- When I'm on an airplane and I look straight ahead during takeoff or landing, I feel like I can see that the plane is pointed up or down. Can I really, or does my brain just extrapolate based on other information to create this illusion?
- How does that divergent sum which equals -1/12 relate to String Theory (among other things)?
- When Herschel was measuring the temperature of light, why was infrared hotter than visible light?
- If a photon leaves the sun travelling in one direction, is another photon leaving on the opposite side of the sun travelling at twice the speed of light relative to the first photon?
- What is causing the unseasonably warm weather on the East coast of the U.S.?
- Why are the pressures at the cores of stars so high?
- How are satilites that are very far away able to transmit there data make to earth?
- [Physics]What caused these creepy patterns in the ice/frost?
- In film, we always see people galloping off at full pace on horseback for miles. But how long could a well trained, well bred run at full pace for?
- Why is true north different to magnetic north?
- Is there a flaw in the answer to the Monty Hall Problem?
- What do physicists mean by "information" in the context of black holes?
- Could you polish two large stones so well that they would have low enough friction to slide against each other "effortlessly"?
- Would a corpse on the moon decompose at all? If so, would it take longer?
- What exactly is going on in your eyes and brain when you see something that's "too bright?"
- Why do the pressure waves that cause a sonic boom travel at the speed of sound?
- Is there any way that fundamental constants of physics such as G, c, h etc could change depending on the scale of matter you are looking at i.e. a galaxy vs an atom?
- Are animals allergic to humans?
- [Chemistry] How do you calculate the volume of an atom?
- How can photons become entangled if they don't experience the passage of time?
- What pressure does it take to collapse an air bubble in room temperature water?
- What causes a dust devil? Is it different than a tornado?
- Would I get star sunburn if I was just outside of Earth's atmosphere on the dark side of the planet?
| Posted: 25 Dec 2015 10:57 AM PST My relative position in the plane stays the same in takeoff or landing, so why am I able to see that we are pointed up or down when I'm just looking straight ahead? [link] [571 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| How does that divergent sum which equals -1/12 relate to String Theory (among other things)? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 05:43 AM PST I'm referring to this series of course. I'm always looking to learn more about theoretical physics and the like but when I found this "party trick" of a math proof was actually applicable to physics I was speechless. Numberphile did a pretty fun video on it here where they, like the Wikipedia page, mention that this sum actually relates to String Theory and other places in physics. So my question is: Where, why, and how does it relate to physics? I can understand the proofs and how strange values like this arise when dealing with infinite sums, but not how they have any REAL application. Don't get me wrong, I'm no scientist or mathematician, I'm just a college student who studies math and physics in his spare time. [link] [50 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| When Herschel was measuring the temperature of light, why was infrared hotter than visible light? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 01:23 PM PST Every time I see or hear something about the discovery of infrared light people say Herschel noticed that the control thermometer to the side of red light was the hottest. Why would the infrared light be hotter than visible light, which has more energy? [link] [5 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 25 Dec 2015 03:15 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| What is causing the unseasonably warm weather on the East coast of the U.S.? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 07:41 PM PST Christmas just doesn't feel like Christmas when it's raining instead of snowing. :( [link] [8 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| Why are the pressures at the cores of stars so high? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 11:23 PM PST So, I've been watching some Youtube videos about astronomy and it's mentioned several times that the core of the star is where all the real action is: the fusion of hydrogen into helium. The reason they give is that the pressure there is high enough to start the reaction and the resulting energy sustains it. But... why should the pressure at the core of a large object be high in the first place? It seems that gravity would be highest at the surface of any object rather than in the core. This is my thinking: If I stand on the earth, I stick out from it and the entire mass (and gravity vector) of the earth is pulling down on me. If I were in the Earth's core, the mass of the earth would be distributed roughly equally around me and thus the gravity vectors would pretty much cancel out. Taking the same to be true for a star, what is creating this huge pressure in stellar cores, if not gravity? Is it just heat and radiation pressure? Those only exist once fusion has started right, so how could the star ignite in the first place? [link] [1 comment]  | ||||||||||||||||
| How are satilites that are very far away able to transmit there data make to earth? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 06:27 PM PST Like Voyager and the pluto pictures. Also how does general space interference not get in the way? [link] [7 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| [Physics]What caused these creepy patterns in the ice/frost? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 08:23 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 25 Dec 2015 02:58 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| Why is true north different to magnetic north? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 09:01 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| Is there a flaw in the answer to the Monty Hall Problem? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 07:47 PM PST https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem 3 doors: 2 with goats, one with a car. You pick a door. Host opens one of the goat doors and asks if you want to switch. Switching your choice means you have a 2/3 chance of opening the car door. Simple enough, right? However, I think that there's a flaw in the reasoning of the answer. So, given that these are the possiblities:
The reasoning is that if you select door 1, and the host eliminates one of the doors with the goat, then you lose by switching in Case 1, but win in Case 2 and Case 3, hence the 2/3 chance. However, what people fail to mention is that by opening one of the doors, the host also eliminates one of the cases, leaving an intuitive 1/2 chance. For example, after you've chosen door 1, the host can open up door 2 or 3. If the host opens up door 3, then case 3 is eliminated, leaving a simple 50/50 chance. Likewise, if he opens up door 2, case 2 is eliminated. That's why, if someone just walked in to the room after a door was opened without any knowledge of any of the cases, they would have a 50/50 chance with either door. Am I not seeing something? [link] [3 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| What do physicists mean by "information" in the context of black holes? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 04:21 PM PST When people say you can not retrieve "information" from a black hole (or, with the recent research at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, you can), what is this "information" they're referring to? Is it simply arrangements of particles? [link] [4 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 25 Dec 2015 09:16 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| Would a corpse on the moon decompose at all? If so, would it take longer? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 10:11 AM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| What exactly is going on in your eyes and brain when you see something that's "too bright?" Posted: 25 Dec 2015 04:35 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| Why do the pressure waves that cause a sonic boom travel at the speed of sound? Posted: 26 Dec 2015 12:02 AM PST Apologies if this is confusing, but my understanding of a sonic boom (based on wikipedia) is that it is caused by pressure waves, which move at the speed of sound, building up and becoming compressed as the object moves faster and faster. My question is, what is the relationship between these pressure waves and the speed of sound? Why should it be the speed of sound that triggers the boom, not some other speed? Thank you! [link] [1 comment]  | ||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 25 Dec 2015 08:00 PM PST I.e the equations are correct but the derived constants are actually variable and this is unknown somehow? Bit of a dodgy question but I was wondering if you could somehow prove this to be impossible. :) [link] [1 comment]  | ||||||||||||||||
| Are animals allergic to humans? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 11:32 AM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| [Chemistry] How do you calculate the volume of an atom? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 07:37 PM PST I often see that the volume of an atom or molecule is 99.999some % 'empty space', but how is that calculated? Is the volume of an atom considered to be the distance from the furthest electrons to each other? I've read that electrons have no specific physical location, only probabilities of location(orbitals). But if an atom's electron could theoretically be anywhere, shouldn't the atom's "volume" expand to fit? Thanks in advance. [link] [comment]  | ||||||||||||||||
| How can photons become entangled if they don't experience the passage of time? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 09:58 PM PST Doesn't becoming entangled with another photon indicate some kind of change of state in the photon, if only from a state of "un-entangled" to a state of "entangled?" And if there is a change, doesn't that require time? [link] [2 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| What pressure does it take to collapse an air bubble in room temperature water? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 09:09 PM PST | ||||||||||||||||
| What causes a dust devil? Is it different than a tornado? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 09:02 PM PST I've seen waterspouts, tornados and dust devils they seem similar but the latter two seem a lot less powerfuk [link] [4 comments]  | ||||||||||||||||
| Would I get star sunburn if I was just outside of Earth's atmosphere on the dark side of the planet? Posted: 25 Dec 2015 08:59 PM PST Phrased another way, would the stars nearest to us be close enough to cause sunburn? [link] [comment]  |
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