Large Hardon Collider

[Cadsuane]

Mileage will vary, Kuya. A first course in university calculus can either be simple or murderous depending on the intent of the course and focus or lackthereof on proof writing. If you're taking math for engineers or econ majors or whatever you can probably jump right into it without too much difficulty.

[Mizango]

Who are you?

</3

[zoobernut]

Can anyone here explain Quantum Trapping to me and how it relates to quantum levitation? I have a general idea about how a superconductor and a permanent magnet interact but because someone in the youtube thread asked why it was specifically quantum it got me curious. As far as I understood it when a superconductor is warm (not in its superconductive state) the magnetic fields can pass through it unobstructed but when the superconductor cools down and becomes superconductive it obstructs the magnetic field pushing most of it to the outside of the material however some of the magnetic field collapse to quantum tunnels going through the material creating the trapped effect. Or something like that.

I would be really happy if someone knew more about this and could help me out.

[Ferion]

Since this thread really needs a bump. I thought this was a pretty interesting question, although some people here might find it very easy.

http://flowingdata.com/wp-content/up...AR-625x352.jpg



Edit: If you wanna know more about it just Google "best statistics question ever."

[Psion]

is it B? it's B, isnt it?

[Kaylia]

-If B) is the correct answer, only one fourth (25%) of the answers are right and your answer (50%) is wrong
-If A) or D) are the correct answers, 2/4 are right (50%), and your answer is wrong again


This problem has no answer since picking one change the solution. It's a typical problem of self referencing, and the question is simply invalid.

[Ferion]

-If B) is the correct answer, only one fourth (25%) of the answers are right and your answer (50%) is wrong
-If A) or D) are the correct answers, 2/4 are right (50%), and your answer is wrong again


This problem has no solution since picking one change the solution. It's a typical problem of self referencing, and the question is simply invalid.

Yup. It probably took you all of ten second to figure it out, but I thought it was a pretty interesting. Some people online were suggesting that they should add an additional option E stating that the answer is zero, but even if they included that option there would still be no solution.

[Chun Liroy]

Holy fuck this is awesome.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...nderwater.html

Using its web as a gill, the diving-bell spider can live underwater with only occasional visits to the surface.

The arachnid (Argyroneta aquatica) breathes air from a bubble that it grabs from the surface of water using fine hairs on its abdomen. The spider traps the air within a bell-shaped silken web that it constructs underwater and carries around like an aqualung.

It was first described over 250 years ago, but until now biologists didn't know how it managed to remain underwater without frequent visits to the surface to renew the oxygen in its tiny air bubble.

To find out, Roger Seymour from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and Stefan Hetz of Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, placed 12 spiders in individual aquaria and measured the oxygen levels within the air bubbles using optical fibres tipped with oxygen-sensitive dye. Seymour also measured the concentration of oxygen in the water outside the bubble.

"The spider's web acts like a gill," says Seymour. The silken web allows oxygen to diffuse from the surrounding water into the depleted air, as well as release carbon dioxide.
Based on the rate that oxygen diffused into the air bubble, Seymour calculated that 70 per cent of the spider's oxygen supply comes from diffusion through the web.

During the day, Seymour never observed the spiders replenishing their air supply. He believes they can survive underwater for more than 24 hours, allowing them to stay out of sight of predators and prey alike. However, as oxygen levels go down, nitrogen concentrations increase in the bubble. Nitrogen starts to diffuse out into the water, and eventually the bubble collapses.

"I'd always assumed the spider had to keep replenishing its oxygen source," says Cor Vink, an entomologist at biosecurity firm AgResearch, based in Christchurch, New Zealand. "It shows how amazing and versatile spider webs can be."

Skip to 3:30~

[Kaylia]

That spider is badass.

Yup. It probably took you all of ten second to figure it out, but I thought it was a pretty interesting. Some people online were suggesting that they should add an additional option E stating that the answer is zero, but even if they included that option there would still be no solution.

I find it interesting, and I linked it to a bunch of friends. It's just that I'm shocked people still have trouble with it.

[Plow]

yeah it's just a matter of the question depending on the answers

if a and d were 50%, they would be correct

if a were 25% and none of the other answers were, it would be correct

etc. etc.

[Eliseos]

Definite "nope" @ the spider.

[Kaylia]

Neutrino are still going faster than light...for now
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/sc...tists-say.html

[Shuvo]

That spider is badass.



Oh, it's interesting, and I linked that question to a bunch of friends. It's just shock me that people still have trouble with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bII3H9STS8

A more badass spider!

[Kryssan]

So I saw on WNN the other day that the nuclear rover is almost setup for go. Basically it uses a Pu battery, sort of like the SNAP designs earlier on. They were/are called RTG engines, though honestly the SRG ones have more promise. Not going to see SRG actual use though for a little longer. For those with no clue, go here (link).

One week to go for nuclear rover

With one week before its launch, NASA's latest craft bound for Mars has been fitted with the nuclear battery that will keep the transport vehicle warm in space and power a rover for up to 14 years.

The Curiosity rover is in effect a large mobile laboratory that will explore the surface of Mars from a landing point in the Gale Crater. It is about twice as long and five times as heavy as the two previous rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Curiosity will be the first rover with the power to drill into Martian rocks and analyse the results on-site.

After a rocket launch, the 'cruise' vehicle will detach for the 204 million km journey to Mars. It will use a 12.8 square metre solar array to sustain navigation and communication systems while the nuclear battery within the rover is used to maintain certain critical temperatures via a pumped fluid heat transport system. Once the rover is on Mars, all its power will come from the nuclear battery. The rover has a design lifespan of 89 weeks to conduct its primary scientific work but it has a good chance of operating for much longer thanks to the nuclear battery's minimum lifetime of 14 years.

Curiosity's nuclear battery is the first of a new 'multi-mission' design that uses solid state thermocouples to produce electricity from the steady decay heat coming from 4.8 kg of ceramic plutonium-238 oxide. The unit is modular and several could be combined to provide larger amounts of reliable power for future missions. It includes eight individually packed and shielded plutonium heat sources and weighs 48 kg in total. Curiosity will have about 2.7 kWh per day at its disposal, far in excess of the 1 kWh per day maximum of the solar-powered rovers.

NASA noted the reliability of radioisotope thermal generators over some 40 years of major missions in providing heat to maintain proper operating temperatures for equipment and instruments against the cold of space. The agency said both it and the Department of Energy (which supplied the unit) "are committed to continuing their long heritage of safe and careful use of radioisotope power systems in service of the peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of all humankind."

The battery was test-fitted in July then removed for safe-keeping. It has now been fitted again as the full launch vehicle is assembled and placed atop an Atlas V rocket. Launch is scheduled at Cape Canaveral between 25 November and 18 December with touchdown on Mars around August next year.

[Cyn]

...and Hammer's Slammers is that much closer to reality.

[BerenTebogo]

Woozie did you deactivate FB? I was gonna let you (and others) know that come the spring I may be working on a joint project between two professors (one physics one math) to try to find a new method of solving a certain PDE that my physics professor got as a result while doing black hole stuffs. I'm ultra excited. Taking this PDEs class was really the best decision I've made in college. Come next fall I'll be taking a grad class in it as well (will be a junior, but what the fuck ever, lol).

It's still tentative, I have a follow-up meeting tomorrow! I'm excited.

[zoobernut]

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/man-...ture-49305387/

Saw this today and it made me laugh.

Edit: Oops just noticed it was from April 1st, Last year. Bah I just read the article and didn't pay attention to the date. (I knew it was a joke but I didn't realize it was that old.)

[Cantih]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655

Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.
The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.
It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".
However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.
During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets.
The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150,000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount.
Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.



Kepler 22-b was one of 54 candidates reported by the Kepler team in February, and is just the first to be formally confirmed using other telescopes.
More of these "Earth 2.0" candidates are likely to be confirmed in the near future, though a redefinition of the habitable zone's boundaries has brought that number down to 48.
Kepler 22-b lies at a distance from its sun about 15% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, its sun puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.
The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".
"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Nasa's Ames Research Center.
"The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."
The results were announced at the Kepler telescope's first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized.
In total, the results suggest that planets ranging from Earth-sized to about four times Earth's size - so-called "super-Earths" - may be more common than previously thought.

Shame it's so far though, gonna need a fuck of a lot of propulsion advances to have a looksee at that.

[Kryssan]

Isn't it a bit early to be calling them Earth 2.0 when we don't even know what they're made of? Or is that just news report spicing up?

I mean, more power to them for finding them in the first place, planets with the right attributes to support life we know of, but without knowing otherwise what's what with them I'd say it is a mite early to call them 'second Earths'.

[Kuya]

Might as well call if Second Mars too. Also, i thought we could tell whether a planet was gas/liquid or solid by looking at the light it gives off?