Numbered trees April 5, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Duke, Lobby Book, Science , add a commentWhy are all the trees on campus numbered? [3356C]
Duke serves as a tree prison, and prisoners are given numbers. Also, it’s part of an inventory to help monitor the health of and schedule maintenance on the trees. The round metal tags identify a sample (certainly not all) trees in different stages in their life cycle, of different species, etc., and if problems are noted then the grounds people can tackle the problem on other trees with similar characteristics.
Has all the answers April 5, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, About AP, Duke, Lobby Book , add a commentDear AP, How do you know the answers to EVERYTHING? And also, why does [Duke prof.] hate me? [3356B]
When I myself went to college, I simply majored in “everything.” I doubt if Prof. [x] hates you. Why don’t you try impressing him with a spectacularly researched paper and erudite answers on exams?
Matchmaker April 5, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Lobby Book, Relationships , add a commentDear Answer Person, I suggest you become friends with [Duke student] currently an undergraduate senior here at Duke. She’s the coolest student I’ve met at Duke, but she hasn’t had a boyfriend in her near-four years here. How is that? [3356A]
Maybe she’s just too smart to mess up her life, or maybe the sort of guys she’s attracted to (and who are attracted to her) aren’t assertive enough.
Study carrels April 4, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Duke Libraries, Lobby Book , add a commentWhy are there so few closed carrels? Why are there so many that seem free, but I’m so far down the wait list it looks like I won’t even get one before I get my degree? At the end of the semester will I suddenly get bumped up a few notches? [3355C]
Our Circulation Dept. manages the carrel reservations, so you should check with them regarding your placement on the waiting list. Yes, you should move up as others move on in life. If there are carrels that seem free, it must be that whoever has them keeps them empty. During renovations, there will be a lower number of grad student and faculty closed study carrels since some of that space is needed for library staff left without offices. This should be remedied within a couple of years.
Filipino names April 4, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Culture, Language, Lobby Book , add a commentWhy do Phillipino [crossed out and corrected to Filipino by someone else] people have last names that sound Hispanic, like Hernandez, for example?
[in the same pen as the spelling correction:] A: B/c the Phillipines was once a Spanish colony and their people “got busy.” [3355B]
As the purple-pen person suggests, they were for a long time a Spanish colony. The Spanish introduced (compelled?) the Spanish naming system on the native populace (perhaps this went hand-in-hand with their conversion to Catholicism), but the language itself never seemed to get a foothold.
Chemical reaction April 4, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Lobby Book, Relationships , add a commentWhy is my chemistry TA so damned cool? [3355A]
He or she spilled on their person a highly evaporative liquid, or perhaps a cooling liniment, during an experiment. You might want to hand them a blanket.
Underwear style April 4, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Just silly, Lobby Book , add a commentBoxers or Briefs? or boxer-briefs? or nothing at all? [3354C]
It’s certainly not nothing-at-all (is that a double negative?). AP has a policy of not publicizing style of undergarment, at least not until running for public office.
Girasse April 4, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, Language, Lobby Book , add a commentWhat is a girasse? [3354B]
Girasse is a conjugation of a verb in a Romance language. In Portuguese, for instance, girar is roughly along the lines of “to turn around,” and the asse ending creates the first person subjunctive imperfect form, such as “I would have turned,” “I would have been turning,” ‘If I had turned,” “if I were to have been turning,” or some such messiness. The folks in the Dept. of Romance Languages can surely help you further.
Stains April 4, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : 2007, About AP, Lobby Book , add a commentWhat is the stain above this book from? [3354A]
Tear stains. Readers laughed so hard they cried. We had to paint over it.
Light, waves, and particles April 2, 2007
Posted by Library Answer Person in : Science , add a commentWhen light travels from the earth to space, how does it transform from waves to photons? In fact, why does it ever bother being generated in waves at all? Or is it only a photon in a vacuum?Thank you for your illumination.
ANSWER PERSON RESPONDS: AP knows what needs to be known about light. You need good light to read a book, and also to keep from tripping down the stairs. I don’t quite have the room here to write the volumes of information that exist on the physics of light.
The way to figure it out is to ask yourself, if you were light, would you rather be a wave or a particle? Wouldn’t you really rather have characteristics of both? Any self-respecting light beam would.
When it comes to the physics, despite being much maligned by many academics these days, you might want to start with some of the Wikipedia articles, such as the article on Wave-particle duality, which has some nice links to discussions of this topic. Keep in mind that there is a difference between electromagnetic waves, like light, and mechanical waves, like a tsunami — light waves can exist in a vacuum.
