Pages

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Do galaxies have clearly defined borders, or do they just kind of bleed into each other?

Do galaxies have clearly defined borders, or do they just kind of bleed into each other?


Do galaxies have clearly defined borders, or do they just kind of bleed into each other?

Posted: 08 May 2019 08:21 AM PDT

What would happen if someone swallowed super glue?

Posted: 08 May 2019 04:41 PM PDT

Does wave-particle duality rely on accepting the Copenhagen interpretation?

Posted: 09 May 2019 03:02 AM PDT

If you're a scientist that subscribes to the many worlds theorem, does that mean you do not accept wave particle duality?

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

How do they detect the direction gravitational waves come from?

Posted: 08 May 2019 10:16 AM PDT

Power generation. What determines the voltage and current specifications of a generator?

Posted: 08 May 2019 03:12 PM PDT

I have some electrical/electronic training and understand the basics concepts of torque relating to current and frequency of AC relating to rotation speed. What I'm asking is, if I go to a engineer and say I need a generator that outputs x volts at y RPM and provides Z current, what characteristics are they gonna utilize to create this? Coil length, magnetic field strength, # of coils etc?

submitted by /u/forgotpassword89
[link] [comments]

Why are the storms of Uranus less evident in contrast to those of Jupiter and Neptune?

Posted: 08 May 2019 07:53 AM PDT

Do cells have 4 copies of each gene after synthesis in mitosis?

Posted: 08 May 2019 05:01 PM PDT

How is a continent defined?

Posted: 08 May 2019 01:04 PM PDT

What were some unique traits and criterias considered while grouping landmass together for one identity?

Pardon me if it's not defined using scientific logic but just by some random humane idea.

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

What is a phantom power supply that can have a CC or a CV?

Posted: 08 May 2019 06:37 PM PDT

We are developing an electrical test for motors. Without going into details for that one colleague suggested to buy phantom power supply which can have a constant current or a constant voltage. But this is not logical to me. How does this device work? Does it change its resistance (U = IR) to keep one parametar constant but not the other or no?

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

Can oils/lipids dissolve elemental mercury?

Posted: 08 May 2019 06:30 PM PDT

What is the extremely high pitched noise I hear from old televisions, that most of my friends can not?

Posted: 08 May 2019 05:20 AM PDT

Are any galaxies actually colliding?

Posted: 08 May 2019 01:30 PM PDT

I've heard of galaxies interacting but are any actually colliding? I've heard they are so vast that galaxies interacting doesn't really fit our idea of actually colliding (i.e matter hitting matter).

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

Why are immunotherapies(CAR-T, Antibodies) less effective against solid tumors?

Posted: 08 May 2019 04:56 PM PDT

Adoptive cell therapy/CAR-T is new and exciting but for now is only approved for blood cancers. Is this technique a dead end or can it be modified for solid tumors?

submitted by /u/hammer388
[link] [comments]

Are highly metallic asteroids attracted to the earth's poles?

Posted: 08 May 2019 07:04 AM PDT

If I could see WiFi signal, what would it look like?

Posted: 08 May 2019 05:29 AM PDT

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

At what frequency can human eye detect flashes? Big argument in our lab.

At what frequency can human eye detect flashes? Big argument in our lab.


At what frequency can human eye detect flashes? Big argument in our lab.

Posted: 07 May 2019 07:47 PM PDT

I'm working on a paddlewheel to measure water velocity in an educational flume. I'm an old dude, but can easily count 4 Hz, colleagues say they can't. https://emriver.com/models/emflume1/

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

What changes occur in babies skin between 5 and 6 months that allow for the use of sunscreen?

Posted: 07 May 2019 08:10 PM PDT

The go-to rule for sunscreen for babies is 6 months due to the their skin being thin and the surface area ratio for chemicals. What happens at 6 months to make it acceptable to use sunscreen? Is waiting until 6 months even necessary?

submitted by /u/rigidtoucan123
[link] [comments]

Can the human ear adjust to volume?

Posted: 07 May 2019 08:20 PM PDT

I've noticed that without changing the volume, I can go from barely hearing the tv to it being too loud. For example, I had to turn it to 15 (loud for our tv) to hear it at first, but after watching for a few minutes I was able to hear it fine at volume 3.

submitted by /u/Fireyshotguns51
[link] [comments]

How do bugs become fossils by being trapped in amber? Cant other small animals can be fossils the same way?

Posted: 08 May 2019 03:59 AM PDT

Do people with retrograde amnesia usually immediately realize their memories are missing?

Posted: 08 May 2019 03:41 AM PDT

This is something I've pondered for a while. For the record, I'm mostly talking about amnesia as an isolated condition, not like resulting from Alzheimer's or dementia, since it's pretty apparent in those cases that they don't often realize that there are some holes in their memory until someone brings it to their attention; at least, that seems to be the case as far as I'm aware.

It's something I've wondered about, because in modern fiction, amnesia is a really popular trope, and I often notice that characters with amnesia tend to almost immediately realize that memories that should be there are missing without much external input or something prompting them to realize that's the case.

Like, indulge me in my video game hobby for a second. In the game Megaman ZX Advent for example, one of the protagonists you can play as, Grey, is a supposed amnesiac, and as soon as he's awoken from a stasis pod, he immediately exclaims something to the effect of "Where am I? Who am I? I can't remember anything", without any external input, unlike say, Fire Emblem Awakening where the amnesiac protagonist Robin realizes that he's missing memories after being interrogated by other characters, and realizing he doesn't remember things like his name or where he came from. Would it be like in Grey's case, where you just immediately realize that you can't remember anything, or would you more typically be blissfully unaware that you're missing memories until something brings it to your attention? Or is it like a mixed bag where it is usually wildly different on a case-by-case basis?

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

How long after clinical death, can someone be revived?

Posted: 07 May 2019 09:16 PM PDT

How long without damage to the body (brain, heart, etc.)? And how long before being unable to keep yourself alive (breathing by yourself, without help)?

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

Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science

Posted: 08 May 2019 08:12 AM PDT

Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on Engineering, Mathematics, Computer 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
[link] [comments]

Is it possible to predict a chemical reaction without carrying out experiment?

Posted: 08 May 2019 04:14 AM PDT

I wonder if there are anyway to step by step calculate a reaction, like from redox ,forming of bonds, when does a molecule got broken down etc. to find out the products

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

How do electric eels work when they discharge shocks ?

Posted: 08 May 2019 03:59 AM PDT

I saw a gif where a guy touches an electric eel and gets shocked. I was wondering how badly you can get shocked and how does it really work ?

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

How far apart are stars on average in our galaxy?

Posted: 07 May 2019 06:40 PM PDT

So I did some calculations. Apparently there's 100-200 billion. But the Milky Way is only 100,000 light years across. Doing some math that means there's about a million stars per light year. That seems a bit cramped?

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

Why do shape memory alloys go back to their set shape after being heated?

Posted: 07 May 2019 07:27 PM PDT

Is the Earth's crust constantly getting thicker?

Posted: 08 May 2019 05:51 AM PDT

I was wondering if the Earth's crust is constantly getting thicker as a result of organic matter adding to the topsoil, and eventually becoming sedimentary rock - or is there a cyclical process going on somewhere perhaps involving the mantle?

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

How common is diverticulus as a leading cause of death or injury in herbivores that eat all day (like elephants or cows or horses)? What about pandas?

Posted: 07 May 2019 09:31 PM PDT

If horses eat too much hay, are the at risk of straining their intestines?

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

Can alpha / beta decay occur without also emitting a gamma ray?

Posted: 08 May 2019 01:11 AM PDT

I know that you can't have (or very rare to find) just gamma rays, but can you have just alpha or just beta particles emitted in radioactive decay?

Couldn't find anything helpful on google.

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

If one were to take an elevator through the center of the earth (while ignoring the lethal heat of course) would the earth’s gravitational pull on the riders decrease gradually as the elevator descended? Or would the gravity remain the same until you reached the core?

Posted: 07 May 2019 10:20 PM PDT

What is the use of bronchoconstriction?

Posted: 08 May 2019 12:03 AM PDT

I understand that our bodies relax the muscle behind the trachea (bronchodilation) in order to widen the air passageway and breathe more easily.

But why would our bodies go out of their way and use energy to contract that muscle and make breathing harder?

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

Does every moon have "Dark" side?

Posted: 07 May 2019 09:39 PM PDT

I know we can see only one side of our moon ( and calling it "dark" is not correct). But does it apply to every planet?

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

What determines the size of raindrops?

Posted: 07 May 2019 12:39 PM PDT

What species of animals and plants would have lived in the South of Pangaea?

Posted: 08 May 2019 02:23 AM PDT

I would like to know what lifeforms would have survived the cold/harsh climate of South-Eastern Pangaea, namely the Australian continent.

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

Why we call Cranial Diabetes Insipidus a type of "Diabetes" ?

Posted: 08 May 2019 01:14 AM PDT

What Diabetes actually means ?

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

What happens when you superimpose two coherent, out-of-phase beams of light?

Posted: 07 May 2019 01:52 PM PDT

What initially got me thinking was seeing this question over on r/explainlikeimfive about the general nature of destructive interference and the conservation of energy.

The basic examples are all pretty clear to me (Interference pattern in the double slit experiment? The bright parts contain the energy that the dark parts are missing. Shining two lasers against each other? They produce a standing wave.) But I came up with a scenario where I cannot simply come up with a solution as to where the energy goes:

 E | | E--M==== 

With E being the emitters of a single coherent beam of light each, M being a semi-transparent mirror and = being the superposition of the two laser beams (I'm ignoring the part of the light that will go in a downwards direction for ease of "drawing", though it should be completely analogous to the light going to the right). If you control for polarisation and phase shift at the emitters, = could be made to be of of the form sin(t) + sin(t+pi), which is constantly equal to 0.

There is clearly energy going into M, yet it seems like destructive interference should completely negate any outgoing energy. Which is obviously impossible.

Does the mirror simply heat up? If so: How? What are the exact mechanics involved? Or am I missing something else?

Edit: Typo.

submitted by /u/EntropyZer0
[link] [comments]

Is titanium carbonitride conductive?

Posted: 07 May 2019 05:29 PM PDT

No right?

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

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

What makes Jupiter's giant red spot red?

What makes Jupiter's giant red spot red?


What makes Jupiter's giant red spot red?

Posted: 06 May 2019 10:36 AM PDT

If the universe is expanding, isn't all matter/energy in the universe expanding with it?

Posted: 07 May 2019 04:59 AM PDT

I've just watched a program about the end of the universe and a couple questions stuck with me that weren't really explained! If someone could help me out with them, I'd appreciate it <3

So, it's theorized that eventually the universe will expand at such a rate that no traveling light will ever reach anywhere else, and that entropy will eventually turn everything to absolute zero (and the universe will die).

If the universe is expanding, then naturally the space between all matter is also expanding (which explains the above), but isn't the matter itself also expanding by the same proportions? If we compare an object of arbitrary shape/mass/density now to one of the same shape/mass/density trillions of years from now, will it have expanded? If it does, doesn't that keep the universe in proportion even throughout its expansion, thereby making the space between said objects meaningless?

Additionally, if the speed of the universe's expansion overtakes the speed of light, does that mean in terms of relativity that light is now travelling backwards? How would this affect its properties (if at all)? It is suggested that information cannot travel faster than the speed of light, and yet wouldn't this mean that matter in the universe is traveling faster than light?

Apologies if the answers to these are obvious! If not a physicist by any stretch, and wasn't able to find understandable answers through Google! Thanks for taking the time to read this!

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

Is the steam emitted from a nuclear power plant radioactive?

Posted: 06 May 2019 11:32 PM PDT

Why are B- cells called Plasma Cells knowing that there are no cells in Plasma ?

Posted: 07 May 2019 07:55 AM PDT

What is the difference between "Antigen" & "Immunogen" ? And how does the the immune system act with each other ?

Posted: 07 May 2019 07:54 AM PDT

When a song is stuck in our head, do we subvocalize it just like our internal monologue?

Posted: 06 May 2019 01:03 PM PDT

How can one calculate the volume of a holey cube?

Posted: 06 May 2019 03:09 PM PDT

Take a cube with, say, sides of a 10 cm length, and then you drill a hole with a radius of 1 cm perfectly through the centre of each face to the other side. The volume should be the volume of the cube, minus the volume of three cylinders with a radius of 1 cm and a length of 10 cm, right? But that doesn't take into account the area where the cylinders intersect. Now, I've heard something about the Steinmetz solid, but as far as I know, that only covers the area where all cylinders intersect, ignoring the corners where only two cylinders intersect.

How do I calculate the volume of a "holey cube"?

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

How do we keep track of biodiversity and the population of species when there are so many and some can move great distances?

Posted: 06 May 2019 12:23 PM PDT

What determines whether smoke is white or black?

Posted: 07 May 2019 04:32 AM PDT

Burning wood gives off white smoke, burning diesel gives off black smoke. There doesn't seem to be much in between white and black, although I've seen yellow smoke in some chemical reactions, and of course smoke bombs can be colored. But in your basic fire, white or black seem to be normal.

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

How are Cowbirds and other birds that lay eggs in other’s nests able to maintain calls and behaviors despite having no learning from parents?

Posted: 06 May 2019 03:28 PM PDT

I recently learned that some insects release a pheremone when they're killed that attracts other insects to their corpse. What is the reason for this? Wouldn't it make more sense to release a chemical than warns of danger?

Posted: 06 May 2019 04:09 PM PDT

Does the infrared output of the sun fluctuate in such a way that it affects temperatures on earth; or is the change in temperatures on different parts of the earth purely due to fluid dynamics in the atmosphere and the tilt of the earth on its axis?

Posted: 06 May 2019 02:41 PM PDT

I had read somewhere, some time ago that the intensity of the heat in summer periods on earth could be tied to sunspot activity. I am uncertain if this is true. I am also curious why is it that temperatures on earth are inconsistent. If the infrared output of the sun is constant and the rotation of the earth is constant, why does the eath not stay at an even temperature like rotisserie chicken (for example)?

submitted by /u/dbloch7986
[link] [comments]

Why does Jupiter only have one giant red spot? And why on that specific location?

Posted: 06 May 2019 01:50 PM PDT

How do handheld massagers with COLD functions work?

Posted: 06 May 2019 01:48 PM PDT

My mother recently bought this personal massager that has a function that makes a metal pad on the device cold to touch (according to the product description, 37 to 44ºF). From my surface investigation, I don't really feel any heat escaping from elsewhere on the device. I understand the basic principles of refrigeration and know that heat can't just disappear, but I couldn't really find any answers from web searching about how the cold in this application is being "generated."

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

How different are humans now from our ancestors 2000 years ago?

Posted: 06 May 2019 01:30 PM PDT

Whenever a post is made about a graffiti dick found in a biblical era bathhouse, it reminds me that 2000 years isn't even a blink of an eye relative to how old our planet is. In a weird way, it is comforting to know that humans be humans and across millennia and across cultures, we still find the same things funny. How different (or similar) were our biblical era ancestors?

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

How smoothe is the surface of a droplet of water as compared to the surface of a planet like Earth?

Posted: 06 May 2019 07:56 PM PDT

I've heard it said that the Earth is about as smooth/round as a pool cue. It made me think about a water droplet floating in zero gravity.

How would the surface of the water droplet compare to the surface of larger spheres in the universe (ike a pool ball, planet, star, or neutron star) if they were compared proportionally?

How would we even compare them?

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

Why are transformer and brushless motor stator cores made of steel laminations?

Posted: 06 May 2019 12:36 PM PDT

I want to build a BLDC motor, but need to understand the purpose of those steel laminations.

I've heard that electrical steel is used for the plates, why that and not regular steel?

Could I cnc the steel and glue it together with some sort of resin, would that work?

Thanks!

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

How should I understand the warping of time in relativity?

Posted: 06 May 2019 05:43 PM PDT

I understand that spacetime is a four dimensional continuum that is warped by the presence of mass/energy which in turn guides the mass and energy that moves through it. I also understand the equivalence principle that ultimately concludes that gravity is not a force but a consequence of this warping. What I want to understand better is how a stationary object in undistorted, flat spacetime when brought into a warped section of spacetime then begins to accelerate. As I understand it, its a product of a differential warping of the time dimension relative to space, so that unlike a stationary object that has time and space positions at the same place, the curvature of time is greater, which causes a displacement in space when the object follows that more warped path. Does that visual capture the concept properly? And is there more to understand? Sorry for dragging out this explanation.

submitted by /u/37litebluesheep
[link] [comments]

Can polarized dielectrics behave similar to conductors while in motion in an external magnetic field?

Posted: 06 May 2019 05:47 PM PDT

When comparing them with a conductor; Imagine a polarized dielectric normal(surface) to an external magnetic field.

A current carrying conductor in a magnetic field( IL x B) will experience a force. Wouldn't the same occur for a dielectric material being polarized by an external E-field, and as the atoms of the dielectric stretch v x B, can be non-zero?

Secondly, if the polarized dielectric was moving in an external magnetic field (with v x B) wouldn't the charges stretch/compress (if v x B is still considered)?

submitted by /u/9tothe9
[link] [comments]

Why does pressure relax tensed muscle?

Posted: 06 May 2019 02:09 PM PDT

If FAD is short for flavin adenine dinucleotide, and a nucleotide includes one monosaccharide, one phosphate group and one nitrogenous base, where is the second monosaccharide?

Posted: 06 May 2019 11:51 AM PDT

I only see one when I look at the formula. Is the other one in open-chain form?

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

How does ingesting sodium/potassium affect the "sodium-potassium pump"?

Posted: 06 May 2019 12:21 PM PDT

is there a direct correlation between increased levels of sodium/potassium in the blood to differences in HR, BP, and EKG readings? Would ingesting a similar amount of each counteract the effects of the other?

For example: increased sodium = increased HR/BP and increased potassium = decreased HR/BP

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