When and how did scientists figure out there is no land under the ice of the North Pole? | AskScience Blog

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Wednesday, January 9, 2019

When and how did scientists figure out there is no land under the ice of the North Pole?

When and how did scientists figure out there is no land under the ice of the North Pole?


When and how did scientists figure out there is no land under the ice of the North Pole?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 04:43 AM PST

I was oddly unable to find the answer to this question. At some point sailors and scientists must have figured out there was no northern continent under the ice cap, but how did they do so? Sonar and radar are recent inventions, and because of the obviousness with which it is mentioned there is only water under the North Pole's ice, I'm guessing it means this has been common knowledge for centuries.

submitted by /u/amvoloshin
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Does thinking harder burn more calories?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 05:21 AM PST

I have always wondered if brain function burns calories. Does thinking harder burn more calories than not thinking at all? I understand that your brain is always working and running all of your body systems and such, but I'm more curious about conscious thought. For example, if you are reading a complicated manuscript or trying to decipher complex architectural drawings does that take more energy than mindlessly watching TV?

submitted by /u/mirdashewrote
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Why do large clouds form with flat bottoms but small ones are irregular shaped?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 11:50 AM PST

Here's an image of what I mean: https://imgur.com/gallery/qxfiN5u

submitted by /u/GoldenPandaMRW
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Why are train rails usually built on gravel?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 12:47 AM PST

Is there any particular reason for this or is it just cheaper than asphalt/concrete/whatever?

submitted by /u/RazomOmega
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How does the body obtain Vitamin D from Sunlight?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 04:23 AM PST

When two bubbles merge (sharing their surface area), how is the new bubble still "filled" and spherical?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 08:12 AM PST

If I am thinking about this correctly, when two bubbles merge, their surface areas are additive (since that is determined strictly by the number of detergent molecules present).

Due to the increased rate at which volume increases inside a sphere for a given surface area added, where does the "missing" volume come from to fill up the new, larger bubble so it is still spherical after merging?

Shouldn't it be slightly collapsed after merging?

submitted by /u/Natolx
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What’s the difference between the skin healing process of a cut wound and a scald?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 11:52 AM PST

Why is it whenever you see powerful lasers used in labs or other areas they are almost allways green? Is this due to how they are produced or is green light a better wavelength for sensors to pick up?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:25 PM PST

Why does Radiation sickness happen, and how does radiation affect your body?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 04:34 AM PST

So if the body is killed by cancer caused by Ionizing radiation damaging your genetic material. Then why does radiation sickness occur, in theory the radiation wouldn't have that quick of an effect? Another question, if the radiation changes our Genes, why don't we ever see any cool or helpful mutations that occur due to radiation?

submitted by /u/Eta5678
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Is there any particular reason why taking successive derivatives of the sinusoidal functions has the same effect as left-shifting the graphs by pi/2?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 07:14 AM PST

Early in our studies of calculus, we are taught that the sinusoidal functions form a cycle of derivatives:

d/dx sin x = cos x d/dx cos x = -sin x d/dx (-sin x) = -cos x d/dx (-cos x) = sin x 

However, we also note that

sin(x + pi/2) = cos x cos(x + pi/2) = -sin x -sin(x+pi/2) = -cos x -cos(x+pi/2) = sin x 

So essentially, for any function f(x) in the set {sin x, cos x, -sin x, -cos x} we have

d/dx f(x) = f(x+pi/2) 

I'd like to know if there is any underlying reason for this, or if it's just coincidence.

submitted by /u/BactaTankVader
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I’ve read that in times of megafauna/flora the atmospheric O2,concentration was 35% instead of the 20% we have currently and that this elevated concentration enabled their large size. Why is increased O2 concentration associated with mega-life?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 03:51 AM PST

Is there a reason why negative data is rarely published?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:49 PM PST

This is particularly aimed towards people in the Neuroscience field (learning and memory, neurodegeneration, neuropsychiatric disorders, etc..)

submitted by /u/charismaticdug
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Does heat from a candle in space move gradually and spherically away from it?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 04:00 AM PST

So I saw this post about a candle in space which is round because there is no "up" in space. Does this mean that all the heat moves gradually and spherically? And what happens when the heat reaches a wall. Does it get reflected in some kind of way?

Bonus question: If so, does it mean that a candle in space burns out faster because the heat is staying closer to the candle/wax itself?

submitted by /u/Zino-Rino
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Why is gold so good at reflecting in the IR range?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 02:41 AM PST

Is there a point where its reflectance starts to deteriorate?

submitted by /u/danilon62
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Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 07:11 AM PST

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Do you have a question within these topics you weren't sure was worth submitting? Is something a bit too speculative for a typical /r/AskScience post? No question is too big or small for AAW. In this thread you can ask any science-related question! Things like: "What would happen if...", "How will the future...", "If all the rules for 'X' were different...", "Why does my...".

Asking Questions:

Please post your question as a top-level response to this, and our team of panellists will be here to answer and discuss your questions.

The other topic areas will appear in future Ask Anything Wednesdays, so if you have other questions not covered by this weeks theme please either hold on to it until those topics come around, or go and post over in our sister subreddit /r/AskScienceDiscussion , where every day is Ask Anything Wednesday! Off-theme questions in this post will be removed to try and keep the thread a manageable size for both our readers and panellists.

Answering Questions:

Please only answer a posted question if you are an expert in the field. The full guidelines for posting responses in AskScience can be found here. In short, this is a moderated subreddit, and responses which do not meet our quality guidelines will be removed. Remember, peer reviewed sources are always appreciated, and anecdotes are absolutely not appropriate. In general if your answer begins with 'I think', or 'I've heard', then it's not suitable for /r/AskScience.

If you would like to become a member of the AskScience panel, please refer to the information provided here.

Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here.

Ask away!

submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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I just found out wild hamsters are rare. What's the story on how we tamed them?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 09:31 PM PST

How did early humans' sleeping habits change during the winter months?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 12:05 AM PST

How did the shorter days of winter affect the sleeping habits of humans before indoor lighting existed? Generally speaking, diurnal animals are active during daylight and settle down for sleep when the sun goes down, but if the average sleep cycle for a human is 6-9 hours, wouldn't strictly following the daylight schedule cause oversleeping? Did humans just sleep more during winter months, or did they remain active after sundown like most of us do today?

submitted by /u/Bad_Wulph
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Is there a preference between GWAS and QTL for gene mapping and if so why?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 03:30 AM PST

This is a pretty specific question so apologies for not being very 'exciting' or interesting for discussion like a lot of the posts here are.

submitted by /u/_jedallen
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Why hasn't the gas on Jupiter fully mixed together yet? Why is it covered in visibly distinct regions of gas rather than being a single color like Neptune or Uranus?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 05:53 PM PST

How can people endure so much heat while firewalking?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 03:33 AM PST

How does spin allow objects to fly straight? Bullets and frisbees for example.

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:14 PM PST

what makes soda flat?

Posted: 09 Jan 2019 01:38 AM PST

I was going to ask what makes soda fizzy, but more specifically, a soda fell out of the fridge. Knowing that it would likely erupt after being agitated, I left it for a day, and it was almost completely flat. Why was this? The gas was surely still in the can, but was it released from the liquid in some way?

submitted by /u/Serendiplodocus
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How do scientists know how much carbon there was originally in a sample when carbon dating? I understand that they take advantage of the half-life to the age of the object, but don’t they also need to know much was originally there? Also, what is the uncertainty on these measurements?

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 02:43 PM PST

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