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Thursday, January 11, 2018

If nuclear waste will still be radioactive for thousands of years, why is it not usable?

If nuclear waste will still be radioactive for thousands of years, why is it not usable?


If nuclear waste will still be radioactive for thousands of years, why is it not usable?

Posted: 11 Jan 2018 04:47 AM PST

Is there a practical upper limit on the voltage increase I can get from a transformer before a significant loss in efficiency? What is the relationship between the efficiency and turns ratio of a transformer?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 12:42 PM PST

When you "burn fat" how exactly do you loose mass?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 12:55 PM PST

Do we sweat more, poo more, per more?

submitted by /u/OptimalPaddy
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Does age of parents have any effect on which hereditary characteristics are dominant in children?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 11:59 PM PST

How do some elements group together underground?

Posted: 11 Jan 2018 04:32 AM PST

If most elements are created during supernovas you would think that they would be uniformly scattered around.

Then why is it some elements (gold, tin, copper etc) seem to be grouped together underground?

submitted by /u/JimJetset
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Why do our muscles become bigger after tearing?

Posted: 11 Jan 2018 12:14 AM PST

Why is the visible part of many galaxies flat? What is a dark matter halo and how does it figure into the visible shape of a galaxy?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 08:45 PM PST

Where does the energy come from when matter/antimatter interacts?

Posted: 11 Jan 2018 04:07 AM PST

An enormous amount of energy is released when matter and antimatter annihilate each other...Why is that? How is the energy formed?

submitted by /u/NulloK
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Two objects in space are flying towards each other at the speed of light on a direct collision course. What is their speed relative to each other?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 07:08 PM PST

Say you have two objects at a locked distance from each other, A and B. Each object launches something at the other one at the speed of light, objects X and Y. What is the speed of X relative to Y?

submitted by /u/Cosmic_Quasar
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When a radioactive decay event occurs in an element, what determines in which direction an alpha or beta particle is ejected?

Posted: 11 Jan 2018 03:55 AM PST

Is the direction of an emitted particle a quantum process or is the direction deterministic?

submitted by /u/Stuck_In_the_Matrix
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Is it possible to create heavier hydrogen isotopes?

Posted: 11 Jan 2018 12:26 AM PST

I know we have three hydrogen isotopes: regular hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. Is it possible to add another neutron to tritium and create even heavier isotope? Or is there some limit how many neutrons can one proton bind? Maybe this next isotope exists but is too unstable and decays almost instantly, and that's why we don't hear about it?

submitted by /u/kapi774
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Why or How stimulated emission works?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 11:35 PM PST

Hello there, I'm an electronic engineering student at Roma tre University and I need your help. In today photonics' class we discussed about laser why they emit and how; I cannot understand the reason why stimulated emission work. We know that an atom, or an electron, at a certain energy level when it's hit by a photon with the right energy it changes its state; in stimulated emission what occurs is that the atom (on level say E2) is hit by a photon with a certain energy (E2-E1)and emits the same photon and then decades emitting another photon of the same kind. I don't understand why it's possible such a thing, I would expect just e reemission of the incident photon because the atom can't stay there but neither go higher. Thanks for you help!

submitted by /u/steflucastef
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I can use a wave function to calculate probability, but what does the function mean?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 03:30 PM PST

Do the real and complex parts mean anything by themselves?

Or let's say you have 2 parameterized wave functions. One of them has magnitude r(x) and direction f(x), and the other has magnitude r(x) and direction g(x). They have the same magnitude parameter, so they agree on the probabilities of a particle appearing at every point of space. But do f(x) and g(x) mean something?

If I had to guess, momentum is some function of the direction parameter, but I don't really have anything to back that up except it's all aesthetic and symmetrical.

Thanks!

submitted by /u/VioletBroregarde
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Is the flu "more deadly" this year in the sense that if you contract it, you have a higher chance of dying than in a normal flu season?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 09:13 AM PST

A friend of mine is over 65 and is concerned about the news reports that this year's flu is "especially deadly". While I understand that the elderly are always at risk, in what way is this year's flu more deadly? Is there something inherent about the flu this year (other than the problems with the vaccine) that makes it worse than other years?

submitted by /u/xpostfact
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When was the sonic boom discovered? What was the general population's reaction?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 07:45 AM PST

Considering how the common man loses his mind with the unknown, I was trying to imagine the news reports and reactions to the first sonic boom.

submitted by /u/TheSpatulaOfLove
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Can nerve endings get fatigued?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 08:43 AM PST

If nerve endings were to get over-stimulated possibly over a prolonged period of time is there any way they could become 'tired,' 'fatigued' or less effective either short term or permanently?

submitted by /u/AtticusLynch
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Why haven’t we come up with a better solution for Telephone Poles/Wires?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 02:52 PM PST

Telephone poles/wires are pretty unglamorous and take up a lot of the visual real estate in a town, neighborhood etc. I've seen a lot of campaigns to removing them—so why haven't we replaced them? And what's being done for new development areas?

submitted by /u/sykora727
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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Why doesn't a dark chocolate bar break predictably, despite chocolate's homogeneity and deep grooves in the bar?

Why doesn't a dark chocolate bar break predictably, despite chocolate's homogeneity and deep grooves in the bar?


Why doesn't a dark chocolate bar break predictably, despite chocolate's homogeneity and deep grooves in the bar?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 06:36 PM PST

I was eating a dark chocolate bar and noticed even when scored with large grooves half the thickness of the bar, the chocolate wouldn't always split along the line. I was wondering if perhaps it had to do with how the chocolate was tempered or the particle sizes and grain in the ingredients, or something else. I also noticed this happens much less in milk chocolate, which would make sense since it is less brittle.

submitted by /u/your_nuthole
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Why don't microwave ovens vary their frequency to eliminate hot spots?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 04:36 PM PST

It seems that everything else is going solid-state, so why do microwaves continue relying on a rotating platter? Would it be that much harder to vary the frequency and (hopefully) move the nodes & antinodes around?

submitted by /u/aitigie
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AskScience AMA Series: I am a squid biologist, AMA!

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 04:00 AM PST

My name is Sarah McAnulty and I'm a squid biologist at The University of Connecticut! I am currently trying to understand how the Hawaiian bobtail squid's immune system is able to tell the difference between the squid's bioluminescent bacterial partner and other kinds of bacteria. I've worked with cuttlefish camouflage in the past, and worked with octopuses before too! I spend most of time raising squid and working with a confocal microscope, taking videos of the squid's immune cells as they interact with bacteria. On the side I organize a program called Skype a Scientist which matches classrooms and scientists around the world to chat about science!

You can read more about my squid science here: http://bit.ly/2mj24oC

And more about Skype a Scientist here: www.skypeascientist.com

I've also been on Science Friday twice, once to talk squid and another to talk about Skype a Scientist! You can check out those interviews here: https://www.sciencefriday.com/person/sarah-mcanulty/

I'll be on from 12-2 ET (17-19 UT), ask me anything!

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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Is there a difference in language between North and South Korea? Is the North’s dialect frozen in time compared to the South?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 10:12 AM PST

How are the assembly languages for different processors turned into higher level programming languages like C?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 04:09 PM PST

I understand the highest level programming languages are written in lower level ones, (ie. java is written in C), but what handles converting C to assembly? Is C rewritten for different processors?

submitted by /u/BananaPuddings
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How does the Leptin protein get transported into the Hypothalamus, more specifically how does it get past the Blood-Brain Barrier?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 05:21 PM PST

The typical rule of thumb is chemical reactions occur more quickly by increasing temperature. Are there reactions that occur more quickly at 'cold' temperatures?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 03:46 AM PST

Why do bullets with particularly high velocities do a better job of penetrating armor?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 02:42 AM PST

One thing I noticed was that lead core 55-grain M193 rounds from an AR-15 will easily poke holes in steel targets rated for rifles at closer ranges because of its velocity.

The slightly heavier 62-grain M855 rounds will leave a divot at close range, but not completely penetrate the steel plates despite the bullet having a steel penetrator.

TFB TV also recently did a video of the 7.5 FK pistol round, which was designed specifically to have a very high velocity, had no problem penetrating armor rated for pistols.

submitted by /u/SelectFireChigga
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What color is the grass at night?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 10:14 PM PST

It's a longstanding family dispute. The Greens and the Blacks don't get along.

Is color an absolute property of an object, or does it change with the light?

submitted by /u/mcgroo
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What happens if I get hit by a gamma ray?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 08:07 AM PST

How does the photon of specific phase that causes stimulated emission in a laser device arise?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 05:29 PM PST

I understand that when a photon of specific properties (phase, wavelength..) comes near an excited atom with sufficient energy, the atom will most probably release a photon that has the same properties as the first photon and will fall to a lower energy state. I understand this is how light is amplified in a laser device after population inversion is achieved. I just don't understand one thing. Where does the photon that causes stimulated emission in the device come from in the first place? I tried to think of an explanation taking spontaneous emissions as a factor and using brewster's window for polarization but that seemed really unintuitve for some reason. Is there an external entity that increases the probability of the spontaneously emitted photons to be in a specific phase? It would be a great help if someone could explain this. Thanks!

submitted by /u/fallendeviL701b
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Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 07:06 AM PST

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

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

Asking Questions:

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

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

Answering Questions:

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

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

Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here.

Ask away!

submitted by /u/AutoModerator
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Would using the alphabet as a base 26 (25?) Number set be useful in cryptography?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 06:43 AM PST

I was thinking about different bases, and with a representing "0", would this give rise to prime number (letter?) Sets and thus give rise to different encryption algorithms?

submitted by /u/froschkonig
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How does wave height effect water pressure below the surface?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 05:35 PM PST

If water pressure equals (density)(gravity)(depth), then does the water pressure at the bottom of the ocean change under surface waves as the depth changes with rising and falling waves?

submitted by /u/kleinyman
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Why does matter collapse in a black hole instead of just getting compressed but at a nonzero volume?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 08:15 PM PST

I was watching the end of something about black holes, and then I realized that the way everyone talks about black holes is that before it becomes a black hole, the matter is just super dense (and presumably compressed), and then once it compresses below the Schwarzschild radius it just splats into a singularity. But why is this? If an object has a radius 1 foot from the Schwarzschild radius, and then it increases in density/compression/whatever that squishes it beneath that radius, why can't the matter just be compressed 1 foot below the Schwarzschild radius? Does space itself collapse or something?

Here is a picture of what I mean: https://i.imgur.com/8ypC4Tp.jpg

submitted by /u/OoglieBooglie93
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How is that once the sun goes down I can get AM radio signals from cities over 2000 km away?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 05:55 PM PST

I live in northern Canada. We have one local AM radio station. I've noticed that sometimes I have trouble getting a clear signal and if I move the dial around I can pick up a few American stations. These are generally from Washington State but I occasionally get stations from much farther south or to the east.

American talk radio is so bizarrely foreign and I can't help but wonder if there's someone on the other end picking up our CBC station with stories of ice quakes, caribou hunts or local politics.

submitted by /u/Rangifar
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How do magnets work at the quantum level?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 07:56 PM PST

I know magnets produce magnetic fields and how magnetic fields work.

What causes magnetic fields and what causes them to work that way on a quantum level.

I know magnets attract materials with electrons of the same spin.

Why do they do this? Why is spin related? And how does this create a magnetic field?

submitted by /u/JackSummers1212
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What is the difference between shock- and soundwave?

Posted: 10 Jan 2018 03:23 AM PST

As the title says, what is the difference? Isn't it basically the same thing, soundwave being a weaker version of shockwave?

Like an explosion - you hear the pop due to pressure "front" reaching your ears, be you close enough - you'll get hit, far away - just a soundwave with no real damage potential. Or am I mixing something?

submitted by /u/Grapister
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Why is ash mostly gray?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 09:15 PM PST

Can you increase the magnetic field of a bar magnet using electromagnetism?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 06:55 PM PST

I've been really interested in electromagnetism lately but don't have much knowledge of the physics behind it. I know that iron rods are generally used in solenoids to produce a stronger magnetic field. I've also read that solenoids produce magnetic fields similar to bar magnets. If you were to use a bar magnet in place of an iron rod in an electromagnet, would it increase the magnetic field of the bar magnet, or would it not be possible? And could you change the shape of the solenoid to create a better magnetic field/amplified field?

submitted by /u/totallyCreativeUsrnm
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How often do cannabis-related studies get published in publications with a high impact factor?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 03:12 PM PST

Perhaps I should do some more digging, but I am not finding any cannabis study coming out of a publication with an impact factor greater than 6. Is Google Scholar the wrong place to look? Do I need special access to university databases to find the current most cited cannabis studies?

submitted by /u/Alphonse25
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Is there any connection, mathematically or linguistically, between angular degrees and temperature degrees?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 11:29 AM PST

I'm not sure if there is a better subreddit to ask on, as this may or may not have a historical math explanation.

submitted by /u/Alaskan_Thunder
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Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Why do lenses have shadows?

Why do lenses have shadows?


Why do lenses have shadows?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 03:18 AM PST

I've noticed this with magnifying glasses ( convex) and my spectacles (concave).

submitted by /u/BrownApez
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Looking at how stereo is implemented in vinyl records, it would seem very hard to get two entirely independent channels. Is that one of the things that makes the "vinyl sound"?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 09:50 PM PST

Why is the ozone hole only over Antarctica?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 08:19 AM PST

It seems like that is a weird spot for it because not a lot of people live near Antarctica to pollute it

submitted by /u/spicy_dang
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Do babies have reason, or is their behaviour dictated solely by their insticts? (since they haven’t learned having habits like kids and adults do)

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 06:54 AM PST

Is there an auditory processing disorder that is similar to dyslexia?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 03:03 PM PST

How hard was it to survive the Van Allen belts?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 07:30 PM PST

My friend is trying to convince me we didn't.

submitted by /u/cornpuffs28
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Is thermal motion truly random?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 08:43 PM PST

Excuse my ignorance in advance. I keep seeing these visualizations of thermal motion and it's just energetic atoms or molecules bouncing off of each other and walls. What makes this truly random? It seems like given the initial conditions the motion is predictable.

submitted by /u/autistnumber1
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What happens to the blood vessels that run through our limbs when we bend or twist a joint on those limbs?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 05:40 AM PST

Why are non-linearities essential to machine learning?

Posted: 09 Jan 2018 12:39 AM PST

I understand why every other hyperparameter is necessary except the non-linearities like ReLU are needed

submitted by /u/soppamootanten
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Why does melting glaciers cause ocean floor to sink?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 03:10 PM PST

Recently saw a news headline that said "not only are sea levels rising but the ocean floor is sinking." Sea level rising is due to the difference in density of fresh water and salt water but Isn't it the same mass of material pushing on the ocean floor? Why would melting ice into water make it "heavier"?

submitted by /u/eeyanmiler
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Can any rotation about a vector in 3D cartesian space be expressed as a series of rotations about the axes?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 02:04 PM PST

Say I have a traditional cartesian 3-dimensional space - nothing messy like curvilinear axes or something which would make it complicated. Can any rotation of a vector or object through an arbitrary angle θ about an arbitrary vector v be expressed as a series of rotations about each axis?

Just from trying to solve it myself I think it can, so long as vector v passes through the origin but I don't have the exact mathematical background to tell for certain or prove it.

submitted by /u/Taylor7500
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Does staring at a 3D rendered environment (ex: video game) on a computer cause less eyestrain then staring a 2D rendered image (ex: web browsing)?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 10:37 AM PST

What happens if a satellite traveling at Voyager 1 speeds strikes the moon? Earth?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 10:34 PM PST

Voyager 1's speed is 38,610 mph or 17 km/s. It is the fastest thing ever built & I'm struggling to wrap my head around how fast that really is.

The moon doesn't have an atmosphere like earths so it wouldn't burn up before striking the surface. Does Voyager travel fast enough to damage the moon in any significant way or would we notice any effect? Or is it simply too small to be nothing more than another negligible crater?

If it were traveling that fast towards earth (and for some reason had a heat shield/was durable enough to withstand atmospheric disintegration) would its speed cause an extinction event such as the meteor that killed the dinosaurs? I ask since Voyagers mass is much smaller than the meteor's.

I know that objects falling towards earth have a specific terminal velocity that can't be passed, but Voyager is traveling so much faster than that. Would the atmosphere really slow it down to a terminal velocity or would it simply rip right through? Maybe I'm just not understanding that right.

I know this is a hypothetical question but I don't think it requires speculation since we're using real variables here. I'm more interested in how a small satellite traveling that fast would affect larger bodies.

Thank you for your time! (Sorry if it's a dumb question)

submitted by /u/space_cadet88
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In a major winter snow storm, is the economic impact of shutting down a city greater than the cost of adequate preparation (plowing, salting, etc.) that would keep things running?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 08:24 AM PST

I'm not asking about the straight cost of dealing with snow removal; that's only a part of the analysis. I'm interested in the more general cost-benefit analysis of adequate preparation vs shutting down and suffering lost productivity. Regardless of geographic reagion, is prevention cheaper than hunkering down and letting the weather run its course?

I would hope cities that shut down in winter weather have done an economic impact analysis and found that the cost of keeping plows and salt on hand for winter storm emergencies outweighs the losses they would suffer by shutting down for a day or two. However, I understand that such studies are difficult and these decisions are often made for short-term budget reasons rather than long-term economic impact reasons.

I found this article but it's pretty superficial. Do economists know whether the impact of a shutdown generally tends to outweigh the cost of adequate preparation?

submitted by /u/AssistPowers
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Is there a difference in pressure between the top and bottom of a submarine's hull?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 11:34 AM PST

I know submarines float due to their buoyancy. I want to know if the air inside the sub, which tends to go upwards, exerts a force on the top half of the hull (apart from its pressure which acts upon the entire hull in the same way). Does the lighter air inside it push against the top because it wants to rise? Or does it have no other effect?

submitted by /u/Brensen16
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Why was it so cold inside Apollo 13?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 07:23 PM PST

Seems to me it should have been too warm. Space is not cold, it is a vacuum, a great insulator. Add to that the full force of the sun on the capsule 24/7, and three adult bodies each creating their own heat in quite a small space. The only way for the capsule to cool is radiation. Why did it cool so effectively?

submitted by /u/Kim-Hanson
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What happens if we take a entangled pair and we measure one particle with lateral spin and other particle vertically at the same time?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 06:48 PM PST

If we take a entangled pair and we measure one particle with lateral spin and other particle vertically at the same ( the particle that is entangled to the first) ,Will we see a lateral spin at one end and vertical spin at other at the same time? But then that would be a violation entanglement right because the pair needs to have opposite spins?

submitted by /u/hari2897
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How is it determined if a cosmic object is physically large as opposed to a small distance away (or vice versa)?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 05:49 AM PST

How do large stars form?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 02:15 AM PST

As far as I've understood all stars form out of discs of gas building building up at the center under the force of gravity. At a certain point the pressure gets so high that nuclear fusion starts and the object in the center turns in to a star. This also has the effect that the gas around is blown away, as it once did in our solar system.

My question is how it is possible for larger stars to form. Wouldn't this have the effect that all formation of stars is halted at the minimum mass needed in order for nuclear fusion to occur? And yet there are immense stars such as hypergiants.

submitted by /u/Guest_16580226
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What caused the satellite in mission TSS-1r to move away from the Space Shuttle?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 02:57 PM PST

Something popped into my head recently that made me start wondering about the physics involved in a 1996 Space Shuttle mission and how it relates to a scene from the movie Gravity (2013).

In the movie Gravity there was a scientific inaccuracy at a crucial point in the plot. The scene involved George Clooney's character letting go of a life-saving tether attached to Sandra Bullock's character and the station. Although he was not in motion at the time, when he lets go, some force pulls him away from the station and into space. Most experts agree that he should have remained floating in place had this happened in actuality since there would have been no force acting on his body after he had come to rest.

I then remembered a similar scenario in the TSS-1R mission, where a satellite had been deployed on a tether several miles long. In this case, when the tether broke, the satellite "shot away into higher orbit" (https://science.nasa.gov/missions/tss). What caused the satellite to move away from the Shuttle?

submitted by /u/IntercostalClavical
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If we were in a nearby star system, would SETI be able to detect our radio waves?

Posted: 08 Jan 2018 01:07 AM PST

Assuming these waves have had the time to reach the star system in question. I ask because I imagine these radio waves would be incredibly diffuse by the time it reached another planet.

submitted by /u/DucoNihilum
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