Pages

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Solar Eclipse Megathread

Solar Eclipse Megathread

Solar Eclipse Megathread

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 08:19 AM PDT

On August 21, 2017, a solar eclipse will cross the United States and a partial eclipse will be visible in other countries. There's been a lot of interest in the eclipse in /r/askscience, so this is a mega thread so that all questions are in one spot. This allows our experts one place to go to answer questions.

Ask your eclipse related questions and read more about the eclipse here! Panel members will be in and out throughout the day so please do not expect an immediate answer.

Here are some helpful links related to the eclipse:

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
[link] [comments]

How come otorhinolaryngology is a single discipline if it concerns three different body parts? Are these connected in some way? Are there other examples of specialties that include multiple minor subspecialties?

Posted: 10 Aug 2017 06:33 AM PDT

How to sum orbital angular moments to get Russell-Saunders coupling's L?

Posted: 10 Aug 2017 07:19 AM PDT

On this site I have found the following sentence:

Consider, as an example, the excited helium atom in the atomic electron configuration 2p3p. By the triangular conditions the one-electron spins s = ½ can couple to |½−½|, ½+½ = 0, 1 (spin singlet and triplet) and the two orbital angular momenta l = 1 can couple to L = |1−1|, 1, 1+1 = 0, 1, 2.

I sort of understand the spin part but I have trouble with the orbital angular momentum, why can it be equal to 1 if I have two electrons both with l=1. Maybe a better example can be found in Linus Pauling's book titled General Chemistry (and this is what I couldn't understood first but even after trying to find it out on my own I'm stuck.). He shows us an example with a carbon atom. Here's my thought process on getting the Russel-Saunders symbol:

  • C's electron config: 1s2 2s2 2p2, we don't have to look at the first two orbitals because both S=0 and L=0
  • 2p2 can be 2px2, 2px1 2py1 (and other basically the same variations), in the first case S=0 in the second S=1 This is what I don't get, both sources says L=0,1,2, but I can't make sense of L=1, (although I can't really make sense about the other values either, but at least I can arithmetically get to those). They are vectors and I understand that px py and pz orbits all point to directions perpendicular to each other, in which case adding them together should result in values 2 (if same direction) or sqrt(2) in every other case. Not even 0 should be a correct answer, so I definitely don't understand something basic here.

Also, if it wouldn't be that big of a trouble, could you please explan what J actually is (the subscript on the right)?

submitted by /u/Muoniurn
[link] [comments]

What is the scientific definition of temperature?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 07:12 PM PDT

I have been googling this and having a great deal of trouble finding definitions that don't seem circular. In particular, the following is bothering me. Temperature seems to be defined by internal energy (u = 3/2RT) for an ideal gas. Internal energy can be theoretically defined (velocity + vibration + rotation, etc). But specific heat capacity increases with temperature for a real gas, meaning there is more energy per degree of temperature increase. How can there be more energy increase per degree if a degree is literally defined in terms of the amount of energy increase?

Does temperature actually only depend on particle velocity, and other effects just happen to be negligible at normal temperatures? What gives?

submitted by /u/spacemonkeyzoo
[link] [comments]

For how long can a typical housefly stay airborne before it runs out of energy?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 01:52 PM PDT

It's impressive how long it can buzz around and be super annoying without needing to eat.

submitted by /u/manofredgables
[link] [comments]

What purpose does Iron serve in our bodies? Are there any elements that could theoretically replace it, in an environment where iron wasn't abundant/available?

Posted: 10 Aug 2017 08:31 AM PDT

2 parts curiosity, 1 part research for a story I'm mulling over.

submitted by /u/Avenmar
[link] [comments]

From 2010 to 2016, student loan debt has approximately doubled, and the average student loan debt in 2016 has seen a 50% increase from 2010. What factors are driving this growth and what's the outlook of it's sustainability?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 08:14 PM PDT

How exactly does cancer physically kill you?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 08:11 AM PDT

Schizophrenia: Are voices ever perceived as benevolent?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 09:33 AM PDT

From popular fiction, the voices schizophrenic people hear are always angry, insulting, or downright evil. However, do some schizophrenics hear more benevolent or supportive voices?

submitted by /u/Tendy777
[link] [comments]

Why is the ideal gas law selective to certain types of energy?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 03:21 PM PDT

Today in school I learned about the ideal gas laws. As we know, the formula is PV=nRT, t being temperature. Temperature is the average kinetic energy. We learned that there are several ways energy can be absorbed by gas molecules. This includes collision, rotating, vibration, bending. However, my teacher said collision is the only way that energy can be absorbed and that can be accounted for the ideal gas laws. Why is that? Why can't all types work for ideal gas laws?

I probably said something wrong so I'll try to clarify.

submitted by /u/XXXtaxation
[link] [comments]

How exactly does cancer work?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 02:02 PM PDT

I hear things like "cancer attacks" but I don't understand how a cell made incorrectly can do that. It's not like a virus who is programmed to attack body, so how and what does it do.

submitted by /u/bushdiid911
[link] [comments]

How long/many organ transplants did it take for us to truly understand how our body rejects new organs and how to fight this process?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 07:43 AM PDT

Ask Anything Wednesday - Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 08:07 AM PDT

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience, Medicine, Psychology

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
[link] [comments]

Why are there different types of seismic waves? Why do P waves, S waves and L waves occur/travel seperately?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 06:15 AM PDT

If there was an ocean in Mars, which color would it have?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 02:33 AM PDT
vào lúc No comments:

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

If telomers get shorter with every split of a cell, doesn't this mean we can pretty accurately calculate when someone will die of old age?

If telomers get shorter with every split of a cell, doesn't this mean we can pretty accurately calculate when someone will die of old age?

If telomers get shorter with every split of a cell, doesn't this mean we can pretty accurately calculate when someone will die of old age?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 02:02 PM PDT

What's the coldest flames can be?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 09:16 PM PDT

How is corruption measured?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 12:04 PM PDT

Organizations like Transparency International publish corruption data from all over the world. How do they get their data? It's obviously a crime that is attempted to be hidden.

submitted by /u/MonsterPhilosophy
[link] [comments]

What determines whether ancient plant/animal material turns into oil vs coal?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 06:17 AM PDT

Also, how much coal/oil would a house cat sized animal produce and/or a plant with the mass of a house cat?

submitted by /u/DadThrowsBolts
[link] [comments]

Why aren't pixels made up of 'RYB' LEDs instead of RGB ones?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 01:59 PM PDT

Was wondering that since the 3 primary colours are red, yellow and blue would it not make more sense in some applications for yellow LEDs to be used instead of green LEDs for pixel based displays.

submitted by /u/Jman____
[link] [comments]

Is it possible to estimate the economic impact of corrupt leadership (I'm thinking Marcos, Mugabe and Suharto levels of corruption) on a country's economy?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 03:52 AM PDT

Or, to rephrase that, let's suppose we could access news from a parallel universe where Suharto, Marcos and Mugabe never came to power and leaders of integrity had been in place instead ... how would the economies of the alternate versions of those countries differ from what we know?

submitted by /u/Gargatua13013
[link] [comments]

Why do some people have an allergic reaction to pollen, while others do not?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 05:16 PM PDT

As an added question, why are allergic reactions to pollen so different from allergic reactions to food?

submitted by /u/TheRealLinuxRebel
[link] [comments]

How many particles in the universe?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 02:26 PM PDT

So people always say there's like 1082 particles in the universe or something like that. But how many particles are estimated to be in the actual universe? I know we don't know the size of the universe but assuming it's finite and we know what the expansion rate is would it be possible to estimate it? Or would it just be the same as the observable universe?

submitted by /u/Onuha
[link] [comments]

During a solar eclipse, why/how does the moon always seem to be the exact 'width' of the sun? Is it just a coincidence?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 08:36 PM PDT

In forming binary star systems, why doesn't the solar wind from the first star's initial fusion stop the formation of the second star?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 07:30 PM PDT

Intuitively, I would think that the material that is currently condensing as a second protostar would be blown away by the new star's solar wind.

submitted by /u/gerbot150
[link] [comments]

When glaciers scraped away so much soil and other material during the Ice Ages, where did it go?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 07:29 PM PDT

The soil in most of Northern Europe and much of North America is less than 10,000 years old due to glaciers scraping away so much soil compared to areas that didn't have glaciers in the Ice Ages.

Glaciers also flattened the land. I used to live in the US in Indiana. Over there the northern half of the state is flat while the southern half has a lot of hills because the northern half was scraped flat by glaciers.

Where did all of this material go?

submitted by /u/Idle_Redditing
[link] [comments]

Why is gravity referred to as a "force"?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 08:46 PM PDT

I'm not a physicist, and my formal physics education ended my freshman year in college. That said, I still have to wonder why people refer to gravity as a "force"? I have been under the impression - at least since I started reading about relativity decades ago - that gravity wasn't a "force" (like electromagnetism and the other two quantum forces) so much as an emergent property of the curvature of spacetime. That's why it's been so difficult to reconcile quantum theory and relativity: we're talking about apples and oranges.

The quantum forces are described as fields and seem to exist superimposed (somehow) on the larger "canvas" of curved spacetime. Gravity can certainly affect the quantum forces - light bends in the presence of a strong spacetime curvature - but the quantum forces seem to have no effect whatsoever on gravity.

Forgive me if my understanding of physics is faulty but every time I read an article that refers to the "force of gravity" it makes me think they don't know what they're talking about.

submitted by /u/Frebdignabliaq
[link] [comments]

[Physics] How does dew form? And also, what exactly does the dew point mean?

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 05:03 AM PDT

I was up early this morning and was looking around my yard. And also looking at the few, and wondering how it formed, and what the dew point has to do with it. My best idea is that condensation comes down overnight and makes dew stick to everything? At least until the sun comes and "melts it off"?

submitted by /u/Darwinism21
[link] [comments]

Is it possible for a terrestrial planet to be something other than solid and spherical in shape?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 03:15 PM PDT

How do you determine the height of an island?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 03:34 PM PDT

If I am on an island and push a 7 ft. boulder to it's highest point, did I just raise it's height by 7 feet? What determines how tall it is?

submitted by /u/Riftus
[link] [comments]

Are there certain ethnic grouos that tend to have a higher number of Neanderthal gene variants?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 06:45 PM PDT

A few of my family members and I recently took the 23&Me genealogy test which tells you how many Neanderthal gene variants you have. My grandfather, who had a higher percentage of Southern European ancestry had a much lower number of Neanderthal genes than my grandmother, and father (not the son of thse two people, they are my maternal grandparents) who have a much higher percentage of Northern/Northwestern European ancestry. This led me to think that perhaps Neanderthal genes are more prevalent in North/Northwest Europe. Is there any validity to my thought? If not, is there any observed tendency that Neanderthal gene variants have in certain population?

submitted by /u/sphericpanda3
[link] [comments]

Is an electron "matter"? What state of matter is it?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 11:32 PM PDT

Can bees tell the difference between their own hive's honey and another hive's honey?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 07:11 AM PDT
vào lúc No comments:

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

AskScience Panel of Scientists XVII

AskScience Panel of Scientists XVII

AskScience Panel of Scientists XVII

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 01:16 PM PDT

Please read this entire post carefully and format your application appropriately.

This post is for new panelist recruitment! The previous one is here.

The panel is an informal group of redditors who are either professional scientists or those in training to become so. All panelists have at least a graduate-level familiarity within their declared field of expertise and answer questions from related areas of study. A panelist's expertise is summarized in a color-coded AskScience flair.

Membership in the panel comes with access to a panelist subreddit. It is a place for panelists to interact with each other, voice concerns to the moderators, and where the moderators make announcements to the whole panel. It's a good place to network with people who share your interests!

You are eligible to join the panel if you:

  • Are studying for at least an MSc. or equivalent degree in the sciences, AND,

  • Are able to communicate your knowledge of your field at a level accessible to various audiences.

Instructions for formatting your panelist application:

  • Choose exactly one general field from the side-bar (Physics, Engineering, Social Sciences, etc.).

  • State your specific field in one word or phrase (Neuropathology, Quantum Chemistry, etc.)

  • Succinctly describe your particular area of research in a few words (carbon nanotube dielectric properties, myelin sheath degradation in Parkinsons patients, etc.)

  • Give us a brief synopsis of your education: are you a research scientist for three decades, or a first-year Ph.D. student?

  • Provide links to comments you've made in AskScience which you feel are indicative of your scholarship. Applications will not be approved without several comments made in /r/AskScience itself.

Ideally, these comments should clearly indicate your fluency in the fundamentals of your discipline as well as your expertise. We favor comments that contain citations so we can assess its correctness without specific domain knowledge.

Here's an example application:

 Username: /u/foretopsail General field: Anthropology Specific field: Maritime Archaeology Particular areas of research include historical archaeology, archaeometry, and ship construction. Education: MA in archaeology, researcher for several years. Comments: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Please do not give us personally identifiable information and please follow the template. We're not going to do real-life background checks - we're just asking for reddit's best behavior. However, several moderators are tasked with monitoring panelist activity, and your credentials will be checked against the academic content of your posts on a continuing basis.

You can submit your application by replying to this post.

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
[link] [comments]

Why is your mouth much more sensitive to cold water after brushing your teeth or chewing mint gum?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 08:03 PM PDT

Why are there little holes in the metal prongs of power adapters?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 03:38 PM PDT

Why are their lines radiating out from the craters on the moon?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 08:10 PM PDT

I saw this post in /r/oddlysatisfying
https://i.imgur.com/z1XmzMH.gifv
I noted that many of the craters had lines radiating outwards.
What causes them on the moon? Why are they lines rather than a 'fading grey of concentric circles'?
edit: I mis-spelled their/there in the title. Sincerest apologies!

submitted by /u/aiydee
[link] [comments]

How do we know what dinosaurs did with their bodies?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 06:33 PM PDT

Since the dinosaur era, all organic material has decomposed. That being said, how do scientists know that the Dilophosaur had a pouch for spitting poison into enemies eyes? The material that made up the pouch and poison decomposed long ago. (That was only one example)

submitted by /u/Riftus
[link] [comments]

How do you actually measure the mass of a mountain?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 05:52 AM PDT

How do you know the volume? Density? What area is considered to be part of the mountain?

I've seen the mass of Mt. Everest mentioned as a comparison to other things in several videos, articles and such and I always wondered how this number comes about.

submitted by /u/ipicco
[link] [comments]

How long do I have to keep a calendar until I can reuse it again?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 04:46 AM PDT

I have a 2016 Taylor Swift calendar that is still hanging on my wall, it just occurred to me that if I leave it up long enough then eventually I'll be able to use it again.

I love math, but I'm not fluent in date calculations. (base 7? base 365?) I'm very curious about patterns. I'd love to hear more about the how and why of this question. (don't forget about leap years!)

submitted by /u/Skuzee
[link] [comments]

Is it actually possible to see the curvature of the earth while standing on its surface?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 04:51 AM PDT

I hear many people say at various times that some area is so flat they can see the earth's curvature. Isn't the earth too big for that? Wouldn't any "curvature" observed just be a localized landscape that doesn't actually represent the earths profile?

submitted by /u/savagesiege
[link] [comments]

Are there any equations to calculate the amount of force in the strong and weak force?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 06:45 AM PDT

How is biometric authentication not practically the same as using the same password for everything?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 06:16 AM PDT

Sure it is a good password so it can't practically be guessed, but in the event of a database leak with all our fingerprints they are no longer secure and can no longer be used, ever really.

submitted by /u/Flex-Ible
[link] [comments]

How do battery life indicators work?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 05:14 PM PDT

How can an electronic device measure the remaining amount of life in its batteries? Is there some fundamental difference in the process of the chemical reaction between a dead battery and a full one, or is the measurement based on something like the strength of the current?

submitted by /u/TechyMitch1
[link] [comments]

What will the James Web telescope reveal about other planets?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 07:42 PM PDT

I understand it's a long distance telescope but I heard it's also going to be used to study other world's outside our solar system.

What kind of information are we talking about?

submitted by /u/Goldenbrownlung
[link] [comments]

What are the relativistic effects in rockets?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 06:17 AM PDT

There are very heavy relativistic effects when approaching the speed of light, but are there any on rockets, more precisely, the fastest rocket?

submitted by /u/agaminon22
[link] [comments]

Why do we stop being contagious after a certain number of days with a common cold?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 12:16 PM PDT

I've read that the rhinovirus takes 5 - 7 days for it to be non-contagious after symptoms first appear. If this is true, why? Has the immune system simply knocked the virus on the head? Why do we still have symptoms but stop being contagious?

submitted by /u/panelakpascal
[link] [comments]

During the time that Pangea existed, were there other islands?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 03:39 PM PDT

I'm assuming that there weren't any large islands (Madagascar size), but were there any smaller islands? If there were, would they have had large life (small rodents, trees, etc)? Also, I'm not sure if I used the correct flair - please let me know if I should change it.

submitted by /u/hazzial
[link] [comments]

Could an animal grow a propeller?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 11:16 PM PDT

Could a flying bug/animal grow a propeller for flight? Why haven't they already?

submitted by /u/Player-12
[link] [comments]

How fast does electricity move?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 07:19 PM PDT

I just saw that gif of the people lined up, and the guy at the end touched the electric fence and it seemed as though they all were instantly zapped at the same time. If the line were a lot longer would it take more time?

submitted by /u/nedak42
[link] [comments]

Is it possible to artificially increase the rate a black hole emits hawking radiation?

Posted: 08 Aug 2017 02:32 AM PDT

As far as I understand hawking radiation is the only way black holes emit energy, but big ones out in space emit almost none. If some future space civilization found a black hole out in space and wanted to extract energy from it, is there any posible way they could manipulate the conditions around or in the black hole as to cause it to emit more hawking radiation?

submitted by /u/snuffybox
[link] [comments]

How much ancient biological matter did it take to make one gallon of gasoline?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 05:41 PM PDT

I assume that the process of matter becoming crude oil is not 100% energy efficient, and I also assume that the process of refining crude into gasoline isn't 100% efficient as well. So how much is lost in the process?

submitted by /u/N8CCRG
[link] [comments]

[Math] Why is 1/x continous?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 07:32 PM PDT

According to everything I have, a function is continous in the point a if:

  • f(a) exists

  • lim x->a f(x) exists

  • f(a) = lim x->a f(x)

However, everywhere in the internet says that f(x)=1/x is a continous function when f(0) does not exists and lim x->0 f(x) does not exists either.

If the only reason of it being continous is that 0 is not in it's domain, then, would (for example) (x2 -4) /(x-2) be continous just because the only point where f(a) does not exists does not belongs to the domain? Is there then any non-continous function that is not piecewise defined?

Any not piecewise defined function I can think of is "not continous" only in the points that don't belong to the domain so then if I follow the "1/x is continous" thinking these functions are continous too.

Sorry for language, english is not my native language and maybe some terms differ a lot in between.

submitted by /u/smcarre
[link] [comments]

How often does it rain on venus?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 05:42 PM PDT

I can't seem to find a solid answer for this anywhere - I'm specifically looking for how often it rains acid in the 'habitable zone' upper atmosphere of venus.

So far I've only been able to find that it is 'frequent'. Overall I've had very little luck finding much info at all on venus outside the basics - even nasa's page doesn't have much more on it than wikipedia.

submitted by /u/SirWeeble
[link] [comments]

Is (some form of) Teleportation possible today?

Posted: 07 Aug 2017 03:46 PM PDT

In the BBC4 documentary "Visions Of The Future (2007)-Part 3 - The Quantum Revolution" there are reference made regarding a form of teleportation. Is there scientific proof today of forms of teleportation possibilities today ?

submitted by /u/jadoredior
[link] [comments]
vào lúc No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)