Science Questions

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by AusQB, May 11, 2012.

  1. Ever wanted to know something about how the universe works? Perhaps they didn't teach it in school, or they did and you weren't paying attention. Maybe your curiosity was too advanced but couldn't make sense of the explanations. Whatever the reason, now is your chance.

    I'm not claiming to be able to answer every question myself, but I'm excited by the challenge and I embrace the concept of teaching as a method of learning. Of course, I encourage anyone and everyone to contribute as much as they wish to help answer peoples' questions or to drive intellectual discussions.

    So ask away...
  2. What came first, the chicken or the egg?
  3. Sweet, I'll start off be second :p:D

    If the universe is everything, and scientists say that the universe is expanding... what is it expanding into?

    If a stealth bomber crashes in the forest, does it make a sound?
    PThagaard likes this.
  4. I have a lot more of these questions, I will take a bit of time to get them down for you ae Aus? Save having to post multiple times XD
  5. Technically, the egg came first.

    From constant mutations of DNA throughout evolution, the first avian (bird) species emerged. These species (perhaps not initially) reproduced using eggs. Much later, the modern chickens we know came into existence, inheriting the same reproductive system.

    Therefore, the egg came well before the chicken.
  6. Not only is the universe expanding, but it is accelerating. Over the course of billions of years, the observable universe will become less and less dense as all the celestial bodies drift further apart.

    As for what is it expanding into, that is a matter of much discussion, verging on the border of science and philosophy. One popular theory is the idea of a multiverse, a cluster of universes which interact and pull at each other with immense gravitational force, a justification for the universe accelerating.

    Of course. Upon impact, the kinetic energy transforms into light, heat and sound, which radiates out until all the energy has dissipated. However, unless that sound travels into your ear canal, you won't know it.
  7. The first question was a serious question, the second not so much :p

    But with the first question, how can something (the universe) that is everything be expanding into something?
    So who laid that first egg?
  8. I could just look the answer up, but it is more fun and will reach more minds posting it here.

    Why is pluto no longer a planet? :(
    migueldemesa likes this.
  9. Huh?



    Stop smoking weed (dried fun-grass) dude! Pluto was never a planet..
  10. whoops, my bad. :p
  11. I know, but I like to approach everything from a scientific perspective.

    This is an exception to my above statement. We can only see so much with current technology. Even though astrophysicists know there are forces at work in the known universe that aren't accounted for, they can't find what's causing them yet. It is at this impasse that people resort to philosophy and science-fiction to postulate theories and inspire possibilities.

    This isn't really a question you can answer with conventional science, which is where quantum mechanics steps in to fill the void. Perhaps there is nothing outside what is the actual universe, perhaps it wraps around on itself, or maybe the way we see and think about the universe is all wrong.

    All birds lay amniotic eggs. Amniotes are a group of vertebrates which lay hard-shelled eggs that can survive the physical environment. Sauropsids are a subclass of amniotes from which emerged reptiles, the dinosaurs and subsequently birds. The first amniotes, small lizard-like animals, appeared in the Carboniferous period, about 340 million years ago.
  12. Right, so this is where aus disappeared to.... some uber accelerated "Make me a science Expert" course... just sayin :p

    And thank you for your responses, definitely appreciated :)
  13. Some important facts to consider:
    • All eight planets orbit on an ecliptic plane (flat) whereas Pluto's is angled by 17 degrees
    • Pluto's orbit intersects that of Neptune
    • Pluto is more than half ice by volume (if it came to where Earth was, it would turn into a comet)
    • There are seven moons in the solar system, including our own, that are larger than Pluto
    In terms of classifications, Pluto was a major outlier.

    In fact, Pluto is not alone. There are thousands of terrestrial bodies out at the edge of the inner solar system known as the Kuiper belt.

    So instead of being called a planet, it is now a dwarf planet. A planet is a celestial body which has gained enough mass for the gravitational force upon itself to form it into a spherical shape. A dwarf planet however has that same property expect for the fact that is has not cleared itself of neighbouring bodies. Ceres is another dwarf planet that resides within the asteroid belt.

    Interestingly enough, Pluto the dog was named after the then-planet when it was discovered in 1930. Even though it was discovered by an American, it was named by an English schoolgirl.
  14. i want to see if you know the answer to this question:
    scientists beleive that to "power" a quasar there would need to be a supermassive black hole if so how many Earth's would the biggest quasar's black hole neeed to take in per second?
  15. Just to elaborate on this question a bit, almost all galaxies are designated as active and have an AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus). The AGN is a dense region of matter surrounding the suppermassive black hole at the galactic center.

    A quasar is an AGN which produces immense amounts of energy and is powered by an accretion disk, which is just a circular region of matter that has formed around a central gravitational point. I'm not exactly sure how quasars work, but matter from the accretion disk is drawn towards the black hole and energy is generated through friction and immense pressures outside the event horizon.

    It is estimated that the largest known quasar consumes matter equivalent to 10 Earths per second.
    pgoubert likes this.
  16. What was the name of that one flying dinosaur..? o.o idk it :3
  17. Pterodactyl? That's only one of many flying dinosaurs.
  18. Why is entropy only increasing from past to future, all other physical laws are indifferent of the direction of time, so why is the law of entropy broken when analyzing the universe from future to past, there it appears that entropy reduces instead of increasing.
  19. What happens to space-time when entering a black hole?

  20. Nobody knows, as far as I can tell, and I don't know enough about the subject to pose an educated theory.