1

Just Chat! / Re: What's gone wrong with the world?

« on: Today at 12:13:27 »

I can counter that with another question: if hydrogen rises, then why does xenon not sink to the floor?  Hydrogen en masse will rise, like in a balloon, but if you were to slowly release hydrogen into a sealed room my guess is that it would slowly diffuse to reach an even concentration throughout the room. Gas atoms and molecules are constantly colliding at fairly high speeds and this in my opinion will lead to even mixing. Not really my field and I could well be wrong.

2

Just Chat! / Re: What's gone wrong with the world?

« on: Yesterday at 21:21:34 »

Okay Alan, it's one of those mea culpa moments, again. I guess I didn't think it through: o2 weighs ~32 and n2 weighs ~28 while h2o comes in at ~18 and simple displacement will lead to lower ρ.

3

New Theories / Re: Gravity In Relative Motion - is there any solution?

« on: Yesterday at 18:56:24 »

I was responding to a minor point in one of your contributions and I cannot see how my comment has now been called the best answer to the original question,though I have no objections.

4

Just Chat! / Re: What's gone wrong with the world?

« on: Yesterday at 13:17:32 »

That is not sufficiently pedantic for me. He could have said cold dry air from the arctic is dense etc,etc. But to say dry air is dense without further qualification is just not a scientifically rigorous statement. You will be familiar with the "hot and high" problem in aeronautics where low density is a problem in areas with predominately low humidity.

5

Question of the Week / Re: QotW - 24.10.18 - Do spiders know how to make webs innately?

« on: Yesterday at 12:59:27 »

Lots of behaviours appear to be automatic, built into the genetic code somehow. Just like a kitten abandoned at birth and raised by humans will groom itself without ever having been groomed by it's mother.

6

General Science / Re: Does All Of Mathematics Come Down To Simple Arithmetic?

« on: Yesterday at 12:49:31 »

I think I will go back to bed!

7

New Theories / Re: Gravity In Relative Motion - is there any solution?

« on: Yesterday at 12:01:53 »

In #35 you are confusing impact energy with total system energy.

8

General Science / Re: Does All Of Mathematics Come Down To Simple Arithmetic?

« on: Yesterday at 10:24:00 »

Don't forget complex numbers, they are even further distanced from basic arithmetic than calculus.

9

Just Chat! / What's gone wrong with the world?

« on: Yesterday at 09:49:13 »

Ten minutes ago I heard a statement from a meteorologist, on BBC, that "dry air is very dense". That is a sweeping generality that may or may not be correct, depending on circumstance.

10

General Science / Re: Does All Of Mathematics Come Down To Simple Arithmetic?

« on: 10/10/2024 16:40:55 »

Not really, once you get into calculus you need to understand the concepts of limits and functions.

11

Just Chat! / Re: Is there a universal moral standard?

« on: 09/10/2024 11:54:46 »

I normally avoid these long winded discussions that go nowhere. That said, the idea of interfering with the human geneome to "improve" it would be a recipe for disaster.

12

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Can Coffee Or Tea Ever Really Go Bad?

« on: 07/10/2024 09:48:37 »

In the absence of microbiologic contamination rancidity is a problem in long term storage. This happens when oxygen adds to double bonds in unsaturated fatty acids. Vacuum packing should address this problem.

13

New Theories / Re: AlanM: What are black holes made of?

« on: 05/10/2024 16:47:40 »

More word salad, garnished with the occasional misused scientific term. I feel a ban is coming, I feel it in my bones.

14

New Theories / Re: How do we acquire language?

« on: 03/10/2024 21:29:08 »

Waffle.

15

New Theories / Re: How do we measure the energy of a photon?

« on: 03/10/2024 12:08:03 »

What a load of irrelevant rubbish, completely devoid of any coherent meaning. Where do we get them from?

16

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: What is the exact cause of the time dilation of the twin?

« on: 02/10/2024 20:40:03 »

Thanks, Halc. I suggest you may delete my post, #48, as it serves no purpose now as the offending material has been removed.

17

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: What is the exact cause of the time dilation of the twin?

« on: 02/10/2024 16:00:48 »

Oh dear, here we go, again. Word salad.

18

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Is There Any Safe Amount Of Smoking?

« on: 01/10/2024 15:53:44 »

I disagree, I think one cigarette per day would lead to quantifiable harm. I can't prove it, one would need the opinion of an epidemiologist.

19

Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Could we eat wood?

« on: 01/10/2024 14:16:37 »

Referring to the original question "could we eat wood?", of course we can. I recommend oak for starters, mahogany for the main course and teak for desert. It will not deliver any nutrition unfortunately and one's dentist bill could be problematic. Bottom line: not recommended. Fungi cannot produce a high nitrogen content substance such as protein is without a feedstock with high nitrogen content- wood on it's own would not be sufficient. I know about those fungus cultivating ants but I don't know the details of what they use.

20

Physiology & Medicine / Re: Is There Any Safe Amount Of Smoking?

« on: 30/09/2024 11:04:33 »

No beer= rampant cholera.