When my earphones are plugged into my laptop (and nothing is playing) I hear a hum. If I touch any metal surface on the laptop, the hum stops. What is causing both effects?

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• When my earphones are plugged into my laptop (and nothing is playing) I hear a hum. If I touch any metal surface on the laptop, the hum stops. What is causing both effects?
• I feel like my night vision was better as a child, is this possible?
• Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
• Why is marine animal meat flakey?
• Are some of Pluto's moons really ellipse shaped?
• Why do people's voices get shakier as they get older, and why do they seem to speak slower?
• How and Why does the regularization of divergent series work when it comes to Casimir Effect/Physics?
• Why is an electron microscope more detailed than than a (light) microscope?
• Can a moon have a moon? Can that moon have a moon?
• If you generated a large random sample of numbers, and then converted those numbers to binary, would there be roughly equal amounts of ones and zeros?
• Does Guaifenesin affect all mucous secretion?
• How much of time dilation is due to the gravity well versus relative velocity?
• What shape is the universe?
• Why do we feel more details when we touch something with the tips of our finger, than the rest of our body?
• How do trees and small plants 'fight' disease?
• Does the second law of thermodynamics factor into your headphones being tangled and why?
• How does the brain simulate complex situations and conversations? Which part of the brain simulates life?
• can someone explain what is entropy in detail?
• Would it be possible to make a radio tower that broadcasted to the entire united states? If so what would be the implications?
• How does Jupiter bombard Europa with radiation? Where does theta radiation come from?
• Children seem to have a much higher tolerance/appreciation for repetition than adults do. Why is that?
• Watching a special weather report and they're showing total lightning strikes and then also showing the percentages that are positive and that are negative. What is the difference and why do they track it?
• If the earth compressed to a peanut and turned into a black hole, would it have the volume or a peanut? Or would it be a single point of singularity and the event horizon would be the size of a peanut?
• What exactly is energy? (Multiple questions inside)

When my earphones are plugged into my laptop (and nothing is playing) I hear a hum. If I touch any metal surface on the laptop, the hum stops. What is causing both effects? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 06:38 AM PST submitted by FerralWombat [link] [515 comments]

I feel like my night vision was better as a child, is this possible? Posted: 18 Nov 2015 06:47 AM PST Hi all, so I was standing around outside last evening and I got the distinct impression that I used to be able to see better in the dark, but I don't really know if that's true (difficult to directly compare) or if I'm just misremembering how it used to be. My visual acuity has not deteriorated and my current night vision is still adequate to see things in the dark, I just feel like I used to be even better at it. Are there any studies in night vision that would indicate that it can deteriorate or if children might have superior night vision to adults? submitted by Comassion [link] [2 comments]

Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science Posted: 18 Nov 2015 07:02 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 AutoModerator [link] [3 comments]

Why is marine animal meat flakey? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 06:53 AM PST The meat from marine animals (excluding mollusks) has a distinct texture. It is much more rubbery and flakey than meat from land animals. Why is this? submitted by ParkourPants [link] [36 comments]

Are some of Pluto's moons really ellipse shaped? Posted: 18 Nov 2015 05:31 AM PST https://www.reddit.com/r/space/comments/3t8iy8/plutos_spinning_moons/ in that post some of the moons are ellipses... how is that possible? shouldn't gravity pull them into circles (or close to circles atleast)? submitted by K0bb [link] [2 comments]

Why do people's voices get shakier as they get older, and why do they seem to speak slower? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 08:14 AM PST Is speaking slower a generational thing or is there a biological reason for it? submitted by sparklespackle [link] [55 comments]

How and Why does the regularization of divergent series work when it comes to Casimir Effect/Physics? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 09:56 PM PST Hey. Background on what I know when it comes to this topic: I'm a math boy (if you up during real mathematician hours, smash that like) and at first, series/summation inspired me to learn more math, but lately I just want to learn/comprehend more math so I can apply it to summation (LOL) and in the past I've played with alternating geometric series and used that to assign those special values (Regularizing negative integer values of Dirichlet's Eta function), but just recently i figured out why and how Ramanujan summation works and i was able to directly regularize the divergent series associated with negative integer values of the Zeta function. I am just a clueless bum when it comes to physics, my first course ever was this semester (It was newtonian stuff; no calculus) and I had to drop it because I had a hard time getting a grip on the material. Can someone explain to me how and why does the regularization of divergent series work when it comes to Casimir Effect/Physics? I'm confident with what I know when it comes to the math behind this. I've read an introductory paper about this effect, but it was mainly mathematical and just barely any physics (There was a reference to a vaccum inside a prism and something about the total energy not being equal to zero, but that was like the second page and there was barely any physics after that). submitted by Dgafaboutconvergence [link] [2 comments]

Why is an electron microscope more detailed than than a (light) microscope? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 08:12 AM PST When I see images from electron microscopes it seems we are able to look at smaller objects than light microscopes. Why? submitted by OceanOfSpiceAndSmoke [link] [70 comments]

Can a moon have a moon? Can that moon have a moon? Posted: 18 Nov 2015 02:43 AM PST Can a moon have a moon? Can that moon have a moon? How far can this pattern continue before there's an inherent instability in the system? Please note, it does not need to be forever stable. It does need to be stable for an appreciable period of time to count. submitted by taylorHAZE [link] [4 comments]

If you generated a large random sample of numbers, and then converted those numbers to binary, would there be roughly equal amounts of ones and zeros? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 08:42 PM PST If not, why not? Also, would it make a difference whether the numbers you randomly generated were small or large numbers? That is, if you set limits on the generated numbers, would a sample including 1-999,999 be substantially different than 1-99 after both sets were converted to binary? submitted by Moobs_like_Jagger [link] [9 comments]

Does Guaifenesin affect all mucous secretion? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 08:37 AM PST Including secretions in the digestive tract? submitted by roofuskit [link] [19 comments]

How much of time dilation is due to the gravity well versus relative velocity? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 07:53 AM PST So I got into discussing relativity with some friends and I have this question: A GPS satellite, as far as I understand, needs to take into account a small adjustment for relativity, i.e. Time dilation, in order to make an accurate position reading. So what portion of that is due to being further out of the Earth's gravity well, and how much much is due to the higher tangential velocity from being farther out in an orbit? Can you even separate the two components? Edit: Removed "geosynchronous" submitted by amassiveinferiority [link] [15 comments]

What shape is the universe? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 01:35 PM PST submitted by tbryan2 [link] [15 comments]

Why do we feel more details when we touch something with the tips of our finger, than the rest of our body? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 08:01 AM PST Why do we feel more details when we touch something with the tips of our finger, than the rest of our body? Is this because we have different kind of nerves (sensors) on the tips of our fingers than the rest of our body? Or is it our brain thats somehow causing this to happen? submitted by dhoomz [link] [12 comments]

How do trees and small plants 'fight' disease? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 05:31 AM PST Additionally, how are trees able to change their cells near damaged areas to slow or prevent localized decay and/or disease? submitted by ihatephilbeck [link] [10 comments]

Does the second law of thermodynamics factor into your headphones being tangled and why? Posted: 18 Nov 2015 03:27 AM PST Hi, now I'm sure this has been asked before however I was chatting with my college tutor, and he was explaining to me that it is the second law of thermodynamics which causes headphones to get tangled in your pocket. He stated that entropy causes this however I'm not very savvy with all of this lingo, I'm a computer fixer and he is physics lover. Really smart guy didn't get along with him at first but we found mutual ground and got along after a while. I love physics however I am not very good with that kind of thing despite my love of it. Anyway could someone please explain in terms what causes your headphones to tangle and if it is in fact down to the second law of thermodynamics dynamics? I understand mostly that it's from moving but does thermodynamics function into this to cause them to tangle or is it literally just the fact they decide to fight in your pocket... Thanks Reddit Posted from my phone so sorry for no formatting. submitted by Joshcrawford94 [link] [1 comment]

How does the brain simulate complex situations and conversations? Which part of the brain simulates life? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 11:33 AM PST submitted by Fealiks [link] [1 comment]

can someone explain what is entropy in detail? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 08:32 AM PST "entropy is disorder" so then why do we need to measure that disorder? and why this disorder is measured in joule/kelvin ? "entropy is constantly increasing" but how? what exactly is entropy? submitted by DrDespolardo [link] [17 comments]

Would it be possible to make a radio tower that broadcasted to the entire united states? If so what would be the implications? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 02:04 PM PST submitted by templarknight3127 [link] [13 comments]

How does Jupiter bombard Europa with radiation? Where does theta radiation come from? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 09:18 AM PST submitted by vivalapizza [link] [3 comments]

Children seem to have a much higher tolerance/appreciation for repetition than adults do. Why is that? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 01:51 PM PST Children will watch the same movie 1000 times, repeat the same funny word or joke over and over, play videogames with repetitive music and generally seem to enjoy repetitive things that are highly annoying to adults. Why does this shift change? Is this universal? submitted by stupidrobots [link] [2 comments]

Watching a special weather report and they're showing total lightning strikes and then also showing the percentages that are positive and that are negative. What is the difference and why do they track it? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 09:52 AM PST Not sure if this clarifies anything or not, but while they had an actual number for the total number of strikes, the positive and negative strikes were in percentages. submitted by Sheazer [link] [7 comments]

If the earth compressed to a peanut and turned into a black hole, would it have the volume or a peanut? Or would it be a single point of singularity and the event horizon would be the size of a peanut? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 02:03 PM PST submitted by superflyingfly [link] [5 comments]

What exactly is energy? (Multiple questions inside) Posted: 17 Nov 2015 11:27 PM PST I watched a video about What Is Radiation. It says that atoms release energy. But what is energy? Is energy a like physical object? The video say that when radioactive decay occurs, atoms release particles. What are these particles? Are they protons, neutrons, or electrons? Also, isn't energy about motion? Like object A hits object B. This causes Object B to move. How is this energy compared to how atoms release energy from radioactive decay? Is there a difference? When Object A hits Object B, do the particles from the atoms move or exchange place? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw0pHT47AAU submitted by yelren [link] [5 comments]

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Today i dripped some super glue on the colored print of my t-shirt by accident. To my surprise my t-shirt got really hot where the glue had landed and started to fizzle and smoke quite a lot. Does anyone have an idea of why this happens?

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• Today i dripped some super glue on the colored print of my t-shirt by accident. To my surprise my t-shirt got really hot where the glue had landed and started to fizzle and smoke quite a lot. Does anyone have an idea of why this happens?
• What exactly causes flame coloring when burning sodium chloride?
• Why do some people have good singing voices and some people don't?
• Why do small spiders have venom so strong it can kill a human?
• What is the best measure of human intelligence?
• How does the act of someone throwing themselves over a grenade mitigate the explosion as much as it does?
• Does Adrenaline really reduce reaction time?
• How does encryption work?
• How does one's long term environment affect their perception of sound?
• Does the heat generated by a military grade laser weapon generate any "impact" when striking a target or do they only generate heat?
• Are males and females equally effected by genetic disorders?
• What are the empirically proven cognitive and affective benefits of reading often and/or reading every night before going to bed?
• Why isn't blood from a transfusion rejected by the body?
• How does a Krasnikov tube work?
• How and why can the Earth's magnetic poles suddenly "flip?"
• Why does hair grow faster with higher atmospheric pressure?
• I grew up learning that no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time. So how and why are Neutrino's so special?
• Do any eukaryotic organisms have both mitochondrial and vestigial prokaryotic respiration mechanisms?
• How does the optic nerve know what color a particular photoreceptor in the eye is responsible for?
• What are the rays of light when looking at lightsource with eyes squeezed?
• When I put ice in a glass of water, and the water gets colder, where does the heat go?

Today i dripped some super glue on the colored print of my t-shirt by accident. To my surprise my t-shirt got really hot where the glue had landed and started to fizzle and smoke quite a lot. Does anyone have an idea of why this happens? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 11:23 AM PST EDIT: Thanks for all the cool and informative comments everyone! Shirt is ruined and so is my lovely chest hair but at least I wasn't burned or anything submitted by fleranilsar [link] [467 comments]

What exactly causes flame coloring when burning sodium chloride? Posted: 17 Nov 2015 05:30 AM PST Usually sodium in atomic form has its outer electron risen in energy level by the heat of the flame. The electron falling back to a normal energy level emits light (reflects light?) in a specific wave length. In sodium chloride the sodium is in its ionic form thus has no outer electron. Where does it get it from? I read about it a bit and found two answers: In a flame there are enough free electrons for sodium to pick one up so in its atomic form the mechanism explained above can happen. The chloride donates the electron from the sodium back. Do both phenomena occur? If yes, which one is more probable? If no, oviously, which one is correct and if neither, is there an other explanation for it? Thanks for your answers! submitted by Noobonator [link] [1 comment]

Why do some people have good singing voices and some people don't? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 09:50 AM PST Is there an evolutionary reason behind this or just something that happens at random? submitted by liamc11 [link] [27 comments]

Why do small spiders have venom so strong it can kill a human? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 01:45 PM PST If it can kill a human, it would certainly seem very overkill for its intended pray? submitted by WonderKnight [link] [14 comments]

What is the best measure of human intelligence? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 08:14 PM PST What is the best measurement of human intelligence? Are there any meta analyses that really pin down the best measurement of general intelligence? submitted by Larry_Boy [link] [12 comments]

How does the act of someone throwing themselves over a grenade mitigate the explosion as much as it does? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 09:02 AM PST I've seen plenty of talk about individuals doing so and surviving and even this recent post in /r/todayilearned about someone doing it with two grenades. Is it simply just not giving the explosion room to expand? Or is the mass of a body acting on a grenade also significant? submitted by Zeoras [link] [25 comments]

Does Adrenaline really reduce reaction time? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 06:09 AM PST I've always heard that in a stressful "fight or flight" situation, reaction time is reduced (in addition to increased strength, etc.); that being said it seems like the sort of thing that could be a myth or widespread misinformation. I suppose the exact question I have is: Does adrenaline reduce reaction time and if so how, and by how much? submitted by Pinkie056 [link] [494 comments]

How does encryption work? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 09:42 PM PST I understand that the data is transformed, and that a key is required to decipher the data, but what is preventing the key from being intercepted and used to decrypt the data? That is, how is the security of the key ensured? submitted by 346368616e3d627472 [link] [1 comment]

How does one's long term environment affect their perception of sound? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 10:34 AM PST I know that in some early studies of psycho acoustics there were problems where the subjects taking public transport had the environmental noise affect their perception of sound even hours after being isolated. Is there evidence of longer term effects? For example, is the hearing of someone from a rural environment different than someone from an urban environment aside from usual hearing loss? submitted by Holy_City [link] [7 comments]

Does the heat generated by a military grade laser weapon generate any "impact" when striking a target or do they only generate heat? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 12:23 PM PST submitted by enictobi [link] [3 comments]

Are males and females equally effected by genetic disorders? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 02:10 PM PST Are there some genetic disorders that males can get but not females or vice versa? If so why does it happen? submitted by thelonelyturtle [link] [6 comments]

What are the empirically proven cognitive and affective benefits of reading often and/or reading every night before going to bed? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 05:19 PM PST submitted by The_Elder_Steak [link] [comment]

Why isn't blood from a transfusion rejected by the body? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 01:33 PM PST I know that for a blood transfusion to be viable both parties must have the same blood type (or O) so that the donor's blood isn't seen an 'non-self' and attacked by the immune system. So why is it that in the case of transplanted organs which also have to be donated by someone of the same blood type, the body rejects it if immunosuppressants aren't taken. Why is it that transplant organs are rejected but 'transplant blood' isn't rejected? submitted by Immunitythrowaway [link] [8 comments]

How does a Krasnikov tube work? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 12:31 PM PST Why can matter travel faster than the speed of light in one? submitted by stoleg [link] [4 comments]

How and why can the Earth's magnetic poles suddenly "flip?" Posted: 16 Nov 2015 06:09 PM PST And what does it mean for the magnetic field to be "tangled?" Why do the magnetic poles drift? Thanks. submitted by 9voltWolfXX [link] [comment]

Why does hair grow faster with higher atmospheric pressure? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 12:59 PM PST According to this article, Cousteau stayed in an underwater lab for a month. They said that: "Your hair grows faster, your voice is higher -- due to atmospheric pressure -- and for some reason you can't whistle (try and you will fail)." What about the increased pressure makes those things happen? submitted by albenesi [link] [3 comments]

I grew up learning that no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time. So how and why are Neutrino's so special? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 10:37 AM PST I was reading that Neutrino's are able to pass through matter unimpeded, and this must mean they can occupy the same space at the same time as other matter. I thought this was physically impossible. At least according to my high school physics education. submitted by MisunderstoodMenace [link] [22 comments]

Do any eukaryotic organisms have both mitochondrial and vestigial prokaryotic respiration mechanisms? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 11:05 AM PST Also - have some eukaryotic organisms re-purposed their vestigial prokaryotic respiration machinery? Otherwise, are all eukaryots then simply missing every prokaryotic membrane structure used in respiration? submitted by xaplexus [link] [5 comments]

How does the optic nerve know what color a particular photoreceptor in the eye is responsible for? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 03:26 AM PST submitted by jabies [link] [8 comments]

What are the rays of light when looking at lightsource with eyes squeezed? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 09:00 AM PST Kind of like this submitted by Doodlesulk [link] [5 comments]

When I put ice in a glass of water, and the water gets colder, where does the heat go? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 01:02 PM PST My understanding is that you can't technically "spread" cold, since cold is just the absence of heat. So the heat that was in the water is going somewhere, right? It seems like it would have to go into the ice in order to melt it, but when the ice melts the glass is still colder than when it started, so somehow the ice removed heat. I don't get it. submitted by 4977964332 [link] [7 comments]

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AskScience AMA Series: We are Dr. David Parrillo and Jeff Wooster from the Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business, here to sort out the facts from fiction on plastics packaging as it relates to sustainability, AMA!

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• AskScience AMA Series: We are Dr. David Parrillo and Jeff Wooster from the Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business, here to sort out the facts from fiction on plastics packaging as it relates to sustainability, AMA!
• Is there an ultimate limit to the the amount of energy per flop in computation? In a perfect system, how little energy could power a 1 teraflop CPU using the limits of physics?
• Why are there random colorful dots/noise in videos shot in the space station?
• How much mass of hydrogen is fused in a hydrogen bomb explosion?
• If a chemical bond is broken and releases energy, then it must also be losing mass. What had been holding the mass?
• Can gravitational waves be used to signal from beyond a black hole's event horizon?
• What theoretically happens in the middle of two merging kerr black holes?
• If Multitasking is impossible, how do we walk and talk at the same time?
• Does oksusu cha have a high freezing temperature?
• How does light around a spinning black hole get a 'boost' despite there being a speed limit?
• Can't we avoid the "problem" of leap years by redefining what a second, minute, hour "means?"
• If passing the speed of sound in a vehicle produces a sonic boom, would something similar happen if you could pass the speed of light?
• How big was the universe 1 second after the Big Bang compared to now?
• Can you go faster than the speed of light by moving in opposite directions?
• Do black holes affect earths gravity?
• If I have a piece of string that is exactly 10 cm long, and I move it into a circle, it would mean that 10 cm = pi*diameter. Since the diameter can also be accurately measure, why can we not use this information to determine the exact value of pi?

AskScience AMA Series: We are Dr. David Parrillo and Jeff Wooster from the Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics business, here to sort out the facts from fiction on plastics packaging as it relates to sustainability, AMA! Posted: 16 Nov 2015 04:05 AM PST Hi Reddit! Innovation in plastic packaging has been driven by new materials development and enhancements in machine processing technology. The growth in flexible packaging is apparent in local super markets. In the US alone, the flexible packaging industry is worth roughly $31.1 billion. Significant innovations in material science (for example, advances in Polyethylene catalysis) have enabled new packages to be developed with multiple individual plastic layers that have the toughness, abuse properties, hermetic seal properties, barrier properties, and the shelf appeal to drive the conversion from high cost and high CO2 footprint materials to Plastic Packaging which enables a improved system sustainability. When compared to other packaging options, plastic packaging is often more sustainable. If you're wondering why and how plastic can be so good when common perception would dictate just the opposite, join this conversation! We've spent decades collaborating and developing product, process and policy solutions to deliver a more sustainable future. Ask Us Anything! We'll start responding to questions at 1:00 PM Eastern Time (10 am PT, 6 pm UTC.) David Parrillo: I am a PhD chemical engineer from the University of Pennsylvania and a Global R&D director at Dow. I am a member of the Materials Research Society Board of Directors, the External Advisory Board of Chemical Engineering at UC Santa Barbara, and a member of AIChE. I have more than 21 years of experience in the Chemical Process and Materials Industries driving product innovation in numerous market segments. I hold 13 US Patents and am the primary author on 20 peer review publications in the scientific literature. Jeff Wooster: I am a chemical engineer from Iowa State University and a global Sustainability director at Dow. In this role, I work with the entire value chain to drive the use of science and data-based decision making to improve the sustainability of plastic packaging value chains. As part of my effort to collaborate across the industry, I serve on the Board of Directors and as the president of AMERIPEN, a trade association founded on the principle that decisions should be based on scientific data and on the Board of Directors for GreenBlue, an environmental non-profit dedicated to improving sustainability. After spending the first 19 years of my career in R&D, I have spent the past 8 years focusing on sustainability. I hold 45 U.S. and foreign patents and have published more than 50 technical papers and presentations. submitted by Dow_Chemical [link] [69 comments]

Is there an ultimate limit to the the amount of energy per flop in computation? In a perfect system, how little energy could power a 1 teraflop CPU using the limits of physics? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 09:03 PM PST Would it be possible to get to 1 Tflop per watt? Is there a fundamental limit due to the laws of thermodynamics? Is there a fundamental link between computation, entropy and energy? submitted by Stuck_In_the_Matrix [link] [16 comments]

Why are there random colorful dots/noise in videos shot in the space station? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 01:51 AM PST Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyFYgeE32f0 submitted by passrby [link] [12 comments]

How much mass of hydrogen is fused in a hydrogen bomb explosion? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 05:13 PM PST The biggest yield fusion bomb tested is the Russian tsar bomba, at 50 megatons TNT. How much hydrogen actually fuses in a blast like this? submitted by clinically_cynical [link] [7 comments]

If a chemical bond is broken and releases energy, then it must also be losing mass. What had been holding the mass? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 06:25 AM PST submitted by nairebis [link] [1 comment]

Can gravitational waves be used to signal from beyond a black hole's event horizon? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 10:27 PM PST If the gravitational waves do exist, can they be used to communicate with somebody just inside a black hole, at least for a limited time? Matter and energy cannot pass back, but gravitational waves are just changes in the spacetime curvature, and spacetime is fundamentally continuious, so apparently nothing prevents changes in curvature originating inside event horizon from propagating outside. Or not? submitted by myrix [link] [3 comments]

What theoretically happens in the middle of two merging kerr black holes? Posted: 16 Nov 2015 05:20 AM PST Let me first specify what I mean by the question. Kerr black holes have an angular momentum and thus drag the infalling matter in the same direction of their spin right? Now let's assume that two exactly same kerr black holes just with their spin the opposite way are on a collision course with each other (as in they would directly hit each other instead of rotating around each other and eventually merge), what would happen the very instant their opposingly spinning event horizons touched? Could there be theoretically even an almost unmeasurable instant of time where their event horizons cancelled out and say a photon could escape even though it was initially doomed to fall into one the singularities? submitted by Erylko [link] [3 comments]

If Multitasking is impossible, how do we walk and talk at the same time? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 03:20 PM PST Hi all, I've been told that multitasking is not actually possible. Instead, we switch between tasks. If this is true, how do we walk and talk at the same time? Or drive and listen to music? Are there any studies that support the existence of multitasking? submitted by dirrty_30 [link] [10 comments]

Does oksusu cha have a high freezing temperature? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 10:13 PM PST A while back, I made some oksusu cha (corn tea/tisane) in a large container, and some of it froze. Just recently, I poured some into a 2L soda bottle and it had some ice chunks when I pulled it out of the fridge (deep in the fridge I also had a separate cup of coffee that did not freeze, which leads me to think it has to do with the composition of the liquid). So I ask: what about the corn changes the freezing temperature of the beverage? submitted by outgrabenmomerath [link] [4 comments]

How does light around a spinning black hole get a 'boost' despite there being a speed limit? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 08:19 PM PST So I was reading Kip Thorne's "science of interstellar" and everything was making sense until I came across this image and he said that the light on the left side is going in the direction of the spin, which gains a boost which is why the side is flat, while the light coming towards us on the right side of the hole is going against the spin and thus falls in. I would understand this if light could go slower and faster than the speed of light but as I understand it, light cannot go slower than the speed of light, nothing massless can. So what is meant by light getting a boost? Shouldn't it fall in if it goes within the event horizon even if the hole is spinning? submitted by TheTrueJay [link] [2 comments]

Can't we avoid the "problem" of leap years by redefining what a second, minute, hour "means?" Posted: 15 Nov 2015 02:44 PM PST I understand the reasoning and physical reason for leap years, but, to me, it seems that the fact that there is an extra 1/4 or so day each year can be avoided by just redefining the length of time a second, minute, hour actually represent in order to make up for this fact. Currently, an international second is defined as "the duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom" (whatever that means). Wouldn't lengthening this (and thus the length of a minute, hour, day, etc.) to make up for the 1/4 day left over at the end of each year get rid of the need for leap years? I understand that this may not be feasible in reality, I'm just wondering if there is some problem with my logic. submitted by msood16 [link] [9 comments]

If passing the speed of sound in a vehicle produces a sonic boom, would something similar happen if you could pass the speed of light? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 05:53 PM PST submitted by BaronVonBoompy [link] [10 comments]

How big was the universe 1 second after the Big Bang compared to now? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 09:51 AM PST (see title) submitted by QuickSilverD [link] [27 comments]

Can you go faster than the speed of light by moving in opposite directions? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 04:46 PM PST For example, if I wanted to send a beam of light from point A to point B, But they were both moving away from each other at 70% the speed of light, would that make it impossible for the beam to reach B, since in theory the combined speed of the points is over the speed of light? Or would it be okay since once I fire the beam (continuous), the light begins from that spot and is moving faster than point B, and can catch up to it, being 30% faster? submitted by Scp121 [link] [1 comment]

Do black holes affect earths gravity? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 01:34 PM PST submitted by dyggur [link] [12 comments]

If I have a piece of string that is exactly 10 cm long, and I move it into a circle, it would mean that 10 cm = pi*diameter. Since the diameter can also be accurately measure, why can we not use this information to determine the exact value of pi? Posted: 15 Nov 2015 09:30 PM PST I would also like to add that I know measurements can be slightly off and not always perfect, so I'm asking the question in a completely theoretical sense. submitted by CashmereLogan [link] [19 comments]

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