swansont

Good point.

I think you don't want to be stealing that bandwidth. Think "Arthur Dent making tea on the Heart of Gold." "Why the hell can't we download that encrypted communication faster?" "Be patient, Captain. MM2 YDOAPS is posting something to SFN. And downloading pr0n."

Currently being discussed here

For a solid mass or for one with an empty cavity?

I think geistkie is talking about a test mass outside the sphere, but the underlying problem is still there, and so is the need to prove the assumption mathematically. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts merged The "sphere only" restriction is in the derivation of gauss's law, where you do the math — it's a surface integral, i.e. done over a closed surface. If you think you can replace a half-shell with a point mass at the COM, prove it mathematically. At there point there is no acceptable response other than a derivation supporting this claim or an admission that it's wrong

I don't see a mechanism for any interruption of a half cycle of electricity, nor for a CME to flip the polarity of the earth's magnetic field, or any change to time.

north has accumulated enough infraction points for an automatic three-day suspension. Trolling, including but not limited to simple repetition of arguments and refusal to address points brought up, as well as strawman arguments.

Sea turtles, mate. Slower than dialup.

The difference between light and dark is many orders of magnitude in photon flux. A light bulb is spewing forth perhaps 10^18 visible photons every second, and if the photoelectric effect were truly an issue this would be important because IR photons don't have enough energy to ionize most atoms or molecules. But for excess electrons deposited from static electricity, it's not the photoelectric effect, and it's quite possible that thermal IR photons are important. Photons as force carriers are virtual, and are not going to knock electrons off other than in the context of an electromagnetic field being present, from some other charges, exerting that force. —— It's also quite possible that Leedskalnin did his work at night because he was an eccentric. If the described effect is real, this is just one more thing to test. But the seclusion of Leedskalnin is one reason why it's not scientific, since you need repeatability of the phenomenon in order to test it. But nobody else sees monopoles, which is bad news for supporting this contention.

Light doesn't travel in an inertial frame — the equations trying to transform into that frame diverge. So the issue of time passage for a photon is undefined. For us, though, time passes, and it's what happens in our frame that's important. So light from a star is from L/c in the past (looking only at the transmission delay)

Ships and boats don't have cable. It tends to give away their position and restrict their movement.

I can think of no reason why this would happen.

One half instant? How long is that?

Right. And there are several more things one might investigate if one wanted to have this be a rigorous test. As it is, it's just an anecdote.

Good list. And these are more or less additive (or possibly multiplicative). e.g. something used and neglected will wear out faster than something simply neglected. And as Mr Skeptic has stated, if you want compare "use without neglect" to "neglect," it's going to depend on the situation.

In atomic physics, laser cooling can get you to microKelvin temperatures and, from there, evaporative cooling can get you to nanoKelvin temperatures. Liquid Helium is positively balmy by comparison. (some details are in the link iNow provided)

Sublimation, which is essentially evaporation but from a bulk solid (which always has some vapor on its surface). The impurities don't escape at nearly the same rate (and the remaining ice might also be absorbing impurities). This is why old ice shrinks and tastes bad.

Generally speaking, using it. Doing work means heat flow and generation of entropy, and that's a measurement of whatever is causing the breakdown. The change in entropy from natural decay (outside forces) is happening anyway. This assumes that you aren't doing maintenance, which shifts the increase in entropy to somewhere else so the local entropy is stable or possibly decreases. Using your example of a house — the house will wear out if you aren't painting and cleaning it, etc., on some regular basis. The difference isn't just between use and disuse, it's between maintenance and no maintenance. Many things not used but well-maintained will stay in pretty good shape.

If it had zero initial speed, it wouldn't go anywhere. No force, no acceleration.

An object can have a color because it emits light, rather than reflecting it. What color is a neon light?

He does only age slower when viewed from an outside frame, as long as he stays in that frame. But once he accelerates, he changes reference frames.

I don't know. I wasn't there, doing the experiment, so I have no idea what rigorous tests were done and if it was repeatable. For all I know it was air currents. Photons are an example of classical vs. quantum. Not a contradiction, per se, but a restriction the applicability of classical theory. Of course, anyone with a BS in physics already knows this. The internet falls under Sturgeon's Law: 90% of anything is crud. Don't believe it just because someone posted it on a website.

A mole is Avogadro's number of a substance (6.02 x 10^23) A gaseous atom is one that is normally a gas under the stated conditions (usually STP), e.g. Helium, Argon for monoatomic examples, or Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide for molecules. You ionize an atom by removing a single electron, and repeat until you've done that for 1 mole. The energy it takes to do that is the first ionization potential.

P=IV You need to know the current. That will tell you what the motor is drawing. The output will be somewhat less (maybe 90%)

Post has been copied into the previously linked thread. Discussion should go there.