# Things done to products to meet public expectations **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089 "2011-06-02T15:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/61 "2011-06-03T17:15:15Z")
By the way, I’ve always preferred the taste of pancakes made with milk and eggs over the just water variety. Maybe it is just perception, but reconstituting eggs and milk in situ with flour might not yield the best results. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Skinley\_Von\_Clipper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@Baron\_Skinley\_Von\_Clipper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Skinley_Von_Clipper)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/62 "2011-06-03T17:18:57Z")
I’ve been to Cheddar in Somerset UK and bought cheese there, it was pale yellow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen orange cheddar cheese, or maybe I have but just assumed it’s not cheddar because it’s orange. ---
**Author:** ![Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@Throatwarbler\_Mangrove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Throatwarbler_Mangrove)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/63 "2011-06-03T17:35:28Z")
> [@treis](#): > > The same amount of noise is produced by the engine, regardless of what exhaust system is on. The exhaust system dampens the noise through baffles and other design features. These features restrict the flow of air, and make it more difficult for the engine to exhaust. This does result in less power, and installing a louder, i.e. less restrictive, exhaust will increase power significantly on most cars. The small grain of truth in **LSLGuy** ’s post is that automakers do spend some effort in tuning their exhausts for a distinct sound, for aesthetic reasons, but this doesn’t have much, if any influence, on performance. The rest of the post is ludicrous. “Noise is wasted energy”? 😕 Sure, and I suppose sound deadening baffles in your exhaust will put that energy back into the crankshaft? On some cars like the Chevy Corvette and Cadillac CTS-V, there is a feature where a button on the dash opens up some baffles in the exhaust that increase both noise and power. It use to be that US automakers rated their engines in “SAE Gross” horse power, which is (in theory, the specifics are a bit murky) the power the engine produced with completely open exhausts and no accessories. obviously the actual power of the engine in a car was quite different. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/64 "2011-06-03T17:43:52Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > I believe this is to keep from giving drunken fans missiles that they can hurl at the players (or each other). Well, yeah, but the point is that plastic beer bottles do exist, and there’s already manufacturing infrastructure in place to do it. **Incubus** and **Leaffan** have reminded me that I once bought plastic-bottled beer at The Beer Store to take with me into Algonquin Provincial Park, where glass bottles and cans are both prohibited. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/65 "2011-06-03T18:57:59Z")
> [@Heracles](#): > > Commercial airplanes would probably be safer [if the seats faced the rear of the airplane](http://www.airspacemag.com/need-to-know/Need-to-Know-Aft-Facing-Seats.html) (except for the pilots!). Facing backwards can make motion sickness worse, though. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/66 "2011-06-03T19:19:15Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Facing backwards can make motion sickness worse, though. It seems unlikely to me that the direction of the seats would make any significant difference in the average plane crash. When the plane hits the side of a mountain or the ground at a few hundred miles per hour, it won’t matter which direction you face. ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/67 "2011-06-04T00:12:18Z")
If that simple analysis were valid, there ought never be any survivors at all. Given that there often _are_ some survivors and some fatalities in the same crash, and often passengers who received no or modest injuries were seated in nearby similar seats to fatalities, it is very plausible that apparently modest changes could improve survival. This would be difficult to prove IRL, but crash test dummies would give some indication. I don’t know the testing literature on this, but I can definitely see how a backrest could represent more than a minor improvement in protection against pelvic, back, abdominal and neck injuries. On the other hand, they might either decrease _or_ increase concussion and contre-coup brain injuries, depending on padding and elasticity. A reconsideration of design might be warranted, rather than just reversing the existing seats. Since forward-facing seats aren’t universal (e.g. some of the cabin crew and/or the flight engineer on many large airliners sit sideways or reversed, I assume that either the testing has been done or (equally likely) that the real danger is the inadequacy of lap belts. From an airline’s perspective, it may be as much a matter of not wanting to perform (or provoke) extensive testing when forward facing seating is well-accepted by regulators ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/68 "2011-06-04T02:02:20Z")
Anyone who has picked an orange or grapefruit from a tree in Florida has probably figured out that they are dyed before they hit the grocery store (and probably bleached). ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/69 "2011-06-04T02:16:50Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Anyone who has picked an orange or grapefruit from a tree in Florida has probably figured out that they are dyed before they hit the grocery store (and probably bleached). Y’know, I’ve heard (and repeated) before that oranges aren’t really orange on the exterior, that they were named for the color of the interior, and that they’re colored before they hit market. And yet…when I google images of orange tree, [there are an awful lot of orange oranges still on the tree](http://www.google.com/search?q=orange+tree&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Cx1&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1252&bih=548&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=8ZTpTZ-MHOHf0QHx5d20AQ&ved=0CEoQsAQ). So what’s up with that? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/70 "2011-06-04T04:08:34Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Y’know, I’ve heard (and repeated) before that oranges aren’t really orange on the exterior, that they were named for the color of the interior, and that they’re colored before they hit market. And yet…when I google images of orange tree, [there are an awful lot of orange oranges still on the tree](http://www.google.com/search?q=orange+tree&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Cx1&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1252&bih=548&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=8ZTpTZ-MHOHf0QHx5d20AQ&ved=0CEoQsAQ). So what’s up with that? I’ve seen plenty of oranges on trees in rural areas of Panama where they certainly were not dyed. Oranges often are in fact orange, although I would not rule out the possibility that oranges may sometimes be dyed. ---
**Author:** ![Spectralist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Spectralist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectralist)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/71 "2011-06-04T18:18:19Z")
Depends on the environment that the oranges are grown in, I believe. Green skinned oranges are often exposed to a gas during storage/shipping, though I can’t remember which one, to help make them turn orange. ---
**Author:** ![hocow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hocow/32/4112_2.png) [@hocow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hocow)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/72 "2011-06-05T12:45:10Z")
eeeeeeee2 ---
**Author:** ![hocow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hocow/32/4112_2.png) [@hocow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hocow)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/73 "2011-06-05T12:55:06Z")
Oh boy. Sorry for previous post, my kid hopped on while I was in the other room. Too late to edit it. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/74 "2011-06-05T13:35:57Z")
> [@jasg](#): > > Anyone who has picked an orange or grapefruit from a tree in Florida has probably figured out that they are dyed before they hit the grocery store (and probably bleached). I am a born and raised Floridian. Once lived in a house on a 5 acre orange grove. I’ve never seen a ripe orange that wasn’t in fact orange. What color are you claiming they are? Are you picking green ones? That means they aren’t ripe yet. Give them a couple more weeks. They will turn orange naturally. No dye, bleach or special gas needed. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/75 "2011-06-05T13:37:33Z")
I’ve also picked oranges off trees in Iraq. Those were orange as well. And very sweet. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/76 "2011-06-05T13:38:44Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > I am a born and raised Floridian. Once lived in a house on a 5 acre orange grove. I’ve never seen a ripe orange that wasn’t in fact orange. > What color are you claiming they are? Are you picking green ones? That means they aren’t ripe yet. Give them a couple more weeks. They will turn orange naturally. No dye, bleach or special gas needed. I wonder if commercial oranges are picked green and then gassed to change, the way tomatoes are. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/77 "2011-06-05T14:23:58Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I wonder if commercial oranges are picked green and then gassed to change, the way tomatoes are. After reading a few sites online, it appears that in tropical climates, the oranges will stay green even when ripe. Of course, this doesn’t include Florida (Or Iraq)which has a winter. Those oranges that stay green, or are picked green are put through a de-greening and recoloring process. Horrible thing to do to an orange. “Commercial oranges are picked green. No color can be added to the green-skinned orange. First it has to be ‘degreened.’ This is done in what is known as the ‘coloring room,’ where it is shut up airtight and doused with a gas (which can cause asphyxiation). This gas destroys or removes the chlorophyll from the rind and leaves it, according to the degree of greenness, all the way from a sickly lemon color to almost white. I have seen them come out of the coloring room looking almost like peeled potatoes. While it is being gassed, the fruit is subject to artificial heat and is sometimes held in this room for 3 or 4 days. It impairs the flavor and has a tendency to hasten its deterioration and decay. After coming out of the coloring room, the fruit is washed and run through the ‘color-added’ machine. The color is added by passing the fruit through a vat of hot dye or else spraying it on hot while the fruit is subjected to steam heat.” From: [http://www.trivia-library.com/a/information-about-fruits-oranges.htm](http://www.trivia-library.com/a/information-about-fruits-oranges.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/78 "2011-06-05T14:38:18Z")
Christmas trees are painted to give them a nice green color before harvest. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/79 "2011-06-05T15:10:33Z")
I didn’t notice if this was mentioned, but bleaching paper products because white imparts ‘cleanliness’ to consumers. I still think its dumb that toilet paper and coffee filters\* aren’t left brown, the same way commercial paper towels are. Why bother introducing an environmentally hazardous chemical to an already nasty process for nothing more than consumer perception? \*Long before we started using a reusable metal coffee filter, we switched to unbleached filters in one of our first efforts to adopt a greener lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089/80 "2011-06-05T15:26:08Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > [This](http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/JoeyJoeyPP/phone.jpg) certainly qualifies as one of the most unproductive things I’ve done for the Dope while at work. > I just wish I had taken the weight out to see how big of a difference it made, but I put a couple of gouges around the edge doing it once and didn’t want to make any more. > Either way, I never would have guessed that was in there. Thank you. That was interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-done-to-products-to-meet-public-expectations/584089.md?page=5)