Wikipedia help desk/Talk

Well, the page says

If you know an answer, don't give your answer on this page. Just post a link to the Wikipedia article that contains the article.

But what if I can find no good Wikipedia article to put it in? I mean, is it really something to put in the Wikipedia why these crazy ideas don't work? If so, where?

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Why isn't there powdered alcohol? (Wouldn't that be great? "Just add water...") (Posted July 16.)

Answer, 16 July: Such powders only work with things that are actually suspensions of very fine-grained solids in water, such as milk. Alcohol is a fluid on its own, and does not contain water, thus you cannot 'take the water out'. Still, pure alcohol comes quite close to what you describe (actually, it's rarely pure, more like 95-98%) - however, it's a fluid, not a powder.

You'd divide the contents of this answer into such articles as alcohol, suspension?, and even [powdered drink]?.

Playing with a magnifying glass and a piece of paper on a sunny day, I had the brilliant idea of making a really, really big magnifying glass, in Arizona, and using it to make electricity? C'mon, tell me why this isn't the next big thing in [alternative energy]? circles!! (July 16.)

Answer, 16 July: You would still need some apparatus to turn the energy that is focused by your magnifying glass into a usable form of energy, like electricity. Once you have found a way to do that, you will probably realise that you get at least as much energy, with less difficulties and less space use, with an array of solar collectors the size of your original magnifying glass.

This one you would put in a (probably very long) article about [alternative energy]?, or about [magnifying glass]?es, or [power generation]? (or should that be [electrical generation]?).

note - you should see what they have in barstow?, ca, it is a tower with a lot of mirrors pointing at a central mass that gets very hot to produce steam and electricity. --mike dill

this would fit under solar power. Using mirrors to concentrate sunlight has hte same effect as using lenses, but it's much easier and cheaper to build.

So, you wouldn't necessarily answer the question directly, in an article that answers the question. You'd write something that would imply what the answer is. Maybe, when it is not directly inferrable, you might have supply a missing detail or two on the page itself.

Anyway, thanks! :-) --LMS