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Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Since the small intestine is coiled up inside the body, are they all similar in shape? Or is it completely random?

Since the small intestine is coiled up inside the body, are they all similar in shape? Or is it completely random?


Since the small intestine is coiled up inside the body, are they all similar in shape? Or is it completely random?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 12:57 AM PDT

Was thinking about how even though noses are different in shape, they are all just slight modifications to what would be a regular nose shape.

submitted by /u/htjones34
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Are europeans immune to the black death?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 01:43 AM PDT

What shape does a chain make when rotating around a pin at one end at a constant rate?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 02:25 AM PDT

A point mass on the end of a massless string follows a circle around the pin and its radius can be worked out with gravity and the rotational speed. But what if the mass is distributed along the string, like a chain? Since the centripetal force varies with radius of rotation but gravity is constant, does the string settle into an arc of some kind?

submitted by /u/Tripsel2
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Has there been any refinements to existing theory or new hypotheses since the Higgs mass was found to be 125 GeV?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 01:50 PM PDT

When two materials are rubbed together, do both of them receive equal amount of the heat generated?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 12:55 AM PDT

With both of them having the same surface area, of course.

submitted by /u/takemyphoto
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Can low energy radio waves redshift down to zero hertz?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 05:39 PM PDT

Imagine if you have a radio wave at the very bottom of the energy spectrum. Say 3 hertz. 3 is real close to zero. Can a radio wave redshift down to zero hertz? In other words, can a wave redshift into a line and if so, what happens next? Is there a point as which additional redshifting is just impossible?

submitted by /u/Flux_State
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What is the difference between an Ionic Bond and a Covalent Bond?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 06:39 AM PDT

If Covalent Bonds share two electrons then what is the difference between that and an Ionic Bond that drops or adds two electrons?

submitted by /u/Silverkatana224
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EDS question: What accounts for the differences in visible x-ray counts from different shells on a spectrograph?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 05:56 AM PDT

I understand the ratios between k-alpha and k-beta, for instance. However, what exactly accounts for the difference in counts between the k-peaks, l-peaks, and m-peaks in general (where the k-alpha and often the m-alpha always seems to have a higher count than any l-peak)?

Here is typical example I often see:

Copper:

https://ibb.co/hCYm6Pf

Notice how the k-alpha peak (and it is to the right) towers over the l-peak.

Tantalum:

https://ibb.co/hRZwqq1

Notice here though that the m-alpha peak (and it is to the left) is towering over any of the l-peaks. Given enough overvoltage applied and a heavy enough element, why wouldn't k-alpha / l-alpha, and correspondingly, l-alpha / m-alpha have roughly the same count rate? In fact, given that there are more electrons in the m-shell than the l-shell, and more electrons in the l-shell than the k-shell, shouldn't m-alpha tower over l-alpha, and l-alpha tower over k-alpha?

I know that there is something basic I am missing here, but if anyone could help, it would be much appreciated.

submitted by /u/BlastRadius00
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Why don't telomers shorten over generations?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 01:28 PM PDT

As you age these get shorter, a newborn has long telomers. Are these the same as their parents?

submitted by /u/FunDeckHermit
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What causes the bubbles when liquids are boiling?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 02:49 AM PDT

was watching my pasta water bring to a boil and I realized I have no idea why this is happening

submitted by /u/TheGuyOnThatRoof
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How long does bacteria and other life forms live on our body after we die?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 12:57 AM PDT

What are ideal situations for the creation of stalactites or stalagmites?

Posted: 13 Aug 2019 12:51 AM PDT

Basically the title. I have an idea in my head that it would be kinda cool to set up a tube in my room to slowly grow a stalactite/mite. At the moment the idea is an airtight tube, at 100% humidity and a mesh that has high calcium water drip slowly onto it. Since it's such a slow process though, it would be quite hard to tell whether the drip speed should be changed, whether more calcium could be in the water, etc. I could probably only modify things about once a month or so, so being closer to start would be quite useful.

submitted by /u/Reaper_Lord
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How well can personality traits currently be predicted using neurological measures?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 08:55 AM PDT

Are there combinations of neurological traits that are known to predict a large amount of variance in some personality traits?

submitted by /u/tailcalled
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Why does activated charcoal pop and crackle when water is poured over it?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 07:41 AM PDT

Why does activated charcoal pop and crackle when water is poured over it?

submitted by /u/DanielConlin93
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If all compounds are neutral, why is the ionic compound chromate (CrO4 2-) negatively charged?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 05:13 PM PDT

My textbook says that compounds should always have a neutral charge, but that is almost never the case. And doesn't chromium have 14 valence electrons, so having 4 oxygen that in total, need 8 electrons from the chromium, still wouldn't be good since the chromium has 6 electrons left? Why does this compound even work, the chromium is left without a full amount of electrons on its outer ring. I've tried looking online, but it seems to not have the answer I'm looking for.

submitted by /u/xlDirtyDanlx
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Are all mountains on Mars volcanic?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 10:05 AM PDT

Follow up questions: Does Mars have tectonic plates like Earth? Why do both poles have such high elevations—especially considering the otherwise low elevations in the Northern hemisphere?

submitted by /u/iconine9
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Can an ECG read voluntary muscle contraction ?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 02:14 PM PDT

From my understanding of how ECGs work, wouldn't an ecg reading pick up the action potential generated by skeletal muscle contraction in the same way it picks up the electrical impulse caused by the heart muscles ?

submitted by /u/ahtan007
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Monday, August 12, 2019

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Kaeli Swift, and I research corvid behavior, from funerals to grudges to other feats of intellect. Ask me anything!

AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Kaeli Swift, and I research corvid behavior, from funerals to grudges to other feats of intellect. Ask me anything!


AskScience AMA Series: I'm Dr. Kaeli Swift, and I research corvid behavior, from funerals to grudges to other feats of intellect. Ask me anything!

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 04:00 AM PDT

Hi Reddit! I'm Kaeli Swift a behavioral ecologist specializing in crows and other corvids at the University of Washington. Right now my work focuses on the foraging ecology of the cutest corvid, the Canda jay. For the previous six years though, I studied the funeral behaviors of American crows. These studies involved trying to understand the adaptive motivations for why crows alarm call and gather near the bodies of deceased crows through both field techniques and non-lethal brain imaging techniques. Along the way, I found some pretty surprising things out about how and when crows touch dead crows. Let's just say sometimes they really put the crow in necrophilia!

You can find coverage of my funeral work at The New York Times, on the Ologies podcast, and PBS's Deep Look.

For future crow questions, you can find me at my blog where I address common questions, novel research, myths, mythology, basically anything corvid related that people want to know about! You can also find me here on Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook all at the corvidresearch handle.

I'm doing this AMA as part of Science Friday's summer Book Club - they're reading The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman! Pumped for your corvid questions!!!

See everyone at 12pm ET (16 UT), ask me anything!

submitted by /u/AskScienceModerator
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Megalodon is often depicted as an enlarged Great a White Shark (both in holleywood and in scientific media). But is this at all accurate? What did It most likely look like?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 08:07 AM PDT

Has the invention of the light bulb lead to any measurable evolutionary changes among moths or other night light-obsessed insects?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 07:36 PM PDT

Full disclosure this was inspired by this decent meme.

submitted by /u/formula_F300
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Did some animals develop "smell camouflage" ?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 06:27 AM PDT

It seems like a lot of animals developped strong camouflage skills to avoid being spotted by the eye. But since a lot of predators use mostly their sense of smell to track down their prey, how come those preys did not evolve to no smell anything?

For example, deers have a very strong smell, making it rather easy for wolves to them. Why didn't the deers with the weakest smell got selected by evolution ?

submitted by /u/Andeol57
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Is the Earth’s size compared to the universe larger than a drop of water compared to all the oceans on earth?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 04:17 AM PDT

Has anyone ever tried the Double Slit Experiment with sound waves?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 04:16 AM PDT

I am curious to see what the results would look like if we did the same experiment with sound rather than light

submitted by /u/y0nderYak
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Are clouds a biome for microbial life?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 05:18 AM PDT

What causes new food allergies or intolerances to start later in life, when you've been happily eating those foods for decades previously?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 04:05 AM PDT

what’s the difference between a disorder, a disability, and disease ?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 06:35 PM PDT

i wasn't sure what to flair it with since it's pretty general.

submitted by /u/dleifmurb
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Change in weight when going below the earth's surface?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 02:51 AM PDT

Intrigued by something I read today, and hope someone can enlighten me!

When descending into the earth, your weight will steadily decrease, as there is less mass to provide gravitational force. I'm assuming that at some point the decrease will slow and eventually stop. But at what point might that occur?

To clarify my question, let's assume you are standing on a scale atop the planet's surface (the crust). As weight is effected by the gravitational forces at work, you will become lighter as you pass through the crust and mantle and less of the earth's mass is beneath your feet. But at some point as you descend, I assume the mass above you will begin to counteract the mass below you, and your weight loss will slow and eventually stop.

Should you continue through the planet's core in a straight line, I would think the weight measured by the scale would cease to be the weight of your body and become the weight of the scale itself being pulled by gravity. I'm theorizing that the scale would then begin gaining weight as it is pulled towards the earth's mass and its movement limited by your feet.

One unknown here is the relation in density between the earth's layers. I know the inner core is the most dense portion, but does density increase at a relatively stable rate as you progress towards the center (excluding, of course, the widely-varied density of the lithosphere)?

Obviously a human could not survive such a descent, so this is a purely theoretical scenario. But I am curious as to how mass, gravity, and measured weight interplay here. Much thanks for any information!

submitted by /u/jFalner
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Why is it that a tone sound (or appear to sound) louder at some frequencies?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 02:34 AM PDT

So i was playing around with a frequency generator site and noticed that whenever i played a tone of frequency 100hz or a frequency of 150hz, the loudness of the tone felt like it was very high as compared to the loudness of tones of different frequencies.

Why is this so? Is the loudness (or perceived loudness) due to the sound system, the human body or is there another reason for this?

submitted by /u/alt_i_guess
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What exactly is happening when light interacts with matter?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 12:07 PM PDT

I know from my limited understanding of optics that when light interacts with matter it may be absorbed or "scattered" to a new direction, and that the chance of absorption and nature of the scattering have to do with the properties of the material.

At a quantum-mechanics or quantum-field level, what exactly is happening? It was once explained to me in terms of photons being absorbed, exciting electrons and being re-emitted with a different energy, but something else I read said this wasn't correct.

Is all light-matter interaction essentially the same process or are there different rules depending on the configuration? I.e. is the same thing happening when light interacts with a glass lens as when it interacts with gas molecules in the atmosphere?

submitted by /u/pixelated_nutsack
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Can blood-flow in mammals be reversed?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 12:41 AM PDT

Hypothetically, if a heart-transplant was performed with the heart installed back-to-front such that it reversed the blood flow in the body, would the recipient survive? What would be the consequences? Have there been any studies on this or is there a fundamental reason it just won't work?

submitted by /u/uncertain_expert
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Can an element have enough protons/neutrons in 1 atom to be visible from the human eye?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 11:40 PM PDT

Fibromyalgia is commonly used as a blanket term due to lack of research. What is it actually, does it even exist as a specific illness?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 08:44 PM PDT

My girlfriend has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I want to find out more about it, but so far everything I have been able to find and ask doctors in person has been very minimal and ultimately confusing.

What even is it? Is it a term used only when doctors dont know the problem? I want to know if we should spend a lot of time going through every type of doctor to get it specified or if we can focus on a particular area.

submitted by /u/brettlw_
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Is the intensity of a Sonic boom the same depending on how fast the object accelerated and the does the Sonic boom get louder the faster you go ?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 10:20 PM PDT

We're taking two identical objects A and B .

1 . Let's say object A accelerated to Mach 1.7 in 7 mins But object B accelerated to Mach 1.7 near instantaneously ( we're assuming that's possible) would the Sonic booms be different.

  1. Object A accelerates instantaneously to Mach 1.7 Object B accelerates instantaneously to Mach let's say 3.5 Would the boom be louder ?
submitted by /u/Narwhalbacon95
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Does the pH of water affect its "color"?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 04:12 PM PDT

I've noticed with my swimming pool it seems like I can tell when my pH is floating too high as the water begins to look more "white" and clear, rather than having it's usual blue-ish tone. Typically when I notice this testing does show a higher pH. I know algae prefers the basic environment and this could be explained by algae beginning and yellowing out the blue, but does the pH of the water actually have an effect as well?

submitted by /u/zzevannn
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Are there clear examples of subgroups in a species diverging on a clear path to become different species?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 04:38 PM PDT

We see tons of examples of the "Before and After" with documented cases of evolution from a single parent group like the Finches of The Galápagos Islands. I am looking for examples of us observing the "during".

What I am looking for are subgroups within a species where individuals can still mate across groups to produce fertile offspring but are distinct enough to indicate that they will one day be distinct species.

I definitely understand that evolution and taxonomy are both fluid and more of a spectrum than a binary condition but wanted to see if there were any examples of a species with separate sub groups or populations that fit that description!

submitted by /u/The_Dwight_Schrute
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Why are some deep sea animals white/translucent while others are red/black?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 01:07 AM PDT

I googled it abit and found that Deep Sea Animals were red/black as that camouflaged them in the darkness of the abyss. But what about animals like the Deep Sea Skate? Why is it so white; wouldn't that make them super visible?

submitted by /u/geckoinyourface
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Why do proteins misfold?

Posted: 12 Aug 2019 12:48 AM PDT

How do mushrooms interact with the sun? What is their relationship with the sun?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 05:56 PM PDT

I will accept anecdotes. I just want as much information as possible about how mushrooms/fungi/spores/mycelium relate to the sun.

Especially anything that strikes you as interesting or unique.

Thanks in advance for your time!

submitted by /u/Blueowl789
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The most accurate atomic clock is predicted to lose 1 second every 30 billion years so what are they measuring it against that is more accurate than the atomic clock and informs them the exact time?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 01:43 PM PDT

What I am confused about is that scientist must know what the exact length of time that will pass for the next 30 billion years to know that the clock has lost 1 second . Maybe I'm not understanding this correctly

submitted by /u/crikcet37
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Why is cancer dangerous? Whats the problem with having uncontrolled division of cells? How does that pose a problem?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 03:39 PM PDT

Since simple computer functions - especially finding a specific index in an array - are not size-dependent in terms of computing time, why do computers still take time to search their own drives for file names?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 11:50 AM PDT

There've been a few times when I want to find a file I KNOW I have on my computer, but don't know where it is. Searching the entire C drive takes at least a minute for me, but from a computer science perspective, I would expect this process to be instantaneous.

EDIT: Wow thank you so much for the replies! This definitely answers my question

submitted by /u/liorslightsaber
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What is the relationship between Tardigrades and Opabinia?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 05:39 PM PDT

Sunday, August 11, 2019

What would daily life on Earth look like if there were two moons?

What would daily life on Earth look like if there were two moons?


What would daily life on Earth look like if there were two moons?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:18 PM PDT

I've always learned that the tidal pull of the moon has made life on Earth possible. Beyond the tides themselves being important for many ecosystems, it is also my understanding that without the moon there wouldn't be ocean currents (correct me if I'm wrong). Without ocean currents stirring arctic and tropical waters, the weather would be a lot less predictable, and the Earth would be generally less habitable.

My question then is, how would two moons (for argument's sake let's say of relatively equal mass and rotational period) impact the tides and the currents? Would the pull of the two moons cancel each other out, leaving us in a tideless wasteland similar to if we had no moon at all? Would the tidal forces just be amplified by the second moon? Or would something else entirely happen? Thanks in advance for your replies!

submitted by /u/flabby_kat
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is there a proof why nubers are dividable by 3 if sum of their digits is dividable by 3?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 04:09 PM PDT

so my question is this: i would like to see the proof how we know for certain that this rule works for every number. i dont know how to explain the rule.

rule being that number 261 is dividable by 3 because 2+6+1=9 and number 9 is also dividable by 3.

hope i explained it good enough. I am sorry for lacking english speaking/writing skills

submitted by /u/jevnik
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How far back in time could you go before the night sky started to look different?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 09:04 PM PDT

What exactly is a vitamin? And how did we determine which ones are necessary?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:53 PM PDT

What causes the Latency Period in Acute Radiation Sickness?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 05:28 AM PDT

Severe radiation sickness, from what I understand, has an initial prodromal phase, followed by a latency period, and then the overt phase (https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/radiation-sickness/).

My question is what causes that latency period in between? Why does the patient seem to "recover" shortly after exposure?

Flairing as medicine, but maybe it's more of a Physics thing?

submitted by /u/cow_co
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Is all muscle soreness rhabdomyolysis?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 03:23 AM PDT

Is it possible that even mild or a normal amount of soreness after a workout is because of a mild form of rhabdomyolysis? If that's what happens, do muscles still adapt and grow regardless of the rhabdo? Also, what causes rhabdo during exercise? Is it from tensing the muscle for too long and blocking the bloodflow and oxygen causing cell death? Thank you for your help

submitted by /u/FBI-Agent69
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What happened to Supersymmetry?

Posted: 11 Aug 2019 02:44 AM PDT

I haven't been following Supersymmetry at all but I have noticed that it's not mentioned quite as often as before.

submitted by /u/the-original-smartas
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What causes the skin to swell after bitten by an insect?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 10:37 PM PDT

Any detailed explanation or a link to any article would be helpful.

submitted by /u/ligma-8alls
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[Climate]Why are tornadoes so rare in Europe, but almost "common" in North America (US in particular)?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 10:55 AM PDT

Tornadoes are rare in Europe, so two tornadoes (Luxembourg and Amsterdam) on the same day is even rarer. In the US, while we don't have tornadoes everyday, we have them often enough, usually over 1000 a year. Why do we have so many. Even Canada has only ~6% of the number than the US recieves? (no data on Mexico) Entire continents have fewer per year than the US racks up. Shouldn't Asia and Europe have their own Tornado Alleys?

submitted by /u/Swiggy1957
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Do apes make music?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 04:05 PM PDT

Do other apes use their voice or primitive percussion instruments to make music or is music unique to humans? And if so, when was music most likely first created?

submitted by /u/TeusV
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What is the point of Oxygen in a Hydrogen-Oxygen fuel cell, and what catalysts are usually involved?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 06:17 PM PDT

I am reading on fuel cells and the following is my understanding:

H2 gas reacts with a catalyst (usually platinum) at the anode, ionizing the molecule; the ions are allowed to travel through an intermediate substrate toward the cathode, but the electrons must go through a wire creating a current (current is source of power output) . And finally, the electrons, O2, and hydrogen ions react with one another to form water.

Now, what is the point of the oxygen here? Couldn't we just combine the hydrogen gas with the electrons once again? Is the oxygen being ionized at the cathode? If so, what is its catalyst?

Thanks in Advance

submitted by /u/pepesilvia27
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When and how did we learn the position of the planets in the solar system?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 06:48 PM PDT

For example in what year did we found that Jupiter is the 5th planet from the Sun? How did we learn that Saturn was similar in size but even further and in the 6th position?

submitted by /u/-Hastis-
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Why can you get two answers (one obviously false) from manipulating x=x+1?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 01:19 PM PDT

So obviously x=x+1 is not true for regular numbers, but if you manipulate it, you can get -0.5

 x=x+1 x^2=x^2+2x+1 0=2x+1 -1=2x -1/2=x 

Which is obviously wrong, you can just plug it back into the equation to see that. But you can also get infinity by deduction and algebra, which I believe is correct.

x=x+1 1=(x+1)/x 1=(x/x)+(1/x) 1=1+(1/x) As x approaches positive or negative infinity, 1=1. 

So what's going on here?

submitted by /u/Xavienth
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How does the intelligence of a large wild cat like a lion or tiger compare to that of your run of the mill house cat?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 08:47 AM PDT

What is the difference between a spandrel and vestigial feature?

Posted: 10 Aug 2019 12:24 AM PDT