Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2015 February 11

= February 11 =

My cups don't runneth over
One would assume that a 2 scoop ice cream cup or cone has twice as much as a single scoop, and that a 3 scoop has 3 times as much. However, one would be wrong.

At Culver's, for example, a one scoop lemon ice is 196 grams, 2 scoops is 280 grams, and 3 scoops is 336 grams: .

So, how do they do this, exactly ? Do they have a 196 gram scoop used for single scoop orders, a 140 gram scoop used for double scoop orders, and a 112 gram scoop for triple scoop orders ? Or do they use the same scoop for all orders and only partially fill it on double and triple scoop orders ? StuRat (talk) 00:42, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Are you having trouble finding the external link section of the Culver's article? Given you frequent the place, what has the waitress told you? Have you asked to speak to a manager?


 * It's people, Culver's ice cream is people! μηδείς (talk) 02:14, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * That would come off as an obnoxious question, if I asked them. I hardly think it's unique to them, either.  From what I can determine, a "half order" is only rarely half the size of a full order. StuRat (talk) 03:02, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * It would only be obnoxious if you asked the individual you were talking to as if she herself were trying to pull something over on you. In the two major customer service jobs I have held, we were trained to field questions like this one.  There were policies such as, do not offer an item to a customer, but honor the request if it is asked.


 * I always ask about portion sizes, especially how many ounces their meat portions are, the relative sizes of the bowl vs cup of soup, and what I can substitute for fries. Corporate doesn't always offer its reasons to the peons, but one can always ask for a manager or ask the hostess to find out, as long as they are not busy. μηδείς (talk) 17:20, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I suspect your last opening sentence is correct, since I have never seen different size scoops used at an ice cream store. It would be a matter of how deeply they dig into the container. &#8213; Mandruss  &#9742;  03:19, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I'm guessing that they're not counting filling the cone in the number of scoops, but the number of scoops on top. Ignoring the amount in the cone, he first scoop could be comparable to the 84 additional grams that makes up the second cone.  The third scoop would simply be a matter of scooping less to prevent it from falling over.  (Source: scooping my own ice cream because I'm poor).
 * Haven't been to Culver's, but my double orders in most places usually are double that of the half order... provided the server is female and I'm eating with my dad and his similarly aged coworkers, making me the most attractive by default ("The two sweetest words in the English language! De-FAULT! De-FAULT! De-FAULT!"). Ian.thomson (talk) 03:26, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * This is a common observation in many food industries. The answer is simple: the official masses or volumes cited as serving sizes are generally minimum amounts, but no maximum is specified. For example, a pint pot of beer in a pub will generally be filled with slightly more than a full pint. For some shapes and designs of beer glasses you can actually see where the "pint" line is etched into the glass, and you will find that you are always served a little more than a pint. This is because is you are served less than full measure you have a reasonable complaint against the landlord. If you are served over the stated amount, you have no complaint, so the barmaid will err on the side of caution. The same is true for other food products. For example, the baker's dozen acts as "insurance against the items being lower than the statutory weight, or of lower than usual quality, which could cause the baker to be fined". If you actually weigh your single scoop, it is likely that you will find that it weighs more than the stated weight, and the same will be true for doubles and triples. The weights mentioned in the bill of fare are minima, not exact amounts. RomanSpa (talk) 11:35, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

MYSTERY SOLVED (using math!)

Let us suppose that the weight indicated includes the cone...which might very well be the same size for all three serving sizes. If 196 grams is one scoop plus a cone and 280 grams is two scoops plus a cone, then we may deduce that the extra scoopful weighs 280-196=84g. So the cone must weigh 196-84=112g - and now we can test that hypothesis by predicting how much the 3 scoop cone should weigh and comparing it with our experimental data: So....if I'm right then 3 scoops plus a cone should weigh 84x3+112=364g...which is pretty darned close to the 336 grams they quote. We're within 10% of theory, which is close enough given the variations in the actual amount of icecream you pick up in a scoopful.

The only problem I'm having with this analysis is that intuition says that an empty cone is lighter than a scoop of icecream...but that's CLEARLY not the case - and that's why we don't rely on intuition when we have some nice experimental data to go with. SteveBaker (talk) 22:05, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Math? Seriously?  Do you have a flowchart that proves math is relevant to anything that happens in the US? Sheesh. μηδείς (talk) 04:16, 12 February 2015 (UTC)


 * I was drunk at the time and so did not post my math, but it was similar. I did assume that the 196 grams for the single scoop cone included filling the cone and then putting the single scoop on top (which makes me wish some places would do a "zero" scoop cone).  Ian.thomson (talk) 22:14, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Yea, that seems like the most reasonable explanation. But it still doesn't quite explain why the second scoop adds 84 grams while the third only adds 56 grams.  There we must go back to them putting a bit less on with every additional scoop, presumably to keep it from falling off, as was stated earlier. StuRat (talk) 00:00, 12 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Um, that's not close at all. The third scoop is a full 33% smaller than the second scoop. And those weights are, I thought, not empirically measured but rather ideal target values chosen by the management, so even a small discrepancy means that you're wrong about how they were chosen. -- BenRG (talk) 00:38, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Difference History of Christianity and Ecclesiastical history
What is the difference between History of Christianity and Ecclesiastical history? Unfortunately, there is only an article for Ecclesiastical history (Catholicism), but I assume that at least the Church of England uses Ecclesiastical History for non-Catholic purposes, since there are several professorial chairs named Ecclesiastical History. What - if any - are the differences between one and the other? Yotwen (talk) 10:41, 11 February 2015 (UTC)


 * The difference, as far as I can tell from the articles, is that ecclesiastical history is the official history of the church, written from the point of view of the church. The history of Christianity can be written from other perspectives. --Nicknack009 (talk) 11:19, 11 February 2015 (UTC)
 * The "Ecclesiastical history (Catholicism)" appears to deal with the history of writing histories of the church. I hope that makes sense. Alansplodge (talk) 13:56, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Ukraine war footage
I was wondering where a good place was to watch recent footage, some perhaps uncensored of this Russian / Ukranian conflict. There's some good footage on the news outlets, but I assume there's much more to see. Where does that sort of material generally get uploaded to?

I want to see what's really going on. I'm not looking for snuff. --173.16.177.49 (talk) 13:09, 11 February 2015 (UTC)