The Lounge

If any of you have made what you consider to be a particulaly good post explaining a scientific concept/theory/process/fact/thingy/etc, then post a link to it in this thread and i'll wikify it and inport it into WiSci, which is our new science encyclopedia wiki, incase you didn't know. It doesn't have to be great -- the nature of wikis allows for inportation of incomplete/slightly incorrect articles that will later get fixed, so dont be shy.

I had my first tutorial yestarday for my science foundation - leading onto a diploma in physics (which is why I'm panicking) , and near the end we were given a bunch of basic maths problems to solve (in your head) which I havn't come across since high school (roughly 13 years ago, I branched off to media and design for my A-levels) although my maths was above average back then - I feel like I'm back to square one...I felt like a right doofus. I'm talking really basic stuff converting percentages into ratios and rearranging simple equations et.c so my confidence was shot to pieces, I just drew a blank, with some of the questions. Although I realise I'm just going to ha…

Hello, I am looking for opinions / recommendation for a magazine for my family dealing with general science. I'm aware of Scientific American, Nature etc. Which one is favored? Thank you.

I have got the Chaos book by Gleik and Schrodinger's Cat, and I have a report to write in physics on a book. Which book should I pick? ie if you read them which would you recommend more.

I thought it might be fun to try this. Here's what you do: I'll start the story with one sentence. Then, you continue the story with one more sentence. After that, someone continues the story the same way, and so on. Our goal is to make a long, funny story. OK, lets start. It was a dark and stormy night,

Here it is: http://www.compactech.com/kartoun/videos/Uri_Kartoun_Virtual_Reality_Telerobotic_System_March_2003.wmv And a related paper: http://www.compactech.com/kartoun/articles/html/eENGDET2004_Final.htm Please visit. Thanks, Uri.

Anyone else here use Orbiter? or am i the only one geeky enough to do it. website: http://www.orbitersim.com

Everytime I have to give someone a gift, and that someone is a guy, I get him tubesocks. I dont know why it works, but guys just LOVE tubesocks. They dont like any other kinds of socks. Not crewcut, not anklecut, and definitely not the no-show socks. Only tubesocks. They love tubesocks almost as much as boxer shorts. I think I can explain it, probably having something to do with evolution. A long time ago, when our ancestors were coming down from the trees, they must have discovered a population of tube socks out on the open plains. So, to protect the tube socks from killing each other off (they are naturally cannibalistic), men started putting them on their feet …

How Much energy does the Human brain put out? there is definitly electricty runing though it, so it has a EM field. thats just simple physics. also, how much kinetic force does the Field have, probably very little if it has any at all.

Has anyone read the Dark Tower series? They are great books. This isn't science related but I'm bored and wondering if anyone else read it. I would recommend it.

Has anyone here ever been? Me and a couple of friends were thinking about going and were wondering what is was like and such.

John Doe is on SCi-fi Channel in Georgia state right now. OMG I love sci-fi channel!

In a few days (on my birthday annoyingly) Im going to be taking quite a big exam and although I usually don't even eat breakfast in the morning, I think it would be wise to eat something to help me with my concentration and memory. Can any of you reccomend what would make a good breakfast to get me through 2 hours of chemistry? I was thinking about going for a run as soon as I wake up and then overdoing it with sweets to get my glucose levels up but I can't handle too much sugar and knowing me i'd probably throw up. Anyway any suggestions?

As most of you know, NASA recently brought back stardust from comets and such. I thought it was pretty cool because my sister's physics teacher gets to go to Texas to be one of the people to examine the dust. We are fraternal twins (yes one boy and one girl) in physics honors but with different teachers. It's unfortunate because she got the teacher who teaches AP and she's more creative and I'm the science/math one. I'll be taking AP next year. The paper said there were five other teachers from Brevard to go. What do you think about the stardust? Will it reveal secrets about the composition of the planets and the orgins of the solar system? btw: I didn't know …

Has anybody heard of this company and if they have what do they think of it, its a yanky company that makes health supplements and i was wondering what peoples thoughts and opnions are on it?

Just got back from my cousins in England. They only had 18.8kbps dialup. Oh how i missed broadband. it seems faster now than it every has before. no need to wait a full minute for my posts to get put up or the full hour for any picture intensive sites to show up.

This is an odd problem I sometimes have that some of you may have as well. Certain nights I am kept from sleep, I know I need to sleep but my mind won't let me, and not for any particular serious problem, not like insomnia or nervousness from facing the next day. No, normally when I'm kept from sleep, it's because I can't stop thinking. If I have had a particularly inspiring day or when I have a eurika day, I can't get to sleep for atleast two hours after I want to. My brain is riddled with thoughts and concepts, for instance, when I thought of a couple experimental designs for aircraft, I was thinking about them and how they would/could work in the real world. Or…

Hi everyone! I have just started a new project, a UA detector - it detects information about your computer using the User-agent strings transmmitted by your browser to a web page. If anyone would care to help test please visit the link below, check the displayed information is correct. If its not then please let me know what the incorrect results were and what the results should have been along with a copy of the offending UA string Any help in testing would be appreciated, http://standards.spiralmindsinc.com/Projects/UA_Strings/Browser_testing.php Cheers, Ryan Jones

Alright, I already know I'm going into physics. I plan to major in physics and double minor in business and mechanical engineering. Yet, I have no idea of the job market. So, could someone please enlighten me to the jobs available in the physics field?

When i try to get to the SFN chatroom I get the error: Connecting... Unable to connect : java.security.AccessControlException : access denied (java.net.SocketPermission irc.blackcobalt.net resolve) What can I do to open it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_newton At the end of the third paragraph in the above link, it says that Newton voiced a theory on the origin of the stars. Does anyone know what his theory was? I just want to know out of curiosity.

I just though I'd start a thread for what if's, someone posts a what if and then the next person answers the what if and posts their own and it so continues.... This may be interesting too see what ideas peopel come up with! I'll start: What if the meteor that hit the Earth 65,000,000 years ago did not hit? Cheers, Ryan Jones

Hi! I currently go to an IB school here in Mexico (well actually I've been there allll my life, since I was 4 ofcourse) and a friend and I were discussing the possibility that before going to college we wanted to know how it felt to be the new student and try to embrace a new culture and learn to adapt to a new environment because otherwise we fear feeling lost and lonely once in college. So the question is if anybody here could recommend me an IB school (not in Mexico obviously) that I could contact to see if my friend and me could go study for a semester next year... thanks!

Doesn't have to be in any particular order, but what are your top 5 favourite TV comedy shows... To date mine are : Brass Eye (Chris Morris taking satire to the extreme.) actually I'm going to have Chris Morris as one choice because 'Jam', and 'Day to Day' are also up there. Family Guy, The Thick of It, Blackadder (I used to love the second series in my younger days.) and The Simpsons.

I live in the US. I make only 1,200 dollars a month (I work in a small company) no health insurance but I own a small 2 bedroom house where I live. I get sick and have to stay 2 weeks in a hospital, then after I get home they charge me 100,000 dollars. I can't pay, can they take my home away from me ? 3 possibilites: 1) I go to jail, but I think US laws says I can't for debt 2) I can make a deal with the hospital and only pay back 2 or 3 thousand dollars by a small monthly sum. 3) they take my house , get posession of my home What do you all think happens ? This has always been a vague situation, does anyone know exactly what happens in these case…