Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 3]

[Jonboy_t]

With the increased terror threat announced yesterday, armed forces are being put in place to improve security - what are they actually going to do though?

Don't mean that to sound negative, but these reprobates strap bombs to themselves and pull their own trigger, how is an extra body with a gun going to help stop them? Is it more that they free up police to do extra 'checks' of some sort?

[GroundEffect]

Drummond Baize said:

Staying, if I may, with the speed of light theme;

They say that some/most of the stars we see in the night sky are probably "dead" by now, because they're so far away and the light from them takes so long to get here, right?

So have we ever witnessed the "death" of a star? Like an astronomer is peering through his telescope at Alpha Gemini Kumquat 824B and then suddenly it goes out?

Not true. The stars you see in the nightsky are all within the Milky-Way therefore they're close enough to still be alive (thousands of years away, not millions/billions).

And just think, there's 100 billion galaxies all beyond our visibility

[Moonhawk]

briangriffin said:

Will it ever be possible to disprove God? If aliens landed yesterday and showed that sub human at Manchester arena that there's no such thing would he believe it or does 'faith' trump proof?

Outside of maths - it's pretty much impossible to prove a negative, especially when the goalposts can change at any time.

Can I prove there isn't a teapot in my study - pretty much. Can I prove there isn't an invisible, extra dimensional teapot in my study - of course not.

Now you could say that the burden of proof lies with the person who claims that invisible, extra dimensional teapots are actually a thing before I set about trying to prove there isn't one - but we all know religion doesn't work like that.

[Dr Jekyll]

Given that wartime bombs can still explode (albeit somewhat unpredictably) after being buried in mud for 70 odd years, how long do bombs last if not dropped? Do they have a best before date or do they get some kind of service after a year or so?

[Hugo a Gogo]

GroundEffect said:

Drummond Baize said:

Staying, if I may, with the speed of light theme;

They say that some/most of the stars we see in the night sky are probably "dead" by now, because they're so far away and the light from them takes so long to get here, right?

So have we ever witnessed the "death" of a star? Like an astronomer is peering through his telescope at Alpha Gemini Kumquat 824B and then suddenly it goes out?

Not true. The stars you see in the nightsky are all within the Milky-Way therefore they're close enough to still be alive (thousands of years away, not millions/billions).

And just think, there's 100 billion galaxies all beyond our visibility

except the Andromeda galaxy which is just about visible, and is 2.5 million light years away (ish) and getting closer!

[48k]

Willy Nilly said:

So, who else had to type Ariana Grande into google?

I tried, but it autocorrected "arena grenade"

[a]

GroundEffect said:

Drummond Baize said:

Staying, if I may, with the speed of light theme;

They say that some/most of the stars we see in the night sky are probably "dead" by now, because they're so far away and the light from them takes so long to get here, right?

So have we ever witnessed the "death" of a star? Like an astronomer is peering through his telescope at Alpha Gemini Kumquat 824B and then suddenly it goes out?

Not true. The stars you see in the nightsky are all within the Milky-Way therefore they're close enough to still be alive (thousands of years away, not millions/billions).

And just think, there's 100 billion galaxies all beyond our visibility

Always liked this image:

So you can't even see all the stars in the red circle, only the brightest ones! On the clearest night, you can see up to 2,500 stars.

The Milky Way has approximately 300 billion stars. All of the stars that you can see on the clearest night are only 0.000000008% of the stars in the Milky Way.

Estimates that I've seen say that there are approximately 300 billion galaxies in the observable universe. So for every star in the Milky Way, there is an entire galaxy in the universe.
Or for every grain of sand on Earth, there are approximately 10,000 stars.

[p1stonhead]

a said:

GroundEffect said:

Drummond Baize said:

Staying, if I may, with the speed of light theme;

They say that some/most of the stars we see in the night sky are probably "dead" by now, because they're so far away and the light from them takes so long to get here, right?

So have we ever witnessed the "death" of a star? Like an astronomer is peering through his telescope at Alpha Gemini Kumquat 824B and then suddenly it goes out?

Not true. The stars you see in the nightsky are all within the Milky-Way therefore they're close enough to still be alive (thousands of years away, not millions/billions).

And just think, there's 100 billion galaxies all beyond our visibility

Always liked this image:

So you can't even see all the stars in the red circle, only the brightest ones! On the clearest night, you can see up to 2,500 stars.

The Milky Way has approximately 300 billion stars. All of the stars that you can see on the clearest night are only 0.000000008% of the stars in the Milky Way.

Estimates that I've seen say that there are approximately 300 billion galaxies in the observable universe. So for every star in the Milky Way, there is an entire galaxy in the universe.
Or for every grain of sand on Earth, there are approximately 10,000 stars.

My favourite mind blowing fact is that there is over 10x the amount of trees on earth than stars in the galaxy. (3-4 trillion vs 200-300billion).

Mental.

[MartG]

a said:

Always liked this image:

So you can't even see all the stars in the red circle, only the brightest ones! On the clearest night, you can see up to 2,500 stars.

Inaccurate though - the Andromeda Galaxy for example is 2.5 million light years away, waaaay out of that circle and indeed way out of that entire picture, yet can be seen by the naked eye

[p1stonhead]

MartG said:

a said:

Always liked this image:

So you can't even see all the stars in the red circle, only the brightest ones! On the clearest night, you can see up to 2,500 stars.

Inaccurate though - the Andromeda Galaxy for example is 2.5 million light years away, waaaay out of that circle and indeed way out of that entire picture, yet can be seen by the naked eye

Not a star though....

[glazbagun]

48k said:

Willy Nilly said:

So, who else had to type Ariana Grande into google?

I tried, but it autocorrected "arena grenade"

I knew her from this:

https://youtu.be/ss9ygQqqL2Q

And her debut with Iggy Izalea of course.

[MartG]

p1stonhead said:

MartG said:

a said:

Always liked this image:

So you can't even see all the stars in the red circle, only the brightest ones! On the clearest night, you can see up to 2,500 stars.

Inaccurate though - the Andromeda Galaxy for example is 2.5 million light years away, waaaay out of that circle and indeed way out of that entire picture, yet can be seen by the naked eye

Not a star though....

Still visible so part of our night sky, which is what the pic refers to

[Morningside]

Why do washing machines have a viewing window and yet dishwashers don't?

Forget the red sock in white washing seeing the jets of a dishwasher spinning around would be far more interesting.

Come to think of it why is the viewing glass normally bowl shaped and not a flat sheet?

Opps I think I've answered my own question!

[SpeckledJim]

p1stonhead said:

My favourite mind blowing fact is that there is over 10x the amount of trees on earth than stars in the galaxy. (3-4 trillion vs 200-300billion).

Mental.

Hmm, when is a tree a tree? Is a sapling a tree?

Google reckons 510 trillion square metres of Earth.
two thirds of that is water, so 168 trillion square metres of land.

So that's a tree for every 42 square metres? That's one tree for every footprint of a terraced house, across all jungle, forests, mountains, fields, deserts, towns, and ice caps?

Colour me sceptical.

[GroundEffect]

Hugo a Gogo said:

GroundEffect said:

Drummond Baize said:

Staying, if I may, with the speed of light theme;

They say that some/most of the stars we see in the night sky are probably "dead" by now, because they're so far away and the light from them takes so long to get here, right?

So have we ever witnessed the "death" of a star? Like an astronomer is peering through his telescope at Alpha Gemini Kumquat 824B and then suddenly it goes out?

Not true. The stars you see in the nightsky are all within the Milky-Way therefore they're close enough to still be alive (thousands of years away, not millions/billions).

And just think, there's 100 billion galaxies all beyond our visibility

except the Andromeda galaxy which is just about visible, and is 2.5 million light years away (ish) and getting closer!

Yes but that isn't a single star - it's a whole 100 billion of the fkers

[MartG]

GroundEffect said:

Yes but that isn't a single star - it's a whole 100 billion of the fkers

It is still part of the 'night sky' the pic refers to

[Lotus Elan +2]

MartG said:

GroundEffect said:

Yes but that isn't a single star - it's a whole 100 billion of the fkers

It is still part of the 'night sky' the pic refers to

But........how do you get a picture of our galaxy when our earliest "spaceship" Voyager has barely left our own Solar system ??

[SpeckledJim]

Lotus Elan +2 said:

But........how do you get a picture of our galaxy when our earliest "spaceship" Voyager has barely left our own Solar system ??

You can't get a proper photograph, just an image constructed artificially using the data we can measure of what is where.

[p1stonhead]

SpeckledJim said:

p1stonhead said:

My favourite mind blowing fact is that there is over 10x the amount of trees on earth than stars in the galaxy. (3-4 trillion vs 200-300billion).

Mental.

Hmm, when is a tree a tree? Is a sapling a tree?

Google reckons 510 trillion square metres of Earth.
two thirds of that is water, so 168 trillion square metres of land.

So that's a tree for every 42 square metres? That's one tree for every footprint of a terraced house, across all jungle, forests, mountains, fields, deserts, towns, and ice caps?

Colour me sceptical.

Yes but nearly all of them are presumably in dense forests or jungles. It doesn't say they are spread evenly or even close to evenly across the earth.

400 billion are estimated to be in the Amazon alone, 300 billion estimated in Canada, 600 billion in Russia and 600 billion estimated in the USA.

Only one trillion left for the rest of the world if the estimates are close. Sounds fairly easy considering Scandinavia and other jungles etc.

[ambuletz]

Why is it for any sort of event a 1-2minutes silence is always done at 11:00am? why that time and not some other time? they just said on the news they'll hold a minutes silence tomorrow for the manchester attack at 11am.