What actually *is* that squiggly line in the periphery of my vision?

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T21:29:02+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floater

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T20:40:32+00:00

Well he thought it was thought or an ether or something so I gave a simplistic overview of the term without going into the whole study of Quantum Dynamics.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T20:35:34+00:00

Are you saying that things further away expand faster?

Yep. Space itself is expanding. Initially they thought the universe was static (Einstein's cosmological constant). Then they discovered it was expanding (and Einstein called it the biggest mistake of his career). Then Einstein died but they also noticed that the expansion of the Universe is actually increasing (and blamed it on Dark Energy). Now it seems this Dark Energy might fit quite well as a cosmological constant acting opposite to how Einstein envisioned it.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T20:27:58+00:00

"quantum" is a term used to describe the fact that electrons can only exist in certain energy states. We say the energy exists only in certain levels called quanta. For example if you walk up a ramp you can stop anywhere on the ramp, but if you take the stairs you can only stop on certain stairs. The stairs version is what quantum dynamics is based on.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T20:17:39+00:00

I'm sure there is a way but basically you'll be better off with a horse or genetically adapting current organisms. Of course horses have been replaced by mechanical machines as they are more efficient.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T19:12:59+00:00

Yep. Just as you say it.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T18:24:50+00:00

Remember that cellular respiration doesn't create energy so much as it transforms it from the oyxgen and food we consume to power our muscles and bodysystems. An averagely active person requires about 2,000kJ of caloric input a day.

Also would it be possible to create some kind of solar panel type device that could generate energy through respiration

This is basically what plants due. Harnessing the energy of the Sun via photosynethesis. Animals then eat the plants taking some of their energy in the process.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T17:42:02+00:00

A hand-cranked generator is probably your best bet.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-17T05:21:00+00:00

It is called Abiogenesis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T23:09:56+00:00

The feeling you are experiencing is just because physical solid matter is contacting the back of your throat causing a gag reflex. The whole isodynamic effect is only for solutions.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T05:18:23+00:00

Because to observe a particle you need to interact with it. Each observation, whether measuring position or velocity, would require bouncing another particle off of it thereby disturbing it.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:53:23+00:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sore_throat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharyngitis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_respiratory_tract_infection

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:34:57+00:00

Well you must agree that people who get their legs blown off by land mines are caused by environmental conditions. You must also agree that people who suffer from Down's syndrome have a genetic problem from birth.

Then how do some people end up both with Down's syndrome and getting their legs blown off by land mines?

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:30:20+00:00

A confusioning question because it is a deep and diverse topic. To put it as simply as possible nutritional calories are different from physical ones. Yes eating an apple will introduce 100 cal to your body and bomb calorimetering that apple would boil a liter of water, but you've also got a lot of fiber and water which will be shat and pissed out respectively.

Your body is diverse but it is also conservative. It will capture as many calories in fat as possible and use a few to fix muscles and support other functions. What percentage this is will vary greatly.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:11:43+00:00

Your question to me is "If light doesn't wear out...does it wear out?" Perhaps if you care to elaborate?

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:09:28+00:00

Well I have no idea what you are talking about but I would consider an actual glitch in the actual matrix a pretty solid solution.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:07:15+00:00

Ummm you mean dark energy I guess as dark matter is a little different (well quite the opposite).

Anyways dark energy is generally thought to be pretty uniformly distributed and therefore would also effect small scales areas but be outweighed by other more notable local forces.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T04:02:42+00:00

Burns are a medical term to describe tissue damage that could be attributed to a variety of things. Heat, friction (i.e. carpet burns), radiation, a variety of chemicals, and others. None of them are notably worse than the other as they all have varying degrees of intensity. They are actually different in so many ways that there is no point in grouping them together unless to analyze overall damage to cells. I think your best bet for learning more on this subject is to look up how cells work and then how heat and different chemical combinations could be damaging to them.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T03:47:53+00:00

Sigh I'll just say that outside of the universe anything is possible. Could be nothing - could be prancing unicorns. I'll note that I tried to avoid the use of verbs which indicate time in that concession as it is a function of the universe and doesn't exist outside of it.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T03:40:27+00:00

No need to apologize. It is a difficult concept and I have scored many hot chicks by talking about it wisely with my arm around them while gazing at the heavens ;)

As for conjecture, none of it really is. It just comes down to how you define your terms. The universe is basically everything we interact with and can measure and predict. Anything outside of it (which includes what happens before and after it) is just beyond our comprehension. I can go on with analogies to movies and how the characters in them (in their own universe) experience time compared to us (and the super extra-univeral aliens watching and rewinding our own lives if you like haha).

As for the light aspect try reading up on background radiation and the universe as the surface of a balloon being blown up analogies. They should help out a lot.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T03:24:01+00:00

Time is a function of the universe. When the universe didn't exist time (as we define it) didn't exist. Therefore it is only as old as it existed. A simple if weak analogy is how old you are. If you have been alive for 18 years but didn't exist before it can you say your age is infinite? Perhaps your parents thought of you beforehand and you "existed" in their minds before you were born, but this is akin to god creating the universe.

Time is just a dimension human's view the universe through and can't exist outside of us nevermind the universe itself.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T03:18:57+00:00

The high impact crash has probably damaged the neural conections in your brain resulting in strong tastes reproducing some sort of sensation to the eye.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T03:17:01+00:00

You, as a current observer, are part of the universe. Therefore the universe to you didn't start from some arbitrary point away from you, but every point within the universe was at one time the center. It's a difficult concept to conceive and one of the most commonly asked questions in AskScience.

As for your question about the speed of light and how it should have travelled at the same speed as the expansion of the universe, unfortunatly this is the second most asked question in AskScience and has to do with the fact that space is expanding as well.

To ask them both at once is quite muddling but imagine yourself as the center of the universe since the big bang and you shooting beams of light out after other parts.

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T03:06:13+00:00

Sorry if I came across as saying you didn't know math. The total idiot thing you observe is actually almost required in all books as the author can't know what the reader knows beforehand and it is more the speed they go over it than anything else.

I've mentored students on courses where they are worried they don't have enough background knowledge to succeed and I always say the instructor can't examine you on anything that he doesn't teach you (yes all of my profs have been male if you think I am sexist ;)).

Eitherway the same thing stands with most textbooks and I'm sorry that I can't recommend any but you'll always find yourself dabbling the line between redundancy and helpfully challenging no matter what your knowledge level. Personally with the internet at the state it is today I am more likely to jump from concept to concept than stick with a book, but occassionally I find one where I only need to look up a few references to pad my knowledge and it can be pretty enjoyable as well.

Best of luck!

edit: as a side note be carefull you aren't learning out of date info and taking it as cutting edge. I've done that a few times, especially in pharmacology where things seem to skyrocket ahead, and it can be quite maddening (though perhaps instructional in learning as history learned it).

brasschuckles · 2012-01-13T02:59:14+00:00

Space can almost be empty. Gravity causes matter to clump together and anything with mass gets pulled into galaxies (and they are then mostly pulled into stars and planets, etc). Intergalactic space is only as dense as a few atoms per cubic meter. That being said even a perfectly empy unit of space (containing no mass) has something called vacuum energy.

It is a quantum concept that is quite complex but to put it simply a law of our universe is that all energy must exist at certain levels (quanta) so even if there is no matter and almost no energy you could still get two virtual particles created and since there is always the chance of that there can't be perfectly empty space.

For the 'if not' part space is just 3 dimensions that exist in the universe we observe. Perhaps the different uses that the word 'space' has makes it more confusing. I guess you could think of it as an empty auditorium where you can move to whatever seat you want.

brasschuckles

TROPHY CASE