answeringeverything

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my sister hates all my guesses but is absolutely UNWILLING to put forward any of her own. #hypocrisy

 I am a box you cannot hide, yet all that glitters is inside, I have a door without a key, yet I’m a shore without a sea. What am I?

idk, cryptocurrency or an amazon Alexa or something

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or a voting booth? idk i didn’t know i was gonna be accosted by a batman villain

 I am a box you cannot hide, yet all that glitters is inside, I have a door without a key, yet I’m a shore without a sea. What am I?

idk, cryptocurrency or an amazon Alexa or something

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 I am a box you cannot hide, yet all that glitters is inside, I have a door without a key, yet I’m a shore without a sea. What am I?

idk, cryptocurrency or an amazon Alexa or something

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This might be a dumb question but It's dark in space and planets are visible because they reflect light from stars right? So is there a possibility of a planet that is hidden in the darkness cuz there're no stars around?

Oh yeah, absolutely. As a matter of fact, your intuition is spot on. Planets close to a star are relatively easy to spot and those further away are much more difficult, both in our solar system and others.

Nearby, the so-called “Planet 9” is a good example of this. Based on gravitational effects, scientists predict it (if it exists) orbits our sun at a distance of around 400-800 astronomical units (au). This is as opposed to Earth, which orbits at 1 au, and the next-most-distant known planet in our solar system, Neptune, which orbits at around 30 au. This extra distance would make Planet 9 extraordinarily dim, and may explain why we haven’t been able to discover it yet.

But the concept you’re talking about is a Rogue Planet. A planet that floats totally alone in the vast void of space, extraordinarily dark and hidden without a nearby star to light it. We know about a couple hundred thanks to careful observations utilizing the gravitational lensing of light from distant stars and the sheer luck of such planets passing between us and stars where Hubble and Webb can detect them. But there’s no scientific consensus as to their total numbers; some astronomers predict a ratio of around two Rogue Planets per star, while some predict hundreds of thousands. Either way, their sheer undetectability makes it difficult to pin down a precise number—and the vastness of space makes it exceedingly unlikely our solar system will ever encounter one.

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i feel bald without the hat

What that thang do?

:^|

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What that thang do?

:^|

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what actually is fire? like physically? i know it's from a combustion reaction, but that doesn't explain what it physically is. my guess would be rapid vibration of molecules, or the breaking of chemical bonds?

Good question!

Fire is indeed a chemical reaction (the breaking of chemical bonds), often called a combustion reaction, that generates enough heat (the vibration of atoms and molecules) to sustain itself, so long as it has fuel. Most of the time, combustion reactions require an oxidant as well. (Oxidants are a class of chemical that are very accepting of electrons and electron bonds…so-called because oxygen is the most common here on Earth. We’ll get to how they work in a sec.)

Let’s take wood as a basic example.

As you can see, wood is primarily composed of chains of carbon and hydrogen (called hydrocarbons)

(Biochemists are weird and don’t always label the carbons, just because they’re so common in biology—basically any “unlabeled corner” in the above diagrams represents a carbon.)

When a particular section of the wood is exposed to a point of high heat and oxygen, the agitation of all that heat energy will allow the oxygen (already very electronegative, or accepting of chemical bonds) to literally tear the hydrogen and the carbon away from each other in order to bond with them instead (like a jealous dance partner), creating water vapor and carbon dioxide, respectively.

But, when hydrocarbons are torn apart, they release some of the energy contained in the electrons that form their bonds, thus creating heat. This heat happens to be enough to cause nearby sections of the wood to also undergo combustion, and the process thus can spread through a matchstick, campfire, or forest.

A similar process occurs, albeit at differing rates, in pretty much every combustion reaction. (The gas in your car, for instance, combusts much faster.) All you need is a fuel that contains energy in its bonds in a format that a nearby oxidant can release, and a spark to get the party started.

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What would happen if you threw a baseball at the surface of the moon? How hard would you need to throw it to make a crater?

I’ll put it this way: according to this paper, the absolute minimum velocity required to create a (very small) impact crater on a celestial body is 56mph. The average baseball pitch in the MLB is around 94mph.

And the escape velocity of the Earth (speed required to exit Earth’s gravitational well, assuming you’re starting from the surface and receiving no extra acceleration along the way) is approximately 25,000mph.

So, get practicing. We’ve got a long way to go.

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Covid causing brain inflammation leading to a worldwide reduction in demographic intelligence—especially inhibition-related abilities—paired with social isolation, internet and AI-enabled echo chambers, and a broad western descent into fascism and Mao-style anti-intellectualism.

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ooo what's the significance of death to you? is it anything special?

Nah, not really. Death is a part of life; the shitty thing that happens at the end. The best you can hope for is a long life, maybe getting your brain uploaded to the cloud, and getting fried by a solar storm 10,000 years from now while your artificial consciousness is taking a power nap.

Real talk, though, I think a lot about that House MD quote: “You can live with dignity. You can’t die with it.” I unironically think that’s a really beautiful sentiment, reminiscent of the medieval “memento mori.” There’s a kind of peaceful humility in acknowledging that no matter how strong or smart or rich you get, everyone dies uncertain and alone, and everyone’s corpse is gross a couple of days after that.

To me, that’s different than the idea of embracing death. I think embracing death is dumb. Life is the whole point of living! Try to get as strong or smart or rich as you can, and help people along the way! Death is there to remind you to keep moving forward; that gets easier if you learn to embrace life.

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Can you reccomend some books about neuroscience for beginners?

Yes!

Check out The Tale of The Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean if you want more historical background and narrative.

Check out Livewired by David Eagleman if you just want more of a beginner’s introduction to neuro principles and fun facts.

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Are you doing all the questions in order, and, if so, how long, at your current rate, will it take you to empty your inbox, presuming this is the last question you reccieve?

No, I’m starting with the ones that interest me. And, at least a couple of months.

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could two girls kiss

further research is needed

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how would you go about supporting dying language (mandatory learning in school doesnt work)

I think the government of Wales has the right idea, by offering Welsh-speaking schools as an alternative to English, making sure all street signs prioritize Welsh-speakers, and contributing heavily to the use of Welsh in the arts.

I also think it would be wise to invest in animation and tv. Anime and cartoons are popular with younger generations and have a proven track record of encouraging people to learn new languages. Meanwhile, the ability to watch whatever series you’re already interested in with dubbing or subbing in a language you want to learn would allow people to learn passively while engaging in their daily routines.

Lastly, sponsored events (perhaps at the local library or at street fairs) to encourage multilingual communication could be quite useful. If possible, tie your language of choice in with learning sign language!

It might not even be dumb to offer a small yearly sum to whoever can pass a language test, depending on the size of the target population. You could get a fun sticker too—make it a source of pride in your community!

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Don't answer if it's personal but what do you specialize in irl? You know so many stuff, do you something related to science?

Neuroscience! I have a particular interest in dementia/alzheimer’s and the evolutionary development of sapient consciousness. Science in general is a special interest of mine tho, and occupies a pretty big section of my library.

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so is everyone attracted to nb people? i don't get how that works? /gen

People are attracted to whatever they’re attracted to—language to communicate that attraction comes later. It’s unlikely that a person would be attracted to all nonbinary people, but it’s also unlikely that they’d base their attraction solely on “gendered” traits. And even then, nonbinary people can have gendered traits and be totally fine with you finding those traits attractive… so the issue isn’t so much one of definitions but of how one’s attraction (or lack thereof) is negotiated/dealt with.

Simply put—don’t assume you’ll find someone attractive (or not!) simply based on their gender identity. And, more importantly, don’t make figuring it all out the problem of the person you’re attracted to. Figuring out your attraction is a you problem, not a problem of other peoples’ identities.

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Hm! My gut instinct is to be annoyed that we don’t just use altered symbols for these, but I suppose the mathematicians know better than I do. It is nice to have a shared orthographic archetype for all of math, after all.

whats 1 + 1

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