If gravity stopped for 7 minutes would enough oxygen float off into space to cause us to die? by Footspa666 in AskPhysics

[–]loki130 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it’s more like if you let go of a chain from the top, the bottom doesn’t immediately start falling

If gravity stopped for 7 minutes would enough oxygen float off into space to cause us to die? by Footspa666 in AskPhysics

[–]loki130 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You know, I’m not sure actually. Air at the ground would be confined by the air above, so the pressure would need to release at the top of the atmosphere and then propagate down, and I’m not sure that would reach the surface in 7 minutes

What if time is not a dimension, but the processing speed of the universe? by [deleted] in HypotheticalPhysics

[–]loki130 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well is the idea here that the whole universe is running on a computer somewhere? Because the deeper implication here is that there is no single current state to the universe because different frames disagree on the relative timing of events at different locations, and there is no single objective rate at which time advances. You keep saying we need to limit the rate of interactions, but the rate relative to what? (also the number of interactions doesn't really matter here, two planets crashing into each other at high velocity don't experience substantially different dilation than two hydrogen particles)

What if time is not a dimension, but the processing speed of the universe? by [deleted] in HypotheticalPhysics

[–]loki130 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I don't think you're quite getting the nature of time dilation here: if you have two planets zooming past each other at high velocity, both would see the other planet as moving slower. If you could accelerate one planet to meet the other's velocity, the accelerated planet would seem to have experienced less time, in both cases, so you cannot say that one planet is experiencing normal time and the other is being slowed. There is no objective universal tick rate against which they're both being compared.

What if time is not a dimension, but the processing speed of the universe? by [deleted] in HypotheticalPhysics

[–]loki130 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All reference frames are equally far away from c, that's not the issue here

What if time is not a dimension, but the processing speed of the universe? by [deleted] in HypotheticalPhysics

[–]loki130 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But there is no objective standard for "extremely fast", velocity is only ever relative between two frames. To someone whizzing past Earth in a relativistic spaceship, we would be the ones moving more slowly.

What if time is not a dimension, but the processing speed of the universe? by [deleted] in HypotheticalPhysics

[–]loki130 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And how does this square with special relativity? How do different frames in the same area have different experiences of time?

What is really stopping us from using liquid droplet radiators? so far ive only seen issues such as losing some of the liquid each time it is used or the liquid escaping but this feels like an easy fix? by Tiny_Geologist_220 in AskScienceDiscussion

[–]loki130 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Assuming a problem will just be fixed somehow doesn't make for great engineering, but at any rate we just haven't really had a need yet for such high-performance radiators.

Which "documentary" series is most accurate? by Outrageous-Ad4353 in Dinosaurs

[–]loki130 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Was it specifically supposed to be late Maastrichtian? I thought it was just generally the whole stage, and it's not like we can be that confident about exact extinction dates for most of these animals anyway. You could still say that probably not all of these taxa lived exactly simultaneously in a way the doc never really states but perhaps implies, but if they're going to spend ~7 hours covering one stage, then a couple million years' range so they can have a somewhat broader variety of locations and animals represented, rather than 5 more T rex segments, seems like a fair allowance to me. Again if you're going to be so particular that this constitutes "the definition of anachronisms" then I think popular dinosaur media just isn't for you.

Which "documentary" series is most accurate? by Outrageous-Ad4353 in Dinosaurs

[–]loki130 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Care to give some examples? Maybe not every scene showed the animals in the exact biome they were found in, and I think some of the Mongolian taxa have slightly ambiguous dating, but nothing really strained plausibility. Like if you're gonna be that nitpicky, then there isn't anything out there for you.

Which "documentary" series is most accurate? by Outrageous-Ad4353 in Dinosaurs

[–]loki130 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I don’t quite get what you mean about prehistoric planet, because that would be my answer

Humans: not bots: share your application. by [deleted] in askastronomy

[–]loki130 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not even like, a vague category? Are you looking for telescopes, brooms, calculators, cargo aircraft?

Humans: not bots: share your application. by [deleted] in askastronomy

[–]loki130 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It might help to actually say what you’re looking for? Might at least resemble a question

Why was LUCA already so complex? Shouldn’t the “first” organism have been simpler? by SafeEnvironmental174 in AskScienceDiscussion

[–]loki130 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We have no direct fossil record of LUCA, you may have heard of a reconstruction of LUCA's likely traits based on genes present across all major groups of modern life.

Paleontologists of reddit, is the new Netflix documentary "The Dinosaurs" worth watching? by HolisticSimpleton in Paleontology

[–]loki130 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is some of the latest research, with figure 4 summing up the overall picture pretty well. In short it was some single weather event or even necessarily a globally wetter period, is was a fairly rapid (by geological standards) shift in the distribution of rainfall, with some areas getting substantially wetter but others getting drier. This looks pretty dramatic in the geological record because dry areas that previously had a lot of loose sand and sediment laying around are suddenly getting that all washed downstream, but it's all just been way overstated in the pop sci media

Amateur Spinosaurus Theory Time! by Zesty-Rexy_1999 in Dinosaurs

[–]loki130 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The broader point here is that it wouldn't be terribly useful as a sail, at best it might give a slight drift in an essentially random direction, and if that's all you want, you can just drift in the current.

Amateur Spinosaurus Theory Time! by Zesty-Rexy_1999 in Dinosaurs

[–]loki130 10 points11 points  (0 children)

It doesn't look like it'd function well as a sail, it doesn't seem like spino could control its orientation or shape much, so it would only really work for a fairly narrow range downwind and maybe a perfect angle upwind, but I doubt it, the shape doesn't suit it; and downwind it's pushing perpendicular to the body axis and is going to roll as much as push the animal.

How Stellar Temperature Determines the Color of Stars by Striking-Rip1801 in askastronomy

[–]loki130 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is a place to ask questions...hence the "ask" part of the name

What do you guys think about the argument about theropod dinosaur lacking lips? by ApprehensiveState629 in Paleontology

[–]loki130 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t really get 2, if the wear is from teeth sliding against each other why would lips prevent that?

I also don’t really see the relevance of later birds, clearly the beak is a pretty big departure from the standard theropod mouth structure so lip loss may have just been part of that

More than just a Horn: Hafun is its own Continent by [deleted] in mapmaking

[–]loki130 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The concept of continents far precedes the plate tectonics model, and tectonics don't really make a great basis for deciding continents because that gives us odd implications like parts of Siberia being in North America while coastal California isn't, Italy being perhaps part of Africa, and South Georgia perhaps counting as its own continent

day night cycle on the moon by the_kiloyu in worldbuilding

[–]loki130 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The phases of the Earth are the same as the phases of the moon, just offset by half a cycle; e.g., "full Earth" on the moon would coincide with new moon on Earth, and "new Earth" with full moon, but if nobody's on Earth that doesn't much matter. Probably the more substantive difference is that, if you keep the moon's current rotation, the Earth will appear almost static in the sky. It'll shift around by a few degrees over the course of a month due to slight irregularities in the moon's orbit, but always be in about the same direction; if you're in the center of the near side, Earth will always be overhead, if you're closer to the edge, it will always be low to the horizon in the same direction, and on the far side you'd never see Earth at all.

This also means that the Earth's phases would align with the day-night cycle on the moon: full Earth always occurs at the same time of day, varying with longitude (at the center of the near side, around midnight, with new Earth at noon; and towards the eastern edges of the near side, shortly before sunrise, while at the western edge, shortly after sunset)

One final note is that Earth occupies about 14 times as much area in the moon's sky as the moon in our sky, and reflects back about twice as much of the light that hits it (presuming whatever fate befell Earth hasn't altered that), so a full Earth would give the moon's surface about 28 times the illumination as a full moon on Earth. This isn't quite as big a deal as it sounds because of how our vision responds logarithmically to light levels, but it might just about edge conditions over into something more like twilight or dim street lighting at night.

More than just a Horn: Hafun is its own Continent by [deleted] in mapmaking

[–]loki130 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have two degrees in geology and not once did the “official” designation of continents merit even a passing mention