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Monday, May 16, 2016

Is it possible for a star to be cold?

Is it possible for a star to be cold?


Is it possible for a star to be cold?

Posted: 15 May 2016 09:15 AM PDT

If it is, is the limit absolute zero? And a follow-up, is there any limits on how HOT things can be?

submitted by /u/JebbeK
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Why is a full circle 360 degrees? Why not just a round number like 100 or any other number?

Posted: 15 May 2016 10:05 AM PDT

On a molecular level why is inhaling Cyanide (HCN), even in small amounts, so dangerous to humans?

Posted: 15 May 2016 05:59 PM PDT

At least with Carbon Monoxide it takes a lot to really do damage but Cyanide seems like one whiff is enough.

submitted by /u/MartinBrodyMcFly
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When did we first hypothesize that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at the center?

Posted: 15 May 2016 07:06 PM PDT

I know that Maarten Schmidt discovered the first quasar in 1963, and astronomers wondered how it could be so bright being so far away (2.5 billion light years), which led them to hypothesize that it could be powered by an accretion disk spinning around a supermassive black hole. How did we make the jump from there to the general acceptance that all or most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at the center?

submitted by /u/ScruffyMcScruffkins
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Why is my salt leaving my salt shaker?

Posted: 15 May 2016 04:02 PM PDT

The salt is slowly climbing up the wall of the shaker and out the lid. What chemical process is causing this to happen? http://imgur.com/On9qSsk

submitted by /u/cambardell
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Is there a name for all animals that lay eggs?

Posted: 15 May 2016 04:49 PM PDT

What's the word for all the fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians that lay eggs, or anything that isn't a mammal.

submitted by /u/OliveEyes-
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If tectonic plates didn't move, would Hawaii be taller than Olympus Mons?

Posted: 15 May 2016 06:07 AM PDT

Assuming that Hawaii was still continuously fed by mantle material. Or would gravitational instability prevent such heights?

submitted by /u/forams_galorams
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Does meteoric water infiltration significantly affect fault characteristics?

Posted: 16 May 2016 01:37 AM PDT

A 2016 paper looking at meteoric water input into the Alpine fault of New Zealand has a weakish byline in its summary stating:

"Focused fluid flow through the Alpine Fault zone may promote fault weakening by facilitating the formation of weak secondary minerals and promoting the generation of high pore fluid pressures or pressure compartmentalisation"

Does the paper/any evidence available strongly promote the theory? Do you think that the effect significantly affects fault characteristics? For example, might it reduce the critical stress required to rupture, and therefore the magnitude of ruptures?

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X16301418

submitted by /u/seraillier
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Pythagorean triples: what is the geometric meaning of Euclid's formula?

Posted: 15 May 2016 03:03 PM PDT

Euclid's algorithm for generating Pythagorean triples is well known --

For all m and n<m, {2mn, m2-n2, m2+n2} generates an integer Pythagorean triple.

The algebraic validity of this is pretty obvious, but do m and n in this formula have any geometric meaning? If I'm looking at a right-angled triangle ABC, can m and n be made to correspond to anything in the diagram?

submitted by /u/Zikzax
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How accurate is the concept behind Discovery's "Sonic Sea"?

Posted: 15 May 2016 01:40 PM PDT

I just saw this video on Facebook which details the ways in which humans add noise pollution to the ocean. The trailer definitely does its best to make the problem sound really bad, but it seems to me as though the vastness of the ocean would make human noise pollution a pretty insignificant problem for whales and other species that rely on sonic communication. Have there been any studies that have definitively demonstrated that ships and/or oil prospecting provide a significant disruption to whales' (or other marine species') ability to communicate?

submitted by /u/ravenpride
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Sterilisation and hysterectomy?

Posted: 15 May 2016 03:22 PM PDT

Context: Roughly in the '60s and '70 disabled female residents living in institutions in Japan were sterilised without consent. I have a source which speaks about sterilisation and a source which uses the term "hysterectomy". Can hysterectomy be a way of sterilisation or are they two different things? I'm confused if they used both (unmentioned) ways of sterilisation and hysterectomy, or only the later. The reason stated in both sources is that it was done to ease (the menstrual pain and) the workload of the workers. Also gave the institutions free guinea-pigs since the parents' had usually signed a waiver that gave permission to perform any surgeries on residents. It's terrible I know.

(English isn't my first language and I'm not that familiar with this sort of terminology. Sorry and thanks!)

submitted by /u/nietzschetsefly
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If current is the flow of electrons why does it flow in the opposite direction as electrons?

Posted: 15 May 2016 10:21 AM PDT

I know that electrons go from negative to positive because of electrostatic repulsion and electrons carry a -ve charge.

But my textbook says that current is the "flow of electrons", wouldn't that mean it also flows from negative to positive?

submitted by /u/7df1
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Does the temperature of water affect it's viscosity?

Posted: 15 May 2016 06:32 AM PDT

Sunday, May 15, 2016

If diamonds are the hardest material on Earth, why are they possible to break in a hydraulic press?

If diamonds are the hardest material on Earth, why are they possible to break in a hydraulic press?


If diamonds are the hardest material on Earth, why are they possible to break in a hydraulic press?

Posted: 14 May 2016 07:42 AM PDT

Hydraulic press channel just posted this video on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fr5bNiEfc, where he claims to break a diamond with his hydraulic press. I thought that diamonds were unbreakable, is this simply not true?

submitted by /u/ObscureClarity
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I understand trigonometry and it's identities but I am having trouble understanding it intuitively. I've read and seen all the unit circle definitions and I grasp that perfectly. It's just that, I'm looking for an explanation that doesn't rely on geometry?

Posted: 14 May 2016 07:52 AM PDT

An explanation without triangles and circles.

submitted by /u/thehighschoolgeek
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Is it theoretically possible to freeze photons?

Posted: 14 May 2016 08:28 PM PDT

Do elementary particles freeze at absolute zero? Can we [humans] ever go sub absolute zero?

submitted by /u/stuffdude99
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If I dropped a lamp into a black hole and a photon left the lamp travelling *exactly* away from the singularity, after the lamp had passed the event horizon, would the photon slow down or leave the black hole?

Posted: 15 May 2016 04:11 AM PDT

What would be the toughest material of the diamond-sized object for the hydraulic press to break?

Posted: 14 May 2016 12:26 PM PDT

How are the images on the Voyager probe kept?

Posted: 15 May 2016 12:03 AM PDT

I've tried researching how they're kept, but all the sources say they're on the phonograph record. Are the images on film, a metal plate, etc?

submitted by /u/boeing186
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How can a whip wrapping around an object, Indiana Jones-style, be analyzed through kinematics of motion? Are there any equations for this?

Posted: 14 May 2016 06:47 PM PDT

I'm more so asking about the impact force as the whip coils around the object, as there's already lots of info on reddit for after it is wrapped around.

submitted by /u/InsanityIsPresent
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Is it pitch black in between stellar systems?

Posted: 14 May 2016 11:43 AM PDT

NASA posted this picture of a black hole to their Instagram account. Is it real? Fake? Have we observed black holes?

Posted: 14 May 2016 12:33 PM PDT

And also, if it was a computer generated approximation of what a black hole galaxy may look like, wouldn't it be a little bit disingenuous of them to present it like a "picture" - like the real images of space on their profile?

Picture here

submitted by /u/airconditioning8
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Is it theoretically possible to write an algorithm that returns a random number without restrictions?

Posted: 14 May 2016 11:15 AM PDT

Without restriction means no pre-specified length, precision, range etc.

submitted by /u/Sipczi
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How is C^13 - O^18 isotope clumping used as a Paleothermometer?

Posted: 14 May 2016 07:48 AM PDT

Just read the article by P. Ghosh et al. but struggling to get my head around the concept, as Chemostratigraphy isn't my forte at University.

submitted by /u/RowanHawker
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Why does mesosphere lightning look different to normal lightning?

Posted: 14 May 2016 11:05 AM PDT

Normal lightning is blue and tree-like. Mesosphere lightning looks like terrifying red alien squid. Why do they look so different?

submitted by /u/gatherinfer
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Does the maximum size of a droplet from a water-solution increase with the amount of non-water particles in said solution?

Posted: 14 May 2016 09:08 AM PDT

How do I calculate the "heat transfer" function for a tank of gas?

Posted: 14 May 2016 07:14 AM PDT

I have some sensors installed on a carbonation system that's installed in a remote location, effectively outside.

Specifically, we'd like to be able to estimate the amount of gas remaining and track usage in the tank. The tank in question is what I would call a 280 of CO2: the tank holds about 280 cubic feet at atmospheric pressure, but is a heavy steel tank about 300mm in diameter and about 1.5m tall.

You can estimate tank fill by measuring the tank pressure-- at about 1000psi, the tank is full. At 0psi, the tank is empty.

All that said, we're seeing dramatic changes in tank pressure based on the air temperature. These changes are completely masking the gas usage. We can still determine when the tank needs to be replaced, but I'd really like to be able to estimate gas usage on a daily or weekly basis.

See charts here -- top is pressure in psi, bottom is temperature in C. The temperature sensor is near to the tank. Visually, you can see that the tank pressure generally follows the temperature, but it lags a bit due to the thermal mass of the tank. The gas isn't getting pulled out fast enough for the evaporation/decompression cooling to really affect stuff.

Given all that: is there a way to model or estimate the "heat transfer function" of the tank so we can remove the temperature signal from the pressure?

Raw data is here if you want to play: https://horat.io/data/pressure.txt https://horat.io/data/temperature.txt

submitted by /u/birdbrainlabs
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How can Dark Energy both be gravitationally repulsive and make up 70% of our Universe's mass?

Posted: 14 May 2016 12:12 PM PDT

Dark Energy makes up 70% of our universes' mass-energy and in all the articles I've read it is described as a field filling space with a (positive) energy density. Anything with positive mass or energy is gravitationally attractive, so how is Dark Energy gravitationally repulsive? Is it an example of negative mass?

submitted by /u/TheUtilitaria
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How does light act as a particle?

Posted: 14 May 2016 09:49 AM PDT

Light is commonly stated to act as a particle and a wave, possessing properties of both. I (think I) understand ways it acts as a wave, as shown in double split experiments, but I can think of no way it acts as a particle. Anything would help. Thanks

submitted by /u/jeenyus024
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Relationship between band gap and color?

Posted: 14 May 2016 11:28 AM PDT

What is the relationship between the band gap and color of a material and why does this relationship exist?

submitted by /u/mathematicalNonsense
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Why is it that when a sea wave crashes into the beach, the water turns white momentarily?

Posted: 14 May 2016 08:14 AM PDT

When a sea wave crashes into the beach, it forms a lot of foam like substances, and turns white, can anyone explain this? I hypothesise that it has something to do with air being dissolved into the water when the wave crashes, but unable to proceed further. Thanks!

submitted by /u/wormta
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Saturday, May 14, 2016

What would be a 2D equivalent of a black hole?

What would be a 2D equivalent of a black hole?


What would be a 2D equivalent of a black hole?

Posted: 13 May 2016 11:43 AM PDT

You know how sometimes gravity is portrayed on a trampoline, with a big ball placed in the middle to warp the sheet and a small one going around it in circles to represent a planet, right?

What would be the equivalent of a black hole in that representation?

submitted by /u/macko939
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I know that carbon, under extreme heat and pressure, can form diamond. Is there a similar transformation with other elements?

Posted: 13 May 2016 11:07 AM PDT

I was particularly interested in finding out if lead could also make a similar transformation under extreme heat and pressure and if so, what the result would be.

submitted by /u/ClaytonWHanna
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Would a triangle of degrees 0°, 0°, and 180° (a line by all appearances) still be considered a triangle?

Posted: 13 May 2016 06:25 PM PDT

Casimir confusion: how is it even possible?

Posted: 14 May 2016 01:49 AM PDT

My understanding may well be flawed, but I have been told:

  • Heisenberg uncertainty implies all harmonic oscillators, including electromagnetism in free space, have non-zero minimum energy.
  • Two conductors placed next to each other block some of those oscillations between them, producing a net force.

My expectation is that the conductors should be incapable of blocking the oscillations for the same reason those oscillations exist in the first place. This is a widely discussed model so I recognise I'm probably wrong, even though I don't know where my mistake is.

Is this related to why some people say "it's all van der Waals forces, nothing to do with quantum effects!"?

submitted by /u/furvert_tail
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There's lots of work on the physics of having more than 3 spatial dimensions. Is there any work on the physics of having more than two temporal dimensions?

Posted: 13 May 2016 08:40 PM PDT

E.g., some string theories tell us that the universe might be 10+1D—ten space dimensions, one time dimension. Has there been any theoretical work on the physics of a universe that's, for example, 3+2D (or more generally, x+yD where y>1)?

submitted by /u/FluidChameleon
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Is there any way in how we could observe dark matter since it doesn't interact with anything besides gravity?

Posted: 13 May 2016 04:24 PM PDT

By observe I mean seeing it's particles or what ever it is like we can see quarks by smashing other particles and etc.

submitted by /u/The_Saviour
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Am i correctly following Newton's Laws?

Posted: 13 May 2016 03:50 PM PDT

I recently just got into physics (I'm 16) and was told that the earth (gravitationally) is just as attracted to us as we are to it (around 9.8m/s2) If this is the case, using f=ma or a=f/m i came to the conclusion that the earth accelerates towards us at a speed of approximately 1.633333 x 10-24 metres per second squared. This sounds reasonable but i was just wondering if this is accurate in any way?

submitted by /u/Aidquan
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[Physics] Is anything in the universe completely stationary?

Posted: 14 May 2016 05:04 AM PDT

How are the methods of integration and differentiation derived?

Posted: 13 May 2016 12:36 PM PDT

I'm assuming you can, but what I'm curious about is how one can know that the integral of x2 for instance is 1/3 x3 + c, and conversely the derivative of x2 is 2x. How do we know that you carry the power down into a constant and then subtract the power by 1 (other than "it just works")? Where did these methods come from? Chain rule? Product rule?

submitted by /u/UnclePutin
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If the Earth was compressed into a black hole, would it continue to orbit the sun?

Posted: 13 May 2016 06:57 PM PDT

If the earths mass was compressed into an area smaller than its schwarzschild radius while still orbiting the sun, assuming that the black hole did not lose any mass due to evaporation, would it continue its orbit unaffected?

submitted by /u/kirkHAM
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Why do the recently detected gravitational waves lose energy over time?

Posted: 13 May 2016 10:15 PM PDT

From what I understand the amplitudes of these waves begin very large but then dissipate as they propagate further from their point of origin. Where does the corresponding energy go? Is its transformation an intrinsic property of spacetime or the result of collisions with objects having mass? Is the reduction of their energy constant in all directions?

submitted by /u/Ribbing
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How deep can a chasm caused by an Earthquake be?

Posted: 13 May 2016 09:29 PM PDT

In the moviie San Andreas there's an earthquake where two plates move away from each other and things fall into the abyss. In real life, how deep can these get?

submitted by /u/squidwardtentickles
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Why is x*y=y*x? Is there a proof for this?

Posted: 13 May 2016 12:02 PM PDT

I know that if you multiply numbers, the order of these numbers doesn't change the result. For instance, 3x5=5x3=15. But why is this? And is there a proof?

Edit: forgot "x" between numbers.

submitted by /u/boytoy1
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Why do sleep-talkers speak sometimes normally and sometimes nonsense gibberish? Does the gibberish have any sort of "grammar"?

Posted: 13 May 2016 04:58 AM PDT

Earthquake Monitors at Bottom of Marianas Trench?

Posted: 12 May 2016 11:22 PM PDT

Hi, So I recently have been looking at alot of videos on tsunamis, particularly the one that almost hit Guam back when my family was stationed there in 2011. An that led to Earthquakes. Which led to me reading about Earthquake monitoring technology. From my understanding Earthquakes develop deep into Earths crust and the upper mantle. And the majority of them originate in the pacific ocean. From my current knowledge Earthquakes can only be predicted minutes before they happen, And there are a few ways that they can be predicted, most of which rely on fault lines. My proposal is to place monitoring devices along the Marianas Trench, the deepest point on Earth, I understand that there is immense pressure down there, but we have made strong enough cameras to dive to challenger deep before so I assume this would be possible. The trench is much deeper than other fault lines and in theory should give much more response time to pacific islanders, and possibly enough for a helicopter to catch footage of a Tsunami formation, something that has never been caught before up close. Please let me know if my reasoning is completely flawed or if this is already happening, I'm only 14 so there's a good chance I'm completely wrong :)

TL:DR I have an idea to place Earthquake monitoring devices along the Marianas trench to give more Earthquake response time to Pacific Islanders.

submitted by /u/TheSphericalCuber
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Why do the seasons match up with the length of the year?

Posted: 13 May 2016 11:12 AM PDT

So as I understand it the seasons are caused by the tilt of the earths axis. As it goes around the sun it wobbles (the axis) so that during the summer (I live in the US) the northern hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun and in the winter it's tilted away.

My question is why is the period of the wobble of the axis the same as the period for the earths orbit around the sun? Or, at least, they seem to be the same, summer and winter are during the same months every year.

submitted by /u/suds5000
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Friday, May 13, 2016

If a supersonic engine was attached to commercial airplane, would the plane be able to fly?

If a supersonic engine was attached to commercial airplane, would the plane be able to fly?


If a supersonic engine was attached to commercial airplane, would the plane be able to fly?

Posted: 12 May 2016 08:53 PM PDT

Hence, the plane would be flying in supersonic speed.

normal airplane as in commercial plane, boeing 747 etc.

submitted by /u/rektlelel
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What caused the super-continent Pangea to split up in the first place? Is that same force still driving the plates in their movement?

Posted: 12 May 2016 08:46 PM PDT

Is there a taste equivalent of olfactory fatigue?

Posted: 12 May 2016 07:55 PM PDT

I was chatting with another engineer at work about a time when I worked in a lab and someone cracked open a bottle of mercaptan to draw off a sample. They opened the bottle too much. We didn't smell anything after a few seconds, but the neighbors across from us reported a natural gas leak to the fire department.

In relaying this story, we got wondering: is there an equivalent to olfactory fatigue for taste? What kind of things would trigger it (spice, etc.)?

Thanks!

submitted by /u/excludingpauli
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Is gravity better described as a symptom?

Posted: 12 May 2016 07:35 PM PDT

I was talking to a friend with my limited understanding of how space/time warping causes gravity. He was using the "Law of Gravity" as ammo for his "lawgiver" or creator argument. That nonsense aside, was I wrong or inaccurate saying it is less of a force or a law, but more of an effect or a symptom of mass on the fabric of space/time?

submitted by /u/no_paint_no_gaint
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How can a sealed cave maintain enough energy to keep the organisms alive?

Posted: 12 May 2016 09:09 AM PDT

Referring to this TIL post: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/4iznwi/til_romanian_sewer_workers_accidentally/

We're told that the sun is indirectly responsible for all the energy that we have in our world, and that all life needs the Sun for their energy consumption through the food chain. But a cave was discovered that had been sealed off for 5.5 Million years.

How were the organisms able to maintain life and reproduction for that long, when the entropy of the system should have killed them off long ago?

submitted by /u/partty1
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If you slowed down the cooling of glass to a solid, could it form a crystalline structure?

Posted: 12 May 2016 10:12 AM PDT

From reading it seems that glass is an amorphous solid because it cools too quickly for the molecules to line up. If you were to slow down the cooling process enough, could it form a crystalline structure? If so, would the properties of the glass change in any noticeable way?

submitted by /u/Skadwick
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Magnetic Spin of Electron, +1/2 or -1/2, does one state have a lower energy?

Posted: 12 May 2016 01:03 PM PDT

Let's say a subshell is half-filled, will the electrons have a magnetic spin number +1/2? Or can they all have -1/2?

Do atoms have a preference of + or - here?

Is the +1/2 or -1/2 purely a conventional thing? Or is there an empirical way to look at a single electron and say, that's UP!

Thanks

submitted by /u/Balsaris
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Why is it that some molecules can have two opposite effects?

Posted: 12 May 2016 11:39 AM PDT

How is it that a molecule, such as prostagladin, can have two opposite affects on one type of tissue, i.e. it can cause both contraction or dilation of smooth muscle. Does it depend on the certain receptors expressed in the tissue or is it something to do with the different signaling pathways that might be active?

submitted by /u/peepusher
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I just did something amazing. Can someone help me settle my disagreement with my wife iver just how amazing it was?

Posted: 12 May 2016 05:01 AM PDT

My wife and I were pulling M&Ms out of a two pound bag of M&Ms and trying to guess what color we had pulled out before looking at it. This quickly escalated to guessing pairs and then triplets.

So, I would say, "blue, red, and red," and reach into the bag and pull out three. Neither of us got the triplet but my wife guessed the pair three different times. She was getting braggy, so I declared, "I'm about to win the lottery!" I then called six colors (brown, brown, red, blue, green, and yellow).

I closed my eyes and pulled six candies and Holy Mother of Shat and Fortune I pulled those six colors out. Obviously, we both freaked out.

Now, I want to know what the probability is of doing this.

My wife thinks it's 1/6 X 1/6 X 1/6 X 1/6 X 1/6 X 1/6, because there are six colors in the bag so each pull is a 1/6 chance to guess right assuming even distribution of colors.

This puts it at about 1/46,656.

I feel like it must be lower, because if I pulled six times, I might have pulled wrong one, but corrected it with the next pull. Like the first pull could have been blue, not brown as I was guessed first, then the second pull could have been brown to "fix" the first one. Since I'm drawing six, wouldn't it increase the chances of getting each one right? Right? Maybe?

Help!

submitted by /u/IdBelieveAnything
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Why does cancer form in organs but not in your arms or legs?

Posted: 12 May 2016 01:26 PM PDT

I've never heard of leg cancer or finger cancer. Maybe they exist but ya idk.

submitted by /u/Underdonetoast
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Are we under-applying bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) rendering it ineffective for mosquito abatement?

Posted: 12 May 2016 10:29 AM PDT

I know from multiple personal experiences that commercial Bti mosquito bits can be extremely effective when applied weekly to waterfowl lakes and ponds, including over wide urban areas. However, the instructions on the commercial products say to apply every 60 days, but typical research-focused data sheets say, "Bti may remain effective from 24 hours to over one month." Why the discrepancy?

Furthermore, WHO recommends application in drinking water resevoirs but its US EPA reregistration forbids it. Why?

Please see also Yousten et al. (1992) "Fate of Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus thuringiensis serovar israelensis in the aquatic environment." Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, 8:143–8 ("laboratory studies may overestimate spore longevity in the environment") and this report which confirms that, "the lack of significant levels of resistance in field mosquito populations treated for decades with Bti-bioinsecticide suggests that this bacterium will be an effective biocontrol agent for years to come."

submitted by /u/jsalsman
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Is Magma the Same?

Posted: 11 May 2016 08:47 PM PDT

Is all magma the same? for example if you have a piece of shale and it melts into molten rock (magma), would the magma be the same magma as molten marble? Or would the magma be made of a different combination of materials.

submitted by /u/Charizardmain
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