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December 14

Random devices, e.g. coin and dice. (December 6)

I see from that article that the plan was to kill all the Jews on the thirteenth day of Adar, which is the twelfth and last month (sometimes the thirteenth and last). Could this be a reason why the number thirteen is considered unlucky? Do the Jews consider it to be unlucky? This date (or the day after) is the festival of the pur, which is a random device. 82.13.208.70 (talk) 12:14, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What article? --Jayron 32 13:03, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

209.149 mentioned dreidel. 82.13.208.70 (talk) 13:07, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Where? —Tamfang (talk) 21:11, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here.[1] It was archived earlier today. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:44, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, here. (Darn it again, why isn't there a direct link from this page to the last archive page?) —Tamfang (talk) 19:54, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No, 13 has a consistently positive connotation in Judaism. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 18:32, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See also triskaidecaphobia and the "origins" section. --Xuxl (talk) 19:24, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Brine-pickled cucumbers

I'm of a mind to write a new article about brine-pickled cucumbers. It's a kind of dill pickles where all of the sourness comes from natural lactic fermentation and no vinegar is added at any point in the process. This delicacy seems to limited to Central and Eastern Europe. While various kinds of pickled cucumbers are popular in Western Europe and North America, it seems that the vast majority of them contains vinegar. My question is, what is the most common English name for this kind of pickles? Does it have an English name at all? — Kpalion^(talk) 16:46, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Pickled cucumber#Brined pickles? Alansplodge (talk) 17:12, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but I'm looking for reliable sources. That article section has no citations whatsoever. — Kpalion^(talk) 17:16, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, I thought you were looking for "the most common English name for this kind of pickles". Alansplodge (talk) 17:51, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Try Polish Heritage Cookery (p. 756) "Polish Brine-Cured Dill Pickles - Ogórki kiszone / kwaszone". A search on Google Books for brined pickled cucumbers brings up lots of results about the biology of the process. Alansplodge (talk) 18:07, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I'm looking for the most common English name for this kind of pickles that is used in reliable sources. I thought the last part went without saying. A Google Book search for "brined pickled cucumbers" (in quotation marks) returns nothing, while "brine-cured dill pickles" very little. — Kpalion^(talk) 19:54, 14 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The linked article refers to "naturally fermented pickled cucumbers" - and putting that into Google gives quite a few hits, either using naturally fermented, lacto-fermented, brine-fermented, fermented, or naturally cultured. The use of fermented in the name seems to be the main common factor. Wymspen (talk) 10:59, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) Try without the quote marks (or click my link): "brined pickles" "brined pickles" (p. 5), "brined dill pickles" and so on. Note that these are American English, we Britons call these things gherkins - see "brined gherkins". Alansplodge (talk) 11:51, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Our article pickled cucumber simply mentions that gherkins are a different smaller species of cucumber Cucumis native to the West Indies. They are harvested at a much smaller size than what are sold as fresh cucumbers or regular pickles. But we are quite familiar with them in the US as a variety, if not the general name for pickles as a whole. μηδείς (talk) 20:06, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

But [[User:Medeis, in England "cucumber" only means what is apparently called English cucumber in the US. We don't really have other types of cucumber here. "Pickle" is this stuff. However, we see enough Hollywood films to know that when an American says "pickle", it translates to "gherkin" in the UK, regardless of the etymology. Alansplodge (talk) 15:55, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, so from what I can make out, we have the following correspondences American/Species-method/English:

Cucumber/Cucumis sativus/English Cucumber

Pickle/Cucumis sativus, pickeled/Gherkin

Gherkin (pickled)/Cucumis anguria "West Indian cucumber" (pickled)/Gherkin?

Pickled (e.g., cocktail olive, etc.)/brined-fermented-vinegared-corned food/Branston Pickle, (etc. ?)

μηδείς (talk) 20:34, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You're getting a bit too specific. See Pickled cucumber#Etymology. Any type of pickled cucumber is a gherkin; little ones are "cocktail gherkins" and I even found "AMERICAN GIANT GHERKINS". Most of ours come from Poland or elsewhere in Eastern Europe. We have all sorts of stuff which is "pickled", pickled onions, pickled beetroot, pickled red cabbage etc etc but "pickle" is a type of chutney. Alansplodge (talk) 09:18, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You have responded as if I am arguing in favor of a certain interpretation @Alansplodge: rather, I am trying to communicate towards a transpondic understaning. The Kühne web page you linked to is defunct. The website itself shows that they are calling all Cucumis sativus gherkins. Again, that is not American usage. Further, I do obviously know that all sorts of thing can be pickled, that to pickle is a process. Americans simply treat pickle as a count noun referring specifically to pickled cucumbers are opposed to other pickled things, which are individually specified. I think this is synecdoche, but I am not an English major. μηδείς (talk) 03:47, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think we're almost in agreement here. My point was that "the most common English name" in British English for any type of pickled cucumber is "gherkin" regardless of size, species or method of preservation. Alansplodge (talk) 11:11, 19 December 2017 (UTC

No. Not in any way. The quintessential British Broadcasting Company (BBC) even call cucumber pickles Dill pickled cucumbers and not gherkins. Aspro (talk) 12:15, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The unstoppable march of the Americanism I suspect. I surrender... Alansplodge (talk)

Think a starting point would be to improve the Pickled cucumber article which appears to be in a small pickle of its own. Its may be better to spell it out rather than rely on broad generic terms. For one can have: Brined lacto-fermented cucumber pickles (traditional).Brined lactic acid pickles with added vinegar (modern commercial offerings with an extended shelf life with the lactic acid and vinegar derived industrially but with non of the flavor imparted by the bacteria). One could even have fermented cucumber pickles without salt but they would be very mushy. So, only then, think about creating a separate article for Brined lacto fermented cucumber pickles. A bit of a mouthful of a title but leaves the reader in no doubt about what type of pickle it is, as there does not seem to be any English generic name reserved solely this specific preserve. The brine is part of the primary preparation so comes first, the lacto is a secondary so comes after brine but before cucumber. So, think this discussion should be continued on that article's talk page. 15:42, 15 December 2017 (UTC)15:40, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

I have a feeling that using "brine" with American-based processes can itself cause confusion. When I was a teenager, I worked in a beef processing plant. I specifically worked on the brine line. We brined strips of stomach muscle to make beef bacon. The "brine" was a mix of salt, water, and vinegar. Not only did we call it brine. The barrels of it came in with the name "meat brining solution". From the discussion above, it appears that in the UK, brine excludes use of vinegar. From my experience, that exclusion isn't as strict in the US. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 17:03, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Brine means exactly the same thing on both sides of the Atlantic – e.i., salty water. The beef processing company was using a 'meat' brining 'solution'. In other words, a solution that can contain one or more solutes for processing meat. It is more than probable that it also contained a nitrate for safety reasons (unless it was operating illegally). The words 'meat' & solution clearly indicates that it is not solely a simple brine. It may even had sweeteners and smoky flavors added to it. Otherwise, what is the economic advantage of buying salty water when one can buy just the salt more cheaply? Although we try to keep to commons names, this appears to be an example where we need to differentiate those 'solutions' whose primary solute (by percentage) is salt. Think of it the way that Wrought iron is differentiate on WP from stainless steels and both of those differentiated from chromium-vanadium steels, etc. Aspro (talk) 19:19, 15 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here in the UK, only picked Gherkins (of any size) are called pickled Gherkins. These are the ones most commonly found in supermarkets. In home preservation and some select delicatessen stores in the UK pickle Cucumis Sativus are found. These are called picked 'cucumbers' because... (wait for it...) they are picked Cucumis Sativus cucumbers and not picked Gherkins. Oh what a pickle some editors have got themselves in. P.S. I have never seen them pickled whole but diced up into smaller chunks. Presumably, so that they mature quickly and thus maintain some crunch, rather than going mushy or to make it more convenient to spoon out servings onto a plate or maybe a combination of both. I favor the later explanation. So yes, in the UK we do indeed have had picked cucumbers ever since my grandmothers time but they are rare to find in most shops these days due to the ubiquitous Gherkin. Yet, the fact remains that cucumber pickles in the UK do not contain any Gherkins. Courgette pickle looks much the same but they are not commonly seen these days either but they too have a long culinary history. Hope this has spread some light on this matter. Aspro (talk) 12:48, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

December 16

Riding out −150°F

In The Day After Tomorrow, the temperature in Brooklyn fall to −150°F and people ran into the building for dear life and the interior of the building was freezing up and walls and windows and things getting covered in ice. If the temperature fell to −150°F outside for say one day, what would you do indoors in order to survive? Would the interior (like in a home) actually gets covered in ice as seen in The Day After Tomorrow even with all the outside doors and windows closed tightly as it would be so cold? Planet Star 04:48, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

N.B. −150°F equals -101° Celsius for the rest of us. Alansplodge (talk) 15:45, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In Minnesota, there's a saying: "At 40 below they're the same!" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:20, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I once had a temp assignment with a wholesaler of camping gear. A sales rep said, "A customer is on the line saying, 'My new sleeping bag is marked –40°F and –40°C, which is it?!'" My presence was lucky. —Tamfang (talk) 19:57, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is no where on Earth where it gets that cold, even briefly, so we have no recorded information on what happens at that temperature inside a building. McMurdo Station is about the coldest environment for a building to be in, and the coldest it's ever been is about 100 degrees warmer than that.--Jayron 32 04:52, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite correct. Vostok Station has reached −128.6 °F (or possibly -132°F). And a coldest wind chill of −124 °C (−191 °F). Note that dry ice will form from the atmosphere below -109°F. Rmhermen (talk) 16:07, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure it could be simulated pretty accurately, though, if anyone wanted to put in the effort. The Day After Tomorrow didn't strike me as a film where they would have bothered to do that. --Trovatore (talk) 09:31, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See wind chill. 86.169.56.46 (talk) 12:09, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I know it doesn't happen on Earth, but talking about the imagination. If the temperature drops to -150 outside, the interior of a building, especially a room with windows, would become so cold that a glass of water would freeze as heater couldn't keep up. To maximize the chance of survival inside the home, in my opinion, take cover in a small interior room with no windows, such as a closet or a bathroom with a vent in them, and get huddled in blankets. Anybody agree? Planet Star 20:46, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's a forum-type question. Or maybe you could google the subject and see if experiments have been done somewhere. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:18, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Don't need experiments. The basic principles are well understood, and we could give defensible answers to this if anyone wanted to put in the work. I don't, so I'll describe the character of the problem instead.

Basically heat transfer is described by the heat equation, and all you need to do is solve it, for the particular space you have in mind. That can get a bit hairy, and some qualitatively unexpected things can happen, but there are lots of expensive software packages that can help you out. Try Googling "thermal simulation software" if you're interested to see some of them.

I don't know whether they would help you out with things like possible chemical changes in the walls when the temperature drops. I can't think of any such changes offhand; just pointing out possible gotchas that would have to be addressed if you're interested in a truly reliable solution.

You could get a quick-and-dirty answer, that would probably still be pretty good, by just considering the R-values of the building. Figure out what temperature you want it to be inside, and subtract the temperature outside. That's the temperature difference. Divide the temperature difference by the R-value and multiply by the area of the walls (different spots on the walls may correspond to different R-values, so break them up into chunks). That's the heat you need to supply per unit time.

Add the heat per unit time to heat up incoming air, and that's what you need. Do your heaters plus bodies supply that? If so, you're good. --Trovatore (talk) 09:14, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. If the space is reasonably well-sealed (not airtight, just not badly leaky) that R-value calculation is effectively just the same assumptions underlying Newton's Law of Cooling. What that means is – to a first approximation – the rate of heat loss is proportional to the temperature difference between the building and the outside. Twice the temperature difference means twice the heating required to maintain the temperature. Suppose you're someplace chilly and the outdoor temperature is -40°F, and the heater inside keeps the temperatures at a comfortable +70°F. That's a difference of 110°F. If the outdoor temperature drops to -150°F, that's another 110-degree drop, so you'll need roughly twice the heating capacity. Depending on the building, there may actually be sufficient heating capacity already installed—the furnace will just have to run more often. Or plug in a portable electric heater to take the edge off in one (preferably interior) room. If it's a temporary dip in temperature, there's also the thermal reservoir of the ground and foundation—not all sides of the hypothetical building are going to be exposed to the full depth of chill. (Things get tricky if your fuel oil tank is outside and frozen solid, or the electricity and natural gas supply shut down....)

Incidentally, in reference to Rmhermen's comment about dry ice above, there's no risk that atmospheric carbon dioxide would freeze out at these temperatures. The vapor pressure of carbon dioxide is provided on our data page. At -100°C (about -150°F) the vapor pressure is roughly 100 mmHg, which is way above the partial pressure of CO2 in our atmosphere. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 14:02, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Conversely, for those of us in Britain, 38°C is 101°F. 176.26.66.173 (talk) 19:15, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Fritz Leiber's story A Pail of Air describes low tech survival in an even colder environment, although it is, of course, fiction. CodeTalker (talk) 03:48, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Let's throw some quick and dirty maths at this. Looking at the readout from my fancy thermostat, with the heating off last night my house fell from about 20C to about 18C over 6 hours, with an external temperature around 0C. So for a 20 degree difference, we lose about one third of a degree of temperature in an hour. As noted above, the rate of heat loss is proportional to the temperature difference, so if the external temperature was -100C, we would expect about 6 times the heat loss - i.e. the temperature will fall about 6 times as fast, so about 2 degrees an hour. Meaning that even without the heating on, the temperature inside is falling to only about -52C. Now, when the heating comes back on in the morning at full blast, it rises those same 2 degrees in about 2 hours - i.e. about 1 degree an hour, or a net 1 1/3 degrees an hour (since it'll still be losing about 2/3 of a degree per hour to the outside). With an external temperature of -100C, the house will lose a net 2/3 of a degree per hour (the boiler is still pumping out enough heat for 1 1/3 degree an hour, but the house is losing enough heat for 2 degrees an hour), which will take the temperature to about 4C after 24h.

Of course, there are a ton of simplifications there (the house has essentially been treated as a solid lump of a single material, that large a temperature difference will probably do some nasty things to the insulation - e.g. breaking windows due to thermal gradients, and the external water pipes freezing would cut off the heating), but in principle a kinda-OKish-insulated terraced house in southern England could stand up to the cold while keeping the inside at temperatures which would be survivable in sufficient clothing. MChesterMC (talk) 11:04, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Those who know that 10° C equals 50° F will easily remember this simple conversion formula:

Fahrenheit to Centigrade:

Add 40, multiply by 5, divide by 9, subtract 40

Centigrade to Fahrenheit:

Add 40, multiply by 9, divide by 5, subtract 40 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.5.85.128 (talk) 15:42, 18 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The above is the typical Belgian conversion. For those of us comfortable with the original American, the formulae are:

Fahrenheit to Celsius:

Subtract 32, divide by 9, multiply by 5

Celsius to Fahrenheit:

Multiply by 9, divide by 5, add 32

Note the horrible .55 imprecision of the Swedish system compared to the Prussian. μηδείς (talk) 00:18, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

3d printing living stuff

Has anyone ever 3d printed living algae? And mycelium? Other stuff that is alive? I know that people 3d print dead algae as a bioplastic. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 17:14, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think so. The dividing line between living and non-living is still something of a mystery. The best 3D printers have a resolution of about 16 microns which is probably insufficient to reproduce a living cell, even if the correct combination materials were used, but 3D printing using living cells has recently become possible. See 3D bioprinting. Dbfirs 18:30, 16 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Organ printing printing may interest you. It's not assembling a living thing from non-living molecules, but it's using living cells to build a structure out of living cells.

And here's an art project where someone rigged a 3d printer to print with living algae, and a medium for it to grow in. (Again, living cells were used as source material. It didn't actually build the algae cells.) 100.0.181.245 (talk) 04:49, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

December 17

Russian navy

In World War 2, did the Russian navy have any carriers? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:2508:122:A2DD:3288 (talk) 03:15, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Not according to List of aircraft carriers of Russia and the Soviet Union. Rmhermen (talk) 03:55, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Soviet Navy in WW2 has list of what vessels they had. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:ACD6:943D:BA3A:3FD4 (talk) 07:22, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What would they need them for? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:51, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

They might not have needed carriers, but they certainly wanted some; see Stalin's Aircraft Carriers by Mike Bennighof, Ph.D "General Secretary J.V. Stalin called for a major fleet build-up under the Third Five Year Plan (1938-1942)... The Project 71 ships approved for this plan were fairly small, 13,000-ton ships with a 630-foot flight deck, based on the same hull as the Chapayev-class light cruisers. They would have been almost identical in size to the British Colossus-class light carriers. The design specifications called for an air group of 15 fighters and 30 torpedo bombers, to be launched by a pair of pneumatic catapults... By 1943, wartime experience caused the TsKB design bureau to re-cast the carrier into a much larger ship, labeled Project 72. She would be 812 feet long, comparable to the American Essex-class, and displace 29,000 tons. Like Project 71, she drew heavily on the German Graf Zeppelin design, and like the German ship was projected to carry a very small air group for her size, 60 aircraft". It seems that they realised that they didn't really have the know-how and that there were other priorities. Alansplodge (talk) 15:32, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps a more reliable source is Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact (p. 77) by Paul E. Fontenoy in the section headed Soviet Union Carrier Development in World War II, which seems to give much the same detail. Scope for an article perhaps? Alansplodge (talk) 15:37, 17 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:0:0:0:64DA (talk) 11:00, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

December 19

Is there a practical reason for store Muzak® to not have a sensible 1 second gap between songs?

Radio has to avoid dead air cause people change the channel, what's retail's excuse? I don't understand the kind of dopamine addict that'd switch stations just cause 1 in 240 times they turn it on there's ~0.5 seconds of silence but they're apparently enough to make it economic suicide. I can't imagine someone taking at least a few minutes and possibly gas money to switch stores just because they don't hear Muzak® within 200 milliseconds of walking in. Would some people subconsciously avoid stores with only 239/240ths the background music? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:00, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think it's time for a ref desk ban. --Floquenbeam (talk) 18:13, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Believe it or not I'm not tacking on a question I don't care about just for the sake of "blogging", I'd actually be interested to know. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 20:11, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't much of the point of Muzak to not be noticed? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:10, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Are you hypothesizing that having the songs run into each other reduces how much you notice and that the buying-inducing effect works better that way? I hadn't thought of that. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 23:29, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

SMW, I don't think a ref desk ban is appropriate, but you really do not have to ask everything that occurs tou you. I have noticed you willingly suffer the occasional hatting with grace, and you have a registered username, and don't apparently sock, and don't edit war. So, taking your question in good faith... Are you not familiar with DJ's, and how they are paid to match the beats on turntables so that one song blends into the other even if they have slightly different beats per minute? There is a reason for that, and it probably has a lot to do with why they don't want a jarring pause between muzak adaptations--so you don't notice the pause. On a hunch, I juss typed in "beat match" in the search window, an, Lo and Behold: "beat-matching"! μηδείς (talk) 00:02, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

To expand on Bugs' point: Muzak is supposed to effect the subconsciousness in the background; a sudden silence would be noticed consciously. For example, I don't notice when the refrigerator is running -- but when it suddenly stops, I notice. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:16C:7A91:B68E:A1BB (talk) 05:33, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This oldie: A farmer lives near a railroad. Every night at midnight, the train goes by and blows its whistle. The farmer always sleeps through it. One night the train doesn't go by. At midnight, the farmer wakes with a start and says, "What was that?" ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:04, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How much money could you have made by investing in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin using $1000 at the start of the year?

Suppose you had transfered $1000 to the Coinbase exchange and you used that to buy and sell bitcoins, ethers, and litecoins during the year. Taking into account fees, the differences in exchange rates for selling and buying, what would be the theoretical maximum profit given the way the exchange rates of the 3 cryptocurrencies have fluctuated during the year? Count Iblis (talk) 20:28, 19 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This was hatted as a "request for speculation and financial advice". It is neither; it is asking for a computation based on past prices and fees. Not a computation that I'm interested in doing, for sure, but I see no way that it's not a legitimate question. --69.159.60.147 (talk) 01:02, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

May I add a supplementary condition to Count Iblis's query, that the calculations have to take into account the costs of converting the notionally 'made' quantities of the said digital 'currencies' back into a conventional one? I understand that this is more difficult than is popularly supposed. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.220.212.173 (talk) 02:07, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's right, you start with dollars and you end with dollars. E.g. you could have bought bitcoin at the start of the year, and then converted that back to dollars half a year alter with a factor of 6.25 profit, bought ether with all of the money, made a factor of 4 profit, convert everything back to dollars,, and then you could have bought litecoin and then multiply the amount by another factor 4, and when you then convert back to dollars, the net gain would have been a factor of 6.25*4*4 = 100. By using larger number of transactions you could have obtained a much larger gain factor, but you can't exploit smaller fluctuations due to transactions costs and the fact that the price you get for selling is lower than for buying. But it's clear that the factor by which you could in theory have multiplied the initial $1000 is a very large number, the question is to get to an approximate estimate of just how large this number is. Count Iblis (talk) 17:39, 20 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

December 20

Currency gift for foreign visitor

Over Christmas, we are hosting a young lady visiting from France. As my gift to her- and because traditional gifts are difficult in this situation (she would have to pack them home on an international flight)- I thought about giving her one of each U.S. paper currency in circulation; i.e. spending money she could use to buy what she wants while here. So, one of each bill: $100, $50, $20, $10, $5, $2, $1.

But, just to make it a little more personal than just cold cash, I'd like to include some document in the card/envelope that tells about the currency: the design, history, etc.. However, I don't want it to be too dense. Any ideas on a "quick reference guide" for U.S. currency? Or I am open to other ideas. Thank you all. Ditch ∝ 00:03, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You could start with United States dollar. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:11, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Well, yes...but if printed out every WP article on each denomination, I would need a legal sized manilla envelope to fit it all. I guess I was looking for a condensed source...maybe something that foreign travelers might use...that explains how our currency works. (I've seen similar guides that explain how coins work in Mexico, for instance.) Ditch ∝ 00:16, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean by how it "works"? Dollars and Euros are currencies. 50 is twice 25, 100 is twice 50, and so on. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 00:19, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, so "how it works" was bad wording on my part. I'm sure she will have no issue figuring out how to spend the money. I was just looking to make it educational about the bills themselves.

If you had a checklist of specific things you wanted to tell her, that would make your taks much easier. Such as whose picture is on it, what their significance is to American history, what the pictures on the back represent, etc. The serial numbers can be an interesting topic. Bills are printed in sheets, and the serial numbers indicate something about where on the bills came from. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:04, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe something from here?

"Materials to Download | U.S. Currency Education Program". www.uscurrency.gov.

—2606:A000:4C0C:E200:B8D8:3FE9:323E:5312 (talk) 00:30, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's a good start. Thank you. I may end up typing something separately about who/what is featured on each bill and when they where issued. (Or Maybe I'll just say to her, "Here's $188 bucks kid. Go act like an American and spend it. Merry Christmas.") Ditch ∝ 00:51, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget coins, including 1 quarter for each state. 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:B8D8:3FE9:323E:5312 (talk) 01:26, 21 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]