| Megathread: Anti-hydrogen/anti-matter Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:46 AM PST Hi everyone, We're getting a lot of questions related to the recent discovery of the anti-hydrogen spectrum. There's already an AskScience thread but we thought we'd open up the floor and collect all additional questions here for further discussion. submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator [link] [comments] |
| Why won't my touchscreen recognize leather gloves? Posted: 22 Dec 2016 06:05 AM PST Would someone explain this to me? Since leather is animal skin I thought leather gloves might work with my smartphone. submitted by /u/JankyChris [link] [comments] |
| Why does it seem like so many artificial elements are made by combining Calcium with some other element? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:19 PM PST I've looked at some synthetic element creation processes, and it seems like a large portion of them produce element X by combining Calcium with element number X-minus-20. Why is this? Why can't they combine Argon with element number X-minus-18? Why does Calcium seem to be the king? submitted by /u/WaitForItTheMongols [link] [comments] |
| How/Why did it snow in the Sahara Desert just very recently? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 11:36 AM PST |
| Is it possible there are galaxies out there who are black? Big lumps of mass that got together but just never started producing any light. Like a dead galaxy or something? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 06:38 PM PST |
| Where/How do researchers get test animals with specific conditions like alzheimer's, and how do they evaluate improvements for what is inherently a subjective disease? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 08:02 PM PST |
| Can Pluto become a planet? Posted: 22 Dec 2016 07:20 AM PST Hello everyone! Can Pluto gain enough mass by getting hit by meteorites and other small bodies to the point it becomes "clearing" its orbit and fulfilling all IAU's conditions? Or are we already past this point on the Solar System's history? submitted by /u/Mistdwellerr [link] [comments] |
| What is the largest an impact crater on earth can be? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 07:05 PM PST How big can an impact crater on earth be? This is an indirect way of asking how big can an object be before it completely destroys the earth upon impact, leaving no impact crater? submitted by /u/heisenberger [link] [comments] |
| Are single-biome worlds possible? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 09:16 PM PST Science fiction often presents worlds that have only one biome or are dominated by a particular biome (the forest moon of Endor and Hoth from Star Wars or Arrakis from Dune come to mind). Could we ever find real planets/moons like that? submitted by /u/BrainPunter [link] [comments] |
| Why can't nuclear power plants be scaled down more? Or, if they can, why arn't people doing it? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:17 PM PST Specifically, If i wanted to build an MSR in my backyard, to power my house or something, what would stop me from doing it? Is it just too cost prohibitive, or is there something about the nature of these devices that makes them only viable at large scales? Edit: Thank you all for your responses, I am currently playing around with Genetic programming, and was wondering if it was going to be a waste of my time to try and simulate a more efficient system. I'm starting to think it might be.... Oh well, Learn something new every day. submitted by /u/TheUltraMerchant [link] [comments] |
| Would an object dropped straight down from a geosynchronous orbit land directly under the point from which it was dropped? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 07:59 PM PST |
| Why does the Pauli exclusion principle cause the strong nuclear force to be repulsive at short distances? Posted: 22 Dec 2016 05:37 AM PST So the strong force acts in the positive direction (repulsive force) at short distances otherwise it would violate the exclusion principle. But why do short distances violate it? Which quantum property/number is violated with distance? submitted by /u/RavernousPenguin [link] [comments] |
| Despite the diversity of life, no form has three sexes. Why exactly? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 12:19 PM PST |
| Is it possible for another planets gravity to influence our tectonic plates? How big would said object have to be? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:12 PM PST |
| Why don't celestial bodies far away from stars eventually reach absolute zero just by radiating heat without a substantial influx of energy? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 11:44 PM PST I don't have a scientific background, but I love to science. I'm thinking of planetoids very far away from the stars, like Pluto or stuff within the Oort Cloud. Clearly, it's very cold on Pluto, something like -220C, but what I don't understand is why doesn't it keep getting colder? Is the sun's energy enough to keep it stable at -220C that far out or is there something else at play here? submitted by /u/ibak [link] [comments] |
| How do they measure a planet's size? Do they measure from where the atmosphere begins, or where the planet's mass begins? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 05:56 PM PST |
| How can something pickup nearby radio frequencies if it does not have a radio capability itself? Posted: 22 Dec 2016 01:30 AM PST My boyfriend and I were playing around with a small handheld analog synthesizer. It's only functions are similar to a keyboard with effect knobs. Upon turning it on there was some distorted convo that sounded like some kind of a radio broadcast somewhere. The synth doesn't have recording capabilities either, so it's not like it was a recorded playback. I've encountered this a few times before with different electronics with speakers, such as a toy car. I was wondering how this happens? submitted by /u/strangecacti [link] [comments] |
| How does wind effect sound? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 05:24 PM PST |
| Is there such a thing as endangered plants??? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 11:36 AM PST Do we have plants that are endangered, or records of plants that have gone extinct?? I am not knowledgeable on this subject. I know we find plants preserved in amber and stone, but the ones I recall seeing are things like wheat and ergot and flowers that we still have around today. I would also like to know if humans have ever purposefully eradicated a plant, or of that's possible. submitted by /u/Its_Farley [link] [comments] |
| Can galaxies have an overall electric charge or magnetic field? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 02:49 PM PST I'm assuming they wouldn't have a charge since most of the things making up a galaxy are neutral. But there are many celestial bodies with magnetic fields, so do they "add up" to create a galactic-scale field? What effect does rotation have? And would they be significant enough to affect the motions of other galaxies? submitted by /u/104084485 [link] [comments] |
| Why isn't the Y in xyY color space the same as the B in HSB color space? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 03:55 PM PST I'm having trouble understanding this. xyY is just a way people represent XYZ in 2D. For a given (x,y) (note: small x and y), different values of Y will change its brightness, but won't actually change where the point appears on an xy chromaticity plot. What that intuitively tells me is that its hue (the direction from the center gray point, for example) and its saturation (the distance from the gray point) should be independent of Y (again, for a constant (x,y)). So what I'd expect is that if were talking about xyY space and you took (0.2,0.1,0.1) (a really dark blue) and (0.2,0.1,0.9) (a nice bright blue), and converted them both to HSB space and looked at the values, they'd have the same H and S values, but a different B value. Yet, they don't, which you can see by messing around with this converter for example. I'd just look at the transformation it's doing, but the only actual equations I can find are here, and it would involve going xyY->XYZ->RGB->HSB... So why aren't Y (in xyY space) and B (in HSB) the same? submitted by /u/integrals4daze [link] [comments] |
| When you exercise and you burn calories, at what point do the calories actually leave your body? Is it during the exercise, or sometime after? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 02:40 PM PST I believe calories leave the body through your breath when you exhale, but I'm just curious at what point they actually leave the body. submitted by /u/murph94 [link] [comments] |
| What causes a Tsunami NOT to form? Posted: 21 Dec 2016 07:12 AM PST I get that a sharp rise in the ocean floor during an earthquake can cause a tsunami. but it seems relatively common that most ocean-borne earthquakes do not result in a tsunami. What's preventing them from forming? submitted by /u/williamrikersisland [link] [comments] |
