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General Science / Re: Norwegian Days or Nights

« on: 11/04/2014 13:27:35 »

In summer, there's more daytime than anyone can use, so it feels wasteful. At the height of summer here (not quite Norway, don't forget) the sky is light by three in the morning, the sun pours in through the windows somewhere between half past three and four, and then it stays light all the way through to eleven in the evening (with the sun setting at some time after ten, though it stays light for a lot longer still because the sun goes down at such a shallow angle, so night's restricted to under four hours, and because the sun's not far down below the northern horizon, the sky's never really dark enough for astronomy. In the northern third of Norway the sun won't dip below the horizon at all, but it will graze it to the north and travel higher in the sky when to the south.

Thanks alot David for the elaboration. Very interesting indeed. So does it mean that people are used to sleeping at "night" even when there is sunlight outside at 10 in the evening. How does all this affect the sleeping pattern. I'd be interested in some comparison, viewing the differences between sleeping hours of Norwegians and people from around the equator.

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General Science / Re: Norwegian Days or Nights

« on: 07/04/2014 09:55:35 »

I live almost as far north as the southern tip of Norway. In the middle of summer the night only lasts about three hours and the sky to the north never goes dark. In the middle of winter the sun only just comes up and there are maybe about four hours of daylight. If you go up to the Arctic circle you reach the point where the sun doesn't come up at all in the middle of winter and where it doesn't set at all in the middle of summer. Because the atmosphere carries light round the planet beyond the point reached by direct sunlight, it's daylight on a fair bit more than half the planet at any one time, so if you're just inside the Arctic circle and it's the middle of winter, there will be an hour or two of daylight in the middle of the day, but with the sun staying below the horizon.

Thanks CliffordK and David for the response and the useful link. David, that is very interesting to hear what you said. For someone living around your area, Id be intrigued to know how the daily lives are affected by that sort of day. How does it affect the sleeping and waking up pattern. Moreover what are the average working hours like. Especially in the winters with no daylight at all? how does one go about living the sort of lives we are accustomed to living here around the equator. It is fascinating how different that sort of environment is from mine and how easily we mistake our environments for normal when things can be totally different on another part of the world.
Have you been living there all your life ? or did you move from the equator, and if so how did it affect your daily habits?
Would appreciate your response.

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General Science / How long are the days and nights, relatively speaking, in Norway?

« on: 05/04/2014 09:28:09 »

I'd appreciate if someone would describe what days and nights are like in Norway. How long is a usual day and the night. Is it dark/night continuously throughout the day or just a bit longer than usual. Is there a difference between winter and summer days and if so how long are the winters and summers anyway.
 

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Whats the whole talk about Higgs

« on: 15/12/2011 11:34:05 »

CAn anyone give some easy to understand information to wht implications could the discovery of this Higgs boson particle would have on our understanding of the universe. What gaps would it fill and if this would leave to any more insight into the subject like the origins of the higgs boson itself and so on.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Why is the new neutrino discovery stirring controversy

« on: 23/09/2011 11:58:14 »

Ok, so all this talk going on about this, might be, discovery of neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. My question is why is it so enthralling. Correct me on this but didnt quantum physicists already know about quantum particles breaching the speed of light barrier. Isn't it already a consensus among scientists that the quantum world is altogether different from the Einsteinian relativity laws.  

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: How do we trace human evolution?

« on: 07/07/2011 21:56:03 »

Still hard to grasp, but , is genetic measurements the only reliable tool to conclude the descent of an organism from a parent. What is the one single point of surety that makes it impossible to say someone is our parent or child viceversa

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: How do we trace human evolution?

« on: 03/07/2011 20:58:05 »

Wowww. CliffordK. Thanks alot for lending me so much of your time(obviously) which i really appreciate. Now that was a lot of molecular genetics and some other stuff that I couldnt comprehend completely, forgive my naivety. I wish I could talk to you in person so you could enlighten me with your knowlede, which u clearly have in abundance about evolution. One thing that i am  still failing to grasp is the fact of "descent". I think i should return to the very basics and start by asking, What makes us imply that someone has actually descended from some preceding organism. for example if I take myself as an object then what would prove me coming from my parents would be the fact of birth. After that comes genetics which would actually show 100 percent predicted genome when compared to my parent's.
                             And applying this to the million years old human fossils, what proves that that human fossil could be a descendent of an even million years old hominid fossil when neither the fact of birth can be recorded nor the fact of 100 percent similar genetics. Please forgive me for my erroneous analogies as I have clearly not a very good understanding of evolution but thats the whlole point why I am asking and want to know.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / How do we trace human evolution?

« on: 01/07/2011 20:24:25 »

Ok, I am having a bit of difficulty understanding the concept of human evolution particularly, and their descent from some common ancestor shared by chimpanzees and bonobos.  I would like to be enlightened about the concept of fossil records that are millions of years old and how they prove that we humans arose from them. This confusion arises in me from the fact that if we consider our present times and take the skeletons of a chimpanzee and a human, then they do have similar features and morphology but obviously they are different species as we know of them  now.  So how does some million year old fossil prove that it were an ancestor rather than some completely different entity present at that particular time.  What if it were some old distinct species, extinct by now, just like dinosaurs. What is the key feature that determines a descent from an ancestor to progeny.  Please put some light on the explanation of an ancestor to human transformation, that I am completely naïve about.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Does the half life mean something can never decay completely?

« on: 04/06/2011 15:47:53 »

 I was confused about the concept of Half life when we study it in radioactive elements. Theoretically, the element can never actually go out of existence if it obeys  half life. It just keeps reducing to half after a fixed time. I wanted to know if the dilemma arises when we actually introduce the concept of half life to the element, when in "reality" it can end to nothing anyway. What are your thoughts on this!!
                 

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Just Chat! / Can you suggest interesting scientists to listen to?

« on: 22/11/2010 05:32:28 »

I would really appreciate if U ppl could suggest some really interesting scientists I can listen to for example stephen hawking is one and michiu kaku too..

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General Science / What drives osmosis?

« on: 21/07/2010 18:25:02 »

Everyone knows that water tends to move to a more osmolar environment where solute concentration is higher. We reason that water moved via osmosis because it had to equilibriate the osmolarity. My question is...

WHAT CAUSES WATER TO DO SO? WHAT IS IN IT THAT CAUSES IT TO MOVE ACROSS A CONCENTRATION GRADIENT? WHAT IS THAT INNATE ABILITY CALLED?


Mod edit - subject formatted as a question. Please do this to help keep the forum tidy and easy to navigate.
 

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The Environment / Re: Is the Earth warming, or heading for another ice age?

« on: 10/06/2010 15:23:04 »

so are we or are we not moving towards another ice age? could u make it simpler by telling that climate change is a bigger picture while global warming is just a small part of it though the temperature would not rise for everywhere and even falls at some parts of our earth??

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The Environment / Is the Earth warming, or heading for another ice age?

« on: 09/06/2010 21:01:45 »

ok.. i was confused about the difference b/w the terms climate change and global warming with special respect to the fact that though global warming means a rise in temp.. but i heard somewhere that our planets movin towards another ice age.. so howcome ice age if the temperature is rising..


[TITLE ALTERED TO RE-FORMAT AS A QUESTION.]

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / How does speed of travel affect the ageing process?

« on: 09/06/2010 20:58:27 »

we've all heard about that theory of relativity and the example people give about the twins with one at rest and growing old while the other movin with the speed of light and when returnin back to mother earth has stayed the same.. now heres my question.. biological changes like ageing and all that like cell cycle and replication will happen even without taking time as an entity or reference. even for someone movin with the speed of light.. although clocks will slow down for em but still the cellular changes should still happen and turn the child old.. whats ur take on that..

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General Science / Why are rainbows shaped like an arc?

« on: 09/06/2010 20:53:07 »

ok.. now plz someone tell me why we always get to see an arced rainbow .. although i've heard its circular and all that.. someone explain it in comprehensible terms plz...

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General Science / Why did a frozen bottle of water contract rather than expand?

« on: 03/06/2010 14:01:47 »

the question remains unanswered ..WHY DOES THE BOTTLE CONTRACT?? even when it has no water in it?

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General Science / Why did a frozen bottle of water contract rather than expand?

« on: 01/06/2010 20:13:58 »

i put a plastic bottle full of water in the refrigerator and took it out after it had frozen.. i was wondering why it had compressed by that time. It even compresses after a little while even before freezing to ice. WHAT CAUSES IT TO COMPRESS rather expand.??


[MOD EDIT - TITLE ALTERED TO RE-FORMAT AS A QUESTION.]

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Physiology & Medicine / When Crying , .............what function do tears serve ?

« on: 29/06/2009 20:35:31 »

how about crying when you're extremely happy?? what stresses does one need to ward off in happiness?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Energy query!!

« on: 29/06/2009 20:06:44 »

hi.. i was thinking lately that there is a loss of energy everywhere, everytime, in the form of heat, light and different other forms.. but still things exist. I mean take an atom for instance. would'nt there be heat loss in the revolutions of an electron.. so when is it that an atom would die out ultimately.. i am aware of the phenomena that an electron would come to a lower energy level after losing some energy, but what if all it's energy is ultimately waived off. take this to a higher scale and consider large objects like the earth of ours, even WE, ourselves becoming short of energy ultimately...
 the question is do things die out after all there energy is gone?? i have a diagram below! 



 

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Why does wringing out a cloth cause water to leave?

« on: 05/03/2009 15:41:03 »

So does that rule out inertia??