Vanilla 1.1.9 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Technology: Physics

Bottom of Page

201 to 220 of 1184

  1. <
  2. 1
  3. ...
  4. 7
  5. 8
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. 14
  12. ...
  13. 60
  14. >
    •  
      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2014
     
    Posted By: alsetalokinThe destination is the same, no matter the route.


    Indeed. But the important thing is to wipe your breath off the windows and look at what's actually outside as you go.
  2.  
    Posted By: Andrew PalfreymanI hope you are happy with your bush. Really

    ETA
    What's interesting is that you seem to prefer an account by bronze age sheep shaggers, penned for political purposes, to an account by one of your contemporaries
    I don't know where you got any idea about any preferences I supposedly have. I guess whatever point I had, if any, was completely missed! >>>zoom>>>
  3.  
    Posted By: Angus
    Posted By: alsetalokinThe destination is the same, no matter the route.


    Indeed. But the important thing is to wipe your breath off the windows and look at what's actually outside as you go.


    Bears repeating for contemplatory purposes. Thank you.
  4.  
    Posted By: duncan torus
    Posted By: Andrew PalfreymanI hope you are happy with your bush. Really

    ETA
    What's interesting is that you seem to prefer an account by bronze age sheep shaggers, penned for political purposes, to an account by one of your contemporaries
    I don't know where you got any idea about any preferences I supposedly have. I guess whatever point I had, if any, was completely missed! >>>zoom>>>
    Well, apologies for thicknesses. Some days are sharper than others
    •  
      CommentAuthoralsetalokin
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2014 edited
     
    Memorizing the deck and cutting to a specific count:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oauci8eKaU

    Actually of course he shuffles the cards into a pre-memorized order.
  6.  
    Cuthbert was adept at producing the highest energy photons ever created. Around 12 GJ per photon he hit a brick wall and could make them no more energetic.

    Why?
    •  
      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeJul 29th 2014
     
    Mr Cuthbert was creating gamma rays (or whatever you call them at that energy) with a wavelength about equal to the famous Planck length.
    There is currently no proven physical significance of the Planck length; it is, however, a topic of theoretical research.
    The argument that this may be the shortest MEASURABLE length comes from the idea that to measure it you need to probe it with gamma rays of this sort of energy, which gets you into the realm of black hole production.
  8.  
    Give that man a pint of Heisenberg's!
  9.  
    2 grams of blue crystal.
    • CommentAuthorNick Hawk
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
     
    Going back a few posts and on the subject of difficult to explain ...
    At a PTA fund raising disco for parents and children at my son's school there was a prize draw. Tickets were sold prior to and at the event. The first prize was a decent amount of cash. As the Headmistress stood up to draw the first ticket out of the box I knew we had won. I have no rational explanation for this. It was not "I think" or "I have a vague feeling" at the time I "knew it" as a fact - it was as definite as if it had already happened.
    To the consternation of my wife and the people surrounding us, I gave my 7 year old son the ticket and told him to go and collect the money. He didn't understand why but did as he was asked. In front of several hundred people he held up the winning ticket to the Headmistress as she drew the same number.
    I have not experienced anything similar before or since. I do not believe in psychics (though have seen some excellent "cold readers") and appreciate the odds were low (I would guess maybe 500+ tickets sold) but it sure spooked a hell of a lot of people and was a debating point at the school for many years.
    For people who believe in Telepathy, I had sent my son for the money before the draw was made.
    I have a possible (though unlikely) explanation for the win, but none for the state of mind that preceded it. Maybe occasional strange states of mind are part of the human condition.
  11.  
    The mind is entangled with reality. It was probably something you ate. The Spice.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2014
     
    I have had the same experience, fairly often. I attribute it either to reading cues unconsciously, or, as in this case, selective memory. How many times have you NOT held the winning ticket, etc. I vaguely recall seeing some serious attempt to assess the unlikelihood of situations like this and quite often it is more likely than people imagine. +Somebody+ had to win.
  13.  
    That's why a control is necessary.
  14.  
    Yep. It's a great story and there is no denying the feeling that comes with it. The precognitive sense is really awesome.

    But the proper "population" for comparison isn't just your own experience with lotteries, this could have been your only one. That of course makes it all the more significant, to you, and there is no denying its significance. However, when the population of all persons who entered lotteries is considered, and cross that with the population of everyone who has had a precognitive feeling... the chances of a coincidence are clearly non-zero. The fact that it happened to you in particular obviously had a post hoc probability of unity.

    See, that's the kind of talk skeptics use to dismiss these things. But it doesn't help, because the personal feeling is so very strong. I know, I've had it myself.
  15.  
  16.  
    That was a big hit. Here's one I just thought of.

    Charge up a sphere negatively. Fire electrons into it via a small hole. How do they distribute inside?

    Well, the first one in is going to sit at the exact centre, of course. And the next one.....
    •  
      CommentAuthoralsetalokin
    • CommentTimeAug 31st 2014 edited
     
    Posted By: Andrew PalfreymanThat was a big hit. Here's one I just thought of.

    Charge up a sphere negatively. Fire electrons into it via a small hole. How do they distribute inside?

    Well, the first one in is going to sit at the exact centre, of course. And the next one.....

    Wrong. All the electron charges will migrate to the outer surface of the sphere, until the EF gradient is so strong that they spall off the surface, ionize the air and transport charge away from the sphere.

    See Van De Graaff, principles of operation. Also "Faraday bucket".
    •  
      CommentAuthorAngus
    • CommentTimeAug 31st 2014
     
    RIght. There is no field inside the sphere because the surface is at a constant potential. So there is nothing to keep the electron at the centre.
  19.  
    oops. well done lads.
    p.s. feynman made a similar mistake, i read in the preface
  20.  
    The last experiment I did for the ISSO operation, over in Building 29, was the Mikhailov experiment, where he claimed that the mass of the electron changed inside a HV charged sphere. Or something like that. He reported that the frequency of a neon relaxation oscillator contained within the sphere changed as the voltage on the sphere varied. And he explained this variation as being due to the changing mass of the electron. Or something like that. It was fun making the apparatus and performing the experiment, even though I blew out an expensive HP frequency counter by twitching the apparatus voltage knob the wrong way during a run... Anyhow I was able to reproduce the frequency variation and tracked it down to imperfect isolation between the relaxation oscillator buried inside the apparatus, and the HV power supply charging the container. When everything was properly isolated my frequency variation went away.

201 to 220 of 1184

  1. <
  2. 1
  3. ...
  4. 7
  5. 8
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. 14
  12. ...
  13. 60
  14. >
Back to Discussions Top of Page