SpeakerToLampposts

@SpeakerToLampposts@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Slapping Chicken⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Julia Child did some 400° cooking, for a science-oriented TV series called “The Ring of Truth”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ3mjb9BSaU&t=850s
  Later in the episode, she got to cook a diamond to amorphous carbon. “I’ll remember that recipe – one carat diamond, two and a half hours, three thousand degrees”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ3mjb9BSaU&t=1458s

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I just cited myself.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I recall an anecdote about a mathematician being asked to clarify precisely what he meant by “a close approximation to three”. After thinking for a moment, he replied “any real number other than three”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Physics⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re similar in some respects, different in others; this happens to only show ways they’re similar. Specifically, it only shows dipole (two-pole) fields, with the field lines running from one pole (North or +) to the other (South or -).

  But there are also electric monopoles: things that’re only + (e.g. protons) or - (e.g. electrons), which’ll have field lines radiating out in all directions rather than looping back. Magnets are different in that as far as we know, magnetic monopoles don’t exist. Every North pole’s directly attached to a South pole and vice versa. You can get magnets with more than two poles, or even more complex arrangements (e.g. refrigerator magnets normally have alternating North and South stripes), but they’ll always have equal amounts of Northness and Southness, so the net magnetic charge is always zero.

  Another (related) difference is that moving electric charges (e.g. electric currents in a wire) create loops of magnetic field. That is, the field line just goes in a circle around the moving charge, rather than from N to S. Since there’s no such thing (as far as we know) as a magnetic charge, that can’t happen with the electric field.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨kids are gowing up faster and faster⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “Sesame Street was brought to you today by the language R, and the number F.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨puns⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hmm, I think we should start referring to the toll-like receptors as the awesome-ish receptors.
  Another example: there’s a fruit-fly gene named decapentaplegic (which has to do with forming the 15 imaginal discs during embryonic development). When they discovered another gene that interfered with it, but only when inherited from the mother, they named that one “mothers against decapentaplegic”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨they told us we were crazy⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  We’ll need a humongous iron, and an even humongouser ironing board.