Science facts that amaze you?

srsly78

It's all just a global version of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

sbsquarepants

endacl wrote: »

Linkydink

I'm going to require an explanation for this one too I think. That doesn't mention the word dark once?

In fact it's mostly concerned with the amount of light that the sun emits. That would be the opposite of dark in my book.

endacl

allibastor wrote: »

The science fact that amazes me is that people can see an answer in front of them but still not understand it

I agree. The skinny people should eat the fat people.

Rhys Essien

The mass of a Neutron star would be equivalent to the entire human population squashed down to the size of a sugar cube,or one teaspoon would have 900 times the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza,or like squeezing 50 million elephants into a timble.

If you were standing on a Neutron star and layed down a sheet of paper,the effort required to climb the edge of the paper would be the equivalent to climbing a 3000 mile cliff on Earth.

Egginacup

The Dagda wrote: »

Myth.

Well according to Scientific American it's an amorphous solid meaning it's neither liquid nor solid but somewhere in between:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-fiction-glass-liquid/

Solids are highly organized structures. They include crystals, like sugar and salt, with their millions of atoms lined up in a row, explains Mark Ediger, a chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. "Liquids and glasses don't have that order," he notes. Glasses, though more organized than liquids, do not attain the rigid order of crystals. "Amorphous means it doesn't have that long-range order," Ediger says. With a "solid—if you grab it, it holds its shape," he adds.
When glass is made, the material (often containing silica) is quickly cooled from its liquid state but does not solidify when its temperature drops below its melting point. At this stage, the material is a supercooled liquid, an intermediate state between liquid and glass. To become an amorphous solid, the material is cooled further, below the glass-transition temperature. Past this point, the molecular movement of the material's atoms has slowed to nearly a stop and the material is now a glass. This new structure is not as organized as a crystal, because it did not freeze, but it is more organized than a liquid. For practical purposes, such as holding a drink, glass is like a solid, Ediger says, although a disorganized one.
Like liquids, these disorganized solids can flow, albeit very slowly. Over long periods of time, the molecules making up the glass shift themselves to settle into a more stable, crystallike formation, explains Ediger. The closer the glass is to its glass-transition temperature, the more it shifts; the further away from that changeover point, the slower its molecules move and the more solid it seems.



But the old windows sagging or bulging appearance has nothing to do with this characteristic of glass as a fluid. That's the myth, but that glass is a liquid is actually a fact.

BeerWolf

Fate Amenable To Change wrote: »

The Greeks knew the world was round and one of them even got a rough estimate for the size of its circumference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes

Romans / Greeks back in their day seemed far more advanced than people of Medieval times before the renaissance... go figure. :pac:

Beano

endacl wrote: »

I agree. The skinny people should eat the fat people.

or let the fat people eat the skinny people. End result is the same. no more skinny people.

The Dagda

Egginacup wrote: »

but that glass is a liquid is actually a fact.

Did you even read your own link? Because it clearly says;

Glass, however, is actually neither a liquid—supercooled or otherwise—nor a solid

Glass is NOT a liquid.

Maximus Alexander

endacl wrote: »

The darkest object in the solar system is the sun.

Least reflective != darkest. Pretty obvious really if you take a quick look at the sun. :P

ScumLord

allibastor wrote: »

That all information available to us shows that if we make computers which are smarter than us and can think for themselves they will see us a threat/consumer of resources. Any technology which unnaturally prolongs life yet doesn't add to the natural resources available.

This is like AI racism against a creature that doesn't even exist yet. Why would self aware AI see humans as bad. If it was to put us into context against every other animal on the planet it would be more likely to see life as a whole as bad, because all our perceived bad points are just things that all living creatures form humans to bacteria do. Nature is cruel, it's survival of the fittest, kill or be killed. Mother nature would look down on us with pride and wonder why we haven't killed off all the inferior life yet. The fact is humans are the nicest animal the plant has ever seen.

Egginacup

The Dagda wrote: »

Did you even read your own link? Because it clearly says;



Glass is NOT a liquid.

Calm down, FFS. The article states that it is and it isn't a liquid. Liquids and gases are fluids in that they flow. So maybe it would be more accurate to describe glass as a fluid since it flows albeit infinitessimally slowly.

This is not a myth as another poster stated.

The Dagda

Egginacup wrote: »

Calm down, FFS. The article states that it is and it isn't a liquid. Liquids and gases are fluids in that they flow. So maybe it would be more accurate to describe glass as a fluid since it flows albeit infinitessimally slowly.

This is not a myth as another poster stated.

Calm down?

It is a myth that glass is a liquid.

Read your own link, it doesn't say "it is and it isn't a liquid", it says;

Glass, however, is actually neither a liquid—supercooled or otherwise—nor a solid

Glass is NOT a liquid.

Putin

ScumLord wrote: »

The fact is humans are the nicest animal the plant has ever seen.

Said no animal/plant that was made extinct by humans ever.

ScumLord

Putin wrote: »

Said no animal/plant that was made extinct by humans ever.

We're not the only creature to cause the extinction of other creatures, it happens all the time in nature.

somuj

There is no such thing as color just different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

endacl

somuj wrote: »

There is no such thing as color just different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Careful now! They didn't like the 'sun is dark' thing earlier.

"Whatchoo mean there's no colour?!? I've a blue jumper!!!" :mad:

somuj

That's why I made the post

endacl

somuj wrote: »

That's why I made the post

B'b'but I have a blue juuuuummmmmppppppeeeeerrrrrrrr!!!!!!!

somuj

Your brain precieves it as blue. Has no color at all. Just electromagnetic waves bouncing into your eyeballs.

somuj

somuj wrote: »

There is no such thing as color just different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

"Rudolph the perspective specific electromagnetic spectrum wavelength proboscis reindeer, had a very reflective snout.."

endacl

somuj wrote: »

Your brain precieves it as blue. Has no color at all. Just electromagnetic waves bouncing into your eyeballs.

There's no such thing as eyeballs.

GerB40

Colour blind people can see through camouflage easier than normal sighted people. From personal experience I know this to be true.

Apparently night vision is supposed to increase with colour blindness too but I've never noticed this.

somuj

GerB40 wrote: »

Colour blind people can see through camouflage easier than normal sighted people. From personal experience I know this to be true.

Apparently night vision is supposed to increase with colour blindness too but I've never noticed this.

I definitely have. I can cycle a bike in the dead of night on a country road with no moonlight and still even see the potholes.

Maximus Alexander

There's no such thing as science, it's just a collection of experimental results and hypotheses conducted over a long period of time and a wide geographical area. Your mind just perceives it as one large, thematically related body of work.

The Dagda

There's no such thing as anything.

We're all in The Matrix...

endacl

The Dagda wrote: »

There's no such thing as anything.

We're all in The Matrix...

There's no such thing as The Matrix.

/thread.

Actually, The Matrix we're in is only one of an infinite possibility of Potential Matrices. Discuss.

\thread again.

retalivity

Plastic toy dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs...

Rucking_Fetard

retalivity wrote: »

Plastic toy dinosaurs are made from real dinosaurs...

Due to where alot of those Dinos and other stuff made by Dinos end up, people eat Dinos.

Yummy Dinos.

catallus

Rucking_Fetard wrote: »

Yummy Dinos.

The sad thing is that all the dinos were hunted to extinction by hungry humans

Maximus Alexander

catallus wrote: »

The sad thing is that all the dinos were hunted to extinction by hungry humans

Yeah but that's better than spending all eternity being farmed like those pitiful cows. Dinos were too cool for that.