WazWaz
WazWaz t1_jb3ykr9 wrote
Reply to comment by black_brook in Why does sand keep clay from shrinking as it dries? by UnderBridg
For the obvious case, there is less material shrinking. If the mixture is 50% grog, then clay that otherwise shrank by 10% should at most shrink by 5% since the sand won't shrink at all.
WazWaz t1_ja4pual wrote
Reply to Water on Earth is not Constant. Why ? by ItsDivyamGupta
Take a step back. Matter cannot be created or destroyed (let's ignore E=mc² for now). So you must know the water doesn't just vanish. You've presumably seen the difference between a green leaf and a dead one (hint: the latter is dry).
Trees don't grow forever nor do they live forever, so I don't understand why you thought the water was trapped in them forever.
This is in addition to the chemical processes others have described which convert the water to and from plant matter via photosynthesis and respiration.
WazWaz t1_j4xiitc wrote
Reply to comment by jpbarber414 in Why is it that the cardinal directions are perpendicular? by [deleted]
Never? I'm pretty sure maths says it does it exactly twice per year, with the rise and set happenning at the same moment, at two specific points on opposite sides of the planet.
WazWaz t1_j13oam8 wrote
Reply to comment by ThunderGuts64 in TIL Drive through liquor stores are legal in most US states by DEEP_HURTING
A Bottlo is any bottle shop, "drive thru" or otherwise. Drive-thrus aren't as common as they used to be though.
WazWaz t1_j13h1w8 wrote
Reply to Could being submersed in a sealed tank of fluid help humans survive heavy G acceleration in outer space? by cheeze_whiz_shampoo
Why? There's very little reason for high acceleration in deep space. Unless you're fighting your way out of a gravity well or slingshotting close to a planet, 10 minutes at 6G is no more useful than 1 hour at 1G.
WazWaz t1_j13gt4s wrote
Reply to comment by coyote-1 in Could being submersed in a sealed tank of fluid help humans survive heavy G acceleration in outer space? by cheeze_whiz_shampoo
Indeed, the only reason we use high G on liftoff is because any time we waste getting to orbit costs us 1G negative the whole time.
Note that Special Relativity means you won't reach light speed, though it will seem as if you blow right past it as your rapidity increases.
WazWaz t1_iz13knp wrote
Reply to comment by Malkiot in Why not use hydrogen and deuterium in fusion reaction rather than tritium and deuterium? by Curious_user4445
And to be clear, that 90 years is at present consumption rate. Nuclear is about 10% of world electricity use, so if it was 100% it would last 9 years. Electrify the road transport sector alone and that comes down to 5 years.
WazWaz t1_iyzg1py wrote
Reply to comment by echawkes in Why not use hydrogen and deuterium in fusion reaction rather than tritium and deuterium? by Curious_user4445
As I said, if we used it for all our electricity, it would last 5 years. That's pretty scarce, considering how little we use.
WazWaz t1_iyx9md4 wrote
Reply to comment by echawkes in Why not use hydrogen and deuterium in fusion reaction rather than tritium and deuterium? by Curious_user4445
Uranium is scarce, but the demand for it is low - known reserves would last about 5 years if it was our only electricity generation method (of course, we'd start using breeders, recycling, etc. if that was the case, and probably find more reserves too).
WazWaz t1_ixcqm8n wrote
Reply to comment by rootofallworlds in Just how dark is deep space? by ArmchairSpinDoctor
Technically it would be twice as bright in interstellar space. Since it's lit by a sphere of stars, not a hemisphere. Of course, you can only see one side of an object at a time, so as lit from above in those places. Roughly half the side lighting.
WazWaz t1_iviwc5c wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Rooftop solar trumps all fossil fuels as renewables smash more records on main grid [Australia] by EnergyTransitionNews
Ah, sorry, not US. You've been even more under siege from denialism than Australia has. Yes, that's the subsidized price. The maths is pretty simple - mine paid itself off a few months ago and is now all profit.
WazWaz t1_iveqq66 wrote
Reply to comment by FishMichigan in Rooftop solar trumps all fossil fuels as renewables smash more records on main grid [Australia] by EnergyTransitionNews
Nonsense. Over 3 years ago I paid AU$12000 for 9kW.
And the benefit to the homeowner is way more, since they're saving retail electricity costs.
WazWaz t1_ivemwl0 wrote
Reply to We know about viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms evolving to better infect other organisms. Consequently, diseases change too to some extent. Are there any examples of human bodies evolving to fight against these disease causing agents? by ha_ha_ha_ha_hah
Just a minor qualifier on many of the examples here: humans (and all multicellular organisms, but we're particularly bad) evolve orders of magnitude more slowly than the microorganisms that cause disease (since we breed slower). So when it happens that a segment of the population survives a disease while another dies, it's not necessarily because some have "evolved resistance". The same tends to happen with even new diseases. We do have evolved immunity but it is by necessity broad, so a segment of the population might be immune because they're descendents of survivors of a similar disease, or it may be entirely coincidental - and that coincidence can go both ways (such as survivors of Plague now being more susceptible to auto immune diseases).
WazWaz t1_iv7g19i wrote
Reply to comment by AbominableCrichton in TIL that Scotland's favorite soft drink, Irn-Bru originated in New York, USA in 1889 as IRONBREW. by ManiacMango33
"No, it's Ieeeeeewen you ignorant sassenach!"
WazWaz t1_iv61aqm wrote
Reply to TIL that Scotland's favorite soft drink, Irn-Bru originated in New York, USA in 1889 as IRONBREW. by ManiacMango33
Reminds me of a strongly accented Scottish visitor we had at work. We were all trying to work out if his name was Ian or Ewan after he'd introduced himself. After a few uncomfortable days, we found out it was Owen.
WazWaz t1_jclqyke wrote
Reply to How would a scientist be able to tell the difference between a blood sample from two totally different animals? by EastClintwood89
Easy, inject a little of each into an iguana. The sick/dead iguana got the human blood. Also works in reverse.
Indeed, this is how blood identification works: you inject a little human blood into a chicken, then harvest the antibodies it produces in response. These antibodies can then be used to check if a blood sample is human (eg. only the human blood would react, the antibodies would have no effect on iguana blood).