5 Things You Think Work, But Actually Don't

This could be titled 'Things that work, but not in the way your preconceptions think they should'.

If you expect that pushing the walk button will stop traffic, it doesn't, and you won't think it works. It just makes the walk signal light up at the next available point in the traffic light's predetermined cycle.

The elevator open and close buttons work fine on the elevators at my workplace. They just don't slam the doors open and closed, so the time difference between waiting for the door to close on its own and when it closes with the button aren't dramatically different. You can't use the button to slam the door in someone's face, but it does function.

The high definition TV can only show the resolution of the incoming signal. If it isn't a high definition signal, it won't make it better. It probably does look better than the TV it replaced, especially if the old one was old, but your DVD is still a series of 640 by 480 Jpegs.

As near as I can tell, the thermostats in my building control the vents and how the airflow is distributed rather than the heat being on or off. They make a difference in the temperature, but not in the expected way. If it's hot, they'll control where the air flow from the air conditioning goes, and if its cold, they'll control the balance of the hot air. They don't change the amount of heat, but they do let it be rearranged to where its needed, and allow local variations for comfort. (downside is that if everyone wants their office hot (or cold) at the same time, the thermostat doesn't do as much as if you want to heat up a single room.)
 
PS I think some of you are taking this article too seriously. Sounds clearly like a very tongue-in-cheek kinda thing.
 
23_Tauri said:
42 years living on this planet and in this country and i swear i always thought they were called PELICAN crossings. :blush:

ETA: They are called pelican crossings!
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Don't you remember the TV Ads when they were first introduced? They explained how to use the button and wait for the green man etc. They also explained the meaning of the 'flashing amber' after red rather than the usual 'Red and Amber' to drivers.

Part of the ad was how the name was derived from the function.

http://youtu.be/SUa7Le0ZrcM

http://youtu.be/tDaEfUUUIk0
 
Most modern, large central HVAC systems have a central computer where the building manageent can program in limits to the settings of individual thermostats.

Typically, they might be set for a range of 72-78 deg F or so. This prevents an occupant from wasting energy by picking a really extreme setting - even though they may have set the wall stat for something outside that range. It is, of course, possible to set them all for a fixed temperature and ignore the setting at the stat completely, but that is not how they are intended to operate.

Dale H
 
I Ratant said:
The walk buttons around here merely turn on the walk sign when the green traffic light in the direction desired to walk comes on.
They don't alter the sequencing of the lights, which are synchronized to the traffic flow all along the streets.
I'd be surprised if it were any different anywhere.
Don't push the button, the walk sign stays off.
Push the button, the sign turns on.
Push the button many times, or hold it... pointless.
Once will do the job.
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There are a few street I know of where if you *never* touch the walk button, the lamp never go red for the car. It is true for especially long relatively high velocity street in the middle of a city (1 km in both direction without crossing).

The button to close door on our local freight elevator do work.

Our office thermostat do indeed work. When I turn it down, the thermometer indeed shows 18°C , as i prefer it, and when my colleague turn it up, the thermometer do indeed show a much higher temperature (about 24-25°C). people can be fooled, thermometer much less. And by the way below a certain temperature we get *paid holiday* which happened 2 winter ago when heating broke.

Those "factoid" might be true in some cases, but not in all cases.
 
On the elevator "Close Dorr" button:

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that the elevators have apre-set time to keep the doors oepn when first arriving on a floor. This time cannot be over-ridden witht he close door button (in my experience). However, if the door is held open longer than usual, either by something in the doorway or by use of the "Open Door" button, then the "Close Door" button will attempt to close them when pressed.

That's my understanding of it, but I am not an expert :)
 
The HD TV one I've seen myself. My folks paid out £10 a month extra to get Sky HD... were very impressed by how much better it was. Turns out that after it was installed they had promptly forgotten about the HDMI channels and just watched it on the regular SCART connection. They also didn't realise you had to watch things like "Sky One HD" rather than "Sky One". Not only were they completely convinced that the picture was better anyway, when I showed them real HD channels on the HDMI connection they didn't see any difference at all.

£10 a month well spent...
 
I'm not 100% sure about this but I think in the US the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) specifies the minimum time an elevator door must stay open, so pushing the close button should not override that minimum time setting. If it does it's an ADA violation and a potential lawsuit from a handicapped person.
 
Paul2 said:
I hit it repeatedly on the chance that something is broken and even though it looks like it's called the elevator, it really hasn't.
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We had an elevator in our building at school that had no lights on the call buttons to provide feedback. People would press them over ten times, or more, if the elevator was being loaded or unloaded on another floor. I noticed the difference between that case and the usual case of call buttons lighting up when pressed. A grad student did a Master's thesis on an analogous operant situation. Providing the feedback reduced the amount of superstitious button pressing.
 
When there's no feedback, it's not superstition. You just don't know whether previous input was taken or not. We all know from experience that sometimes pushing some buttons doesn't work at first but does if tried again.
 
Delvo said:
When there's no feedback, it's not superstition. You just don't know whether previous input was taken or not. We all know from experience that sometimes pushing some buttons doesn't work at first but does if tried again.
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Since the responses after the first do not do anything, they are termed superstitious, as are all responses under the control of response-independent reinforcement. Here's one article on the term used in a different context.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10883796
 
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Here's one:

Worrying.

You think it changes stuff, otherwise you wouldn't do it. But it doesn't affect the outcome.
 
Hellbound said:
On the elevator "Close Dorr" button:

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that the elevators have apre-set time to keep the doors oepn when first arriving on a floor. This time cannot be over-ridden witht he close door button (in my experience). However, if the door is held open longer than usual, either by something in the doorway or by use of the "Open Door" button, then the "Close Door" button will attempt to close them when pressed.

That's my understanding of it, but I am not an expert :)
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Why do elevators (lifts, in my country) have Otis written inside them? Because I don't hear any soul music when I'm travelling in one. :boggled:
 
23_Tauri said:
Why do elevators (lifts, in my country) have Otis written inside them? Because I don't hear any soul music when I'm travelling in one. :boggled:
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http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/Elevator.htm
"In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrated a freight elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting cable should break. This increased public confidence in such devices. In 1853, Elisha Otis established a company for manufacturing elevators and patented (1861) a steam elevator. While, Elisha Graves Otis did not actually invent the first elevator, he did invent the brake used in modern elevators, and his brakes made skyscrapers a practical reality.
In 1857, Elisha Otis and the Otis Elevator Company began manufacturing passenger elevators. A steam-powered passenger elevator was installed by the Otis Brothers in a five-story department store owned by E.W Haughtwhat & Company of Manhattan. It was the first public elevator."
 
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Jeff Corey said:
http://inventors.about.com/od/estartinventions/a/Elevator.htm
"In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrated a freight elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting cable should break. This increased public confidence in such devices. In 1853, Elisha Otis established a company for manufacturing elevators and patented (1861) a steam elevator. While, Elisha Graves Otis did not actually invent the first elevator, he did invent the brake used in modern elevators, and his brakes made skyscrapers a practical reality.
In 1857, Elisha Otis and the Otis Elevator Company began manufacturing passenger elevators. A steam-powered passenger elevator was installed by the Otis Brothers in a five-story department store owned by E.W Haughtwhat & Company of Manhattan. It was the first public elevator."
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Thank you.

Nothing whatsoever to do with soul music then?
 
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Being in one of Schindler's Lifts is most likely quite better than not in being one.
So I've heard. :)
 
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