Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 4]

[talksthetorque]

HTP99 said:

Just peeling a couple of hard boiled eggs and failing miserably again to peel them well and taking an age to do it; when you buy a scotch egg or see those egg and spinach pots, the eggs are peeled perfectly, how is this done?!

Boil them with a bit of vinegar in the water.
When they're done, empty the water out of the pan, and refill the pan with cold water leave for a minute.
Then put a piece of kitchen roll on the work surface. Tap the side of the egg on the work surfaceand roll all the way round, squashing it a bit as you do it to get a band around the egg of small broken bits of shell.
Then use your thumbs to peel the small bits of shell off along with the membrane.

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Fastchas said:

I’ve heard of the Victorian era, Edwardian, Tudor etc and also the Elizabethan age.
What era are we currently living in? Elizabethan? Regina? Windsor?

AFAIK we are currently in what's referred to as the modern Elizabethan era.

[Welshbeef]

What existed before the Triassic period

I believe the Eon is called Permian which lasted billions of years not hundreds of millions. When ended with a mass extinction of over 95% of all lie on earth. It is it woefully misunderstood or lacking so much evidence it’s mainly speculation? Or was it thousands of different types of large woodlice type creatures

[MartG]

Welshbeef said:

Regarding supercharged engines.


From my understanding of supercharged engines you need power to drive the supercharged as such the engine uses more fuel than otherwise as a N/A.

However the question is let’s say you have a 2ltr engine supercharged and let’s say it makes 400bhp would the N/A engine required to produce 400bhp be less fuel efficient?
As in the benefit of Supercharged engine is packaging and low down torque vs a bigger cc engine N/A.

Try thinking of it this way - a supercharger ( or turbo ) force additional air into the engine - if it's producing 1bar of boost then you have twice as much air going into the engine as an NA one, so needs twice as much fuel to maintain the air/fuel ratio. A 1.5 running at 1 bar boost will need as much fuel as an NA 3.0

[Welshbeef]

MartG said:

Try thinking of it this way - a supercharger ( or turbo ) force additional air into the engine - if it's producing 1bar of boost then you have twice as much air going into the engine as an NA one, so needs twice as much fuel to maintain the air/fuel ratio. A 1.5 running at 1 bar boost will need as much fuel as an NA 3.0

So what is the benefit of a supercharged over a larger N/A.
It’s evidently no more efficient than the bigger engine to produce the same power.

So is it weight, physical size ?

Reliability must clearly be higher for N/A over forced induction engines

[talksthetorque]

Welshbeef said:

MartG said:

Try thinking of it this way - a supercharger ( or turbo ) force additional air into the engine - if it's producing 1bar of boost then you have twice as much air going into the engine as an NA one, so needs twice as much fuel to maintain the air/fuel ratio. A 1.5 running at 1 bar boost will need as much fuel as an NA 3.0

So what is the benefit of a supercharged over a larger N/A.
It’s evidently no more efficient than the bigger engine to produce the same power.

So is it weight, physical size ?

Reliability must clearly be higher for N/A over forced induction engines

You're half ( well, two-thirds) right with weight and size.
Economy is the third.

If it's an electric/switchable supercharger you can turn it off and not burn so much fuel when you don't need to the same as using a turbocharged car off boost.

[vonuber]

Regarding travel and time, if (ignoring practicalities) we sent an expedition to say alpha centurai, is it likely that they would meet their (earth born) descendents who set off after them years later?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

vonuber said:

Regarding travel and time, if (ignoring practicalities) we sent an expedition to say alpha centurai, is it likely that they would meet their (earth born) descendents who set off after them years later?

Yes, definitely. It was mentioned in Because Science on YouTube in one of Kyle's episodes. And I think it may have been a QI truck question about it too.

But it essentially assumed that advances in technology would mean that a Generation Ship would experience exactly what you describe - ie. ships built with more advanced tech, setting off later, but travelling faster, would indeed overtake them and get there before them.

[Ayahuasca]

Also regarding time and travel, if I were sat on a distant planet observing our earth through a telescope, I might see dinosaurs and suchlike because speed of light / time to my telescope. Same as when we look at a star we are looking at the past.

So, if I mounted the telescope onto a space ship and travelled to earth faster than light (because alien technology) how would I see my dinosaurs and earth changing as I got nearer?

Would I arrive in the present, or could I end up among the dinosaurs?

[nonsequitur]

Ayahuasca said:

Also regarding time and travel, if I were sat on a distant planet observing our earth through a telescope, I might see dinosaurs and suchlike because speed of light / time to my telescope. Same as when we look at a star we are looking at the past.

So, if I mounted the telescope onto a space ship and travelled to earth faster than light (because alien technology) how would I see my dinosaurs and earth changing as I got nearer?

Would I arrive in the present, or could I end up among the dinosaurs?

Depends if you join the Labour party.

[simoid]

Ayahuasca said:

Also regarding time and travel, if I were sat on a distant planet observing our earth through a telescope, I might see dinosaurs and suchlike because speed of light / time to my telescope. Same as when we look at a star we are looking at the past.

So, if I mounted the telescope onto a space ship and travelled to earth faster than light (because alien technology) how would I see my dinosaurs and earth changing as I got nearer?

Would I arrive in the present, or could I end up among the dinosaurs?

You would see evolution in fast forward presumably? As you get closer in distance, you’d be getting closer in terms of the time taken for the light to get to you

[simoid]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

vonuber said:

Regarding travel and time, if (ignoring practicalities) we sent an expedition to say alpha centurai, is it likely that they would meet their (earth born) descendents who set off after them years later?

Yes, definitely. It was mentioned in Because Science on YouTube in one of Kyle's episodes. And I think it may have been a QI truck question about it too.

But it essentially assumed that advances in technology would mean that a Generation Ship would experience exactly what you describe - ie. ships built with more advanced tech, setting off later, but travelling faster, would indeed overtake them and get there before them.

Would that keep happening? If so, then there’s never any point in sending a ship because the next one would overtake it.

If so, we’ve probably already reached the destination!?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

simoid said:

Would that keep happening? If so, then there’s never any point in sending a ship because the next one would overtake it.

If so, we’ve probably already reached the destination!?

It would be a law of diminishing returns, I would imagine and there would probably be an optimum point. There's probably an equation for it.

[Ayahuasca]

simoid said:

Ayahuasca said:

Also regarding time and travel, if I were sat on a distant planet observing our earth through a telescope, I might see dinosaurs and suchlike because speed of light / time to my telescope. Same as when we look at a star we are looking at the past.

So, if I mounted the telescope onto a space ship and travelled to earth faster than light (because alien technology) how would I see my dinosaurs and earth changing as I got nearer?

Would I arrive in the present, or could I end up among the dinosaurs?

You would see evolution in fast forward presumably? As you get closer in distance, you’d be getting closer in terms of the time taken for the light to get to you

But if you are going faster than light, you would arrive at the light source before the light had left it, no?

[simoid]

Ayahuasca said:

But if you are going faster than light, you would arrive at the light source before the light had left it, no?

I probably (definitely!) lack the basic knowledge and understanding here as I got shot of physics as soon as I could at school but...

If you leave your planet 65 million light years away, and you’re seeing the dinosaurs’ world just before the end, eg 65 million years ago, then at half way you have travelled 32.5 million light years, but you’re seeing the light from <32.5 million years ago? So you’re, like, seeing relatively newer light as you get closer and closer to earth.

I’m aware there’s a theory of relativity which I know nothing of. I’m thinking of it like... you’re swimming faster than water but that doesn’t mean you can get to the source of the river before the water leaves, by swimming faster than the water?

PS - did you maybe wipe out the dinosaurs?

[Ayahuasca]

simoid said:

Ayahuasca said:

But if you are going faster than light, you would arrive at the light source before the light had left it, no?

I probably (definitely!) lack the basic knowledge and understanding here as I got shot of physics as soon as I could at school but...

If you leave your planet 65 million light years away, and you’re seeing the dinosaurs’ world just before the end, eg 65 million years ago, then at half way you have travelled 32.5 million light years, but you’re seeing the light from <32.5 million years ago? So you’re, like, seeing relatively newer light as you get closer and closer to earth.

I’m aware there’s a theory of relativity which I know nothing of. I’m thinking of it like... you’re swimming faster than water but that doesn’t mean you can get to the source of the river before the water leaves, by swimming faster than the water?

PS - did you maybe wipe out the dinosaurs?

Let’s exaggerate - what if I were able to teleport instantaneously from my planet to the dinosaurs I can see on long-ago earth. Can I feed a T Rex?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Ayahuasca said:

But if you are going faster than light, you would arrive at the light source before the light had left it, no?

You can't go faster than light in real space. If we did find a way of going FTL then it would be via cheats such as wormholes or hyperspace, in which case when you re-entered normal space you would see the light as it had travelled to that point in normal space, like clicking "Next Chapter" on a DVD rather than fast forwarding.

Also, we'd probably need to start talking about Relativity and Inertial Frames of Reference, as which point it gets a bit Physicsy.

[talksthetorque]

simoid said:

I probably (definitely!) lack the basic knowledge and understanding here as I got shot of physics as soon as I could at school but...

If you leave your planet 65 million light years away, and you’re seeing the dinosaurs’ world just before the end, eg 65 million years ago, then at half way you have travelled 32.5 million light years, but you’re seeing the light from <32.5 million years ago? So you’re, like, seeing relatively newer light as you get closer and closer to earth.

I’m aware there’s a theory of relativity which I know nothing of. I’m thinking of it like... you’re swimming faster than water but that doesn’t mean you can get to the source of the river before the water leaves, by swimming faster than the water?

PS - did you maybe wipe out the dinosaurs?

I think what happened was that the dinosaurs evolved to the point of trying to work this bit out and their tiny little brains exploded.

I think this next bit is correct, but am happy to be corrected.

If you travel faster than the speed of light and look backwards you won't see anything (outside of the vessel you are travelling in) because the light can't keep up.
Also :
Say you were travelling at 1.5 x lightspeed,
When you stop (instantaneously of course ) on Planet Zog and look backwards where you came from with the aid of the Acme Telescope you would see your journey in reverese at twice the speed it happened.

[simoid]

Ayahuasca said:

Let’s exaggerate - what if I were able to teleport instantaneously from my planet to the dinosaurs I can see on long-ago earth. Can I feed a T Rex?

My brain says no, because the T-Rex died 65 million years ago...?

[Halmyre]

Ayahuasca said:

Let’s exaggerate - what if I were able to teleport instantaneously from my planet to the dinosaurs I can see on long-ago earth. Can I feed a T Rex?

No. Your planet is receiving 65 million year old photons with pictures of dinosaurs. If you teleport to our planet (you do have the required visa and vaccinations?) you arrive in the present day.