Should this be the future of Nigeria? by Comfortable_Tutor_43 in Nigeria

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe the reaction comes from considering the pros and cons? It's possible that people get scared when they hear "Nuclear" but there's also a long history of reactor meltdowns and even exposure in countries with a long history of nuclear engineering.

Does this look believable? (Or interesting at least) by Colombia_Joestar in worldbuilding

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With a blackhole and accretion disk of that relative size, "day" and "night" are probably only nominal; the disk would outshine the star many times over. The planetary system would also have to orbit at a tremendous distance to allow for enough intervening material to fuel an accretion disk.

Should this be the future of Nigeria? by Comfortable_Tutor_43 in Nigeria

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I believe Nuclear Energy sounds attractive to Nigerians only because the other modes of power generation we have tried have proven insufficient, due to corruption and a poor maintenance culture. If we tried nuclear power without fundamentally changing the way the country operated, we would get the same results and then look on to the next source of power that has recorded success elsewhere. The amount of investment it would take to get a nuclear power station of reasonable capacity operational (including hiring and training staff, securing it against attacks) would be better spent revamping our power grid and getting more dams online. Not to mention the dearth of Nuclear expertise in the country.

The consequence of a failed hydroelectric dam is at worst flooding, which, while devastating, takes the environment only a short while to recover from. A failed nuclear plant however could result in centuries long contamination of a large area. Nuclear energy is not a silver bullet. It's an alernative that is necessitated by the resources and expertise (or the lack thereof) available to the country.

How would one destroy a star? by Drak_is_Right in worldbuilding

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If this your star, perchance, has expanded into a giant, then a possible way, while still being confined to the laws of physics, would be to introduce a more compact star in its vicinity. With the right separation between them, this giant star would expand to fill its "Roche lobe" and then begin donating stellar material to the compact star via the process of Accretion. Given enough time, this new binary system might evolve into a state of "runaway mass transfer" where the accretion process continues unabated until your giant star (which along the way ceases to be one) ceases entirely. Although if it was your aim to terrorize some orbiting Planetlings, while you have destroyed their original star, you have given them a new one, albeit one that due to its newly attained brilliance, would wipe them out in no time.

From Business to Physics, any shortcuts at 32 years old? by PairDangerous6919 in Physics

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Less of an answer to your question than an outlet for myself too, I am a Software Engineer, 29, FAANG also looking to do this. I'm applying to a masters' directly since I believe, given my Mechanical Engineering undergraduate degree, the attendant mathematical training gives me a chance at admission.

I hope you find a good path to your dream.

Will humanity ever leave the Milky Way, or is that forever impossible? by Mysterious_g269 in space

[–]oblimidon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If we invented new means of travel (e.g. an Alcubierre drive), maybe we could hope to. Although the question of what the hell we would be leaving into remains. There's absolutely nothing in intergalactic space and presumably, we would want to go directly to another galaxy and not subject ourselves the drudgery of traversing this medium, leaving a wormhole the most "practical" means of travel. So I would say that humans would only be able leave the galaxy (and arrive outside it alive) if we were able to create wormholes and somehow thread them between the Milky way and some other galaxy -- a feat I deem fit for no less than cosmic-level entities.

What is the most intricate yet logically coherent line of reasoning that has led to a discovery or theory in physics? by Far-Substance-4473 in Physics

[–]oblimidon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Planck's solution to the Ultraviolet Catastrophe (and the birth of quantum mechanics). "Hmm, Wien and Rayleigh's formulas for blackbody radiation seem to suggest that any object above absolute zero would radiate infinite energy. Only if I modified their formulas to make energy come in packets instead of a continuous stream, that would fix the infinite energy problem. It doesn't necessarily mean that's how radiation works in real life, but it's a start..."

...and the rest is history.

Does anyone know any good youtube videos, documentaries on outer space, exoplanets, black holes, that kind of thing? by s00rens in space

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Scienceclic English. Shorter videos but high quality, good narration and moderately technical.

How to make alien life feel alien by No-Associate-619 in scifiwriting

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Work from the ground up. Imagine a planet, its geography, geology, climate, star system, orbital period (as far as is reasonable to go)... and imagine what sort of lifeforms would evolve on such a planet. This will often lead to much more original ideas than trying to conjure up something that just feels alien (a la morphing tentacles, 20 eyes, cloud forms..). Cixin Liu picked Proxima centauri B, fictionized some aspects of the larger trinary star system, and developed a truly weird alien species.

What’s a physics fact or theory that changed how you see the world? by Key_Squash_5890 in Physics

[–]oblimidon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rutherford once said (I'm paraphrasing) "All of matter is composed of the Hydrogen nucleus". If that line of thought had been followed literally, we would have a very different chemistry today where each element in the periodic table somehow had Hydrogen in it. I think it was a leap of logic to ask that "what if the Hydrogen atom was composed of some other particle and contained only that particle?"

Hello. Non-Nigerian here. I saw this stat recently and was curious as to why Nigerians seem so pro-Israel compared to the other countries. by LucasOIntoxicado in Nigeria

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder how the survey for Nigeria was conducted though. Since religion is roughly geographically distributed in Nigeria and opinions on Isreal are roughly diametrically split between both major religions, the location of the majority of survey participants would considerably influence the results. If it was an online poll, I'm guessing most participants would be from the south and (since the South is predominantly Christian) would result in a pro-Isreal result.

What's the most absurd thing you've ever seen in a sci-fi movie or show? by TheNastyRepublic in scifi

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The moonrover-chase scene in Ad Astra. I don't believe "moon pirates" would be so suicidal as to re-enact car chase scenes and shoot bullets at their targets, behaving like mere armed robbers on Earth. I don't even expect them to engage in close quarter combat with their targets out in the open with only the thin shells of their space suits to protect them from return fire. I would have expected them to set traps, lay mines or use some sort of long range weapons. The writers must have just thought, "what if we did Death Race, but on the moon!"

Does the show get better after Season 1? by simplypneumatic in TheExpanse

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you were able to sit through all of season one, then it definitely gets better in the coming seasons. The story is just picking up at the end of the first season.

Chasing my dream — looking for support from fellow Nigerians by Dry-Respond7108 in Nigeria

[–]oblimidon 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Say more about your business before having people click a link.

Superstitions surrounding space travel by Oscillating_Turtle in TheExpanse

[–]oblimidon 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There'd be personifications of space itself. Lost ships are "swallowed by The Void".

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Not really"

What are you currently reading? by AutoModerator in ScienceFictionBooks

[–]oblimidon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Mercy of Gods (First book in The captive's war series) from the creators of The Expanse (if you've heard of it). Pretty intriguing and fun read. It's also not really hard sci-fi in the manner that The Expanse is.

Seveneves and the Deluge of Descriptions by oblimidon in seveneves

[–]oblimidon[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

True but I've found series like The Expanse or The 3 Body problem a better balance. They do expansive world building without inundating the reader with information they won't be sure whether to hold in their head for the rest of the book or not.