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A comment on Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by taking salt out seawater?. Parent comment

Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by IshKebab on Sunday July 23, 2023 @02:46PM (#36838352)
It's not amazing, it's obviously delusional.

Think about it - if it really worked you have invented a perpetual motion machine, since you could just feed the fresh water through a little water wheel back into the ocean.

You don't need to do any maths at all to know that his maths has gone drastically wrong somewhere.

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by MarkMarine on Sunday July 23, 2023 @03:07PM (#36838598)
This isn’t a closed system. It’s not perpetual motion, there is an EXTRAORDINARY amount of energy added to the system by the sun.

Saying “maths” instead of just math sounds quite odd, why are you making it plural? Is solving one equation “a math” and solving multiple equations “maths”?

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by xdex on Sunday July 23, 2023 @03:21PM (#36838735)
“Math” is used in USA and Canada. “Maths” is used by the rest of the English speaking world.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by MarkMarine on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:13PM (#36839337)
Sounds ridiculous
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by AlexAndScripts on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:24PM (#36839453)
"Math" sounds funny as a brit - it's just what you're used to, although I will admit "math" is probably more technically correct.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by vorticalbox on Sunday July 23, 2023 @05:41PM (#36840142)
Reminds me of "school of rock"

> So, get off your ath, let's do some math.

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by jaapbadlands on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:27PM (#36839474)
You do
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by devindotcom on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:52PM (#36839703)
No one has mentioned it but maths is short for mathematics. Also, your judgment of a very common figure of speech comes off as provincial.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by MarkMarine on Sunday July 23, 2023 @06:19PM (#36840479)
Fair, I was being trite. The idea that the ocean is a closed system that doesn’t include all the solar energy, currents, mixing and everything else added to it plus an osmotic membrane would represent a perpetual motion machine just sounded so laughably stupid I was just trying to be equally annoying and dumb.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by rhtd on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:34PM (#36839544)
I disagree to disagree, I henceforth declare this a mathses space for all mathstronauts
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by cwillu on Sunday July 23, 2023 @07:26PM (#36841087)
It derives from the latin: it's math if there's only one subject area being discussed, otherwise it's mathi.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by boxed on Sunday July 23, 2023 @05:41PM (#36840147)
"The rest" being Australia, New Zeeland, UK and Ireland?

Still a minority in people right?

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by bipop5000 on Sunday July 23, 2023 @05:56PM (#36840276)
+1.6 billion indians
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by boxed on Monday July 24, 2023 @04:43PM (#36853940)
Not native speakers. So if you count them, you need to count everyone else with English as secondary language. Then things become very messy.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by shaky-carrousel on Sunday July 23, 2023 @05:49PM (#36840208)
Well, I guess a billion flies can be wrong.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by dpratt on Sunday July 23, 2023 @06:45PM (#36840755)
Yet another example of how the American education system is falling behind the rest of the world. Students in the US only learn one kind of math, but apparently the rest of the English speaking world is taught multiple kinds of maths.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by Keyframe on Sunday July 23, 2023 @03:49PM (#36839062)
Maths is common in UK
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by slashdev on Sunday July 23, 2023 @03:52PM (#36839096)
Where's the part of the system where the energy from the sun comes into play?

The sun isn't what causes pressure in the ocean...

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by MarkMarine on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:25PM (#36839458)
Lol. Oh sun isn’t what causes pressure? Shit I better go back to my thermo teacher and let him know.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by MostlyStable on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:56PM (#36839759)
Not an expert, but from what I understand looking at the paper, the sun is what drives ocean mixing. Without ocean mixing, this method would eventually fully extract all the water out of the ocean water resulting in fresh water oceans on top of a floor of precipitated salt. Once that happened, the osmotic pressure would be exhausted and the system would stop working.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by The_suffocated on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:42PM (#36839619)
“Maths” is the contracted form (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/brand-style-guide/writing/grammar...) of MATHematicS. It had been in use in English-speaking countries since more than a century ago. As a matter of fact, it was also used in the US during the 19th century. Yet, for some curious reason, the Americans had stopped using contractions from some time onwards. So, “maths” became “math” and “PhD” became “Ph.D.”.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by devindotcom on Sunday July 23, 2023 @06:27PM (#36840575)
I think the justification is that because maths isn't plural in practice (I've never heard anyone say "mathematics are"), it's pointless to retain the s, and only leads to an awkward megasyllable like the end of "wasps."

The Anglo-American linguistic divide is always fun to examine. We don't always come out ahead, but now and then we get winner like "acclimate."

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by jrockway on Sunday July 23, 2023 @06:49PM (#36840776)
I think "mathematics are" is a normal construction. "We have a new widget that does this, but the mathematics of mass production are troubling."

If you don't like something coming between "mathematics" and "are", how about "I can prove Fermat's Last Theorem, but the mathematics are pretty high level." One could argue that many people would say "the math is pretty high level", but I think I've heard each before. It doesn't feel odd to write at all.

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by yellowapple on Sunday July 23, 2023 @10:08PM (#36842262)
The thing that weirds me out about "mathematics are" is that it implies the possibility of there being a singular "mathematic".
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by jrockway on Sunday July 23, 2023 @11:36PM (#36842842)
That's fair. "scissors" is another weirdly plural word. It implies that there is a noun "scissor", but there isn't. (Verb, yes.)
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by yellowapple on Friday July 28, 2023 @01:38PM (#36910384)
I guess it would be one of the two blades. Likewise, a pant would be one of the two legs of a pair of pants.

Maybe a single mathematic would be a single concept/subject, like arithmetic or algebra?

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by devindotcom on Monday July 24, 2023 @06:27PM (#36855116)
That's fair. I was only thinking of it in the context of how mathematics is/are referred to as a subject, not as an actual concept. But what you say is true.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by cperciva on Sunday July 23, 2023 @08:37PM (#36841593)
I've never heard anyone say "mathematics are"

The four mathematics are arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by IshKebab on Monday July 24, 2023 @08:41AM (#36847055)
Nah you would say "The four fields of mathematics are ..."
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by IshKebab on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:42PM (#36839621)
Their claim does not involve energy any input from the sun.

> maths

That's what it's called in the UK (and maybe Australia & NZ). Shortening of mathematics. I could say the same about "legos". :)

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by MostlyStable on Sunday July 23, 2023 @04:52PM (#36839705)
In the absence of the sun (which is what ultimately drives ocean mixing), eventually this would lead to a layer of pure fresh water on top of a layer of salt. The energy is being driven by osmotic pressure of salt water. Once you have extracted the water out of the salt, that pressure is exhausted. Thus it is not perpetual.
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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by roflc0ptic on Sunday July 23, 2023 @08:52PM (#36841700)
Take a long tube with an osmotic filter on it. Put it in the sea with one end out. Pressure is going to fill the tube up, no, just like a snorkel? Probably back up to sea level, possibly minus whatever force reduction caused by the filter? Boom, water filtration with no expenditure of energy.

It may be wrong but it really isn't "obviously delusional."

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Re:Why don't we get our drinking water from the ocean by tak... by postalrat on Monday July 24, 2023 @05:42PM (#36854627)
You forgot the part where the water in the pipe is less dense and would be pushed up.
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