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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Evolution of monkeys and why we treat them as our analogue?

« on: 08/03/2014 00:50:42 »

Regarding Crimson Knight's personal digression:  Have you considered that you likely have food allergies?  After decades of misdiagnoses of IBD, acute colitis,  pre-Khrons, CUC, etc, and many many failed "medical"  treatments, I was finally diagnosed correctly as having allergies to corn, dairy, soy, and wheat.  After 1 year on a Paleo diet, simply eating only fresh fruits, meats, and selected non-cereal grain vegetables,  (excluding the foods I was allergic to), the previous 2 decades of bleeding from the bowel and the narrowed rigid section of my bowel completely and permanently resolved.

Eating a paleo diet of fresh meats, sweet potatoes, yams, squash, and fruits, that approximately matches what we  ate for the previous 3 million years, (no cereal grains, no legumes, no soy products, no beans, no peanuts, no potato, no dairy, no shrimp shellfish or lobster, no cane sugar, no grape sugar, (etc) and no tomato products), for just 4 days gives your system a chance to eliminate the antigens related to common food allergies.   On the morning of the fifth day, you eat a big breakfast of a single food that you would like to add back into your diet.   Rice is a good start.    Eat nothing more until after 4:00 that afternoon, to create an isolated bolus of the food you are testing.    Pay attention to any symptoms you have for the next 24 hours.   Symptoms can include GI distress,  rashes,  urticaria,  joint swelling, asthma, nasal rhinitis, coughing, etc.   Pay special attention to any symptoms that happen in the middle of the night, when typical GI motility moves the bolus into the section of your GI tract with the most immune sites, the colon.

If you have any unusual symptoms during that day 5 test - then you are likely a likely allergic to that food, and you should exclude it from your diet for 2 - 3 months.  If you have any unusual symptoms,  then go back to eating an exclusive paleo diet for 4 more days to allow those antigens to leave your system.  On that next day 5,  eat a breakfast of the next food you think you would like to have back in your diet.

What's the tie in to the evolution of monkeys,  chimps, and why we treat them as our analogue:   It is a reasonable bet that during the last 3 - 5 million years before agriculture,  the period when our immune system was formed,  based on our trash heaps (including those found in cave floors), we and primates appear to have eaten very similar diets  (except for proto-human cultures that developed near the sea, eating lots of mollusks and other easy to gather shell fish).   

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Why is light both a particle and a wave?

« on: 21/02/2014 23:36:45 »

what could [a photon be] made up of? Whether is it particles of the source or something else?

Photons are emitted by electrons and protons changing their orbits (the protons tend to produce gamma rays). The same number of protons and electrons remain in the source material after emitting the photon.

So you would have to say that photons are not particles from the source material, but they do carry away some energy of the source material.

On an atomic level, protons do not orbit anything. 

Protons do not produce gamma rays.

Nuclear decays (from unstable nucleii rearranging their internal arrangements of neutrons & protons, and emitting alpha or beta particles) and nuclear rearrangements of internal arrangements of neutrons & protons, and nuclear reactions are the primary source of gamma rays.   

Photons can be created by heating matter (see black body radiators - like incandescent light bulbs), where rotating molecules and vibrating molecules emit photons in the Infrared and Microwave ranges, (due to bending, stretching, and compressing chemical bonds), plus producing some (5%) visible light. 

Visible light photons are emitted from electrons moving from higher energy orbital states (NO ORBITS)  down to lower energy states.

X-rays are produced in a variety of ways,  including bremsstrahlung (bending of high energy particle's paths),  and from particle beams or high energy reactions (like in the sun) knocking out inner shell electrons,  and Auger processes.

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Chemistry / Re: how to calculate ph for any type of compound.....??

« on: 21/02/2014 20:21:13 »

example......Co2 and KNo3

Determine what happens when you add the reagent to water:
KNO3 simply dissociates into K+ and NO3- in water.   

Next:  Determine whether the resulting species are acids or bases or just ordinary ions.  One way of determining this is to write the ions reactions with OH-  or  H+ to see if either ion will change the hydroxide or hydronium ion concentrations:
Neither K+ nor NO3- are either weak acids or weak bases.     This is shown by trying to combine:
K+  +    OH-   ← KOH     because KOH dissociates completely to K+   and  OH-  in water.

Similarly:
NO3-  +  H+  ←  HNO3   because HNO3 dissociates completely to  NO3-   and  H+  in water.

Since neither K+  nor  OH-   react to form acids or bases in water - the pH stays neutral when KNO3 salt is added to water.


CO2 (gas) is more interesting.
Write the appropriate reaction of the gas CO2 with water:
CO2 (g) + H20 ←→ H2CO3   (H2CO3 ~ Carbonic Acid ~ is an acid)

Next write how the H2CO3 product continues to react:

H2CO3 + H2O ←→  H3O+   +  HCO3-
Ka1 = 2.5×10−4 mole/liter; pKa1 = 3.6 at 25 °C

The net amount of  H+    or   H3O+   in solution   depends on how much gaseous CO2 is over the solution.   If you breathe into a beaker of stirred pure distilled water,   the pH drops from the CO2 in your breath.

30 years ago,  the pH of  normal  pure   distilled   lab water   was 5.65   due to atmospheric CO2.
Back then the atmospheric CO2 levels were lower ( 0.0035 atm ).   Many chemistry texts and chemistry websites incorrectly still cite this value.   A more current value for the partial pressure of CO2 is   0.00398 atm.

Consider the calculation for the partial pressure of CO2 with water: 
CO2(gas) in equilibrium with CO2(dissolved) in water as
CO2(gas) ←→  CO2(dissolved) , described by 

where the Henry constant  kH=29.76 atm/(mol/L) at 25 °C

Since the math and associated equilibrium equations are complex (6 equations and 6 unknowns), we generally ignore/neglect the [CO3 2−], because it is so tiny,   yielding this relationship:


To calculate the current pH of pure distilled water in equilibrium with current atmospheric CO2,  change the pCO2  in the formula  from   the outdated  0.0035 atm  instead to the current    0.00398 atm.

This last calculation shows why the oceans are becoming less alkaline  (losing alkalinity) due to increasing CO2 in the atmosphere.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Discuss: Is green snot better than yellow?

« on: 21/02/2014 18:46:12 »

Green and yellow mucus color suggests you might need antibiotic treatment.   The green color is generally caused by an enzyme (myeloperoxidase), released by white blood cells (neutrophils) dying as your body attempts to fight a bacterial infection.     Colorful mucus does not always mean you have a harmful bacterial infection,  but a recent study found green sputum had harmful bacteria in it 59 out of every 100 times. 

In the same study, yellow sputum had harmful bacteria in it 46 out of every 100 times.

The results of this study showed that green mucus coughed up from patient's lungs had harmful bacteria more frequently than yellow mucus.   Still,   there were at least 40 times in 100 when colorful mucus was not caused by harmful bacteria.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: gravitational force

« on: 21/02/2014 18:21:10 »

Thank you Evan.
So, the gravitational force of the earth is due to the presence of molten metals, right?

Yes, the gravitational force of the earth is due to the presence of molten metals   plus    all the other mass and material and energy   in  and  on  earth.     This means that the molten metals contribute to earth's gravity, but are not the sole source of earth's gravity.

Then why are those non-metallic materials got attracted by the earth's gravitational force? Also according to Newton, every particle attracts every other particles(even those non-me talic) how this will be possible?

Correct (about Newton),  every particle   and   every photon  (referring to your other question on the wave and particle natures of light)   have  mass,   and hence    they all attract each other.     This is why the great mass of our sun   measurably   bends  starlight   that passes near it.

The cause of attraction between particles of matter and also attraction between light and matter is currently a great mystery.   Some scientists have calculated that sub-atomic  things  they call  "gravitons"  may exist and may cause gravity, but this has been neither proven nor disproven.   Maybe you will find a way to prove it or disprove  the existence of gravitons    someday.

Science is such a fun place,  because the deeper we dig,  the more we realize just how much we  don't  know.    Scientists make it seem like they know a lot,  by providing a lot of quick answers to our questions.    But in reality,   we have more questions than answers,  and what we know  and   what we can measure   is not even 1% of what exists.    For Example:  Dark energy is thought to make up 68% of the universe,   and   dark energy + dark matter together are now thought to make up 96% of the universe.   So stuff we  cannot see   and cannot measure   is what we  think  most of the universe is made of.

Scientists, like Evan had no idea of either dark matter nor dark energy just 30 years ago,   which means they thought they knew about gravity and light and matter,   but in reality,   they knew  about less than 4%  of what was around them.

All of this   not-knowing    can be simultaneously  exciting  and  humbling,  especially when it pushes us to work to figure out the what's and why's of the world.   

So, when your science teacher  or professor  or   some person on the internet   tells you:   "This is what ..."     or    "This is why..."    Instead, know they are just making their best  guesses  based on observations and hypotheses (opinions),  and  smile inside, because you know that we   will  likely know   much more,  and possibly have very different understandings  in just a few more years.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Re: Why is light both a particle and a wave?

« on: 21/02/2014 17:49:34 »

Thank you comrades. My another question is what could be that particle made up of? Whether is it particles of the source or something else? Is the fact that light travel in straight line being marred by the fact that light undergoes diffraction?

Your original question contains your answer:  "Why does light posses both particle and wave nature ? "

The point is that light is neither "fish" nor "fowl".   Light simultaneously possesses both   particle   and   wave  natures (properties),   as light is neither wave nor particle.  Huygen's principle of light bending around corners (sharp edges) demonstrates  light's   wave-like  behavior.      Einstein's photo-electric effect demonstrates light's   particle-like  behavior.     

There are no particles in light,  just as waves of light do not need a medium for transmission  (no ether).   Both of these principles are demonstrated by light traveling  just fine in a vacuum.

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That CAN'T be true! / Re: Partially bypassed electricity meter? -pub debate!

« on: 21/02/2014 17:18:56 »

I don't want to scare you, but which wire is "+" and which is "-" changes 100 times per second (120 times per second in some other countries)!

This claim is not factual.   For over 100 years,  for single phase:  US standard 110V household  and  UK standard 220V household alternating current systems   use   1 wire   as a neutral/ground and a  second wire  as the "hot".  The "hot" wire carries voltage that fluctuates/alternates between + and -     versus   a neutral/ground wire that is at zero (0 V).

The "hot" wire is the only one that has changing voltage (in a single phase electrical system).   Once you determine which wire is "hot",   that does not change,   regardless of whether the system is a 60 Hz US standard or 50 Hz UK standard.

The OP's question:   If you installed a jumper of equal size to the existing incoming and outgoing wires,  and the impedance (AC "resistance") of the meter is very low,  you would get slightly more current flowing through your jumper than the meter.      You could crudely calculate the relative differences by using Ohm's law ( V = IR  )   and  the total resistance for parallel resistors  ( 1/Rt = 1/R1 + 1/R2 + ... + 1/Rn ).