Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2020 November 4

= November 4 =

Counting postal votes in the USA
Hello, how is the counting of postal votes in the United States, I mean, how is the procedure? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.100.198 (talk) 13:44, 4 November 2020 (UTC)
 * The election workers open the envelopes and add the ballots to the stack to be manually counted or fed into the op-scan machine. The exact process and time limits will vary by state. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 13:58, 4 November 2020 (UTC)


 * See How ballots are actually counted. As Bugs says above, each state has their own procedure, hence the somewhat chaotic (to British eyes anyway) outcome thus far. Alansplodge (talk) 14:14, 4 November 2020 (UTC)

Distinction between a ship and a boat
Someone told me that a boat leans into a turn while a ship tilts outward. Is this correct? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 15:20, 4 November 2020 (UTC)
 * There's no consistent and universal difference in definition between a ship and a boat. There are differences based on context, which is to say that depending on which particular people you are talking to, or organization you are in, or jargon you are using, or whatnot, in some situations, some contexts do draw clear distinctions, but those are usually highly specialized contexts.  In "common speech", there are only slight differences.  For example, there is a sense that ship is often used for larger boats, no one calls a kayak a "ship", for example, but it is clearly a boat; there are many people who will call a cruise ship a "boat" however, implying that for most purposes the larger category is "boat" (i.e. The Love Boat), of which ship is an ill-defined subcategory.  This article in Scientific American shows the very fuzzy nature between the definitions, and I would argue even the ones they provide there are not particularly universal.  Some of the definitions are clearly "tongue in cheek" there, showing exactly how non-universal the distinctions are.  The one I like the best is "a ship's captain gets annoyed if you refer to his vessel as a boat, but a boat's captain does not get annoyed if you refer to his vessel as a ship."  Touche.  -- Jayron 32 16:37, 4 November 2020 (UTC)
 * One working definition is that a ship can carry a boat. E.g. a lifeboat is carried by a ship.  This fails in cases like MV Blue Marlin carrying USS Cole.  This is probably why submarines are called boats, as early ones were indeed carried to the area of operations by ships. 85.76.48.236 (talk) 16:55, 4 November 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm reminded of Flip Wilson's routine parodying Columbus. As they near the West Indies, Columbus orders, "Lower the longboat!" Which, as Wilson notes, "Was actually a shortboat on the side of the big boat." ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:30, 4 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks, so why do some boats/ships tilt into a turn and others tilt outwards? Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 17:45, 4 November 2020 (UTC)
 * This was actually asked & answered on stackexchange/physics:
 * --2606:A000:1126:28D:B44D:AECC:2DDA:3FC5 (talk) 19:20, 4 November 2020 (UTC)


 * You can put gravy in one, but not the other.  Lugnuts  Fire Walk with Me 11:01, 6 November 2020 (UTC)
 * If it was made of platinum, it would be a gravy yacht. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:53, 7 November 2020 (UTC)