It is possible that somebody will see it and be moved to do so, but not very likely.
Three possibilities suggest themselves. One is to post on one of the talk pages, either
Talk:Toilet or
Talk:Head (watercraft) - they will at least probably be seen by people with some interest. Another is to post at
WT:WikiProject Ships, for the same reason. A third possibility is to try to write it yourself. Since it would probably be an extension to one of those articles, rather than a stand-alone article, this is not quite so challenging as creating an article from scratch; but you would still need to base whatever you wrote on
reliable published sources, rather than on your own knowledge.
ColinFine (
talk)
15:21, 15 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Today is both
Ash Wednesday and
Valentine's Day. This coincidence last occurred in 2018 and will next occur in 2029. Those two years (2018 and 2029) along with the current year 2024 are the only three coincidences in the 21st century.
In the following nine centuries of the third millennium, this coincidence will occur in the following years:
22nd century: 2170, 2176, 2181
23rd century: 2238, 2244, 2249
24th century: 2306, 2312, 2317, 2396
25th century: 2401, 2480, 2485
26th century: 2548, 2553
27th century: 2610, 2616, 2621, 2700
28th century: 2762, 2768, 2773
29th century: 2852, 2857, 2863
30th century: 2920, 2925
In general, for this coincidence to occur,
Easter must be on April 1 in a common year (possibly a century year, as it will be the case in 2700, for example) or March 31 in a leap year.
As one could see, this coincidence could occur two, three, or four times in a single century. Is it also possible for this coincidence to occur just once or five or more times in a single century (assuming 01 to 00 as usual)?
9 days every 29,000 years is a better approximation of the deviation of the mean Gregorian year with the current
mean tropical year. However, the latter is not constant. 43,200 years into the future the deviation will be closer to 1 day every 1800 years. --
Lambiam13:57, 15 February 2024 (UTC)reply
Alternatively, we can develop the technology to speed up the rotation of the Earth by about 0.000085% to match the length of the tropical year to the calendar year. The speeding up can be spread over many centuries. Or we can move the Earth to a slightly higher orbit, increasing the major axis by about 85 km. Or use a combination of the two. --
Lambiam14:11, 15 February 2024 (UTC)reply
The percent and kilometers increases over time because days per year declines as friction mostly tidal slows the rotation. I learned the length of the year and Gregorian error from books as the 1900.0 sum 365.242199 and 26 seconds short they copied Newcomb's Tables of the Sun or something long after 1900.0 was replaced by 1950.0 or 2000.0 it's now 365.24218-something.
Sagittarian Milky Way (
talk)
15:02, 18 February 2024 (UTC)reply
@
Lambiam: The years ending in 12 or 96 in your list do not actually work, as they are leap years with Easter on April 1 (like 2040, 2108, 2192, etc.), so Ash Wednesday would be on February 15 (not February 14), and the centuries in your list would actually only have five coincidences of Ash Wednesday with Valentine's Day. But in fact, there are already examples of such centuries in the fifth and sixth millennia. Namely, the first century to have five such coincidences will be the 46th century, with coincidences in 4503, 4514, 4576, 4587, and 4598; while after that, another five coincidences will occur in the 58th century, in 5703, 5714, 5725, 5787, and 5798.
GeoffreyT2000 (
talk)
01:28, 17 February 2024 (UTC)reply
There was a bug in my program. After fixing it, the maximum number of coincidences in any century reported is 5. The first three are:
The above answers the case where there are at least five coincidences within a single century. However, the "just once" case has not been answered yet. Is there also a century that has just one Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day coincidence, or no such coincidences at all?
GeoffreyT2000 (
talk)
03:48, 20 February 2024 (UTC)reply
I think the pattern repeats every 57000 centuries. Easter in year 5700000 + Y is on the same day as Easter in the year Y, so Easter 5702024 is again on March 31st. --
Lambiam19:24, 14 February 2024 (UTC)reply