Physics

Hear me out. This thought process requires a bit of knowledge of physics/chemistry.

On the martian poles, there are vast quantities of frozes CO2. This frozen CO2 exerts a certain "vapor pressure" - in other words, a certain partial pressure of gaseous CO2.

Now, if we convert this CO2 into O2 by removing the carbon out of it, the concentration of O2 in the atmosphere increases. And therefore, the concentration (and partial pressure) of CO2 decreases.

But since the frozen CO2 on the poles causes a certain partial pressure of CO2, a bit of the frozen CO2 will go into gaseous phase to refill the CO2 partial pressure.

So, by converting CO2 into O2, the concentration of O2 increases, but the concentration of CO2 stays approximately the same. As such, the total pressure (and density) of the atmosphere increases. This would happen if large-scale biological photosynthesis/growth took place.

Any thoughts?

New video on Brady Haran's chemistry channel, but I thought it would be better suited for the physics community.

A 31 minute SciShow video on how lead ingots which were recovered from a Roman shipwreck enabled the CUORE experiment's search for neutrinoless double beta decay, and the challenges of ethically sourcing "low background material".

Has anyone set aside lead (and other materials) as a stockpile of low background material for future generations of physicists? Seems like something The Long Now Foundation might do.

Crossposted from: https://sh.itjust.works/comment/12976393

Source

I learned this week that many high speed CD-ROM drives used balancing balls on the spindle to stop discs from vibrating at 10Krpm.

Between the platter that supports the CD and the motor there is a puck with a toroidal void containing a few ball bearings. When an out of balance CD is spun up the spindle and disc together rotate around their common center of mass, some point between the spindle and the edge of the disk. This means that the void containing the balls no longer rotates around it's center, it spins like a hula-hoop around the spindle/DC center of mass. With the "lighter" side of the system being farther from the center of rotation the balls roll 'down hill' towards the side of the void that is experiencing more centrifugal force. Eventually enough balls will collect on the light side to perfectly cancel out the heavy side. If there are too many balls they will distribute themselves inside the void until they cancel out each other's weight!

The link leads to a scaled up demo of this using an empty water bottle and steel BBs.

I must admit that the details of how the fields are coupled went over my head, but I found the rest of the video quite accessible. Professor Copeland is a joy to listen to, and Brady asks great questions as usual.

I also learned that "inflation" and "the big bang" are not synonymous, and inflation occurred first.

I think I need to rephrase the question. I'll post again in a few days.

The replies so far have generally been very polite, given the subject. I was nervous about that. Thanks everyone!

... Hear me out, okay?

Back in 2000 I took my first solo, out of state trip, to meet an online friend. When I got off the bus, she greeted me, and let me know that we had to go stop by her friends house on the way back.

She was Wiccan and needed some Spiritual guidance because the night before she saw a black portal open up in the corner of her room that was giving her really bad vibes.

It wasn't my thing, but I never discounted it. Maybe it was real, and if nothing else it's just how her mind is rationalizing things.

But I guess my question is: Does the Scientific Method rule out the possibility that a "real" portal appeared in her room?

Taking wave function probability into account and the absense of data from the room, is it fair to say that the scientific method doesn't rule out the black portal being real?

Looking for black and white answers if possible, but I'd also love to hear your reasoning~