Ask a physicist anything. (5)

[Wiccan_Child]

Wiccan child, what science qualifications (from GCSE's to university degrees) do you have?

All the maths and science GCSEs and A-Levels I could get without breaking the timetable, and a shiny degree to top it all off.

 

[Supreme]

All the maths and science GCSEs and A-Levels I could get without breaking the timetable, and a shiny degree to top it all off.

Do you mind me asking which A-Levels you took?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Do you mind me asking which A-Levels you took?

I think they were Maths, Further Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and RE. You can only four, but my tutor was the guy who made the timetable, so let me double two up (FM and Physics, I think), which gave me a free slot, so I chose RE.

 

[Delphiki]

What's funny is I have no academic credentials. Just a few semesters of community college and that's it. Of course, I still think this is an advantage since it illustrates you don't HAVE to have a degree to understand science. As long as you have a thirst for knowledge and common sense... The credentials just mean you're unlikely to make a career out of applying what you know.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

What's funny is I have no academic credentials. Just a few semesters of community college and that's it. Of course, I still think this is an advantage since it illustrates you don't HAVE to have a degree to understand science. As long as you have a thirst for knowledge and common sense... The credentials just mean you're unlikely to make a career out of applying what you know.

Exactly If you have the scientific mindset, a curiosity about the world and, as you say, a thirst for knowledge, you'll do fine.

 

[Supreme]

I think they were Maths, Further Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and RE. You can only four, but my tutor was the guy who made the timetable, so let me double two up (FM and Physics, I think), which gave me a free slot, so I chose RE.

Haha, wow that's a lot. Doing six is possible in most schools, but wow, that's one heavy timetable of some very hard subjects.

Did you take Salters Chemistry by any chance?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Haha, wow that's a lot. Doing six is possible in most schools, but wow, that's one heavy timetable of some very hard subjects.

Did you take Salters Chemistry by any chance?

Sadly not. I found chemistry the hardest of the sciences - physics had clear, deductive reasons for the solutions to its problems, biology was interesting enough to be easy, but chemistry... it's so arbitrary! "To test for X you use Y until it does Z" - no reason, but just rote memorisation!
'Course, had I realised that was the problem at the time, I might've got my teachers to clarify... grr.

What about you? What did you do / are you doing?

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Ok if velocity is relative to reference frame, then for a photon at lightspeed we are all photons too because that (c) is our velocity relative to them, even if we are stationary from our own humble perspective. Or not?

 

[mzungu]

Ok if velocity is relative to reference frame, then for a photon at lightspeed we are all photons too because that (c) is our velocity relative to them, even if we are stationary from our own humble perspective. Or not?

please clarify your question.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

please clarify your question.

Ok ty. If I am in a train isn't my motion from that perspective stationary, but from the platform i am moving at such a speed x. Whilst on the platfrom the bystander appears stationary from his frame of reference and the train is moving at speed x.

So to the photon, the photon appears stationary where as I, on the "platform" of the Earth, am moving at lightspeed to the onlooking photon.

Is that right or wrong?

If right, as only massless photons can travel at lightspeed, from the perspective of the onlooking photon, isn't everything else including me a massless photon too because it "passes bye" at lightspeed as the photon whizzes overhead?

I imagine I will need some but who cares, if I actually learn something?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Ok ty. If I am in a train isn't my motion from that perspective stationary, but from the platform i am moving at such a speed x. Whilst on the platfrom the bystander appears stationary from his frame of reference and the train is moving at speed x.

Correct. Motion is relative.

So to the photon, the photon appears stationary where as I, on the "platform" of the Earth, am moving at lightspeed to the onlooking photon.

Is that right or wrong?

Photons travel at c from all inertial frames. That's the premise of Relativity.

If right, as only photons can travel at lightspeed, from the perspective of the onlooking photon, isn't everything else including me a photon too because it "passes bye" at lightspeed?

I imagine I will need some but who cares if I learn something?

What the photon 'sees' is a peculiar question. Does the universal speed limit cause warping of spacetime, or does the warping of spacetime cause the universal speed limit? Either way, the photon 'experiences' everything as static in time and two-dimensional - though different photons view different slices of space differently.

In other words, we don't really know what photons experience .

 

[Supreme]

Sadly not. I found chemistry the hardest of the sciences - physics had clear, deductive reasons for the solutions to its problems, biology was interesting enough to be easy, but chemistry... it's so arbitrary! "To test for X you use Y until it does Z" - no reason, but just rote memorisation!
'Course, had I realised that was the problem at the time, I might've got my teachers to clarify... grr.

What about you? What did you do / are you doing?

I took Biology, Chemistry, History, Classical Civilisation and Critical Thinking to AS level, then dropped the last two and only did Biology, Chemistry and History for A2.

I'd certainly agree that chemistry is and can be a very complicated subject, especially on the Salters course I did- which is the hardest and most challenging chemistry course there is- but then, that's where have a fantastic chemistry teacher with 'dr' in front of their name proves handy!

 

[PhoceanCity]

What's funny is I have no academic credentials. Just a few semesters of community college and that's it. Of course, I still think this is an advantage since it illustrates you don't HAVE to have a degree to understand science. As long as you have a thirst for knowledge and common sense... The credentials just mean you're unlikely to make a career out of applying what you know.

Amen!

 

[Steffenfield]

Say that I microwave one Totino's Pizza Roll for like an entire, continuous month.

Would it eventually become radioactive?

Would it be poisonous if I fed it to my friend while he was sleeping?

Please don't mod report me.

 

[pgp_protector]

Say that I microwave one Totino's Pizza Roll for like an entire, continuous month.

Would it eventually become radioactive?

Would it be poisonous if I fed it to my friend while he was sleeping?

Please don't mod report me.

It would probably* burn to a crisp and after a while the microwave itself would probably* be damaged.


*I don't have the $$ to verify this experiment though, but if you wish to donate the funds I'd be more than happy to try it for ya

 

[mzungu]

Say that I microwave one Totino's Pizza Roll for like an entire, continuous month.

Would it eventually become radioactive?

Would it be poisonous if I fed it to my friend while he was sleeping?

Please don't mod report me.

I would stay clear of that junk food! cooked or not; it is unhealthy stuff to eat!

 

[Steffenfield]

It would probably* burn to a crisp and after a while the microwave itself would probably* be damaged.


*I don't have the $$ to verify this experiment though, but if you wish to donate the funds I'd be more than happy to try it for ya

Unfortunately my digital microwave only lets me nuke something for 99 minutes and 99 seconds at a time.

Poopers.

Okay. Here's one.

What would happen if you had a reinforced box with a lid on it that can be easily removed somehow.

Inside this box you detonate a stick of TNT but none of the pressure escapes.

What would be the result if I wrapped this box as a birthday present and then gave it to my friend for him to open?

Thank you.

 

[Assyrian]

Okay. Here's one.

What would happen if you had a reinforced box with a lid on it that can be easily removed somehow.

Inside this box you detonate a stick of TNT but none of the pressure escapes.

What would be the result if I wrapped this box as a birthday present and then gave it to my friend for him to open?

Thank you.

He would be squirted by high pressure fizzy sooty water, though he might also be hit by the flying lid or suffer Carbon monoxide poisoning. The explosive power of TNT is the sudden change in volume from a solid stick to high temperature and so high volume gases. These gases include Nitrogen Carbon Dioxide and a lot of steam. Store your explosion products in a reinforced box and they will cool, the water will condense, and the pressure of the gases decrease. When released at room temperature they would have a much lower volume than the hot gases produced in the explosion. But they are still contained in a box under much higher pressure than atmospheric pressure... as a result a lot of the gas will dissolve in the water. When the pressure is released this should fizz up immediately, Carbon is another of the reaction products and the sooty particles will provide plenty of nucleation sites for bubbles to form. Foul black poisonous foam will spray out. Bit like adding a mint to a bottle of Toxic Cola.

 

[mzungu]

Unfortunately my digital microwave only lets me nuke something for 99 minutes and 99 seconds at a time.

Poopers.

Okay. Here's one.

What would happen if you had a reinforced box with a lid on it that can be easily removed somehow.

Inside this box you detonate a stick of TNT but none of the pressure escapes.

What would be the result if I wrapped this box as a birthday present and then gave it to my friend for him to open?

Thank you.

 

[Steffenfield]

He would be squirted by high pressure fizzy sooty water, though he might also be hit by the flying lid or suffer Carbon monoxide poisoning. The explosive power of TNT is the sudden change in volume from a solid stick to high temperature and so high volume gases. These gases include Nitrogen Carbon Dioxide and a lot of steam. Store your explosion products in a reinforced box and they will cool, the water will condense, and the pressure of the gases decrease. When released at room temperature they would have a much lower volume than the hot gases produced in the explosion. But they are still contained in a box under much higher pressure than atmospheric pressure... as a result a lot of the gas will dissolve in the water. When the pressure is released this should fizz up immediately, Carbon is another of the reaction products and the sooty particles will provide plenty of nucleation sites for bubbles to form. Foul black poisonous foam will spray out. Bit like adding a mint to a bottle of Toxic Cola.

That sounds completely horrific for him to suffer.

Okay.

Next question.

What would happen if I were to put a gram of black powder at the end of an electric, cigarette lighter in his car without him knowing?

You know. This thingy.

So when he wanted to enjoy a stupid smoke, and pushed that button in, I don't know, I guess I'm asking for what an end result might be on this please.

Tell me that it just wouldn't blow off his dominate hand.