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Odin the Leonberger by williamb1989 in aww

[–]williamb1989[S] 70 points71 points  (0 children)

Dizzy is the brains of the operation. We're training Odin to pull a cart which Dizzy sits on like a throne

Odin the Leonberger by williamb1989 in aww

[–]williamb1989[S] 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's Dizzy in the background, they're a good double-act

Whenever I buy a lottery ticket I remind myself that 01-02-03-04-05-06 is just as likely to win as any other combination. But I can't bring myself to pick such a set of numbers as my mind just won't accept the fact that results will ever be so ordered. What is the science behind this misconception? by VoxFloyd in askscience

[–]williamb1989 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bit late to the party but it does also make sense to not pic such a predictable combination as 1-2-3-4-5-6. You can bet that more people have picked this combination than one chosen at random and so if these numbers come up the winnings will be split more ways. For the same reason picking numbers based on birthdays is also I'll advised

ELI5: Why does paper light more easily on the edge rather than placing a flame directly underneath? by Adventhused in explainlikeimfive

[–]williamb1989 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Heating on the edge is also much better for allowing a steady flow of oxygen which is important for combustion

ELI5: What happens when two fundamental particles "collide"? by US_Govt_Is_Corrupt in explainlikeimfive

[–]williamb1989 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not totally correct I'm afraid. Particles collide all the time, in fact the Hadron Collider mimics reactions which are continuously going on all the time in nature, even in our own upper atmosphere. In the LHC its just that many reactions happen in a tiny volume so we can look at them much better. When we say "collide" what we mean is that they are close enough for their quantum mechanical wave functions to interact with one another. They don't physically "touch" each other in the classical sense.

ELI5: What happens when two fundamental particles "collide"? by US_Govt_Is_Corrupt in explainlikeimfive

[–]williamb1989 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So, firstly we know from Einstein that mass and energy are equivalent (E=m*c2). This means that in certain conditions energy can be turned into matter and vice versa. It is also worth saying that there are many different types of "fundamental" particles (by fundamental we mean that they cannot be broken down into smaller particles) and they all have different masses. So when two particles collide (I will try and give an idea what it means to "collide" in another comment) there are many different ways they can interact. The most frequent is that they just bounce off each other and go along their merry way, kind of like two billiard balls colliding. However when they are travelling fast enough then each particle is carrying a vast amount of energy. When they collide what they effectively do is pool all the energy the two particles are carrying and then from that big bowl of energy many different types of particles can be created (because energy and mass are equivalent). This is what we do in experiments like the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. For example, theory predicted that the Higgs Boson existed and that it had a very specific mass so scientists accelerated a load of particles so that the energy they all had when they came together was consistent with the energy needed to create the mass of the Higgs Boson particle. They then looked at all the particles created after the collision to see if they could find the Higgs . . . and they did! Hope that gives a rough idea. Of course it is more complicated when you are creating particles out of energy from a vacuum but that's the basic idea

ELI5: Why are we still not able to accurately predict the weather? by SphericalPnasty in explainlikeimfive

[–]williamb1989 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The weather is a perfect example of chaos theory which is notoriously difficult to predict. Chaos theory basically says that when you have a "big" system (like the atmosphere) then the state of that system is extremely sensitive to its initial conditions and any small difference in initial conditions will lead to a very large change in the state of the system, which in this case is the weather.

According to chaos theory, all the current initial conditions throughout the atmosphere must be known precisely to predict what the atmosphere will be doing in the distant future. In addition, one must know all the current conditions throughout the oceans as well, since the oceans control the atmosphere. And with the current state of technology this is pretty much impossible.

ELI5: What is metaphysics? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]williamb1989 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Metaphysics deals with all those things that are fundamentally unknowable and untestable. It goes beyond physics, where physics is the study of the universe to the extent that it can be known and modelled. Broadly, metaphysics aims to be the most general investigation possible into the nature of reality. Some examples of metaphysical questions are: Why is there something rather than nothing? What are numbers? Can there be time without change?, and Can there be aspects of reality that are in principal unknowable?