Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 July 27

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July 27

What are these round plug(?) sockets in the UK?

(I felt this didn't quite deserve to be asked under science, because it isn't theory.)

As a kid in the '80s I remember that in the living-room there was a thing like a plug socket (i.e. plastic plate on the wall) but instead of the usual three holes for an electrical plug, it was just a single round hole. I've got a vague feeling I once asked my father what it was for, and he said something about radio.

These days I'm an adult, worse luck, and my house has also got one of these things. (The previous occupant covered it up with black tape and I've never touched it, but it's clearly the same thing.) I feel stupid asking this here because how could I possibly not find out from Google "what UK plug socket is just a single round hole?" but I swear I've tried and I just get swamped in irrelevancies about older circular versions of the normal three-pin plug.

Help me out. What is this thing for? Equinox ◑ 10:20, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Sounds like the socket where you plug a TV into an ariel. Mjroots (talk) 10:34, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Yes, technically an RF connector, but commonly known as "co-ax" plugs and sockets. They can be for either radio or TV depending on the frequency that the co-axial cable is designed for, and, of course, the aerial on the roof. Dbfirs 10:43, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Here are some examples for you to check. Mikenorton (talk) 10:53, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Some of those have more than one "hole", but that just means it connects to more than one antenna, or perhaps antenna(s) and cable TV/satellite TV, which also use coax cables. Of course, these holes are normally occupied by a coax cable with a connector at the end, but those may have been removed in the OP's case, perhaps as it was replaced by Internet TV or just rabbit ears/built-in radio antenna(s) and the coax cable/connector reused elsewhere. Covering it with tape is a good idea, as it may let insects and spiders in, or at the very least allow the outside air in, which may be the wrong temperature and humidity. For a more aesthetic solution, they do sell plates with no holes, for just such a purpose. That would be a lot easier than patching the hole in the wall. SinisterLefty (talk) 13:14, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Could be for Rediffusion or the like. DuncanHill (talk) 21:53, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

And if I were you I'd peel the tape off, take a picture, and post it for us to see. And if you were me you'd unscrew it to have a look behind. DuncanHill (talk) 21:54, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

What's the meaning of 'x' in

a botanical article's name like Pelargonium × hortorum ? Is it due to being a hybrid plant out of two cultivars ? בנצי (talk) 21:17, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

A cross of first one with second one. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 21:56, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

Maybe Hybrid name will help. 93.136.43.218 (talk) 22:15, 27 July 2019 (UTC)

No, that's not what it means.

The actual meaning depends a little upon the qualifier. It's a cross between two (unnamed) species of the Pelargonium genus. It will usually imply which species they are (i.e. P. hortorum is specifically a hybrid of Pelargonium zonale and Pelargonium inquinans, but you'd need to check a reference to know this, it's not obvious from the name). As the qualifier is a nothospecies rather than a formal Linnaean species name, it may be varyingly precise or imprecise. Many are a 'use' name, this one roughly means "Horticultural Pelargonium", i.e. one found useful as a garden plant. Some of these hybrid names imply a range of species, often one particular one hybridised with any of a number of others, even a mixture (in mixed seed). Terminology varies significantly between botanists and commercial horticulturalists.

If it's a graft-chimaera (i.e. a chimera formed by grafting, rather than cross-breeding) then a + sign is used rather than the × Andy Dingley (talk) 22:20, 27 July 2019 (UTC)