Totally Random Science Facts

lesliedellow · Sep 27, 2010

Wiccan_Child said:
Alpha Centauri has two stars: Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. Proxima Centauri is near Alpha Centauri, but it's not part of it. It's a mere 0.21 light years, so it's bloody close.

Relatively speaking of course. It's still about 1,234,511,348,000 miles.

Naraoia · Sep 28, 2010

MorkandMindy said:
It was a thought experiment, I took one flea and multiplied it up into enough fleas side by side or in whatever arrangement to have the same weight as a human and then with equal body masses compared the jumping abilities. With them now like for like, if the human could jump higher than the fleas it must be due to humans being better at jumping or the higher air resistance affecting the flea.

Huh?

If the fleas jump simultaneously, each of them still only has to lift its own weight.

For humans to be better at jumping, they would have to lift their weight relatively higher (i.e. produce more force per unit mass) than the fleas. That doesn't change if you have a million fleas. So yes, the jumping over towers comparison is relevant.

Take the thought experiment a bit further and the fleas don't even have to be together, could be all over the World, and well really the other fleas don't even have to exist, the ratio of converting chemical energy into potential energy is the same if both animals (flea and human) reach the same height.

No, it's the same if both animals reach the same height per unit mass. Actually, not even that, because that doesn't take the amount of fuel used in reaching that height into account.

The mechanical spring allows the energy to be stored up and then released suddenly, which with the short legs the flea has is essential, but this is a mechanism that allows it to convert so much chemical energy into potential energy. The human manages the same feat by having longer legs and is therefore able to have more time for the conversion of chemical energy into potential energy and thereby converts about the same ratio.

Ah, you mean muscle metabolism by chemical energy. Ooookay, that wasn't exactly clear...

MorkandMindy · Sep 28, 2010

We agree it isn't body length that is the important factor, but disagree over the significance of body mass.

I guess the best way to approach the question is to assume the same jump height and see what comes from that.

The flea weighs 0.4 mg and the human 40 kg, so the human is 100 million times heavier.

To raise the human the same amount as the flea requires 100 million times as much energy.

The human carries around 100 million times as much stored fat, so has 100 million times as much energy available.

Hence both, one jumping up steps and the other walking up them, will use the same proportion of body weight when climbing a stairway of the same height.

To put numbers in, a human would burn off 1% of their body fat climbing 10 km, that is going up the Eiffel Tower 30 times, (it would require a very fit person to have big enough muscles to convert the food energy into height in a reasonable length of time),

If it did scale by mass, a factor of 100 million leaves the flea having to jump 0.1 mm to burn off 1% of it's body mass, and a jump of 10 mm would destroy all of it.

As a proportion of body mass, both the flea and the human burn the same amount by jumping the same height.

Soul Searcher · Sep 28, 2010

The way I see it is it does not matter how many fleas you use a flea can jump only so far so if it is 1 or 1 million the distance will not change unless of course you are adding them together. Still in porportion to size the flea jumps much farther than a human. I really don't see the point in talking about a bunch of fleas compared to a human unless you add them together in which case the fleas win easily.

Wiccan_Child · Sep 28, 2010

Dog allergies are from the hair, while cat allergies are from the saliva. Both take about ten years to disappear from a house once either species is removed (so nine years after your house is cat free, you'll still pose something of a risk to people with cat allergies).

Fo' shizzle.

Blayz · Sep 28, 2010

Time flies like an arrow
fruit flies like a banana

Naraoia · Sep 29, 2010

Blayz said:
Time flies like an arrow
fruit flies like a banana

You just gave me permanent brain damage.

Naraoia · Sep 29, 2010

Wiccan, can you unconfuse me re: fleas?

My brain, it's inherently incapable of dealing with simple Newtonian mechanics.

Wiccan_Child · Sep 29, 2010

TemperateSeaIsland · Sep 29, 2010

Maggots look funny under an electron microscope

Naraoia · Sep 29, 2010

TemperateSeaIsland said:
Maggots look funny under an electron microscope

Ah, that's awesome!

Of course, it had to be false coloured so that the oral hooks look like vertebrate teeth

LifeToTheFullest! · Sep 29, 2010

Blayz said:
Time flies like an arrow
fruit flies like a banana

You can tuna fish,
But you can't tuna piano.

Cabal · Sep 29, 2010

TemperateSeaIsland said:
Maggots look funny under an electron microscope

it's dr breen

Cabal · Sep 29, 2010

LifeToTheFullest! said:
You can tuna fish,
But you can't tuna piano.

(sin x) / n = six

Chesterton · Sep 29, 2010

Blayz said:
Time flies like an arrow
fruit flies like a banana

LifeToTheFullest! said:
You can tuna fish,
But you can't tuna piano.

I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me
Than a prefrontal lobotomy

TemperateSeaIsland · Sep 29, 2010

Chesterton said:
I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me
Than a prefrontal lobotomy

Tom Waits is great, that's another scientific fact.

kharisym · Sep 29, 2010

Chesterton said:
I'd rather have a free bottle in front of me
Than a prefrontal lobotomy

Prefrontal lobotomies can be morally cleansing.

lemmings · Sep 29, 2010

Cabal said:
(sin x) / n = six

when: n = (sin x)/6 and x can not be defined by the expression pi * e where e is any integer value.

Cabal · Sep 29, 2010

lemmings said:
when: n = (sin x)/6 and x can not be defined by the expression pi * e where e is any integer value.

quiet you

Archer93 · Sep 30, 2010

Gnyaaaah! (That was the actual sound I made when I saw this picture )
You have an even weirder idea of 'funny' than I do!
Very cool, though.

TemperateSeaIsland said:
Maggots look funny under an electron microscope

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