The No Stupid Questions Thread

[Brutus Buckeye]

I have AC, but I try not to use it when I can avoid it. It's an old house with an inefficient AC unit, so when I get to July/Aug and maybe have to run it, electric bills get into the $400-500 range.

I'd actually use it even less if it was just me, and just not WFH during those months and use my office's AC... But we have a dog, and I don't want him to be miserable or overheat. So even if I leave the house to go to the office, I still have to run it for him.

We're not far from the ocean, but there are some foothills between us and there. When I drive my Jeep heading south on the freeway, there's a point I can always feel right where the foothills aren't blocking anything, and it drops about 10 degrees in a mile. If I lived there, I wouldn't need AC at all.

You run your ac for your dog?
Do you also stuff him into a sweater, and push him around in a stroller?

[847badgerfan]

[betarhoalphadelta]

Friends of mine have been to places like Michigan and other places north in the middle of summer (July/August) and told me the difference is no matter what be sure to take a jacket with you because it gets cold at night, sometimes like high 50's, even in peak summer.  That aint' even close to muggy to me.

I only lived 22 summers in Chicago... What would I know? 

That said, Jul/Aug overnight lows average 70/69 deg, which *I* personally don't find cold... But you're a Texan 

Where I live the daily highs are nearly identical (~80), but overnight lows for those months average 63 degrees, so clearly the temps drop more significantly from the same daily highs--which I obviously believe is due to the lack of humidity. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

You run your ac for your dog?
Do you also stuff him into a sweater, and push him around in a stroller?

Don't give my wife any ideas, Brutus!

[Cincydawg]

July here averages 69 F as the low, 89 as the high.

[Gigem]

I only lived 22 summers in Chicago... What would I know?

That said, Jul/Aug overnight lows average 70/69 deg, which *I* personally don't find cold... But you're a Texan

Where I live the daily highs are nearly identical (~80), but overnight lows for those months average 63 degrees, so clearly the temps drop more significantly from the same daily highs--which I obviously believe is due to the lack of humidity.

I’m thinking of flying up to Michigan this summer. Always wanted to go to Mackinaw Island and that sort of thing. Never been anywhere remotely North during the peak of Summer. Would love to get away from this killer heat for a few days. 

[847badgerfan]

It gets really hot here. It gets hotter in Chicago.

[Cincydawg]

My wife did not like Mackinac Island FWIW, "too touristy", she did like Marquette, MI.  We were there in July, it was moderate T.

[FearlessF]

weather is real nice in South Dakota this week.  woke up in Pierre this morning, headed to Aberdeen , hopefully get a round of golf

[Cincydawg]

This is what "normal" means, technically:

[NorthernOhioBuckeye]

I’m thinking of flying up to Michigan this summer. Always wanted to go to Mackinaw Island and that sort of thing. Never been anywhere remotely North during the peak of Summer. Would love to get away from this killer heat for a few days.

Mackinaw Island is a great place to visit if you like fudge. (I lost count of the number of fudge shops on the main drag). Other than that, it is nothing but a tourist trap. If you like riding bicycles, it would be a nice place to ride around the island. I wish I had taken my bike when we were there. Other than that, not much of a desitination. 

[Cincydawg]

We enjoyed the towns on Lake Michigan in northern LP.  

[MikeDeTiger]

You run your ac for your dog?
Do you also stuff him into a sweater, and push him around in a stroller?

We lost power for 3 days a few years ago in May.  Before it was brutally hot, but close enough to summer that by the second evening it was nigh unbearable.  The dogs handled it better than we did, but our old Shepherd began panting terribly and didn't seem to handle it well from there on out.  He was a big fella who panted a lot anyway, which means he had a lot of heat to get rid of in the best of times.  And he was old, that probably didn't help his cause.  

You kid, but rather than watch my dog struggle like that again, I'd happily run the A/C.  If you live up North, it might seem weird to need A/C for a dog.  If you lived down here and had to go even one day without it, you'd never blink about A/C for any creature expected to survive in the walls.  

[MikeDeTiger]

This is what "normal" means, technically:

This is correct.  It also doesn't occur very often in the real world, at least not in data-gathering instances.  So it's basically a bunch of theory that works well as a component of complex formulas.  More often, there's another type of probability distribution, like F, t, or the Chi-square distribution.  And then you have to fudge the numbers with exponents or logs or something else to force them into a more normal distribution shape, so that you can use the fancy formulas and make the machines think and be better at replacing us all.  

It works pretty well.