Rhetorical question

[Hugh Glass]

I live in a two story house. The water heater is in the basement. When I turn on the tub faucet in the morning I can hear the pitch change when the hot water finally comes through.

Anyone care to guess why?

[JoeSpareBedroom]

Expansion of parts in the faucet?

[Mark Lloyd]

I hear a change in mine too (useful so I know when I can get in the shower), although it's on the same floor.

[Phisherman]

Hot water runs much faster than cold water(!)

[mgkelson]

The pitch of organ pipes changes with air temperature. So, perhaps the same thing happens with water? Here's a quote:

" . . .My job is very hands on," he says. "The pitch of organ pipes is affected by air temperature and changes in temperature affect the way the air moves through the pipes and thus, the pitch."

Tuning the instruments, he says, is therefore most difficult when the weather is changing . . ."

[George E. Cawthon]

I thought it was a rhetorical question.

[Al Bundy]

"George E. Cawthon" wrote in news:7t_Vg.37834$ [e-mail]:

Well, I always took rhetorical as meaning a question with no answer or only one answer. So maybe it's a quiz or something :-)

[George E. Cawthon]

Don't own a dictionary? It amazes me how many people can't find the 2 minutes to look up a word in the dictionary. Even more amazing is that some people don't own a dictionary. My home and the home I grew up in always had at least 2 dictionaries and most of the time 4 or 5 dictionaries.

Ok. A rhetorical question is one that has the purpose of eliciting an effect and not an answer. Many people use "big" words that they don't know what they mean. They are seldom embarrassed when someone points out the meaning and usually just bluster about. I only point out the meaning because you are not the OP.

[Sev]

I suspect we've all noticed that the splash of hot water sounds softer than that of cold. I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that it is due to weakening of hydrogen bond clumping of water molecules as they transition away from freezing pt and toward boiling pt.

[Al Bundy]

"George E. Cawthon" wrote in news:ADiWg.226835$ [e-mail]:

Charming

OK (Ok is incorrect). Yes I have a dictionary. And I use it. It doesn't give me half-assed definitions like off the Internet. But I don't use it for every word every time I use it. I don't need to look up rhetorical any more than I need to look up what the Pythagorean theorem is nor prove that the diagonal of a square is the SQRT(2) * side.

I pulled out that old dictionary just for you because maybe 20 years ago I KNOW I saw the definition as I described. I have no idea where my keys are though.

From:

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language New College Edition Copyright 1979 Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, MA

rhetorical question. A question to which no answer is expected, or to which only one answer may be made.

Link to page copy:

Glad you mentioned that.

Ain't (ouch! bad English) as sharp as I used to be. That one escapes me.

[buffalobill]

your message will certainly be rhetorical as it falls invisibly on deaf ears in 5 more days. :)

1 From: Hugh Glass - view profile Date: Sat, Oct 7 2006 5:58 pm Email: Hugh Glass Groups: alt.home.repair Not yet rated Rating: show options Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse | Find messages by this author Note: The author of this message requested that it not be archived. This message will be removed from Groups in 5 days (Oct 14, 5:58 pm).

I live in a two story house. The water heater is in the basement. When I turn on the tub faucet in the morning I can hear the pitch change when the hot water finally comes through.

Any> I live in a two story house. The water heater is in the basement.

[George E. Cawthon]

You still need a dictionary, maybe it should just be a different one.

Two of my dictionaries say what I wrote, Websters

3rd International adds a reason " for which there is only one possible answer." The key points of each dictionary definition are are (1) the question is asked for effect, (2) no answer is expected, and Websters adds (3) because only one answer is possible. The point is NO answer is expected.

What escapes you? that you aren't the OP? or that I wasn't going to point out the error to the OP?