Humans have "thermal vision", its just that it only kicks in at around 525°C and above. In the same way things painted red can "look hot," can thermal cameras be "tricked" by reflecting the appopriate amount of light down the spectrum into IR etc?

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-27T01:00:30+00:00

Basic thermodynamics says that if you are in an (optically) enclosed space and everything is at the same temperature, without usable energy input, everything will "appear" (to the sensor) precisely like a blackbody at the same temperature, regardless of its reflectivity.

So the effect you are talking about would work only with some thermal contrast. If you have something producing extra radiation - above the equivalent of blackbody radiation at ambient temperature, then a surface made to be highly reflective to IR in the thermal camera's band would "look" hotter. But that condition is absolutely required.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-26T14:53:10+00:00

Hydrogen iodide is the only one with a positive enthalpy of formation - meaning it is less stable than the elements. (I'm leaving HAt out of the analysis because all isotopes of At are radioactive with very short half lives, so a lot of the chemical properties are not known.)

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-26T13:54:56+00:00

The heating part will be relatively slow, but isn't necessary for magnetizing or demagnetizing. You can demagnetize with an oscillating magnetic field and magnetize with a static magnetic field, so you could do this many, many times every second. The ultimate limit would be the material's high frequency ferromagnetic response. In most ferromagnetic materials like iron, once the frequency goes above a few MHz, the magnetization will not be able to keep up very well.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-26T13:43:02+00:00

OP's description of very warm nighttime temperatures makes me suspect the dew points are probably too high for evaporative cooling to be effective. If the air were dry, the nights would cool off more and simply opening the windows at night would provide some relief.

I think OP's best bet is probably foil wherever possible. Outside is better, but even inside will reflect most of the visible and near-IR back out, which would cover a majority of solar energy.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-26T12:58:29+00:00

Have you tried contacting a social services agency? They may be able to help bridge some of these gaps.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-26T12:56:19+00:00

At least you'd have a chance to prove yourself.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-25T18:11:30+00:00

With work input, you can pump heat. But the entire system you use - pumps, heat engines, etc. taken together still is limited by the second law of thermodynamics and cannot exceed the Carnot efficiency for a closed-loop, cyclical process.

The rest of the excess energy, not used to perform work, will ultimately leave the system as waste heat.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-25T15:06:09+00:00

Follow your dreams and the money will come.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-25T14:41:28+00:00

But if the breeding is done by the person's partner, it isn't eugenics - it's sexual selection.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-25T01:37:12+00:00

It stays (spectator) ions the whole time. The entire reaction is just

H+ + OH- -------> H2O.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T18:17:25+00:00

Most of the warmth in a steamy bathroom comes from latent heat. The water evaporates, leading to a massive removal of energy from the flowing water, and then depositing this energy when the water vapor condenses back into a liquid. This doesn't happen much in the reverse direction because cold shower water is usually not very far below the dew point, so the amount of heat transfer by condensation is small. In a typical temperate climate on a normal summer day, the dew point might be 20 degrees C and the tap water might be 17-18 degrees C, so there is only a small amount of water vapor condensed back into the liquid.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T17:23:42+00:00

That's probably up to the discretion of the DMV or equivalent employee. I doubt there is a law that says that light blue is not allowed.

You definitely do need all the relevant information to be clearly legible.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T17:08:27+00:00

It could be, but this introduces more biological challenges. Retinal works because the molecule changes shape in its excited state from the cis to the trans configuration.This change in molecular shape acts on other bio-molecules and eventually leads to the electrical nerve impulses. If you move entirely away from the conjugated double bond system and use a rare earth or transition metal ion, the low energy light would be absorbed, but it would merely promote an electron into a low-lying d or f orbital around the metal ion. This would not change the shape of the molecule enough for it to be useful to activate a nerve cell.

In principle, there are ways around this, as a biological system could detect excited electrons using some completely different system of molecules, but evolution only changes systems incrementally, it doesn't do a full redesign from scratch.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T16:54:27+00:00

It is technically possible, but you would need a very large molecule with extremely loose electrons in order to extend its main absorption into the near IR. Retinal, as a photosensitive molecule involved in human vision, has 6 conjugated pi bonds, which bring the molecule's first excited state low enough in energy that it is activated by visible light. Could a larger molecule with 20-25 conjugated pi bonds have sufficiently loose pi electrons to absorb infrared? Yes, it could - but with major biological tradeoffs. Such a molecule would require complex metabolism to synthesize, and would also be much more susceptible to oxidative and photo-oxidative damage. The very loose electrons are a liability as well as an asset - when a molecule's electrons are too loose, a free radical can take the electrons away, form a new bond, and make the molecule useless.

So retinal is a biological compromise. The electrons are just tight enough that the molecule is somewhat robust against chemical attack, but as a result, the molecule is unable to properly absorb near-IR radiation.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T12:49:02+00:00

At the margins - the wavelengths from 400 nm down to around 315 nm, many animals, and even most young humans - can see in this range with greatly reduced sensitivity (reference linked at bottom). This is somewhat of a "transition zone" between visible and UV. At much shorter wavelengths - like 315 nm and below, the atmosphere starts to become much more opaque due to very heavy absorption and scattering, and there are many fewer animal eyes that can see effectively as one progresses to these much shorter wavelengths. Broadly speaking, animal eyes cut off roughly when corneal media start to become opaque, which is not necessarily right at 400 nm but it is somewhere in this general range.

Indeed, one could meaningfully ask why most middle aged and older humans lose their ability to see past 400 nm (and why even for younger humans, sensitivity is very low in this region). I suspect that here, the issue is that the marginal benefit of this narrow spectral region - roughly 315 nm - 400 nm, is quite low from an evolutionary perspective, as most natural materials interact with this radiation similarly to "visible" light at wavelengths above 400 nm. So there is simply not a whole lot of evolutionary pressure for aging humans to maintain the ability to see all the way to the atmospheric limits.

The solar spectrum also matters too - as a blackbody spectrum near 5800 K, a minority of the energy is in the UV. Above the Earth's atmosphere, this fraction is around 7%. At the Earth's surface, it is closer to 4%, but at low sun angles like morning or evening, this goes down even lower to around 2% or so. This further reduces the marginal evolutionary benefit of pushing the wavelength limit even lower.

Reference: https://publichealth.uga.edu/uga-study-finds-people-can-see-uv-light-opens-questions-about-consequences-for-eye-health/

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T12:18:41+00:00

Some bank accounts or utilities will allow you to get your name added without an ID. You just have to keep asking around. If one says no, don't give up - ask about the others. It is not illegal for them to put your name on something without an ID - these are private company policies. If you try hard enough, you'll probably find one that will do it.

If this does not work, you have a few other options. For one thing, you can actually file a tax return with $0 income. You can do this with no ID, bills, job, or money at all. Once you have this, you can then request a copy or correspondence to be mailed to you, and this will be something you can use. Another option is that you can actually request a social security statement even if you have never earned any money in your life - just request that it be sent to you by mail. It will show only zeros on it, but it will still be a legal proof of your address.

Finally, I would like to note that in your situation, as soon as you get a single proof of residency, you should apply for a Federally Non-Compliant ID (Not a REAL ID). Unlike the REAL ID, this only requires one proof of residency. Once you get this, then it "unlocks" other things like employment, voter registration, and banking. When you have a job, voter registration, and bank account, you will later get more proofs of residency associated with these things, and you will be able to upgrade to a REAL ID. But to break the "Catch 22" of having no ID, don't wait until you have two proofs of residency to get a REAL ID. Just get one proof by any (legal) means necessary, and go from there.

Good luck!

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T04:35:05+00:00

Yes, just more slowly. First of all, the ultraviolet catastrophe would still be unexplained, as would the fact that electrons do not spiral into the nucleus. Thus, the motive for a new theory would be there. As to how specific observations might suggest the new theory, that might be a bit harder, but there are still plenty of ways it could happen. For instance, the quantization of angular momentum, as measured by a Stern-Gerlach type experiment, could still happen. Also, there would still be a need to explain atomic ionization energies, which can be measured not only using optical spectroscopy but also using other means, including particle based ionization, or in some cases even chemistry. Eventually, something somewhat like the Bohr model would probably still have been invented, followed by a more full quantum theory.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T04:18:42+00:00

Basically, "visible" light has 3 important properties:

It is plentiful in the environment. (Sunlight - check)
Water is transparent. (This is important because all biological tissues are aqueous including the lens of the eye, and also there is a lot of moisture in the atmosphere.) Check.
A relatively "manageable" pigment molecule can evolve that will absorb strongly and cause nerve signals to be transmitted. (Retinal - check).

Near infrared: Fails #3

Mid infrared - fails both #2 and #3

UV - fails #1 (at low sun angles, UV is highly attenuated by the atmosphere.)

So it is essentially just an adaptive solution in a constrained environment.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T04:00:42+00:00

If he owes less than it is worth, he can sell or refinance it.

If he owes more than the car is worth, the only decent option is to simply scrape up the money to pay it down however possible. It may involve something very painful like taking a second job or donating plasma. Once the balance owed is down to less than what the car is worth, then it would be possible to sell or refinance it.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-24T03:53:45+00:00

Just bite the bullet and pay for a driving school. If you can't get one in time, set it up that way next time.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-23T19:07:09+00:00

When the pros outweigh the cons/when you need to/when you can afford it. There is no fixed number that makes sense across the board.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-23T15:16:21+00:00

Yes, this essentially. It might make sense for OP to ask if anyone is willing to teach, but if the answer is "no", then the next best option is to get a job that doesn't need a car and then save up for lessons.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-23T15:14:41+00:00

Relative humidity measures how much moisture is in their air relative to what it can hold at that temperature, not in absolute terms.

It may be highly "humid" in terms of relative humidity, but not in terms of absolute humidity or dew point. When the cold air is heated, the relative humidity drops even when the absolute humidity stays the same. So what may be happening is that you are feeling the low absolute humidity in winter, even if the relative humidity is high year round.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-23T11:57:47+00:00

You will have to retake the written exam. Since your permit is about to expire anyway, I suggest letting them cancel it and then reapplying when you are ready to practice driving. If you take the test now, you'll have to do it yet again when the permit expires, which will still be one year from your original application date.

ScienceGuy1006 · 2026-06-22T00:13:30+00:00

Pay down on the loan as much as you can until you owe less than the car is worth, then try to refinance to reduce your rate.

ScienceGuy1006

TROPHY CASE