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Monday, February 29, 2016

Does a laser beam cast a shadow?

Does a laser beam cast a shadow?


Does a laser beam cast a shadow?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 07:28 AM PST

Do "opposite" emotions (e.g., happiness/sadness) occur through regulating one set of neurons up and down, or through independent groups of neurons?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 09:55 PM PST

To further explain, I can see two ways that opposite emotions like happiness/sadness and anger/calm could occur.

Option 1: There is 1 set of "happiness/sadness" neurons in our brain. These neurons might fire in one pattern (let's just say more often for simplicity) for happiness, and for sadness they might fire in a different pattern (let's say less often). Happiness/sadness is determined by the "quantity" of firing in these neurons.

Option 2: There is one set of neurons that fire to regulate "happiness", and another set of neurons that fire to regulate "sadness". There could be overlap here, but overall happiness/sadness is determined by the set of neurons of firing.

I do understand some of the basics about valence and intensity, but essentially I'm trying to figure out if one would expect opposing valence to create "opposite" effects on the brain.

submitted by /u/harvman11
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Would the trans-atlantic cable still be in existence?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:30 PM PST

It was laid so long ago, Has anyone looked for it? Is it too deep or the currents moved it? Or has the saltwater corroded it into dust? Sorry if this may not be a suitable question for r/askscience

submitted by /u/Palmer1997
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At the source, how big were the gravitational waves/ripples in spacetime created by the black hole merger we witnessed?

Posted: 29 Feb 2016 04:05 AM PST

I understand that much of its initial energy had dissipated by the time it reached Earth, but I'm trying to get a sense of the scale of these ripples when they were initially created.

Can anyone provide some sense of scale of the original waves given the kind of event we witnessed?

submitted by /u/evilregis
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Is the iron lost through daily use of cast iron cook ware enough to supplement one's diet with?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:47 PM PST

If you cook daily with cast iron skillets, will it contribute noticeably to your iron intake?

submitted by /u/sandersfangirl
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Do water droplets oscillate naturally and, if so, what amplitude and frequency do they oscillate at?

Posted: 29 Feb 2016 06:22 AM PST

So I have had an idea for a while now that I have recently started to explore properly and I am having trouble distilling the information out there into the information that I need. Since we have such a good variety of experts then maybe someone already knows what I need.

Suppose you have a droplet of water or other aerosol, if unperturbed it should sit as a sphere with the pressure and surface tension in balance. If it is then perturbed it will oscillate I assume in shapes according to spherical harmonics.

I know that if you have a charged droplet (e.g. Millikans oil drops) then you can force these oscillations by the application of an alternating electric field.

However, if no driving force is present do they still oscillate? As in imagine you sprayed some perfume and as it hangs in the air are the droplets oscillating or still?

In terms of a single droplet, if they do oscillate then at what frequency do they oscillate? Is there a preferred mode(s) from an arbitrary perturbation (in terms of power spectrum)? Does that mode have a set frequency?

Lastly, what are the typical amplitudes of any oscillations? I assume there must be a limit where the droplet would become droplets but are they deforming in terms of radius by 1% 10% 100%?

Any help (or useful discussion) would be greatly appreciated!

submitted by /u/Robo-Connery
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I know that Hawking radiation has never been detected, but if we were to attempt to detect it, what would we expect it to look like?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:51 PM PST

How do materials absorb/reflect more than one range of EM wavelengths?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 09:19 PM PST

There's no single wavelength or range of wavelengths that corresponds to pink/magenta. Green pigments would have to absorb two different ranges of wavelengths (red and blue) and I can't understand how that works. Also, what happens to wavelengths outside the visible range? Do most coloured objects (not white or black, which reflect or absorb everything) absorb or reflect UV, IR, etc rays?

Either way, it still confuses me. If the default is to reflect, how can a pigment that absorbs two separate ranges exist, while reflecting light in the middle (green). If the default is to absorb, how can a pigment that reflects two different ranges exist, while absorbing light in the middle (pink)?

submitted by /u/LeviAEthan512
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Can all software be reverse engineered--how can you run a program and not be able to see its source code?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 11:26 PM PST

Does quantum mechanics prove that god rolls dice or is it just a mathematical model of something more deterministic going on underneath?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 10:04 PM PST

Why isn't the definition of a second changed so that leap years/seconds are no longer necessary?

Posted: 29 Feb 2016 05:33 AM PST

They've edited other SI units to more accurately match updated understandings of the universe (kg, most notably) from my understanding, so I can't imagine it would be due to having to change formulas and calculations. Why can't they just change very slightly how long a second is so that we only need to make adjustments to our year once every 1,000 or 10,000 years?

submitted by /u/imbeethoven
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Is there any human perceptible difference between "zero G" in earth's orbit vs being in the middle of nowhere in the universe with almost no gravity?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:35 PM PST

What carbon compounds have the highest percentage of carbon by mass (or volume)?

Posted: 29 Feb 2016 06:51 AM PST

I'm making a periodic table specimen collection. For carbon I could go with graphite, but I'm wondering if there is a carbon compound (a plastic, maybe) with a very high percentage of carbon (by weight or volume) that I might consider in its place. What are some examples of carbon compounds with the highest ratio of carbon by weight (or volume)?

submitted by /u/ididnoteatyourcat
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Is the value of Friedmann's density parameter known or able to be solved?

Posted: 29 Feb 2016 01:39 AM PST

Are there any constellations in which stars have died but we are yet to see their death?

Posted: 29 Feb 2016 03:11 AM PST

Just to clarify, what I mean is whether any of the constellations contain stars that have died, but are far enough away that we are still seeing them as they were before their death?

Thanks in advance

submitted by /u/Airgiraffe
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What does a nuclear detonation smell like?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 08:59 AM PST

Other bombs smell like the materials which cause the explosion, e.g., napalm smells like gasoline and tnt smells like gun powder. With that in mind, what does a nuclear explosion smell like?

submitted by /u/BigMikeCassel
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When we carbon date items, how do we know how much carbon started in them?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:24 PM PST

What are the causal mechanism for carcinogens?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:49 PM PST

Do they share anything in common in terms of how they initiate cancer?

submitted by /u/Non-equilibrium
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Why does pressing the sharp edges of two knives together not create such high pressure and temperature that it fuses the edges together?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:49 PM PST

If I have two knives, and I put the sharp side together in an X shape and press the edges into each other with all of my strength, why does it not cause such a drastic increase in pressure, (very, very small area and conservatively moderate force) that almost reaches infinity, that the atoms at the edge get compressed and heat up to the point where they can melt together, which is only at 3000F. Surely my infinite applied pressure can cause a localized temperature increase to this degree?

submitted by /u/everylittlebitcounts
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Why do some people suffer mentally, when spending extended periods of time with other people?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 09:04 AM PST

Some people can spend time with others indefinitely, whilst others need to take time away, alone, to recharge or cool off.

Why is this a problem for some people and not for others?

submitted by /u/gefasel
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How does the immune system fight off viruses?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 10:25 AM PST

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Is there a limit to how high birds can fly? What's the determining factor?

Is there a limit to how high birds can fly? What's the determining factor?


Is there a limit to how high birds can fly? What's the determining factor?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 01:52 PM PST

Why do the melting points of linear alkanes form a zig-zag curve?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 08:45 PM PST

I'm referring to this graph where alkanes from methane, ethane, n-propane, n-butane, et cetera are plotted against their melting temperature. There is a general trend upward, but also a periodicity of two, where even and odd-numbered alkanes agree with each other, alternating between higher and lower than expected based on the trend alone. What explains this deviation from the general trend?

submitted by /u/superhelical
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Why are the charges of protons and electrons perfectly opposite to each other?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 01:39 AM PST

Why are internal alkenes more stable than their terminal counter-parts?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 01:58 PM PST

Recently, I saw that (E)-Pent-2-ene had a B.P of 36°C and Pent-1-ene had a B.P of 30°C, I checked a couple other alkanes and their alkene counterparts and saw that the trend continued.

I was wondering why this trend occured.

submitted by /u/8thPawn
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Why do electrons like to be in pairs? It's, well, weird that they do, yet it underlies all chemistry.

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 05:02 PM PST

I know that all reactions are essentially energetic electrons shuffling around into comfortable spots. The nuclei play their part too, but it's essentially just electrons that are the main actors in reactions.

Sometimes, a lone pair is donated (and received by the lewis acid); the comfortable position of the electrons between (or above) the electrons creates the covalent bond. And there the electron pair remains, as a pair.

Radical electrons are highly energetic, and the electrons act as they do in order to pair up with another electron; if that creates another radical, that's okay, since the reaction could be a simple back and forth of energy like Newton's cradle.

Orbitals are cozy spots for electron pairs. Nitrogen has a three half-filled p-orbitals; I sort of consider them to be quasi-radicals, since it is these that react in order to pair up somewhere. Oxygen has four p-electrons, one filled p-orbital, two half-filled orbitals; that single filled p-orbital isn't very reactive (or is it reactive at all? I'm not sure; my intuition is that the pair could be donated yet I've never seen a triple-substituted oxygen) (edit: Oh, H3O+ of course, but that's it) while the two half-filled orbitals are reactive, seeking an electron (let's say another one in a half-filled orbital) to pair up with. If oxygen were to react with oxygen, the two half-filled electrons in each molecule pair up, forming the double bond.

So as far as I understand chemistry, that's what happens—electrons bond into pairs, and it is this simple mechanic that underlies all reactions. It's all just shuffling pairs, radicals and quasi-radicals. But why does it happen? Electrons are negatively charged, so I'm assuming that there is another force that overwhelms the electromagnetic force. And it's only pairs too; electrons don't like to be in triples as far as I know.

I found this year-old thread asking the same thing, and the responses centered around the Pauli exclusion principle and quantum numbers, which seem to me to be no answers at all. I suppose I need more detail than what I found.

submitted by /u/EloquenceIsOverrated
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Why is induced seismicity from fracking a big deal?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 10:46 AM PST

I'm an undergraduate studying physics and geology, with some research experience in marine seismology, and I consider myself well off for how far I am in a career in seismology. What I can't seem to understand is why it's such a big deal that Oklahoma has been having these M4.0 earthquakes. Has it been hurting anyone? Have any buildings being damaged? Are they expecting bigger earthquakes to happen because of this?

From what I can tell, people are just freaking out that it's causing earthquakes in general, and not that it's doing anything bad. I'm just wondering if I'm missing something

submitted by /u/frisky_fishy
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Theoretical uses for antimatter?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 07:23 AM PST

Now assuming that we do find a way to efficiently produce or gather antimatter in large quantaties, what would be some potential uses for it? I know at our current state it is terribly inefficient with very little uses, but at a later state in the understanding of it what are some planned uses or rather theoretically possible uses for it?

submitted by /u/Archmagewinshu
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Can you Pavlov condition yourself to menstruate?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 01:21 PM PST

If you've had your period for a long time and have been doing the same thing every time you get it (I don't know what though) and only when you get it, is it possible to condition yourself to menstruate by doing that thing at other times?

submitted by /u/spicycabbage
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Standing on the other side of the world, would I have felt the Chicxulub impact?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 01:27 PM PST

I know that puts me in the Indian Ocean today and that the landmass was distributed differently 66 million years ago. I only mean hypothetically.

If Chicxulub's 4.2×1023 joule impact was too weak to feel, then how about the Vredefort or Sudbury impacts? What other immediate effects might I notice on the other side of the world? To what extent did any of these alter the world's spin, axis, or orbit around the sun?

BONUS: Discovery Channel simulation of an object 50 times larger than Chicxulub impacting the Pacific Ocean.

submitted by /u/splitmlik
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How does an aircrafts surface area affect it's flight path?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 01:51 AM PST

Hi, ok so for a paper aeroplane, if it's surface area was increased and it's mass/centre of gravity/launch velocity remained the same, how would it affect the flight path (displacement, hang time, max height etc). Wouldn't if have no effect as the drag would also be increased therefore cancelling out any gain in lift?

Thank you!

submitted by /u/ozvooky
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What is coulomb excitation and how is it used to analyse nuclear shapes?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 10:40 AM PST

Hi

I was reading about differently shaped nuclei, and that coulomb excitation is used to observe these shapes, and I haven't been able to understand it! Can someone explain what it is?

Also, does this method allow you to observe halo nuclei?

submitted by /u/blazar23
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Do larger smartphones have larger antennas and hence better wifi/cell reception?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 09:18 AM PST

Some engineer is probably going to cringe at this question, but it seems logical to silly old me. For example I have an iPhone 6+. Couldn't you fit a larger antenna in an iPhone 6+ than an iPhone 6? And wouldn't that make the wifi and cell service better?

submitted by /u/mikmikthegreat
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How deep can an open pit mine be?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:42 AM PST

Can a wide enough open pit mine reach the upper mantle?

submitted by /u/ngc2307
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Which sugars does the brewer's yeast metabolize?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:14 AM PST

Im talking about S. cerevisiae. Which sugars does it metabolize, during the production of beer, or when used to make bread.

Are there different strains, that are more efficient in each procedure?

submitted by /u/kouts5
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When we plot the TdS diagram for petrol engine, the s coordinate decreases during heat rejection( process 4-1). However, I thought entropy never decreases. Why the contradiction?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 11:11 AM PST

Why are we so sure that Electron and Quarks and other elementary particles aren't made of anything else?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:37 AM PST

People thought for a long time that atoms were the smallest thing, their name even means that they aren't made of anything.

So why are we so sure that elementary particles are elementary and not made of anything else?

submitted by /u/TheGreyBearded
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[3D printing] What's the maximum penetration depth for using two-photon polymerization to direct-write 3D structures?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:28 AM PST

Say I wanted to use two-photon polymerization to fabricate 3D structures. Assuming I don't care about build times, how 'deep' can I penetrate into some arbitrary volume of photopolymerizable material?

Most of the literature I could find just talks about the smallest feature size the authors could achieve, but I couldn't find much about maximum depth. Anyone have any first-hand experience or some papers they could point me to?

submitted by /u/spiralingmadness
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How is amusia linked to other disorders?

Posted: 28 Feb 2016 02:01 AM PST

I conduct research on amusia(tone-deafness) and was hoping that some experts could elaborate on the connection of amusia with other disorders, just in case I've missed something.

submitted by /u/veritasvit
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Saturday, February 27, 2016

Do tattoos protect the skin from sun damage?

Do tattoos protect the skin from sun damage?


Do tattoos protect the skin from sun damage?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 03:39 PM PST

Is There a 100% Reflective Surface?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 06:27 PM PST

Mirrors don't reflect 100% light. Is there any surface that does? I think it'd be impossible for such a thing to exist though. Prove me wrong! (or not)

submitted by /u/Wahw11
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If the atmosphere was twice as dense, would fluctuations in weather be more or less severe?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 06:49 PM PST

All other things (including gas composition) being equal, how would a denser atmosphere affect the weather and climate?

submitted by /u/superhelical
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What exactly is a photon?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 07:22 PM PST

I'm a bit embarrassed to ask this question. I sort of know what photons do but not exactly what they are. Where do they come from? How are they created and what particles are they made up of?

submitted by /u/Sir_Doobenheim
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How is negative nuclear binding energy (BE/A) possible?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 08:10 PM PST

I was browsing the Table of Nuclides and I noticed that a select few nuclei, mostly extremely unstable ones like Lithium-3 and Boron-6, had a negative BE/A.

From what I understand, this shouldn't be possible. Binding energy is the mass/energy lost when nucleons bind together in a nucleus - how can this value be negative? Wouldn't that mean that the nucleus actually has more energy than the separate particles?

submitted by /u/TristanBomb
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Can an object become a black hole by moving fast enough?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 03:25 AM PST

this week in school we have been learning about special relativity and we learnt that an objects mass increases as its speed approaches c. Does this mean there would be a point where its mass is large enough that it could become a black hole?

submitted by /u/wickedel99
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What's so special about Earth's axial tilt of 21° 1/2 degrees?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 06:33 PM PST

I understand that Earth's tilt of 21° 1/2 influences a lot the dynamic of seasons around the whole globe. But... How different would it if it was a smaller angle? What about a wider angle?

submitted by /u/Botycho
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When I eat seafood or other things cooked whole (lobsters, octopus, crabs), why can't I identify any organs?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 01:33 PM PST

Where do courtship rituals among birds come from and more specifically how are they passed along from generation to generation?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 10:19 PM PST

For example, I recently read that before copulation a male Kingfisher presents a fish head-first to the female, so that she can swallow it without choking on the fins and scales.

Also, courtship feeding among Hawfinches is at times totally ritualised, so that although their bills meet, no food passes between them.

Other examples include Flamingos who, when choosing a mate, dance in a big group. They stretch their necks and flip their heads back and forth while taking tiny, mincing steps or the series of vigorous chases that begin when a female wren entices a male.

Clearly "nature" cannot account wholly for this.

Thus, my question is, how do these rituals develop and how are the intricacies of these such rituals passed on from generation to generation?

submitted by /u/tulgey_wood
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Would it be possible to build a large double slit experiment to examine the behavior of gravitational waves? If so, would that be proof that gravitons exist?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 04:43 AM PST

How were the ancestors of modern birds able to survive the mass extinctions that killed off the dinosaurs?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 03:23 PM PST

I know very little about the subject other than I kind of remember that the first sort of mammalian creatures were often able to survive by burrowing underground and/or having fur that kept them warm during the ice age. Is there any truth to this? How did birds survive?

submitted by /u/I_fuckedaboynamedSue
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How far back do infectious diseases go in prehistory?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 09:20 PM PST

Not as in, prehistoric human history. What I mean is, how far back do diseases like influenza go? Did dinosaurs have something similar to bird flu, for example? Were multicellular creatures always being attacked by diseases?

submitted by /u/chutche2
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Why is magnetic inequivalence not a problem in 13C NMR?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 04:03 AM PST

In 1H NMR I've been told coupling to magnetically inequivalent carbons isnt considered due to carbons low RA, but why is it not an issue to consider in 13C spectra?

submitted by /u/thatsnotmyname95
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Why do molecules tend towards lower potential energy?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 01:30 AM PST

The whole reason chemicals react is to be at a lower state of potential energy. Why is it this way? What's so special about having less potential energy?

submitted by /u/sponges789
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How large does a piece of land have to be before it is no longer considered an island?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 01:00 PM PST

Aren't all of the continents just huge islands? Where is the cutoff?

submitted by /u/ethansings
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Why is iron-oxide considered a ceramic and not a metal?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 03:22 AM PST

Is it because of its mechanical/physical properties? Or is there something else that "makes" it a ceramic?

Thanks in advance!

submitted by /u/Niggi888
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How Doesn't Earth Get Pulled Into The Sun?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 07:03 PM PST

Now, I did search for the answer to this question. I got it. There are some things I still don't understand though: -How come the earth get into such a perfect stabilization? -Is it really this much stable? -Assuming there IS some air in space, doesn't the earth get slowed down very slowly? (With very slowly I mean INSANELY slowly)

submitted by /u/Wahw11
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Do some people heal faster than others? Bones, cuts, etc.. Assuming the same treatment of injury?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 03:42 PM PST

What are selectable markers? My book has confused me. How are they used to identify among recombinants|non-recombinants and transformants|non-transformants?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 12:15 AM PST

What happens if a quark falls into an event horizon?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 12:25 PM PST

To clarify the question, if one pulls apart two quarks they form two more as quarks never go solo. (As far as I know, of course) What would happen if, when pulling two quarks apart but before more quarks are formed, one of them fell into the event horizon of a black hole?

submitted by /u/Forricide
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Why does the launch of a geostationary satellite have a launch window?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 12:32 PM PST

While watching the scrubbed SES-9 launch the other night this occurred to me. If the ultimate position of the craft is relative to the launch site why would there be time restrictions of the launch?

submitted by /u/kevpluck
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How does the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator work?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 01:05 PM PST

Can someone please explain the cooling cycle of the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator? From this diagram, I understand that heat is applied to chamber 29 (the generator), but I quickly lose the thread of which gasses or liquids are forced where, and which phase changes happen where, and whether those phase changes are used to absorb/release heat, or to generate the pressures that operate the system.

submitted by /u/cnash
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Can there be an event horizon inside neutron stars?

Posted: 27 Feb 2016 03:48 AM PST

Is there even that huge of a difference between blackholes and neutron stars? Aren't black holes just really dense neutron stars where the event horizon is larger than the star?

submitted by /u/Neotheo
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Do gravitational waves play a role in the expansion of space?

Posted: 26 Feb 2016 03:35 PM PST

With all the recent hoopla over the detection of gravitational waves, along with countless visuals of the curvature of space-time, my poor lil human brain got to thinkin.

I want to know what effect (if any) gravitational waves and the subsequent curvature of space-time have on the overall size of our ever expanding universe.

I picked up a quote from this article: "Currently, we believe [the driving force behind the expansion of the universe is] mostly momentum left over from the Big Bang, and the force of dark energy will be accelerating this expansion. Forever."

This would suggest that gravity and the mass of objects play no role, but I can't help but think that they do, and I look forward to someone more well-learned than I explaining why I'm wrong!

For this thought experiment I imagine space to be a sheet of plastic wrap. A massive object comes along and sits in the center of the sheet, leaving an indentation. Due to dark energy, (or maybe just the propensity of the universe to flatten? Is that a thing?) the indentation is forced back to it's original state, pushing the space around it out in all directions. Just like if you were to pull an indentation out of plastic wrap!

Thanks for swiftly pointing out the flaws in my logic! I look forward to your responses! :D

submitted by /u/flat_earth_fucktard
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