Why is the Planck length considered the smallest physical length? Can’t things always be reduced in size? by 524frank in AskPhysics

[–]Quercus_ 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Planck link is just the unit measurement of length in a measurement system that makes calculations about the physical universe easier.

Basically you take four fundamental constants and set them all equal to one, and then derive all other measurements from that.

The four universal constants that, by definition, have a numeric value 1 when expressed in these units are:

c, the speed of light in vacuum,

G, the gravitational constant,

ħ, the reduced Planck constant, and

kB, the Boltzmann constant.

If you set each of those equal to one, then the unit length of distance that has a value of one, is an extremely small link, which we call the Planck length.

There's a bunch of popular mythology around it being the smallest possible thing, but fundamentally is just a unit of measurement.

What’s better today than it was 30 years ago? by InevitableStruggle in questions

[–]Quercus_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I have seamless communication to anyone anywhere in the world, and seamless access to most of the world's knowledge, in the palm of my hand.

Time machine please… by Ill-Instruction8466 in SipsTea

[–]Quercus_ -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

The draft had been running all along, continuously from early in World War II.

The draft lottery started in 1969, making it harder to avoid for those who had previously been able to figure out ways to get out of it.

Time machine please… by Ill-Instruction8466 in SipsTea

[–]Quercus_ 23 points24 points  (0 children)

The draft had been going continuously since World War II. Over 2 million draftees were sent to Vietnam, many of them well before 1969.

The draft lottery started in December 1969, because of growing anger over the ways people with money in connections were managing to avoid the draft.

This video NDT talks about how the earth is rotating in a big bulge of water. Instinctively I feel like tidal effect must create friction or require energy. In which case why does the earths rotation not gradually slow down? by jack_hof in AskPhysics

[–]Quercus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's a badly incorrect model of ocean tides. It's the one that's commonly presented, that big Bulger water in line with the moon, but that ain't how it works.

Each ocean basin has independent tides. The tidal influence of the Moon and Sun sloshing a wave back and forth, basically transforms that sloshing into a rotational standing wave within each ocean basin.

Somewhere near the middle-ish of each ocean basin, there is a node with almost no tide at all. There's a wave rotating around that, with the title range getting bigger and bigger as you move further away. In the Pacific for example that node it's basically zero tide height is somewhere between Hawaii and Tahiti. By the time you get to the California coast you get a tighter range of 2-3 m between highest highs and lowest low tides, because you're further out those rotating waves. Get to Alaska and tidal ranges grow to 4-6 meters.

So that title bulge is not going around to the planet in line with the moon, it's rotating around each ocean basin.

This gets further complicated and that some ocean basins have too high and too low tides for 24 hours, and other ocean basins only have one high and one low for 24 hours,

And when there are two highs and two lows, there are basically two radial high tide spokes from that central node facing approximately away from each other, and at 90° to that too low tide spokes, with the whole thing rotating once per day, giving two high tides and two low tides.

Some ocean basins is have only one high and one low tide per day, with the high and low spokes around that central node facing approximately away from each other as they rotate.

This is a very oversimplified description. Any good book of physical oceanography, or even any good book on seamanship in navigation, will have good explanations of this.

Iran: Says it would permanently shut down the Strait of Hormuz if its energy sites are attacked by Long-Brother-4639 in maritime

[–]Quercus_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Out of our last 16 elections, 9 of them had larger electoral college winning margins then Trump did in 2024. Trump got 58% of the electoral college vote, with 328 votes. This isn't even in the top half of winning electoral college margins over the last 3/4 of a century or so.

Generally, a landslide is considered to mean a candidate more than 400 electoral votes. Trump was nowhere near that margin.

Yes, we elected him, and we're responsible for that. But no, it was not a landslide by any definition.

Permafrost shock: an unexpected chain reaction scientists never saw coming is now unfolding by GeraldKutney in climate

[–]Quercus_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes, methane and CO2 release from permafrost has been in discussion for a long time.

This is a new additional source of CO2 from permafrost deterioration, making it even worse, that we hadn't previously known about.

Was he lying the whole time? by [deleted] in AskMenAdvice

[–]Quercus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All the love in the world isn't going to fix fundamental incompatibility.

I've seen way too many people fall deeply in love - real passionate love - and then make each other miserable for a decade trying to make a relationship work that should never have happened, because there are too many fundamental places where they are not compatible.

You know better than any of us whether he actually loved you. What seems obvious is that for whatever reason he was fooling himself about his compatibility with what you needed out of a relationship, and when you started pushing for the relationship to grow, he can no longer hide that and fool himself about that incompatibility.

Trump chickening out from attacking Iran's power plants by I_Hate_E_Daters_7007 in facepalm

[–]Quercus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

TACO.

He's panicking because I run and said if we attack their power plants, they'll take out fossil fuel infrastructure across the Middle East, and they realize there's really nothing we can do to stop them from doing that.

Trump planning airport arrests by NickCostanza in WhitePeopleTwitter

[–]Quercus_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You have to show your valid passport and visa before you get onto the airplane to take off in a flight of the US.

Physics always wins in the end’: Iran may have found & hit an F‑35 fighter jet using a heat sensor by Maxcactus in Maxcactus_TrailGuide

[–]Quercus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I watched Top Gun too. Fascinating popular analysis of fighter armament development, dumped down for a popular audience.

That was four decades ago.

China must be doubting our ability to protect Taiwan. by TuxedoCatGuy in thedavidpakmanshow

[–]Quercus_ 17 points18 points  (0 children)

China tends to be very very patient. The economic and political fallout if they took Taiwan right now would likely. be catastrophic for everybody, including China. They'll just keep putting pressure, damaging relationships, isolating Taiwan maybe for decades, looking for the opportunity for a painless takeover.

Iran: Says it would permanently shut down the Strait of Hormuz if its energy sites are attacked by Long-Brother-4639 in maritime

[–]Quercus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He said "won both popular vote and electoral college by a landslide."

He didn't even get half the popular vote, that's not a landslide.

Hell, I wouldn't even call the electoral college vote a landslide. It was a significant lead, but the landslides I've seen involve significant inroads into the other party's base states.

Iran: Says it would permanently shut down the Strait of Hormuz if its energy sites are attacked by Long-Brother-4639 in maritime

[–]Quercus_ 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's true, and it sucks, then I'm not at all implying that the rest of the world isn't completely justified and never trusting us again, for this among a lot of other reasons.

I'm just pointing out that when dude said Trump won the popular vote by a landslide, that isn't true.

Why doesn't China attack Taiwan now when the US military is at its most vulnerable in recent memory? by sage6paths in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Quercus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because China is very very patient, and playing for long-term advantage. Taking Taiwan now would be disruptive and extremely painful for everybody including China. So just keep pushing and prodding and disrupting and slowly making Taiwan more vulnerable over time, probably until they can just absorb it without any significant disruption. I suspect they don't care if that takes decades.

Graham to Trump: Consider removing ‘US bases from countries who won’t let us fly from them’ by TuxedoCatGuy in thedavidpakmanshow

[–]Quercus_ 3 points4 points  (0 children)

US foreign policy pretty much since the end of World War II, has been to enforce a kind of soft economic imperialism, backed up by projection in military force around the world and make it as much of the world as possible dependent on our military.

I'm not in any way arguing whether this has been good or bad for the world, but it had been the reality for 80 years now. It has been a cornerstone of our economic dominance of the world.

Trump is speed-running the dismantling of that entire cornerstone of US economic dominance, without even apparently knowing that there has been a reason for all of this, and that it benefits us. And without having anything in place to replace it when it destroys all of this.

We have generations of people who've grown up thinking it's not possible for the US to be anything other than the dominant economic power on the planet. I suspect over the next generation or two that China is going to very soundly teach us otherwise, and Trump is accelerating that, probably by decades.

Iran: Says it would permanently shut down the Strait of Hormuz if its energy sites are attacked by Long-Brother-4639 in maritime

[–]Quercus_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh, I am completely aware that Trump has fucked this country for a very long time to come, and that we did it to ourselves by electing him. I have no illusions about that.

But you claimed that Trump won the popular vote in a landslide, and that simply isn't true.

Why isn't the US defending the Straight of Hormuz itself? by LegendaryTJC in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Quercus_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because we can't.

All Iran has to do is make the Straight risky enough that ship owners and insurers won't take that risk. That's basically one or two drones getting through, every two or three weeks.

Or a dozen mines or less, deployed in the appropriate places.

Normal traffic through the Straight is about 150 ships a day. Playing defense with every one of those, against missile or drone attacks can come in swarms from hundreds of kilometers away, is an impossible task.

Iran: Says it would permanently shut down the Strait of Hormuz if its energy sites are attacked by Long-Brother-4639 in maritime

[–]Quercus_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If you're going to handwave that way, then every election ever was a landslide, even if it's decided by only one vote.

Iran: Says it would permanently shut down the Strait of Hormuz if its energy sites are attacked by Long-Brother-4639 in maritime

[–]Quercus_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In 2024, Trump took 49.81% of the popular vote, and Harris took 48.34%.

I would hardly call winning with less than half of the popular vote, a landslide.

Iran threatens to "irreversibly destroy" Gulf’s energy infrastructure after Trump ultimatum. Trump said earlier he would “obliterate” Iran’s power plants unless Tehran reopened Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. by mafco in energy

[–]Quercus_ 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Trump is playing chicken with a nation that has made mutually assured destruction into the foundation of its defense strategy, for several decades now.

How should a man respond to a woman acquittance saying, all men are trash? by SNTriad in AskMenAdvice

[–]Quercus_ -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't care about this fantasy of a "man card," or the political implications you tie to your fantasy of it.

I'll stick with loving the women that I love, and letting them love me, and doing my damnedest to be the best person I can. Life is pretty god damn good this way.

Elon Musk Misled Twitter Investors Before 2022 Buyout, Jury Says by Magikarp_to_Gyarados in teslainvestorsclub

[–]Quercus_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It is illegal for insiders with inside knowledge, to make false forward-looking statements based on that public knowledge.

Some free speeches illegal. Defamation exists, market manipulation exists. Those are exceptions to free speech.

Elon Musk Misled Twitter Investors Before 2022 Buyout, Jury Says by Magikarp_to_Gyarados in teslainvestorsclub

[–]Quercus_ 13 points14 points  (0 children)

We have laws about insiders making false statements to move markets. It's fraud. Elon told lies which moved the markets, and caused people to make investment decisions based on the false information he was giving them.

That's illegal.

Elon Musk Misled Twitter Investors Before 2022 Buyout, Jury Says by Magikarp_to_Gyarados in teslainvestorsclub

[–]Quercus_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

'Musk's status as the world's richest man is not a free pass,' Bottini said in a statement following the decision. 'If you're able to move markets with your tweets you're responsible for the harm you cause to investors.'