7 ms·

Nailing jelly to a wall: is it possible? (2005)

82 points by microsoftedging 4mo ago

cactusplant7374 4mo ago
Nailing anything to the wall depends on the properties of said thing.
- deleted 4mo ago
  [deleted]
- not_a_bot_4sho 4mo ago
  If you're going to quote Abraham Lincoln, you should at least give credit
  - cactusplant7374 4mo ago
    I didn't know this was a Lincoln quote. I just thought of it randomly. I suppose it's possible I read it when I was younger but I'm not a big reader when it comes to history.
    - migc 4mo ago
      If you're going to quote Abraham Lincoln, you should at least give credit
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
cjs_ac 4mo ago
Meta-study: How many times can you child submit a 'is this cliched saying physically possible?' experiment to a science fair before their teachers realise that they're taking the piss?
dhosek 4mo ago
I was a bit surprised to discover the whole jelly-jello language thing. I’d always assumed when people spoke of nailing jelly to a wall that they were talking about something jam-like, not jello-like. I’ve not done the experiments, but I would assume attempting the former would be much less successful.
- OkayPhysicist 4mo ago
  They also got it wrong in their explanation. To Americans, jelly is jam with the fruit bits filtered out, leading to a homogeneous spread. Jam has crushed fruit, giving it a thicker, uneven texture, and preserves are whole-ass pieces of fruit boiled down in syrup. Marmalade is jam with citrus rinds. As listed here, they are sorted in descending desirability for inclusion in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
  - walthamstow 4mo ago
    Jam can be smooth in Britain too, the cheap ones usually are. The opposite, with chunks of fruit, is conserve. In all my years of watching TV, I've never heard an American say the word jam, it must not be very popular compared to jelly.
    - ghc 4mo ago
      Perhaps unsurprisingly, in New England jam seems more popular than jelly. The FDA regulates the labels...jelly is made from fruit juice, while jam is made from fruit chunks. The only jelly I routinely see is concord grape jelly. Jams are usually apricot, raspberry, or strawberry. Given the number of small batch jams available at various farmers markets, my guess would be that for smaller farms, making jam is more practical than jelly.
      - bell-cot 4mo ago
        > ... for smaller farms, making jam is more practical than jelly. Probably true? Unless they are cheating by buying bulk commercial (filtered) juice. But if their customers prefer "I can see lots of fruit chunks in it" jam to jelly, they don't need other reasons.
egypturnash 4mo ago
This page is copyright 2005 by Graeme Cole. What are you allowed to do with it? Pfft. Anything within the realms of common sense, really. I don't want to prescribe rigidly what people can and can't do with it, so I've decided on a benchmark. It's this: you're allowed to do with this page anything you wouldn't mind me doing with your cat. So yes, you can photoshop it for comedy effect, you can copy bits of it for illustrative purposes and so on, but you can't steal it and pass it off as your own.
nephihaha 4mo ago
Yes, but freeze it first.
- Windchaser 4mo ago
  the wall? or... like, the nail?
FiatLuxDave 4mo ago
This vaguely reminds me of an old SPAM bouncing experiment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38292161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38292161
etothet 4mo ago
But can you glue it? "Jelly" should be added here: https://www.thistothat.com https://www.thistothat.com
- ofalkaed 4mo ago
  The jelly/Jello in TFA is glue, gelatin is the same thing as hide glue and you can use grocery store gelatin the same way as you use hot hide glue. All the sugar and flavorings added to jelly/Jello would affect its properties as a glue but it should still work as a glue; set time will be slower and the bond weaker but I suspect it will work. Edit: so if you want to glue it to something the easiest way is to just heat up what ever you want to glue it to high enough that it will just barely melt the surface of the block of Jello. Next easiest would be to use hot hide glue,it will reactivate the gelatin in the Jello and bond well to it and will be able to glue it to anything that hide glue will stick to.
mrhottakes 4mo ago
Possible for me? Yes. For others? Not yet.
anfractuosity 4mo ago
Maybe astronauts on the ISS could try a similar experiment ;)
facemelt2 4mo ago
>How I sped up <important_tech_stack> by 2.8% >something apolitical, filled with political bot comments >ShowHN: an ai company you'll never hear of again >NAILING JELLY TO THE GODDAMN WALL, !%#@ YEA (2005) >why ai is bad Keep it up HN <3

cactusplant7374 4mo ago

Nailing anything to the wall depends on the properties of said thing.

deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
not_a_bot_4sho 4mo ago
If you're going to quote Abraham Lincoln, you should at least give credit
- cactusplant7374 4mo ago
  I didn't know this was a Lincoln quote. I just thought of it randomly. I suppose it's possible I read it when I was younger but I'm not a big reader when it comes to history.
  - migc 4mo ago
    If you're going to quote Abraham Lincoln, you should at least give credit

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

cjs_ac 4mo ago

Meta-study: How many times can you child submit a 'is this cliched saying physically possible?' experiment to a science fair before their teachers realise that they're taking the piss?

dhosek 4mo ago

I was a bit surprised to discover the whole jelly-jello language thing. I’d always assumed when people spoke of nailing jelly to a wall that they were talking about something jam-like, not jello-like. I’ve not done the experiments, but I would assume attempting the former would be much less successful.

OkayPhysicist 4mo ago
They also got it wrong in their explanation. To Americans, jelly is jam with the fruit bits filtered out, leading to a homogeneous spread. Jam has crushed fruit, giving it a thicker, uneven texture, and preserves are whole-ass pieces of fruit boiled down in syrup. Marmalade is jam with citrus rinds. As listed here, they are sorted in descending desirability for inclusion in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
- walthamstow 4mo ago
  Jam can be smooth in Britain too, the cheap ones usually are. The opposite, with chunks of fruit, is conserve. In all my years of watching TV, I've never heard an American say the word jam, it must not be very popular compared to jelly.
  - ghc 4mo ago
    Perhaps unsurprisingly, in New England jam seems more popular than jelly. The FDA regulates the labels...jelly is made from fruit juice, while jam is made from fruit chunks. The only jelly I routinely see is concord grape jelly. Jams are usually apricot, raspberry, or strawberry. Given the number of small batch jams available at various farmers markets, my guess would be that for smaller farms, making jam is more practical than jelly.
    - bell-cot 4mo ago
      > ... for smaller farms, making jam is more practical than jelly. Probably true? Unless they are cheating by buying bulk commercial (filtered) juice. But if their customers prefer "I can see lots of fruit chunks in it" jam to jelly, they don't need other reasons.

egypturnash 4mo ago

This page is copyright 2005 by Graeme Cole. What are you allowed to do with it? Pfft. Anything within the realms of common sense, really. I don't want to prescribe rigidly what people can and can't do with it, so I've decided on a benchmark. It's this: you're allowed to do with this page anything you wouldn't mind me doing with your cat. So yes, you can photoshop it for comedy effect, you can copy bits of it for illustrative purposes and so on, but you can't steal it and pass it off as your own.

nephihaha 4mo ago

Yes, but freeze it first.

Windchaser 4mo ago
the wall? or... like, the nail?

FiatLuxDave 4mo ago

This vaguely reminds me of an old SPAM bouncing experiment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38292161 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38292161

etothet 4mo ago

But can you glue it? "Jelly" should be added here: https://www.thistothat.com https://www.thistothat.com

ofalkaed 4mo ago
The jelly/Jello in TFA is glue, gelatin is the same thing as hide glue and you can use grocery store gelatin the same way as you use hot hide glue. All the sugar and flavorings added to jelly/Jello would affect its properties as a glue but it should still work as a glue; set time will be slower and the bond weaker but I suspect it will work. Edit: so if you want to glue it to something the easiest way is to just heat up what ever you want to glue it to high enough that it will just barely melt the surface of the block of Jello. Next easiest would be to use hot hide glue,it will reactivate the gelatin in the Jello and bond well to it and will be able to glue it to anything that hide glue will stick to.

mrhottakes 4mo ago

Possible for me? Yes. For others? Not yet.

anfractuosity 4mo ago

Maybe astronauts on the ISS could try a similar experiment ;)

facemelt2 4mo ago

>How I sped up <important_tech_stack> by 2.8% >something apolitical, filled with political bot comments >ShowHN: an ai company you'll never hear of again >NAILING JELLY TO THE GODDAMN WALL, !%#@ YEA (2005) >why ai is bad Keep it up HN <3