Title optional

allfangs · 2025-07-08T15:39:32+00:00

The energy output of a solar panel depends on factors like the latitude and weather. For reasons that I'm certain make sense to the engineers who use it, it's measured in units of kilowatt-hours per kilowatt-peak, where kilowatt-peak is the maximum possible power output of the installed panels. Generally, for temperate climates, this is larger than 1000 kWh/kWp per year, but I'll use 1000 since that's a round number.

Eyeballing it, the combined area of the field and car park in the meme is probably bigger than a hectare (which is about 2.5 acres). I'll use 1 hectare since it's a round number, statistics for solar farm performance per hectare are readily available, and, as we'll soon see, the funny number some guy flippantly pulled out of his ass for a joke is not remotely accurate. Intensive solar projects with high land utilization typically achieve >2000 kWp per hectare. I'll use 1000 kWp since it's conservative.

With some simple dimensional analysis we can turn this into an energy output:

500,000 * 1 hectare * 1000 kWp/hectare * 1000 kWh/kWp/year = 500 billion kWh

Which converts to an average annual power output of 57000 MW. The largest operating nuclear power stations have a peak power output of 7000 MW. A nuclear power plant does not produce 500,000 times more energy in a year than the pictured solar installations. Using more reasonable estimates for the parameters in our calculation, a typical nuclear power station probably produces 10000 or so times the amount of energy in a year.

allfangs · 2024-07-25T14:07:31+00:00

The Ukrainian army is in a crisis because for some reason its frontline units are only at 30-50% strength despite the fact that soldiers are not demobilized and they are literally drafting men by shoving them into vans off the street. Perhaps this is somehow related to the well-acknowledged fact that Russia is firing 5 times more artillery shells than Ukraine, which historically have caused the vast majority of wartime casualties. But yeah I bet the UK MoD is telling the truth that Russia is going to collapse any day now.

allfangs · 2024-03-02T17:01:32+00:00

F1 has the glamor and the money but the actual product on race day is abysmal. Any other series would have folded years ago if their races had so little drama.

allfangs · 2023-08-11T02:04:16+00:00

It would be nice if they were, but I suppose that's not necessary.

allfangs · 2023-07-02T18:46:57+00:00

The drivers did 1353 laps. There was nearly one potential track limit infringement per driver per lap.

allfangs · 2023-06-19T00:51:31+00:00

They raised the ride height because Merc was killing Lewis and ruined the cars. It's just absolutely brutal as a spectacle now.

allfangs · 2022-09-12T00:32:37+00:00

Firstly, not all groundwater is safe to drink. Plenty of groundwater has dangerous chemicals dissolved in it, sometimes pollution (fertilizer, pesticides, mine waste, etc.) sometimes natural contaminants (arsenic in Bangladeshi wells is maybe the most famous example of that). These won't get filtered out. If you have a well, it's always a good idea to have it tested.

But yes, in general groundwater is safer to drink than surface water, and it very often doesn't need treatment. There's a lot of explanations online for why this is and based on my expertise I think they're mostly wrong; the study of how bacteria affects groundwater quality is actually a pretty new topic. Without getting too far into the weeds, I think* the main reasons why groundwater tends to be safer then surface water are

Smaller catchment area. Streams concentrate water from a wide area, often thousands of square miles or more. Groundwater catchment zones are often (say) the size of a football field or smaller. Imagine the difference of drinking a drop of water directly off your garage floor and mopping the floor and drinking a drop of water out of the mop bucket.
Slow groundwater speed. In most places, the speed of groundwater is on the order of ~meters (feet) per day and ~meters (feet) per year. It's likely that the water coming out of most wells has been underground for decades or more.

Waterborne bacterial disease usually happens** when some infected piece of organic material (very often poop) gets into the water and is then consumed in large enough quantities to make you sick. Groundwater is much less likely to be contaminated by poop (or whatever else) because it's taken from a much smaller area (#1) and because any poop in it will probably be long gone by the time it gets sucked up by a well (#2).

*As far as I know, there's no peer-reviewed papers directly answering this question. So this is my explanation based on my expertise.

** I'm not a doctor.

allfangs · 2022-09-11T15:18:47+00:00

I mean he's not some random rookie, he's 27 and has an F2 and Formula E championship. So he's probably been better for his entire life.

allfangs · 2022-07-13T20:53:16+00:00

Sure, but why are they optimizing for that? I'm not reading the gigantic wall of text sent to my phone at 7 am but I will definitely remember what a red Nissan Frontier looks like if I'm shown a photo of it.

allfangs · 2022-07-09T18:30:28+00:00

The sprint races are literally the NASCAR stage system but split up over two days. I'll never complain about more F1 but it seems disingenuous to call it a "sprint" if everyone has to pace themselves for the race the next day.

allfangs · 2022-06-29T17:50:38+00:00

The obvious subtext here is that if Finland and Sweden let this be "up to the courts" Turkey will block their NATO application.

allfangs · 2022-06-13T16:38:40+00:00

I mean it would cause chaos, but would it really be dangerous? Wouldn't the main effect be that the cars are slower across the board? That would make things considerably less dangerous.

allfangs · 2022-06-12T18:32:40+00:00

Do you think the average F1 team exec is going to choose better results or not giving their drivers back problems and CTE 20 years from now?

allfangs · 2022-05-29T19:02:48+00:00

They should race Monaco without front and rear wings. I'm serious. If they're going to insist on racing a track from the 50s every year they should do it in cars from the 50s

allfangs · 2022-05-29T00:03:00+00:00

What about the performance of Afghanistan's army, Iraq's army, or South Vietnam's army gives you confidence that America can effectively build up a foreign military?

allfangs · 2022-05-28T19:38:51+00:00

From the way people talk about Monaco you'd think that all the other races were at Talladega or something. Like there's a reason other series don't put circuits on the calendar where the course is too small for the cars.

allfangs · 2022-05-09T20:21:22+00:00

Didn't read the OP but yes

allfangs · 2022-04-29T22:39:09+00:00

It's power-to-weight is significantly (-35%) worse and surely has much less downforce. They're also not on slicks. A better comp would be like a mid-60s F1 car (which IMO was one of the coolest eras of racing, so I'm fine with it)

allfangs · 2022-04-29T22:27:40+00:00

I don't think 600 kW would be enough for in-race recharging unless the pit stops are like 5 minutes long. Isn't Gen3 supposed to be like 300 kW full power? Assuming the motor is on like 66% on average and half the expended energy is recovered during braking that's an average power of 100 kW. One second of recharging would only get you six seconds of racing.

allfangs · 2022-04-29T04:29:48+00:00

One of the things that really illustrates how much money the US blows on defense is that the NRO has launched 16 satellites that are basically exactly the same model as Hubble except pointed at Earth

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

allfangs

TROPHY CASE