TheJeeronian
TheJeeronian t1_je2u1zk wrote
Reply to comment by remarkablemayonaise in ELI5 How do scientists know probes (Like Voyager I) aren't going to get swept up in the orbit of another celestial body? by remorsefulDownfall
Conic sections are just an approximation. The fairly minimal tidal gradient makes stitched together conical sections a decent approximation - when you're near Earth you follow a conic around Earth and your path around the sun otherwise mimics that of Earth.
The Earth orbits the solar system's barycenter, which approximates fairly nicely to the sun but if we ignore the sun and patch our conics around the barycenter it works even better.
The method is aptly named "patched conics".
TheJeeronian t1_je1wvdz wrote
Reply to ELI5 How do scientists know probes (Like Voyager I) aren't going to get swept up in the orbit of another celestial body? by remorsefulDownfall
There is an extraordinary amount of math involved. They plan out the exact path of the vessel, as well as the paths of all planets involved.
The approximate path of the vessel is calculated with conic sections (ellipses and hyperbolas) around a planet or star.
The best way to predict a path, albeit with an extraordinary amount of math, is actually very simple. We use the conic sections to predict planets' orbits, since they don't tend to change much, and then we do a very simple calculation to see how much they each tug on the vessel. We then add all of these tugs together and see what direction it is pulled overall. We move it a tiny forward, and repeat the calculation again. Move it again. Calculate, move, calculate. Over and over ten billion times to get a good prediction of the path the vessel will follow. Computers are great for that.
TheJeeronian t1_je1ujqd wrote
Reply to ELI5: If digital data is stored in 0s & 1s, how does the reader know how many of the digits to take into consideration? by distinct_oversight
Depends on what it's reading. If it knows in advance to expect ASCII text, then it will count out 8 bits to each letter.
The simplest ruleset which doesn't limit you at all would be that, after ten letters, there is a single bit which says whether or not the message continues. This ruleset is inefficient as hell but shows a simple solution.
TheJeeronian t1_jaeu0uw wrote
Reply to Eli5 if a phone number is 7 digits then how aren't there more people with the same number? by FrozenKyrie
Seven digits gives us 10,000,000 possible numbers. Area codes add three more digits, so that's 10 million people max per area code, with 1,000 possible area codes, and an additional 10 country codes.
100,000,000,000 possible codes.
TheJeeronian t1_jadj47s wrote
Reply to comment by breckenridgeback in ELI5 How does an optical prism work? And why? by Small_Conference_227
Not all of the sides on a cube are parallel. Specifically, any two adjacent sides.
That said, even returning the rays to parallel does not mean recombining them. At the first surface they are given different angles, splitting one beam. Returning this set of beams to parallel just means that the colors do not spread even further once they've left.
TheJeeronian t1_jadg85m wrote
Reply to Eli5 why do we perceive red+blue as purple? by YYM7
We have a "green detecting" cell in our eyes. This cell does not see any green, therefore our brain knows it's on the "other side" of the spectrum from green. We therefore have purple, a reddish-bluish color which cannot be represented by just one frequency.
TheJeeronian t1_jadembn wrote
When light slows down on an angled surface, it is bent. The more it slows, the more it is bent.
Light of different frequencies moves through glass at different speeds. This means that different colors bend different amounts. If multiple colors are lumped together, then each will bend a different amount, and so they will separate.
Cubes also have angles.
Different shapes and glasses can have different effects. The right shaped "prism" can be a magnifying lens. The photographic effect called "chromatic aberration" comes from the camera lens acting as a prism.
TheJeeronian t1_jab7ezf wrote
Reply to comment by Big_carrot_69 in Eli5: An adult human body weighing 70 kg contains about 0.2 milligrams of gold inside him. How did that gold got in the humans if no foods have gold and gold is not absorbed during digestion either? by Big_carrot_69
Gold ions could well be reduced and precipitate out in the liver or kidneys, building up. They could also exist as organic gold molecules in the body.
It looks like this isn't a super well-studied bit of chemistry.
TheJeeronian t1_ja6ph69 wrote
Reply to Eli5: how old is a photon from the sun when it arrives to the earth? by Opposite-Shoulder260
Photons, and anything else moving at c, don't really have a perspective.
An object moving at near c would experience almost no time at all during the journey. The distance between Earth and the Sun would, from its perspective, contract such that its near light speed movement allowed it to cross the distance much faster.
TheJeeronian t1_ja68kdl wrote
Reply to eli5 perpetual motion is impossible but why haven't we made something that just goes on for a really long time that we then service so it can keep going? by FrozenKyrie
We have. All sorts of things can keep going for a long time. But... Why?
What's the point of a wheel that spins for a long time inside of a vacuum chamber suspended by magnets? It doesn't do anything, besides look neat. We already have devices like that, though. A digital watch can run for years on one little battery. The oxford electric bell is still ringing to this day.
TheJeeronian t1_ja1rxgy wrote
The people in the states do not want that. Like, not a single state has a majority interested in leaving. There is no history of oppression of the south, as much as some vocal babies try to pretend that there is.
If the south actually wants to leave, they may do so, but it is not currently that way.
TheJeeronian t1_j9pc6mh wrote
Reply to comment by BADman2169420 in ELI5: If people say that corporations own the government, why do people also want to expand the government? by BADman2169420
Very few people believe that corporations have absolute control of the government. Those who do tend to oppose anything and everything related to the government.
Moat people believe that corporations currently have too much power over the government. They would like to see this reversed, with the government limiting the corporations instead.
TheJeeronian t1_j8vj7pq wrote
While there are many differences between sound and light, for our purposes here those differences do not matter too much. Trying to map extensive catacombs with sonar is a lot like trying to do it with a flashlight.
You certainly can, but it's not exactly easy.
TheJeeronian t1_j6lgdvg wrote
The actual temperature is super easy to measure. Get an object, set it in the shade until it reaches a balance of humidity with the surrounding air, and measure its temperature. Humidity and wind only impact us because we're not in balance. We're hotter and wetter than our surroundings.
TheJeeronian t1_j6jz0me wrote
Reply to comment by HungryLikeTheWolf99 in Eli5 Why gas turbine can rev at >10000 rpm but diesel engine red lone at 3000-4000 rpm? by sepientr34
Gas turbines can eat damn near anything, so it's not clear. Jet fuel is popular for jets but gasoline and diesel and natural gas are all common in gas turbines.
TheJeeronian t1_j6j0qv7 wrote
Reply to comment by ScienceIsSexy420 in Eli5 Why gas turbine can rev at >10000 rpm but diesel engine red lone at 3000-4000 rpm? by sepientr34
Doubtful. Never seen a "regular" piston engine that comes anywhere near 10k revs.
TheJeeronian t1_j6fsdot wrote
Reply to comment by yolofreeway in ELI5:Why is barbary slave trade never talked about in mainstream history? by yolofreeway
I know little to nothing about greek education. I don't even know if it is public. My best guess would be the heavy influence that America has had on your history curriculums, but this sounds like a question that would best be posed somewhere a little bit more specific to your part of the world.
It sounds like it should be in your history education but isn't.
TheJeeronian t1_j6fqw5k wrote
Reply to comment by yolofreeway in ELI5:Why is barbary slave trade never talked about in mainstream history? by yolofreeway
What country? When? How big is your country? What are the lasting cultural impacts?
TheJeeronian t1_j6fqlwl wrote
Mainstream history tends to skim over anything before 1500, and most things after 1500 that don't have direct noticeable impacts on the modern day.
The atlantic slave trade has directly and memorably impacted the families of a solid 50% of my country's population (America having an enormous influence on popular culture and education). People to this day, en masse, try to pretend it was a good thing. It is clear that education has been insufficient.
TheJeeronian t1_j64u7yn wrote
Reply to comment by breckenridgeback in ELI5: How do we define the boundary between earth’s atmosphere and space? by crenshawcrane
This. The least arbitrary boundary would probably be the solar wind bow shock, but even that is fuzzy and certainly not spherical.
TheJeeronian t1_j2enala wrote
Reply to ELI5:How do we know how much electricity needs to be produced and how much is used? by Cheesingtony
Electricity is really convenient. Devices draw as much as they need, and as long as we keep the generators turning at the same speed (and have enough of them) we will not overproduce or underproduce.
The difficult part is keeping them turning at the same speed. As we use more electricity, there is more force pushing against the wheels to slow them down. The engine needs to push harder to keep the speed the same. By adjusting the fuel and air flow to the engines, or water flow to turbines, we can make sure that it keeps spinning at roughly the same speed.
TheJeeronian t1_j2eal62 wrote
You make it out of something other than metal. Carbon and ceramic are good options for parts of a forge. These materials are way more heat resistant than metal.
These materials are produced by a method other than forging so it doesn't require anything to be even more heat resistant.
TheJeeronian t1_j2cqe1k wrote
Reply to comment by ChickenEnthusiast in ELI5: Tech billionaires lost $400 billion this year. Where does it go? Does anyone gain? by ChickenEnthusiast
The value of these persons' imaginary money doesn't really matter to you. It really doesn't matter for most people.
Do we want rich people to get richer? Generally no. Does it mean you're losing money as they gain your (former) money? Also no.
TheJeeronian t1_j27ruc2 wrote
Reply to eli5 How is plastic created? by Consistent_Elk_5546
Plastics are created from chemicals by reacting them together. If you have a particular plastic in mind you can find very cool videosof people doing it.
Where we get these chemicals depends. That said, oil is often a cheap and convenient source for them.
TheJeeronian t1_jeavixx wrote
Reply to Eli5: On a production line, how do they make a car, plane or anything else be identical from one another without differences? by SideburnG
Well, they don't. They have tolerances. They can spend more time and use tools that were made more carefully to get tighter tolerances.
Every zero added to your tolerances adds a zero to your price, though. A huge part of the engineering process is to figure out just how sloppy they can get away with being.