Are we all born with the ability to detect a note out of tune?

Question: I would like to know why humans can detect a note out of tune relative to the scale or harmony. We seem to be born with the ability to notice, so why can't every able-hearing person sing or play an instrument in tune?
Comment: I'm really interested in this question, but it might be a better fit for the cognitive science site, http://cogsci.stackexchange.com/. Questions about if abilities are inborn or not are a mainstay of cogsci, and it'd be great to get some answers from serious research.
Comment: @foobarbecue I should have known better than to talk about stuff with which I wasn't familiar.  :)  thanks for the info - I didn't know pentatonic scales were basically a subset of the 12 note
Comment: This is my first visit to music.stackexchange, and I'm appalled at the low quality of the answers to this question so far (except mine, which currently has -1). None of the other answers show any appreciation for the existing research in this field, or the music theory and physiological implications of the question. Instead they are opinions and personal anecdotes. It's enough to make me steer clear of this site in the future.
Comment: @foobarbecue the question was not interpreted as the question in the title.  The question I interpreted was "If hearing is easy, why isn't performing?"  Nobody teaches you to hear, you might have taken it too literally?  Have you actually answered the question?
Comment: @LeeKowalkowski indeed the question does not correspond to its title. The question appears to be "Why aren't we born with perfect pitch?" while the question title is "Are we born with the ability to detect dissonance?" I've tried to answer both.
Comment: @foobarbecue you are free to interpret the question as you see it, all contributions are useful (usually).
Comment: @anorton, your comment about pentatonic vs western is incorrect. Every pentatonic scale I know of (i.e. scales containing five notes) is a subset of the 12-note scale. These scales contain *fewer* intervals and notes, but you can write the pentatonic music on a 12-note staff. It might sound as if it's in an unusual key or mode, but not out of tune. Music based on a different fundamental frequency is another matter -- it will sound out of tune to those who have learned perfect pitch based on a different fundamental frequency.
Answer: If one watches those [insert nation here]'s Got Talent programmes, especially the audition phase, most people will be able to tell the difference between people who are good at [insert talent here] and those that are not.
Having the performer's skill is not required in order to be a judge, you're only required to understand what the performer is trying to achieve.
Are we born with this ability? Probably not, no. Some genres of music (and other art forms) are let's say 'an acquired taste'.
This study says people prefer music that is 'familiar' http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0027241.  I remember one of my lecturers at university once talking about how it is our experience matching our expectations that results in enjoyment.  There are sometimes musical pieces that take a few listens before we realise how beautiful they are.
I don't think we're born with it, I think it is learned, based on exposure.
Comment: And while on the topic, it's generally known in mathematics/computer-science that recognizing a correct/good solution is a simpler task (for most everyday cases) than coming up with a correct/good solution ... it applies as a general rule to other things as well, including cognition etc. in my opinion.
Comment: The preference might not be genetic, but sounds do penetrate into the womb, so it is technically [possible](http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/10October/Pages/Babies-may-remember-music-heard-in-the-womb.aspx) to have an acquired taste that you are born with. (No, I'm not suggesting that Fetal Mozart raises IQ.)
Answer: The foundation of scales and relative tonality is the fact that all humans are innately able to detect intervals. We can detect an octave because an octave is two notes where one is twice the frequency of the other. Similarly, there are basic proportional relationships between the frequency of two notes that are fifth, or a third, or a whole step apart but they are harder to detect because the relationship is less obvious. In a fifth, for example, one note is a vibration 2/3 as fast as the other. The innate ability to react to relative intonation gives rise to the fact that minor keys sound different from major keys, and notes out of tune often sound "wrong" even to people with no musical training. The less obvious a tonal freqency relationship, the more learning is involved. Almost everyone can tell that an octave sounds "right" and a 7 1/2th is "wrong" with no training. So far I have not found any research indicating that any culture has a scale system that is not based on the octave (see this article, these music theory class notes and the Wikipedia section on consonance and dissonance which answer your question better than any of the answers here). Because of the instrinsic physiological phenomena of the interval, Eastern and Arabic scales are based on the same intervals as Western scales and just have more or fewer steps. Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Ancient Greek (Syntolydian) musical scales are all based on the octave, demonstrating that the human ability to detect that interval is nature rather than nurture.
The fact that an A above middle C is 440hz, however, is arbitrary ("absolute") and therefore must be learned. Some people seem to be better at learning to recognize absolute frequencies and these people are often said to "have perfect pitch." This perfect or absolute pitch is what is required to tune an instrument or sing a certain pitch with no reference. It is not held in common across cultures; for example the frequency of the base note Kung in Chinese music was often changed by the emperor (although it is usually treated as almost the same as a western F). It must have been very hard to learn perfect pitch when your base note changed over time!
In conclusion, YES, we are born with the ability to detect a note out of tune relative to another note (helps if it's an octave or fifth), but NO, we are not born with the ability to detect a note out of tune on its own.
Comment: Yes, I could believe the emotional context of major and minor are learned. What I actually meant is that there is an intrinsic ability to distinguish between the two; edited my answer to reflect this. Anyway, that was ancillary to the answer itself which is the only one here that considers the physics / music theory behind the question. Might you reconsider your downvote?
Comment: @Lee the human brain is highly specialized for pattern recognition. That in-tune notes follow a pattern is exactly why we can tell when one is out. The out of tune note breaks that pattern. Also: Why would a pain response be more palatable to you? That there may be one still wouldn't explain the why. It just moves you to a new 'Why is there a pain response to an out-of-tune note?'
Comment: We have discussed major and minor sounding happy and sad here before, and the conclusion is that that only applies to western music, and is cultural - there is no absolute factor that makes minor sad, only our experiences
Comment: I'm puzzled! Yes, we are born with the mechanics (i.e. hearing), but that doesn't mean we are born with the ability to decide whether a note is correct in a given context. Whilst interesting, the musical theory and associated physics are observations or patterns, they don't explain why we can tell a note is out of tune. I'd be more inclined to believe scientific explanations along the lines of when a note is out of tune it triggers the same neurological pathways as when we experience pain (OK, discomfort).
Comment: @LeeKowalkowski, the evidence (above) says otherwise. We are born with the ability to decide whether a note is correct in certain situations. Those are situations where the intervals have integer frequency ratios, as I've explained. For example, when I first started playing cello with no previous musical experience, like all cellists I was able to tune the instrument by playing double stops. This is because when fifths are out of tune, they sound awful and produce a "beat" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics)#Sample . Fifths and octaves are easy for brains to detect.
Comment: @foobarbecue You are thinking the same way I am on this one. I do apologize that the question in the title was confused with the second question in the thread. I like how you explained it and have good references.
Answer: Everyone is "born with" the ability to learn a language, but not everyone pays attention to their spelling.
It's simply a matter of being attentive to the right things and learning to increase your accuracy and responsiveness.
Both language and music are learned skills, but only the groundwork is in our biology. Everything else is education, be it explicit or immersive.
Answer: "I like to know why humans can detect a note out of tune relative to the scale or harmony."
Why questions are never easy to answer since it is not clear what the one who asks is prepared to settle for.
"We seem to be born with the ability to notice,"
I would say that this is not as easy as it seems like.
I was born and grew up in Western Europe, and I can distinguish consonance and dissonance in a well-tempered tone system. At the same time, I can enjoy, say, vocal music from the middle east, and I can sense that they use tones that are outside the western well-tempered tone system. However, I cannot sense whether they sing "out of tune"; It seems this is very much something that you learn, not something that is inbred.
"so why can't every hearing abled person sing or play an instrument in tune?"
This seems yet something completely entirely different. To me, being able to hear, is entirely separate from controlling your voice, and again entirely separate from playing an instrument.
Comment: How do you know you couldn't sense a middle-eastern singer being out of tune? I'm pretty sure I could, though I know little about arabic scales. Only, bad performances are rather unlikely to ever make it to Westerner's ears! — Also: I doubt you hear "in a well-tempered tone system", otherwise Barbershop singing ought to sound pretty horrible to you. You hear just intonation and leading notes and you're used to the 12-edo approximation of these concepts.
Comment: @leftaroundabout Right, my remark about well-tempered is off; I just meant my hearing is adjusted to western division of the octave in 12 semi-tones, and I can hear, within limits, whether an instrument is playing out of tune with regard to that system. I mean, not an individual instrument, but when multiple intruments are playing together. w/re to the music from the middle-east: I can hear they are singing intervals that are smaller than a semi-tone, but I couldn't say if they hit those out of tune with regard to their tone system. Hope that clears it up.
Comment: Well, my question was: have you _actually heard_ any out-of-tune middle-eastern performance yet, without noticing anything wrong? I haven't, but I think I _would_ notice it if they hit the 3/4-tone steps wrongly. Because, and that was my point about 12-edo temperament, the piano keys are not really how most listeners categorise notes. Rather, you notice certain intervals within the harmonies and melodies, and those intervals can be derived from some kind of _just intonation_; the principles are the same in Western through Indian music, though the tunings restrict you to different groupings.
Comment: @leftaroundabout It's a good question - I don't know if I heard it. I wouldn't have, if my hypothesis is true :p I am familiar with just vs well-tempered intonation, and how they relate to each other. But I cannot find any text that explains how Maqam tuning system is "derived" as you put it from just intonation. Do you perhaps have a link so I can read up on that?
Comment: Good point, you wouldn't notice wrong 3/4 steps if you don't notice wrong 3/4 steps! — As I said, I know close to nothing about Maqamat (is that the correct plural?), but they certainly are _not_ derived from 24-edo like dodecacophony is from 12-edo, but from something different. Singers will tune intuitively according to some physical / physiological guide, and whatever that is in Arabic music it should be perceptible to the listener as well.
Comment: I _think_ that works similar to how we derive diatonic scales from 5- or 7-limit just intonation. An equal-tempered 3/4 step is almost exactly 12:11 in ratio (150.637 cents), so that would be the obvious derivation. (Cf. the just / Pythagorean whole step 9:8 at 203.91 cents, actually rather more off!)
Comment: Yes I did confuse things with the question about singing and playing. Sorry about that.
Comment: @leftaroundabout I don't know the correct plural. What I have found so far is that learning to sing them involves a lot, really a lot, of practice, and a teacher telling you you're wrong all the time. So if that info is correct, I think there's a fair chance I won't hear so easily whether it's out of tune. That said, you make a valid point that we're likely exposed only to fair and good singers. I'll try and find out if there's a recording of a singer that is badly out of tune. I'll post the link if I find it.
Answer: The answer in my experience is both yes and no.
First, not all human ears are equally sensitive to differences in pitch. Also, an ear which can discriminate well in one pitch range may have more difficulty with a different range. For example, a musician I know can tune a guitar by ear very quickly, but struggles to tune a bass guitar. His ear just has more difficulty with the low ranges.
Second, identifying when two pitches are different is a skill that improves with practice. A musician's ability to identify notes out of tune improves as their experience with their instrument increases.
Also, you asked about singing. To sing in tune is very different from tuning a guitar. You have to learn the intervals between the notes, so you can "hear" the next note in your head before you sing it. You also have to train your voice, so it can reliably produce the note you hear in your head. People who sing along with the radio may have learned the pitches through listening to the song repeatedly, but without practice they will probably not sing every note in tune.
So my short answer is that most humans are born with what they need to make music, but to sing or play an instrument in tune requires practice and training.
Answer: You'd like to know why we (or many of us) are born with the ability to detect a note out of tune.  I think I can speak for all of the readers here when I say that we would all love to know why we are born with any ability or disability.  In fact, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that we would all love to know why we are born at all.  Truth is, we don't know, although some of us won't admit it.
"Tone deafness" is actually very common.  Just listen to an average crowd singing "happy birthday" and this will become clear.  The ability to recognize, organize, and reproduce sounds that you hear is innate, much in the same way that the ability to recognize, organize, and reproduce colors that you see is innate.  So, just as color blindness is something you are born with, tone deafness is also.
A good (not perfect, see Roland's answer) way to test for tone deafness is to see if a person can reproduce a note that they hear.  If not, then that person is very probably tone deaf.
My father is tone deaf.  This became clear to me at a very early age, because he sang a great deal anyway.  It became clear early on that when it came to songs, Dad knew the words and Mom knew the tunes.  My father also picked up the recorder and learned to play, however he would not know if he was missing a sharp or flat from the key signature until one of his kids hollered to him to fix it.
My mother, on the other hand, is very musical.  Of their seven children, five can sing in tune, one can sing pretty much in tune, and the other is a really, really nice guy.  Interestingly, one of his kids shows considerable talent for singing.
So, I believe that the ability to recognize pitch is either there or not there.  If you have it, you can improve it, but if you don't have it, nothing that you do will put it there.
Answer: "We seem to be born with the ability to notice,"
This might be the norm, but exceptions do exist.
I personally can't tell when people are out of tune (unless they are drastically), neither can I tell that two notes are one octave apart, they just sound like different notes. Additionally, when a key change happens mid song (typically for the last verse) I have no idea that it's happened.
These factors mean that even when following music or other singers I am frequently told I'm out of tune - however I tend to be better when I've got someone who's singing in a pitch I'm happy to follow, trying to follow someone 1 or 2 octaves away from my range will mean I'm going to be out of tune.
Answer: I have occationaly come across articles about singing birds have absolute (perfect) pitch, which indicates that this is not taught, but based on nature. When I searched for this now, I found this interesting publication by Terry Bossomaier and Allan Snyder. They claim that the mechanisms for absolute pitch exist in us all, but access is inhibited during early maturation.
They also have a section about animals related to this (on page 3 in the PDF), where they reflect about some singing birds using scales in their singing:

The hermit thrush uses a pentatonic scale, the canyon wren all 12
  semitones. Are these behaviours imitation and manipulation of complex
  (absolute) spectra, or do they embody any sense of key, or, are
  animals more like human infants? The answer seems to be the latter.

A large part of the publication is about methods describing how absolute pitch may be switched on by turning off parts of the brain responsible for the inhibition.

As for why not everyone is able to sing in tune according to their ability to recognize out of tune, there might be several reasons.

It might be they don't know technically how to correct their voice pitch to the right one.
It might be that they are not able to hear that it's them that does not sing right (is it me or is it you...).
In the cases where they actually do have absolute pitch, they are not able to sing "out of tune" of the absolute frequencies, which make them out of tune if the instruments are tuned in a slightly different pitch. See this.


Why does mineral oil occur below natural gas?

Question: Why does mineral oil occur below natural gas? It was asked in our science book in the Geology section and I didn't get a clear explanation from the teacher.
Comment: Think about his: why does the ocean occur below the atmosphere? The answer is almost the same.
Comment: if you fill water in a cup why is there no air below the water. no effort have been done to find an answer before posting this.
Comment: Think about the density of the two fluids
Comment: All the commenters are oversimplifying the question. They've forgotten to answer a big part of the question, which is why gas and oil are found together at all.
Answer: Natural gas can occur above and below oil formations however when they occur in the same formation natural gas will sit on top because it's density per kg/m3 is 800+ and natural gases density is 400+
weight of natural gas
weight of crude oil
Comment: linking to liquified natural gass is probably not too usefull even if it still is lighter than oil,but it is still useful as an ilustration of the difference in density.
Comment: you can even see this in formations, in tilted formation the gas all flow uphill and pools at the top if there is a capstone.
Answer: I'm expanding upon a couple of the answers because none of them used the term "buoyancy" explicitly. Also, don't use the term "mineral oil", just call it oil or petroleum. Mineral oil is a distillation by-product of petroleum and is not found in subsurface reservoirs.
Let's consider a simple example of a thick reservoir quality sandstone with constant lithology throughout the whole reservoir. Then there are two forces acting on fluids in the sandstone pore space in an undisturbed reservoir. The pore space is the space between the rock grains in the sandstone. By undisturbed, I mean a reservoir which has not been drilled.
The two forces are the buoyancy pressure and the capillary force. The buoyancy pressure is due to the difference of specific gravities between fluids in the pore space. The specific gravity is a unit-less proxy for density. More formally, the specific gravity is simply the ratio of the density of the substance to the density of water at 4 degrees Celsius.
The capillary pressure is due to fluids becoming trapped in narrow pore throats, and because of this pressure there is always an irreducible water saturation in the reservoir. Put simply, even in the gas or oil zone, water always occupies some fraction of the pore space. In other words, for most rocks water is sticky and oil is not. As a result, a bit of water is left behind even when the rock is full of oil or gas. This is the " irreducible water saturation".
See these links:
http://wiki.aapg.org/Buoyancy_forces_in_reservoir_fluids
http://wiki.aapg.org/Buoyancy_pressure
Once an exploration well has been drilled, figuring out the water and hydrocarbon saturations in the reservoir are critically important because many subsequent decisions will be based upon these numbers.
In a reservoir containing gas, oil and water. The fluids will occupy the pore spaces of the formation from shallowest to deepest-- gas first, then oil and finally water.
In a reservoir, one may have only gas or oil, but there is always water because water always exists as the major constituent of the pore space of underground formations unless it has been replaced by gas or oil.
In addition, due to the capillary pressure, the saturation of the reservoir fluids changes inside each gas/oil/water zone with depth and proximity to the nearest fluid contact. For example, near the oil-water contact, the water saturation is highest and decreases upwards to a constant minimum as it nears the gas-oil contact. Around that point, the oil saturation is at a maximum. The oil saturation then decreases from a maximum as the gas saturation increases, however, the water saturation is still a constant and minimum value.
More detail can be found here - http://wiki.aapg.org/Fluid_contacts .
I'm a geoscientist who works with petroleum engineers-- hope this helps!
Comment: Bouyance Force. http://wiki.aapg.org/Buoyancy_forces_in_reservoir_fluids
Comment: Capillary. http://petrowiki.org/Reservoir_pressure_data_interpretation
Answer: it is all about the density.gass have a lower density than oil and oil have a lower density than water.
oil will float on water and gass will float on oil.
some gasses are lighter than air like hydrogen gass so this will float on air because hydrogen have lower density than air.
your question is about schoolwork so i asume this Q&A will be closed soon.
Answer: The obvious answers have been posted, but I believe the question really should be why do they occur together?
The answer to such a question is because their source is the same - organic remains subjected to specific conditions: no oxygen, pressure, temperature, and a lot of time.
Answer: LOTS of time for density differences to cause migration miles through relatively solid rock. And beyond the level of the question to point out there is always water and often CO2 which make for some complicated ( for me) physical chemistry.


Atlassian Jira Dashboard - List Of Users' Most Recent Work Log Record

Question: I'm new to Jira and cannot find any help, Google or otherwise, on simply making a Dashboard component which lists all Users and their most recent Work Log entry. Any thoughts?
Answer: I would take a look at the Jira tempo plugin, it will solve all your time tracking and recording issues. We also combined it with the worklog assistant, since not everyone likes to book hours, this will simplify it a lot.
List of recent work-items per project: https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/display/TEMPO/List+View
Team time-sheets: https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/display/TEMPO/Team+Timesheet
I would expect you can also add these list and views to your Jira Dashboards, although I never tried.
Comment: Was hoping for an unpaid gadget.  I may have to try one of the Tempo items.
Answer: You can use the Jira Activity Stream gadget
Yes, Jira has a built-in gadget to do this. It is the Activity Stream gadget:

You can add this gadget to your Dashboard and select all the projects that you want to track. I find this gadget very convenient to track all Jira and Confluence activities as a stream in the dashboard.
However, please note that I am using it for Scrum. You will have to try this for Kanban to see whether it meets your needs.
Comment: That was the second one I tried, but my "desire" is much more specific.  I literally in an ideal world would like a two or three column list.   Column 1, User name.  Column 2, just the MOST RECENT Work Log record summary.  Possibly column 3 of date/time, though that could be IN the column 2 summary.
Comment: Ultimately, out of the box, this seems like the closest to anything remotely like what I want, thanks  ;)
Answer: Jira Activity stream has also a table view, which looks similar to what you requested:

To get that, Add Gadget to your Jira Dashboard and then use toolbar (seen on my screenshot) within the "Activity Stream" to switch to table view.
Comment: I know it seems obvious to you, as a user of the system, but can you please add some commentary in this answer which explains why this answers the OP's question, and perhaps also a description of how to run/find the screen(s) you are suggesting as answers? Without any further information it is not particularly helpful to anyone except the people that already know about it! Thanks.
Comment: Please add the information, including how to get to this screen, within your answer. That way it can help anyone who has the same problem. Additional information in comments can be deleted at any time...
Comment: I pulled that Gadget in, and it's certainly "in the right direction", thanks.  ;-)


What to do when I get no feedback on an answer to my own question?

Question: I asked this question sometime ago and had no idea how to solve it. Later, I got a hint(the first answer there) and used it to reach a conclusion, which I then wrote in the comments. The person who gave the hint confirmed the answer was correct and I let the matter be. Sometime later, I remembered it, out of nowhere, and realized that my reasoning could have been wrong. So, I posted an answer and thought somebody would tell me whether it is correct(possibly the original hint-giver). But, I got none. What do I do in such circumstances when I want my reasoning(not more than 3-4 steps) glanced at, by an expert?
Comment: Perhaps the title should be edited to reflect the immediate concern you have.  Although you begin in the body by describing a "hint" you got in an answer to the Question, by the end the focus seems to be on having posted a self-answer that you are unsure about.  "But, I got none" of the expected feedback, you write.  If you like I can try to edit the title for you.
Comment: please do. I am not sure the title is relevant either
Comment: This seems to be similar to this older post: [How to bring an answer to attention?](https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/13198) You can also have a look at [How to grab users' attention on an old question?](https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/3478) and [other posts linked there](https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/linked/3478).
Comment: It could be that you're actually completely correct. Sometimes you can be wrong on a small detail and they won't let you hear the end of it.
Comment: @Truth-seek for what it's worth, I had no way of knowing that you posted an answer to that question since I don't exactly check my old answers regularly.  If you wanted my attention, you could have put a comment under my answer, or pinged me under your answer.
Comment: @Omnomnomnom I don't think pinging under their answer would have worked. Ordinary users can only ping somebody who commented on or edited the same post.
Answer: You should probably ask a question.
You know, of course, that there are two main ways to contribute to any Stack Exchange site: asking questions and posting answers. When people ask questions, they are seeking knowledge from others, and when people answer questions, they are offering knowledge. The entire design of the site is made to facilitate that flow of information from answerers to askers, but it doesn't work quite so well going in an opposite direction. So if you want feedback on something, it's best if you do so in the form of a question, even if the thing you are asking about happens to be an answer to another question.
If your question wouldn't be appropriate on the site, you could try bringing it up in chat.
Answer: Answerers don't get notified when other answers are posted. If you didn't post a comment below the hint saying that you'd posted a self-answer, the person who wrote the hint will not know you did that.
However, this isn't really what Stack Exchange is for. The expectation is that answers are believed to be correct by the person who posted them. Answers are taken as meaning, "To the best of my ability, this is the solution to the problem at the top of the page" not "Could you please tell me if this is right?" The latter is a question, not an answer.


Is website visited by search engines?

Question: How can I find out that my website which is actually uploaded on webhosting for about two months is visited by search engines like google, yahoo and others? Which ranking sites should I regularly check to see how my web is in according to other websites?
Answer:
How can I find out that my website which is actually uploaded on webhosting for about two months is visited by search engines like google, yahoo and others?

Check your logs or site statistics like Google Analytics if you installed it, or Awstats if your host provides it.

Which ranking sites should I regularly check to see how my web is in according to other websites?

Use Google Webmaster Tools for this
Answer: Usually in your logs or in the analysis programs, the search engine bots typically have unique browser types, so for example, instead of seeing Firefox, IE, Chrome, etc.  you might see:  GoogleBot, Slurp (Yahoo's old algorithm), Bing, etc.   Usually you also can tell bots from humans because the visitor IP's for bots will likely have hundreds if not thousands of page downloads/hits vs. human visitors which might do 5 or so (depending on the site of course).
That information however is just ballpark blanket info. Your analytics program will likely have much more options to sift the data, but usually the tips above will help with all programs.
Also as John mentioned, Awstats and Google Analytics are definitely great programs to use, and Awstats will likely be setup by default if you're running your site on cPanel (which is a common admin system).
As for rankings, you will want to have a look at Technorati, and Alexa although HubSpot.com (a marketing company) offers an excellent comparison tool to see how your site compares to competitors. In addition the tools at SEOMoz.com are excellent for measuring performance.
Answer: Besides Google Webmaster Tools, you could check Bing Webmaster Tools to know which of your pages Bing has indexed or "is visited by" Bing. Now that Bing Webmaster Tools has fully integrated in Yahoo's traffic numbers as well, with both these tools you have all the 3 major search engines covered.

Is website visited by search engines?


Typing dialer secret codes in devices other than phones

Question: Dialer secret codes are fun and useful and all the rage, but how can I use them in my tablet, or my TV dongle, or any onther non-phone android device?
Comment: For those unfamiliar with the subject, there's a [list over here](http://www.plusdroid.com/Blogandnews/we-spill-the-beans-of-jellybean-android-secret-dial-codes-list/). Many are independent of cellular connection/service/etc. Also, it's not clear how many of these work with which phones or Android versions to begin with. A fair number of them don't work on my N5.
Comment: Too late to edit my comment, I realized that there's a better list on our own site: [Do you know any other Android keypad commands (dialer codes)?](http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/1468/do-you-know-other-android-keypad-commands-dialer-codes?rq=1)
Answer: From adb shell:
am broadcast -a android.provider.Telephony.SECRET_CODE -d android_secret_code://<secretcode>

Where <secretcode> is the code without the asterisks, e.g., 4636.
This is more effective than the DIAL action because it's direct and does not rely on the dialer to parse the code and fire the secret code intent itself.  (Some dialers will not do this automatically and you'd have to hit "Call".)  The DIAL intent is also handled by multiple apps (Phone, Skype, and Hangouts Dialer on my device) so this can skip that annoyance.
Answer: There are at least three ways of doing it.
Programmatically by starting an Activity with Intent.ACTION_DIAL:
String secretCode = "123456789";
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_DIAL);
intent.setData(Uri.parse("tel:*#*#" + secretCode + "#*#*"));
startActivity(intent);

Programmatically by broadcasting an Intent:
String secretCode = "123456789";
String action = "android.provider.Telephony.SECRET_CODE";
Uri uri = Uri.parse("android_secret_code://" + secretCode);
Intent intent = new Intent(action, uri);
sendBroadcast(intent);

With a third party app:
I developed an open source app that crawls AndroidManifest.xml files on your device to find secret codes, and allows you to execute the secret codes available on your device.
You can get it on the Play Store or on the GitHub repository Android-Secret Codes.


Are brief blasphemous deliberate thoughts a mortal sin according to Catholicism?

Question: Are brief blasphemous deliberate thoughts a mortal sin according to Catholicism?
Answer: Mortal sin (from mors = death) forfeits sanctifying grace and is the supernatural death of the soul. St. Augustine defines it as "something said, done or desired contrary to the eternal law."
To be a mortal sin, these conditions must be satisfied:

Knowledge (either natural or supernatural) of the act's sinfulness (offense to God).
Freely performing the sin.
Grave matter

In your scenario, #2 is satisfied because you say "deliberate". #3 is satisfied because blasphemy is a grave offense against God.
It's unclear if #1 is satisfied, you should confess it to a priest, who can help judge if such a sin is mortal.
Comment: The fact that the question was asked here suggests that condition #1 was not satisfied yesterday (but maybe it is satisfied now).


What are the special abilities the unique/champion monsters can have?

Question: Unique and champion monsters will have a combination of randomly determined affixes/abilities, such as "nightmarish" or "waller".
What are all of the possible abilities?
Comment: Note that many affixes only appear later in the game, and some only appear in Inferno mode at max level.
Answer: Arcane Enchanted - Monsters summon a purple laser beam that slowly spins and deals arcane damage. With multiple of these going, you're going to be navigating a maze to get through it. When they spawn, they indicate which direction they initially face before fully appearing.
Avenger - Only champions can have this. Whenever you kill one, the others grow in size and hit harder. The last one left will hit the hardest of all.
Desecrator - Enemies create a fiery (in appearance) zone of damage underneath player characters that deals physical damage over time. Damage starts low but ramps up quickly.
Electrified - Enemies spew out lightning in all directions whenever they take damage.
Extra Health - Self-explanatory. The bonus health is significant.
Fast - Self-explanatory. The monsters are considerably faster.
Fire Chains - This appears on champions only. When close enough together, there are chains of fire linking the champions to each other that deal damage over time to players who stand in the way.
Frozen - Enemies will spawn frozen orbs that spin for a while, damaging and slowing players, and then explode. The explosion deals cold damage and freezes you in place for a few seconds.
Frozen Pulse - An orb of ice pulsates and moves around the battlefield, slowing and damaging players near it. After a while it will explode, dealing extra damage.
Health Link - When attacking a champion with this trait, the other champions nearby will take part of the damage. This makes it tough to take down groups, but has no affect if one is isolated.
Horde - This can only appear on rare enemies. They get extra minions.
Illusionist - Enemies can create 4 clones of themselves. The clones have severely lowered damage and health.
Jailer - The monsters can imprison players so they take some damage and can't move for a few seconds.
Knockback - The monsters can knock back the hero a significant distance (a little over one screen length). The player is slowed significantly after the knockback effect for a few seconds.
Missile Dampening - This one seems to be rather rarer than the rest. It can only appear on rare enemies. The leader (but not the minions) constantly has a rather large bubble around itself that moves to remain centered on the enemy. The speed of all ranged projectiles that enter the bubble are greatly decreased, although if they do make it all the way to the target they will still inflict full damage.
Molten - Enemies leave a trail of fire where they walk that deals fire damage over time to players who stand on it. They also explode a few seconds after they die, dealing damage in an area around their corpse.
Mortar - Enemies gain a ranged attack that fires a volley of a few lobbing bombs every couple seconds. There is a minimum attack distance for the mortars, so standing right near the enemy will protect you from this attribute. This is very dangerous for ranged characters.
Nightmarish - Enemies that hit you will cause you to flee for a few seconds.
Orbiter - Enemies create a central electric sphere, with smaller electric spheres orbiting slowly around it at different distances away. All said spheres deal damage if they touch you. This covers a very large area, but none of the sources of damage are that difficult to dodge.
Plagued - Enemies can create giant pools of poison that deal damage over time to players. These pools are quite large and last a long time and can easily cover the entire floorspace of a room.
Poison Enchanted - Marks an area on the ground as poison, which then spreads in 4 directions diagonally and lasts for a few seconds. Standing in the poison deals damage, but it's avoidable if you pay attention.
Reflects Damage - Dealing damage to the enemies deals a bit back to yourself. A static amount of damage is reflected each time you hit the target.  It is only active for short periods of time during the fight.  There is a noticeable graphic change associated with the Reflect Damage effect while active.
Shielding - Enemies can turn invulnerable for a few seconds at a time. The effect is fairly frequent, with about a 50% uptime of invulnerability.
Teleporter - Enemies can teleport.
Thunderstorm - Enemies create lightning strikes that also emit small waves of electricity.
Vampiric - Enemies gain life when they deal damage. This also counts damage from other attributes. For example, if you stand on the plague zone from a plagued enemy who is also vampiric, they will gain health.
Vortex - Enemies can suck you next to them and damage you from more than a screen length away.
Waller - Enemies can create walls to prevent escape. They are very good at placing the walls, and will often barricade you in with them. Many ranged abilities cannot go over the walls, even things that appear like they should. For example, a Witch Doctor's Firebomb cannot go over the wall. It is worth noting that rares and champions place their walls differently. Rares will never give their minions the waller ability, but their walls will create long hallways with a blocked end, essentially caging you in with the rare. Champions each can only create one wall each, which has the possibility to trap you in a much smaller area because the layout is not predetermined.
Wormhole - Enemies can create two portals. After a short time, players at either location will be teleported to the other location.
Comment: I have encountered a Jailer unique already, so the level requirements may not be correct.  Good list, though. Thanks!
Comment: @MattJoiner No. I had a link that got quickly outdated. I would rather keep the data up to date here. Even the Diablo 3 wiki doesn't have up to date information. First-hand experience fighting all the attributes repeatedly should give me a fairly sound basis. If you can think of any attributes that are missing from the list or that require information, please let me know or suggest an edit yourself.
Comment: I agree with Beofett, the Jailer is definitely lower than level 51
Comment: Also, I'm pretty sure I've seen the "Horde" trait actually listed. An Illusionist copies have certainly seemed to have less health than the main mob.
Comment: @Sterno Now that I've actually seen all of these, I can add descriptions from experience instead of blindly quoting some pre-release source.
Comment: Magic dampening exists. Saw it on a yellow/elite in act 1 on Hell
Comment: Please remove your comment about reflects dmg. It can be very significant for dmg dealers. A hunter will kill himself if he has high dps.
Comment: @Anders, I have edited the answer and put in what you said. I hope it's OK. :) On this site, you can edit other people's questions and answers.
Comment: @Betty The comment seems more helpful now. A nice edit.
Comment: Please provide a link.
Comment: Invulnerable Minions is being retired with 1.04
Comment: please update your answer based on the latest patch.  Monster affixes have been reworked a bit and a few new ones were added
Comment: @z- Updated. I haven't experienced the new ones yet, so I'll add more details as I come to understand them better.
Answer: Yes, there is a list here
Here's a copy of the list and their short descriptions. You can view more details at the link above

Arcane Enchanted - Monsters enchanted with Arcane Enchanted trait deal additional arcane damage and have the ability to summon orbs which fire rotating arcane beams
Avenger - When a Champion group imbued with Avenger arrives, the death of each group member imbues the remaining Champions with added power as they wreak their frenzied vengeance on the Hero
Desecrator - A monster with Desecrator trait creates a glowing void zone beneath the targeted Hero that
Electrified - A monster with the Electrified trait has higher lightning resistance, deals additional lightning damage and discharges sparks across the floor in random directions when stuck. When the monster dies it leaves an electric ball that will continue to generate sparks for a short time
Extra Health - This trait bestows the imbued monster with extra HP
Fast - This makes monsters run, attack and cast magic faster
Fire Chains - Champion backs are attached by a fire chain. The Hero suffers damage if he touches or even gets near one of the fire links.
Frozen - Monster with the Frozen affix can summon frost orbs that grow and eventually explode causing cold damage and applying a Chill and a Freeze debuff
Health Link - Health Link reduces the amount of damage taken by the champion with that trait by linking his HP to that of all other Health Link champions in the area
Horde - Horde increases the squad of minions that spawn with a rare monster, crowding the battlefield
Illusionist - The Illusionist trait imbues a creature with the ability to create dangerous clones of itself
Invulnerable Minions - Monsters imbued with this trait arrive with a squad of indestructible puppet minions and an expanded heath pool
Jailer - This trait gives monsters the ability to immobilize the Hero in a conjured prison
Knockback - Knockback allows monsters to push back the player a short distance with each connecting blow, whether it be ranged or melee
Missile Dampening - Creatures imbued with the trait generate a reddish sphere around themselves. Any projectile entering this sphere moves 50% slower than normal
Molten - Monsters that spawn with this trait deal extra fire damage. In addition, they leave trailing pools of lava that deal fire damage over time. Any non-minion monster killed with this trait leaves a time bomb that will explode after 3 seconds, dealing large amounts of fire damage
Mortar - Monsters with mortar can lob several fireballs that deal splash damage on impact.
Nightmarish - Nightmarish monsters have a chance to fear the player on hit and can be triggered from both melee and ranged attacks
Plagued - Monsters enchanted with Plagued leave pools of poisonous green goo around them for 9 seconds
Reflects Damage - A portion of the damage dealt to the monster is also dealt back at the player
Shielding - This trait gives the monster a brief period of invulnerability to all forms of damage
Teleporter - Gives the monster the ability to teleport to a nearby location
Thorns - When you strike a Thorns-imbued foe with a melee attack, you suffer automatic damage in return
Waller - Monsters with Waller can summon earthen walls between the player and the monster, or sometimes behind the player to prevent escape
Vampiric - This trait allows monster to literally feast on the damage they inflict to you by turning it into health for themselves
Vortex - Grants the ability to forcibly pull the player right next to the monster
Answer: As of patch 2.0.1. There have been a few affixes added and some re-worked. The new list is below. Also, here is the link to the affixes list.
Patch 2.0.5 introduced the following restrictions.

Champions and Rares can no longer spawn with four of the following
  monster affixes and the frequency at which they can spawn with three
  has been reduced
<code>Arcane Enchanted
Desecrator
Fire Chains
Frozen
Frozen Pulse
Molten
Mortar
Orbiter
Plagued
Poison Enchanted
Wormhole
</code>
Champions and Rares can no longer spawn with both Plagued and
  Desecrator at the same time

Here is the affix list, with the new affixes in bold.

Arcane Enchanted: Arcane enchanted monsters summon rotating beams of arcane energy which deal significant damage.
Avenger: Monsters with the avenger affix grow in power as other monsters in their group are slain — they can increase in damage, attack speed, total life, and other attributes.
Desecrator: Desecrator monsters conjure burning pools of hellfire beneath your feet. These pools surge after a few seconds, dealing immense damage if you don't move quickly to avoid them.
Electrified: Electrified monsters release bolts of electricity when struck, causing lightning damage on contact.
Extra Health: Monsters with extra health have substantially more Life (and, hence, survivability) than normal for monsters of their type.
Fast: Fast monsters move and attack much more quickly than their normal counterparts. They excel at chasing you down when you're wounded and use their increased speed to move around the battlefield.
Fire Chains: These monsters are linked together by chains of fire that burn anything they touch. Killing individual monsters in the group limits the length and mobility of the chain.
Frozen: Frozen monsters fill the air around them with exploding ice crystals. These explosions deal cold damage, slow, and freeze heroes caught in their blast radius.
Frozen Pulse: Monsters with the frozen pulse affix summon an icy sphere that deals heavy damage over time while it moves across the battlefield.
Health Link: Monsters with health link share damage and Life pools. Any damage dealt to an individual is split among all members of a group.
Horde: Hordes of monsters don't gain any particular abilities, but groups with the horde affix are larger than normal for their type.
Illusionist: Illusionist monsters create duplicates of themselves; these duplicates can deal damage while obscuring your true target.
Jailer: Monsters with the jailer affix can encase you in a prison, damaging and temporarily immobilizing you. You are vulnerable to attack while immobilized, but you can escape by using certain defensive skills.
Knockback: Successful hits from monsters with knockback send you flying away from them, interrupting your attack and slowing your movement.
Missile Dampening: Missile dampening monsters project an aura that slows your incoming projectiles, making ranged attacks less effective.
Molten: Molten monsters trail burning lava wherever they walk. Shortly after they die, their bodies explode into high-damage gouts of fire.
Mortar: Monsters with the mortar affix lob volatile globes of fire that can deal extreme damage to you at range. Move close to avoid their attacks.
Nightmarish: Successful attacks from nightmarish monsters can cause you to lose control of your character and flee for a few seconds.
Orbiter: Orbiter monsters are able to cover entire areas in an array of electric balls. These balls electrocute anything they touch.
Plagued: Plagued monsters leave toxic puddles in their footsteps. Standing in these puddles - even to attack the plagued - will deal increasing amounts of poison damage.
Poison Enchanted: Poison enchanted monsters summon toxic globules that spread in a cross pattern and leave a damaging trail in their wake.
Reflect Damage: Monsters with this affix deal a portion of the damage they take back to their attackers. Their reflection power turns on and off over time, but you'll be able to tell that it's active if you keep an eye on them.
Shielding: Shielding monsters can conjure a temporary magic shield that makes them immune to damage.
Teleporter: Monsters with the teleporter affix can disappear and reappear in different locations on the screen at will, both to make surprise attacks and to escape.
Thunderstorm: Monsters with the thunderstorm affix use potent lightning strikes to shock enemies from a distance.
Vampiric: Vampiric monsters feed off of your injuries. They recover a portion of all damage they deal as Life.
Vortex: Monsters with the vortex affix can pull you towards them, interrupting your attacks and keeping you dangerously close.
Waller: Monsters with the waller affix create walls that can trap you or block your path to the monster summoning them. Summoned walls will vanish after a few seconds - if you can afford to wait.
Wormhole: Monsters with the wormhole affix tear a pair of magical rifts in the battlefield. After several seconds, the wormholes emerge, and all heroes near one wormhole are teleported to the other.


Remove Ads as a privilege for people that use many SE sites

Question: I'm a member of many stack exchange sites and on some of the SE sites I have very little rep(about 110) where I have only asked or answered one question. And I find it annoying that the sites still have ads. I know they are needed to generate an income for the network. But they are annoying when browsing a site that you are not an expert nor a regular user of that SE. So would it be possible for users with accounts on multiple SE sites to have ads removed as well as having the privilege such that people with about 20 accounts and have used them once or twice will receive no ads.
Answer: I can't see the utility in this.
If you're active enough on the site to be bothered by the ads then it should be possible for you to get the extra 100 points of reputation you need not to see them (assuming you have the 100 point bonus from associating a 200+ account).
Answer: No Stack Exchange 2.0 network sites, except Stack Overflow and Server Fault (and sometimes Super User) show paid ads.
If you are referring to the one house ad in the sidebar, that "advertises"

chat

the site's meta

interesting questions from other sites in the network

the weekly site newsletter

community promotion ads as determined by and voted on the site's meta

These are not paid ads and are required of every network site.
Answer: Adding to what ChrisF reported, if you are active enough on an SE site to have a reputation of at least 200, then you would get 100 points bonus on all the SE sites where you use the same account. This means that, when you register a new account on a site where you didn't have an account, you start with a reputation of 101, if you use the same account you have in the site where your reputation is at least 200.
Comment: I would call it "stage two": Get more involved, and you will never have again those limitations a user with a reputation lower than 100 has. :-)
Comment: Thanks - that was implied in my answer!


Prove whether or not the series converges? $\sum_{n=2}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^n}{n^{1/n}}$

Question: Any help is much appreciated on this!
Comment: Do the terms go to zero in magnitude?
Answer: You can use the Test for Divergence here. For a series to be convergent you need the limit of the terms to go to zero, i.e. that
$$
\lim_{n\to \infty} \frac{(-1)^n}{n^{1/n}} = 0.
$$
That is is equivalent to needing that
$$
\lim_{n\to \infty} n^{1/n} = \pm\infty.
$$
So if this limit is not infinity (or negative infinity), then the series is divergent.
However by noting that with $y = n^{1/n}$ you have $\ln(y) = \frac{\ln(n)}{n}$. You can probably show that the limit of $\ln(y)$ as $n\to \infty$ is $0$. So that means that
$$
\lim_{n\to \infty} n^{1/n} =\lim_{n\to \infty} y =
\lim_{n\to \infty} e^{\ln(y)} = e^{\lim_{n\to \infty} \ln(y)}  = e^0 = 1.
$$
So this series is divergent.
Answer: When you see $$\sum_{n=2}^{\infty} \frac{(-1)^n}{n^{1/n}}$$
you may not immediately think about using the Divergence Test, though in general, that should be the first test you try on a given series.
I think the most natural approach would be to use the Alternating Series (Leibniz Test) here though.
This test states that if $b_n$ is positive, decreasing, and $b_n \to 0$ as $n\to\infty$, then our series converges. $b_n$ is the positive part of the summand $(\frac{1}{n^{1/n}})$.
It is easy to see that $b_n$ is positive for $n \in [2, \infty)$. Now, look at the limit of $b_n$ as $n \to \infty$:
$$\lim_{n\to\infty} \frac{1}{n^{1/n}} = 1 \ne 0\implies \sum{a_n} \quad \text{diverges}$$
However, as noted by Jonas Meyer in the comments, the terms of $b_n$ are in fact increasing, so it is immediate that the series diverges because the hypotheses for the AST are not met.


Joomla3 Loading two diffrent plugin for two diffrent user group in their profile page

Question: I have two profile plugin (core profile and newly created profile5), How can I load these two plugin with two diffrent user group. (For Register type user load core profile and for Editor load profile5).
Answer: It's very simple:
you just need to be sure that you have different Access Level for those groups, if you don't - go and make sure about it. (Manage Users - Access Levels)
Then go to your plugins settins and choose required Access Level for each plugin.


Does Wings of Liberty have global play on its own?

Question: I just learnt that global play is available in Heart of the Swarm.  If I only have a Wings of Liberty copy attached to the North American server and I have a friend with only a Wings of Liberty copy attached to the European server, can we both use global play to play together without Heat of the Swarm?
Answer: Yes, Wings of Liberty has global play without upgrading to Heart of the Swarm.

If I want to use Global Play, do I have to upgrade to Heart of the Swarm?.
Global play will be available to all StarCraft II players, regardless
  of license level. You do not need to upgrade your copy of Wings of
  Liberty to use Global Play.
If you have more than one regional copy of Wings of Liberty and want to upgrade to Heart of the Swarm, you only need to upgrade one of them. The Heart of the Swarm upgrade applies to all regional versions of Wings of Liberty on your Battle.net account.

Source: Global Play FAQ from Battle.net
As has been mentioned and is also in the FAQ, Global Play is not available to those in mainland China.
Answer: In patch 2.0.5 of Wings of Liberty Global play was enabled.

GENERAL

Global Play is now live.

Players can now easily switch between regions via the new "Regions" button on the StarCraft II login screen.
Your game language and user interface will not change when you change regions.
Your character profiles and ladder data are unique to each region.
When your region's game servers are undergoing maintenance, you may be able to play in a different region that is not down for
  maintenance.
For more information, please visit our Global Play FAQ on our support site.
Answer: Yes, it is available, except for players in mainland China

Following numerous complaints earlier today about having problems with logging in or downloading Battle.net data players are now able to play full version of Wings of Liberty on servers other than their original license is for. For example EU players are free to log in and create fully functional character on NA and vice versa, provided they have appropriate game client.

Source: TeamLiquid's thread


Outsourcing trivial authorless work

Question: I have worked on a problem for close to two years. I feel I have an adequate theoretical solution. However I feel to get some backing on the theory I need some quantitative hard computer data. It is only a few days work of programming. Would it be ethically wrong to recruit an undergrad for a few days volunteer work without pay to get the computer crunching part done and not mention him as a coauthor and only mention as acknowledgement?  This is only for time reasons as I am not familiar with tools required. Everything will be given as cook book to the interested programmer.
Comment: Why would an undergrad volunteer to do something for you for literally no benefit for themself? And second, are you really sure that they'd turn out good enough work that you could trust it without spending an equally long chunk of time verifying it yourself?
Comment: Why don't you want to credit them? Given that you **need** this and they provided a significant contribution they deserve to be coauthors.
Comment: Why *not* add them as an author? What's your reason for not wanting to do so in the first place?
Comment: How do you know it's only a few days work? What are the limits on you implementing this yourself?
Comment: In the area where I live, the seasoned programmer earns ~ 100$ per hour. In addition to this I have noticed that people do not become seasoned programmers out of a sudden, it takes years of work to become a seasoned programmer.
Comment: Given that this website started from a user base of programmers/software engineers, I suspect asking a question that devalues their work to have some bias involved :p
Comment: It is typical in academia to abuse undergrads for that. professors seems to get by with this - albeit most often with minimum wage. But that does not make it more ethical ...
Comment: Not to pile on - but "a few days work" in practice means it will take somewhere from a few days to a few weeks of continual work. When its someone else's time, more than 5 minutes would be pushing the meaning of "trivial". I'd say unless you could get someone to provide the code on stack exchange for unicorn points, its probably more work than could possibly worth an acknowledgement - which has the approximately same street value as 1 up vote here :)
Comment: Can you may tell us your own experience in coding? I cannot get rid of the impression that you have no clue at all, is that true? Therefore, you may make a completely wrong estimation of the amount of work involved in coding and, most importantly, to **what can go wrong**!
My personal experience with this: either you know enough about coding and just implement it yourself or you don't know enough to even make the slightest estimate to what it takes. Did you get a second opinion (probably from a colleague that is better at coding) on *how hard the implementation truly is*?
Comment: Clearly, the answer is yes. You feel you need the result to support your work. Do it right.
Comment: It might be helpful if you specify your level. If you are a professor, this could be a good opportunity for a student to earn a letter of recommendation and get something for their resume. If you are a grad student, I can't see why they would even agree to do this, much less why it would be ethical to allow them to.
Comment: How seasoned? If a good undergrad CS major would do, then it's probably OK, but you need to pay them. I won't do it without being paid.
Comment: @Freeman: If you wish your own conclusion to be heard, write your own answer (summarizing what arguments lead to it). It clearly doesn't belong in the question and is irritating to the reader. I know that in some cases, post-mortem information (e.g., "the plagiarising paper was retracted") can be interesting to some readers, but this is not the case here and even then, it should be clearly identifiable as such.
Comment: @DaveInCaz I doubt it would change the answers much if at all. Comparable work  like skilled lab work or help with statistical analysis probably would get essentially the same answers which with some variation seem to all say this merits more than an acknowledgement. Something like grammatical editing would probably not be comparable and not merit more than acknowledgement, but also would not take "a few days".
Comment: You seem to think you won't get published *without* the computer work, yet you also seem to not translate this into respecting how important the computer work is to your paper.  If it's that critical then you have a co-author.  Remember the co-author has to stand over the validity of their work and if you didn't do that work you cannot be sure it's valid.  If you want *all* the credit do *all* the work.  Even the best undergrad programmers know a lot less about programming than they think they do, so that's a very risky route for critical coding.
Comment: One aspect that has not been brought up is this:  who would own the resulting software?  Would the student be able to sell licenses to this software to other researchers, possibly after making some modifications?  Would that constitute theft of your initial cookbook instructions?  Do you own the software?  Does the institution that funded your research own the software?  This might be trivial. It might not be.
Comment: @Freeman. – Please do not engage in edit wars.
Comment: Be clear about the credits from the proposal. As long as it is mutually agreed upon beforehand, preferably in writing, and it can't be construed as an abuse of power, it shouldn't be ethically problematic. The undergrad would still be working for free, which is far from ideal tho.
Comment: If by "cook book" you mean design doc, you are plainly undervaluing the developer work involved.
Comment: Well now we know that you don't do your own software.
Comment: @Azor Ahai : I might do something like this without necessarily having pay. Assuming everyone will only do things for pay is too reductive. And keep in mind the OP is suggesting to _ask_ , which means that the person can refuse the no-pay terms if sie so pleases. However, I agree with the others here that _credit_ should definitely be given.
Comment: @The_Sympathizer Did I mention pay?
Comment: Hi I am coding this myself.
Comment: @YemonChoi What a shame trying to throw mud on me. Look it is not as if MO is solving RH for me. It just basically solves some useful problems where I lack knowledge (plus only 33% of questions were ever answered and some in hindsight are just reference point queries). Hope that helps and if there is a recommendation that you 'can' make positively let me know.
Comment: @YemonChoi There is a reason users make communities they join hidden. By abusing and revealing other communities you belittle the value of trust in this site.
Comment: A lot of people here are probably from Stack Overflow, and therefore are professional programmers who feel they have a sort of stake in this (including myself). It would be interesting if this question could have been written in a more hypothetical / notional way. For instance, if the work to be done wasn't programming but some other skilled labor the OP did not have direct experience in, and then to ask the same question amounting to what value someone's contribution in that area would be worth. I don't know if that would change the mix of answers (or not).
Answer: The fact that to a seasoned programmer the work is easy doesn't have anything to do with it. As you describe it, this is work that's required for the publication. Without it, you don't have a paper. With it, you do. Therefore the programmer contributed significantly (critically) to the paper, and therefore the programmer should be an author.
The fact that it's quick and easy for a programmer simply means that programmers have spent significant time and effort learning skills that you don't have. If you consider the work trivial, then go out and learn the skills yourself, and do the work yourself. If that's too much work, then put an appropriate value on that work and offer authorship.
An example in my field is histopathology. I can take tissue slides to an expert who will look at them for five minutes and provide an interpretation. That expert becomes a co-author, not because of their five minutes of work but because of the decades of experience behind it.
Collaborators shouldn't need to run a bloody gauntlet and engage in hand-to-hand combat to become co-authors. If they provide a skill that contributes significantly to the paper, that should be enough.
Comment: @Freeman I also do not see why the OP does not want to acknowledge the programmer as a co-author. Any contribution is a contribution. A contributor as a co-author. What are you going to loose? Since you made this question, you already has feeling that there is something wrong in not acknowledging the programmer. Most theorists unfortunately, because they do not have practical experience, they think it is trivial. Implementation is not trivial at all. It also require effort and most of the time reveal flaws in the theoretical part or articulate the theory which seems dummy without it.
Comment: *"this is work that's required for the publication"* wouldn't you say the same for a translator?
Comment: @mehrdad just about every possible silly counterexample was already put forward in the discussion, which was removed as too long. All were irrelevant. Please don't start again.
Comment: Extended discussions in the comments have been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/86823/discussion-on-answer-by-iayork-outsourcing-trivial-authorless-work). Please check whether your concern hasn't already been mentioned before writing a new comment. @iayork: Please try to implement important clarifications into your answer.
Answer: Seasoned's programmer's rate would probably be $100-$1000 per day. This, assuming that your estimation is correct (dangerous assumption) means you are asking for a volunteer to provide you with $500-$5000 of free labor(assuming that the work takes 5 days).
I also find it strange that you mention time for a seasoned's programmer, but want to hire an undergrad - the difference in the time required to finish the job might differ much. And no work is "Trivial" if it requires "few days" of expert's work.
Undergrad's work might also be of lower quality because of his lack of experience - what if the program is faulty and returns wrong results? How would you know that?
Ultimately it comes down to how you arrange it - you might find someone willing to do it for free. I suggest considering potential gains (is undergrad contributing $2000 in his time not enough to become a co-author?) and threats ( what if the work takes much longer? what if the program has bugs? what if the undergrad can't do it? ).
Comment: It's a pretty small and elite group of programmers who make $1000 per day; conversely, $100 per day is not much above minimum wage in some places in the US. So realistically, I think that range could be a bit narrower, like $200-400 per day for an average competent professional software developer in the US.
Comment: @DavidZ I didn't want to try to account for all the different variables - experience, technology, location... I provided approximated rates so that I would have some numbres to show. Entry level software engineers at the big five earn 100k+ USD per year, that's more than 400 USD a day, and they are not experienced. Bottom line is, they are not pennies.
Comment: @DavidZ $100/hour is actually a pretty *low* consulting fee for a seasoned programmer out in The World, especially in places like California. And 10 hours of work per day for a short-term project isn't outrageous either.
Comment: @DavidZ Did you misread $100-$1000 per **day** as per **hour**? Because, yes, $1000/hour is absurdly high; $1000 per day (~$125/hour) is still a high salary, but not absurdly so, and actually well within the ballpark for an experienced contractor.
Comment: (2 comments up) Well, the "big five" tech companies and others in tech hubs are not representative of what programmers make in general. If the OP is in one of these areas and has to pay a rate competitive with what those companies are paying, then yes, you have to go beyond $400/hour, but even then, $1000/hour is very high. And in a lot of other places the salaries are a lot lower. (1 comment up) @JeffE I suppose you're right in that consulting fees can be 2-3x higher than salary, I didn't consider that.
Comment: In comparing employee salaries and contractor rates, the contractor rate has to come out considerably higher for equal compensation.  $100K/year with paid time off, continuous employment, and assorted benefits is far better than $50/hour straight cash.  $400/day is quite low.  $100/day is ludicrous.
Answer:
Would it be ethically wrong to recruit an undergrad for a few days volunteer work without pay

"Ethically wrong"?  Some answers say it isn't (though I disagree)
But that is the wrong question to ask

However, I feel [that] to get some backing on the theory, I need... computer data.

You've worked on a problem for two years.
You're going to trust "a couple days" free work from a random undergrad to prove it?

If you don't know enough to code it yourself, how do you know the code is right?
In other words (and this isn't meant as harsh or flippant) if you can't tell me how you will be able to tell the difference between these two outcomes:

A person taking your assignment and coding something which produces the answer you expect
A person writing a program which will prove or disprove your theory

...then you don't need the code, do you?
If it turns out you think #2 is correct, but later someone proves that #1 is what really happened... that's bad.

This is only for time reasons as I am not familiar with tools required. Everything will be given as cook book to the interested programmer.

This information was added after I wrote my answer. I answered with the assumption that OP was getting an undergrad to do the code because s/he lacked the knowledge.
Comment: Anyone who thinks that they can get useful, valid work out of an short-term undergraduate is probably mistaken. Anyone who's trying to do so while shafting that person on credit and pay deserves to be mistaken.
Comment: While I agree with the latter part of your answer, the first sentence is so wrong that I have to -1 you. It's terribly wrong. If you edit that out I would definitely upvote the fine point regarding verifying the code.
Comment: @einpoklum Do you mean where I say, "Maybe not" to it being ethically wrong? If so, please note I put that there because others have argued that under the right circumstances (agreement in advance, etc.) it would not be ethically wrong (at their institution / their field, presumably).  I consider it wrong, and wouldn't advise it on a moral basis - but there are other answers here that say how to make it right ethically, and they seem to have valid points (regardless of my feelings). My main point is code correctness - sidestepping ethics *because* I doubt OP will care my opinion on the ethics.
Comment: "_I doubt OP will care my opinion on the ethics._" OP specifically asked whether it would be ethically wrong. This suggests that they care about your (and everybody else's) opinion about ethics. It's fine if you don't want to comment about it, but you did actually state an opinion ("maybe not") that suggests that you don't feel strongly that it's unethical, so your response to einpoklum where you now say that you "consider it wrong" makes you sound inconsistent. My suggestion is to edit your answer and either remove the ethics comment or give a clear statement of your position on this.
Comment: @J.ChrisCompton: So why not edit your comment into the answer, instead of the "maybe not"? Replace it with "in my opinion, it is, but \n this is not the right question etc."
Comment: @DanRomik Yes, the OP said he wanted my opinion - but I think he is at least worried that it might be wrong and came here *to get people to tell him how to make it okay.* Notice the answer he accepted basically told him how to do what he wanted in the first place. Communicating my thoughts sometimes goes wrong, for example "Maybe not" was intended to say to everyone "That's not ethical to me, but you might be able to do enough lawyering prep work so no ethics board could actually find against you on this issue."  Anyway, changed it. Hope it sounds consistent now (as I haven't changed my mind).
Comment: @einpoklum "Why not edit your comment into the answer?" because I still read it the way I meant it. But when DanRomnik joined you in taking it the same way you did, I decided to change it. See what I wrote previous comment for what I *meant to convey* when I said, "Maybe not."
Comment: Thanks, your position is clearer now, which I think makes for a better answer. Upvoted.
Comment: I don't quite understand this answer, as it seems to suggest that there is no way for a code-illiterate person to make any use of computer-generated output, since they cannot verify what the coder did.
Comment: @NuclearWang OP added the part "This is only for time reasons" after my answer. Certainly a code-illiterate person can use computer generated output in general. Can a non-coder use results from Microsoft Excel or SAS - absolutely! (And we don't know how those are coded.) But the question seems to be whether a non-coder can use output from a *custom built program,* which is *built by someone who isn't a specialist* (the undergrad) to verify a unique hypothesis... maybe not.  (Again, the additional info that OP is able code it is new info)
Answer: I don't suppose it's unethical so long as you are clear in your expectations and proposed reward (which is effectively nothing), and the other party fully understands what they are getting into. This could easily become exploitative, however, as you are hoping to get someone to work for you while offering really nothing of value in return. If you are a professor or are some other type of authority figure over the student, I'd tread very carefully here, as you could be exerting undue influence over this person.
I notice that you plan to approach an undergraduate student about this, which could very easily be seen as preying on someone who doesn't know any better. If you have a really interesting problem that's so cool to work on that someone should be happy to do it for a simple "thank you", why not approach a true "seasoned programmer" instead of an undergraduate student? If true professionals find your proposal unpalatable, I'd say it would be unethical to try to hoodwink a less experienced person into the deal.
Comment: Nicely said. If you offer to pay, it is fine. If you offer co-authorship it is fine. I would have taken either as an undergraduate programmer. If you have department approval and offer course-credit it is fine. But if you use a position of at least apparent and possibly actual authority to pressure a person that is at least apparently subordinate into it with then it is unethical and could be illegal depending on the details.
Comment: "I'm looking for a sucker undergrad who's willing to do work I really need done, and for which I'm paid for, while receiving literally no reward." <- If OP made this clear, and someone showed up, I don't see how it becomes legitimate.
Answer:
Would it be ethically wrong to recruit an undergrad for a few days volunteer work without pay to get the computer crunching part done and not mention him as a coauthor and only mention as acknowledgement?

Yes. Perhaps it wouldn't be the most terrible ethical offense, but if forced to choose one of the two words "no" or "yes" to answer the question "would it be ethically wrong?", I'd go with "yes".
The reason why it's wrong is that you are going against established conventions of what authorship means. You think that by offering a student some other sort of reward for doing part of the work involved in publishing a paper, whether it be an acknowledgement, a letter of recommendation, or the opportunity to add another experience to their CV, then it is okay to not list them as a coauthor. But this is wrong, for two reasons: first, there is a clear power differential at play here that makes it likely the student may be tempted to go along with your scheme even without really finding the arrangement very fair or agreeable. In other words, it's exploitation and an abuse of authority (of a sort we hear about all too often on this site unfortunately).
Second, and perhaps even more importantly, it is not just the student you are offending against. The scientific community has an expectation to be given honest and accurate information about who contributed meaningfully to the creation of the paper. And, by current conventions at least, "several days of work by a seasoned programmer" is more than enough to be counted as a coauthor. I find the idea of you reaching a private agreement with the student to deprive the community of that information by having the student give up authorship rights quite problematic, even overlooking the separate issue of exploitation. Imagine for example if rich people started paying famous academics to collaborate on research with them, giving them a high salary with the agreement that the famous and super-talented person will give up their coauthorship rights. Is this just a private transaction between two consenting adults that doesn't hurt anyone else? No, of course it's much less innocent and is harmful, since it deprives the community of information it needs to function effectively, and goes against agreed-upon norms of what's acceptable.
Now, of course, in your situation you are actually the person who will have done almost all the research, and that's fine. The student being a coauthor  doesn't mean that they will get half the credit for something you worked on for two years. It would be completely legitimate for you to make it clear to people what each coauthor contributed in any way necessary (by writing it in the paper, or in your CV or publication list, research statement etc). You absolutely deserve to get the correct portion of credit, and there is an honest way to make that happen. But as for coauthorship, the student programmer should get it, since they will have contributed time, creative thinking and a technical skill that's quite nontrivial (at least, nontrivial enough that you yourself don't possess it) to the project, and those are the accepted criteria for being a coauthor.
Comment: @einpoklum thanks, glad you partially agree. I did say it was unethical, it's just less unethical (and less obviously unethical) than some other things I can think of. Actually I noticed that my answer was the only one that brings up the community aspect, so it's nice to see that someone took notice. :-)
Comment: I would +1 you for mentioning an offense against the _community_; but I think you're being to lenient with your downplaying of the inethicality (sp?) of OP's suggestion.
Comment: You've inspired me to expand my answer accordingly, so now there are two.
Answer: Rather than proposing this to an individual, which should be interpreted as coercive since there is a power imbalance, you could publish a call for help, describing what you need and what you offer. Be clear that it is only an ack on offer, not authorship, and no money is involved. Ask for people to apply. You can choose among those who offer to help. Some probably will, but if not, you should consider something more substantial.
If there is a learning component, you could describe that in your "call" as well. It might make it more interesting, even though there is no academic credit involved.

Let me respond, indirectly, to some of the comments here by people who seem to think I'm suggesting an unethical course of action. Actually, all I tried to do was assure that coercion wasn't part of the OP's actions by suggesting an open call for assistance with little reward.
If I ask someone to mow my lawn and there is a power imbalance between us it is coercive and thus unethical. If I put out a general call for someone who would be willing to mow my lawn for no return but my thanks, it is no longer unethical. I hope that is recognized.
In fact, professors are on the "losing" end of exactly this sort of arrangement. Society has asked us to dedicate our lives, and often fund our own education, to educate the next generation. The tangible rewards are actually few. I earned, over a 45 year career about half of what I'd have earned working in industry (I actually have anecdotal evidence). Society asked me to do this, offering thanks and (often) respect, but not actually a "fair" compensation. Society depends, in fact, on lots of people being willing to take this deal, finding that the rewards are other than monetary or power or ...
Most of you reading this, and most of you disagreeing with me, have taken this deal or are in the process of preparing yourselves to accept it. While I'd like a "better" deal, I've never been unhappy with the deal as long as I had the respect of my peers and as long as I felt I was contributing.
Not every relationship needs to be strictly transactional. If I ask for assistance, offering only thanks but little else, I don't expect any particular person to accept, but I depend on the fact that those that do will find, somehow, their own rewards in helping.
Another analogy is precisely what happens on this site. People ask for help. There is very little offered in return for that help and yet other people - you and me - are willing to help and get our reward however we can. Sometimes the respect of our peers is enough.
I recognize that the current question may be a bit different, but I don't see that I'm suggesting finding a "sucker" if a student accepts such a request and finds in his or her own way a reason, educational or otherwise, for doing so. Those who are grant funded should, of course, build in funds for such things, but not everyone is. Many faculty at undergraduate institutions are required to do research but not compensated for it. You are paid for teaching and for being supportive of undergraduates and helping them grow and advance.
I also recognize that some here believe that any help on a paper should result in co-authorship. I think that is misplaced. I agree that those who contribute to the intellectual content of a paper should be recognized, probably as authors, but if someone works at my direction, then it is a different situation. Should someone translating my poor language skills into a polished paper be a co-author? Should my first Calculus instructor be a co-author in every Analysis paper I write?
Note that I didn't, and don't, know all of the details here and so can't actually comment whether as student writing code to validate a theory has contributed to the intellectual content (My field is CS, actually). It may be or not, depending on the level of direction, which I don't have evidence for. Creativity should be recognized, certainly. Don't guess that I think otherwise. There are situations in which authorship would be appropriate and others for which an acknowledgment is sufficient.
Comment: It's still unethical if you find a sucker willing to submit.
Comment: But if an undergrad believes this would be a valuable experience in itself and decides to apply, does it make it ethical to not give them authorship status nonetheless? Just because the terms are clear beforehand does not mean the deal is fair.
Comment: I agree with @einpoklum. Just because you make it clear up front that you are going to have someone do work and you won't make them co-author **does not solve the ethical problem that arised in the first place**. OP accepted this answer probably because it is more comfortable, but a good answer should definitely address this (see iayork's answer).
Comment: Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/86953/discussion-on-answer-by-buffy-outsourcing-trivial-authorless-work). Additionally, some flags have been raised on some overly aggressive comments. Please keep it civil, folks.
Answer: It would be exploitative and quite unethical, yes.

It is only a few days work of programming.

You'll know that after the programming is done. Preliminary estimates of programming time are typically much lower than actual effort expended, not to mention the significant amount of not-actual-programming overhead we tend not to account for.

Would it be ethically wrong to recruit an undergrad for a few days volunteer work without pay

So, you want someone to do work you need for your research - for which you yourself are paid, and for which your university is funded - without the person doing the work getting paid?
You bet this is ethically wrong. Ethically, morally, and in some countries also legally.
It should also be noted you would not  just mistreating that student. You would be:

Legitimizing younger, inexperienced researchers not getting acknowledged for their work.
Legitimizing students not getting acknowledged for their material contribution to the work of people higher-up the ladder.
Legitimizing exploitative employment practices in academia, where it is unfortunately quite common to squeeze unpaid work out of people who depend on the system in various ways.

So your suggested act would be offensive both to the academic community at large. If I were in your university you could expect harsh action from the nontenured academic staff union upon us finding out you've done this.

to get some backing on the theory I need some quantitative hard computer data... and not mention him as a coauthor and only mention as acknowledgement?

Since this data is necessary objectively, it will also be necessary to present it, to some extent, in the paper. And this necessary part of the paper will be generated by that undergrad programmer. ... Sounds like a co-author to me; and you cannot drop co-authors.
Also, while it is sometimes legitimate to ask people about whether they want authorship or not - when an undergraduate is involved, there's a power and knowledge imbalance which makes it unethical to ask them to give up co-authorship.
What you could do - if you like - is describe the extent of his/her involvement; but even this may be impolite (depending on the conventions in your field of research).

This is only for time reasons as I am not familiar with tools required.

So the co-author will even utilize some expertise which you do not have? An even stronger co-authorship.
If not for time reasons, I would have written most papers in most scientific fields all on my own. I just need enough time to become familiar with all of that stuff.

Everything will be given as cook book to the interested programmer.

That would be nice and a good idea regardless of who writes the code. However, an unethical, immoral, and exploitative act is not excused by a related socially-beneficial and commendable act.
Oh, and, just so you know - implementing something to just work for a paper and implementing it for publication so that other people can use it to is a significant difference in the amount of work necessary.

I also very much agree with @DanRomik's observation that you would be committing an offense against the scientific community, not just the undergrad; and with @JChrisCompton's observation that you're ignoring the issue of verification/trustworthiness of the code.
Comment: You make quite a few, perhaps unwarranted, assumptions. In many undergraduate institutions in the US, the professor is paid to teach, but still expected to do research. There are no grants involved and no pay for the research. It is just an expectation. Any pay would come out of the professor's pocket and he/she may not be especially well paid to begin with. In such an institution, all of the students are undergraduates, and in many cases they have fairly close relationship with their professors. Not everything there needs to be transactional as you seem to prefer.
Comment: To clarify, when I said OP's actions would be an offense against the community I meant something specific: that OP would be depriving the community of information about who contributed meaningfully to the paper. That's different from what you are referring to in your answer about legitimizing exploitation and so on. (By the way, can't you accuse any wrongdoer of offending everyone else by legitimizing wrongdoing of that particular sort? This hardly seems to be worth mentioning. The main thing that's wrong with doing something wrong is that it is wrong, not that it "legitimizes wrongdoing".)
Comment: Likewise, two years of work at such an institution is nothing like two years at a top research institution. It is done in odd moments between classes and during summer "breaks". There are no university funds to support it, maybe not even for publication fees.
Comment: "the professor is paid to teach, but still expected to do research. " <- that means the professor is paid to do both, without getting proper recognition for his/her research work. This warped arrangement is due to the collective weakness of faculty which should organize across universities to struggle for better working conditions overall. "No grants for research" <- Research funding should also be a struggle. What you're describing is every stratum passing the buck, or perhaps, carrying forward the exploitation, to the next stratum. Totally unacceptable.
Answer: Authorship
(Ethical) academic authorship is independent of other forms of rewards, so it doesn't really matter here whether you pay somebody or not. The crucial aspect here is whether your programmer made a creative contribution. Now, what is creative is somewhat fuzzy and difficult to assess, but a good litmus test can be obtained from considering what a non-creative contribution would look like:

It always produces the same result with respect to your research question. (Irrelevant or unavoidable differences like the programming language, statistical fluctuations, etc. are excluded.)
It follows a clear established protocol.
Understanding your research question yields no advantage to the contributor, e.g., in form of assessing the plausibility of results (also see J. Chris Compton's answer).

If this applies to the contribution you seek, then it is likely not creative. However, as others noted, this is very likely not the case here.
Payment
Your programmer is very likely not helping you for purely altruistic reasons, so there must be something else you have to offer.
I can only see the following options:

Scientific credit (authorship). This requires a scientific contribution, which you excluded to be the case.
Formal payment. You also excluded this.
A prospect of recommendation letter, good grades, thesis projects would imply an abuse of power and in some cases bribery. This could very well be compared to just receiving money from the student.
Getting insight into the scientific process would be in conflict with your claim that this is a trivial task.

Sidenote
I often found that tackling a research question from another point of view yielded valuable new insights or perspectives in unexpected ways. Given that you spent two years on your question, investing two days in programming will almost certainly be a worthwhile experience on average.
Comment: This is the best answer. Either this is truly "crunching" (akin to buying a microscope or feeding the rats) -- in which case it should be paid or otherwise remunerated -- or it is a creative contribution, in which case it deserves authorship. Whether the student consents to be exploited is irrelevant. I could maybe see a case if OP were willing to let the successful student continue to collaborate with him and earn authorship on future papers (as well as a LoR), but no evidence this is the case here.
Answer: I don't think is unethical if you provide something of value of exchange to the prospective student.   Will he gain an understanding of some theory that he/she's interested in as part of the engagement?   Be upfront at what you're offering to your prospective collaborator.
If you just want a free coder then yes this is unethical.  This is pure and simple exploitation, and abuse of power from your side.  Would you like to be on the other side of this exchange?
ps. Check the regulations of your institution!
Answer: Is the output of the computer program going to be included in the paper?  If so, that output has an author, and that author deserves credit.  But who is the author?  Is it the computer?  Is it the program?  Or is it the programmer?  I think it's the programmer.
If the output has no intellectual merit, why does it add value to the paper?  Would including the program input instead of the output serve the reader equally?
Contrary to popular belief, programming is intellectual activity. It deserves respect.
Answer: I am a software engineer. There's a story that has always resonated with me whenever a friend asks for "free" software development

The story goes that Picasso was sitting in a Paris café when an
  admirer approached and asked if he would do a quick sketch on a paper
  napkin. Picasso politely agreed, swiftly executed the work, and handed
  back the napkin — but not before asking for a rather significant
  amount of money. The admirer was shocked: "How can you ask for so
  much? It took you a minute to draw this!" "No", Picasso replied, "It
  took me 40 years"

Even though I am no Picasso in the software world, the overall message is the same and applies to any professional. A good story to consider when asking for "free" help
Blog Link to story
Answer: In many institutions, it is common for undergraduates to help with research, either paid or for credits. It is not necessarily unethical to post your project and ask for help, but you have to consider what the student is getting from this experience.
Authorship might reasonably be off the table, but at the same time the undergraduate might come with some interesting insights/get more involved. You never know.
Regardless of the authorship or financial aspect, there is some form of payment that, for some, is invaluable: the experience and the advice. For most undergraduates, getting involved in research (especially if they are actively interested in pursuing such a career) can be tough.
However, you should consider that undergrad less as the one doing the dirty work and more as your mentee. You are, after all, more experienced than him, and you could provide some useful insights into academia or into your field. This comes of course at the cost of you spending some (possibly rather fun) time with the undergraduate, sharing your knowledge.
To put is shortly, if you find somebody willing to be just a coding monkey, it's not necessarily unethical, but adopting the coding monkey as a (possibly very short term) tutee is a win-win situation.
Answer:
Would it be ethically wrong to recruit an undergrad for a few days
  volunteer work without pay to get the computer crunching part done and
  not mention him as a coauthor and only mention as acknowledgement?

It's not ethically wrong if the engineering contribution is too tiny, compared to the whole contribution of the paper.
In fact, it's very common that professors/researchers hire several undergrads/interns to work on engineering a tool, and only list them in the acknowledgment. (I can provide many examples).
However, it is ethically wrong if the engineering contribution is substantial, and you don't list them as co-author. Whether there contribution is enough for co-authorship depends on your judgement, but your judgement can be wrong.
If you read the book "7 habits of highly effective people", one of the habit is always thinking about win-win solution. You can't just expect somebody to work for you for free. It sounds unrealistic.
Comment: "You can just expect somebody to work for you for free." I think you meant to write "can't" or "cannot".

Outsourcing trivial authorless work