Bender

The definition of weight is the force exerted on a supporting structure. Since Earth is not resting on a supporting structure, but floating around in space (free-falling around the sun, so to speak), it has no weight. As a general rule of thumb when something is a mystery to you: try to learn before resorting to fantastic stories, which have the danger of preventing future learning.

To elaborate on Janus's point. Instead of making the calculations with accurate input, like he did, you could also make yours with inaccurate input, but then you have to take the significant figures into account: For a period of 5x10³ s (about 1.5 hours) and a mass of 5x10 kg (about 50 kg), you get a force of 4x10² N. The gravitational force with the same level of accuracy is 4x10² N. As you can see, once you remove all the insignificant figures from your calculation, the result is spot on. To put it differently, the error bar on your result of 20 N is about 100 N, so the observed 0 N fits nicely within that range. The null hypothesis (physics works) cannot be rejected.

It stops being a mistery after a basic science course, which teaches us that Earth has no weight (although it has a lot of mass).

While I know nothing about this: I can formulate a hypothesis: another star went supernova in the vicinity (double star perhaps? ), and this one sucked in large quantities of the debris.

This. God not existing is the null hypothesis.

If that premise is true, than god cannot exist

Thank you for illustrating my point

In a way, it is already performed on a large scale for as long as there was poop. If your poop gets dumped in surface water, bacteria and other organisms break it down. In some places, a lot of homes have septic tanks, where naturally occurring bacteria preliminarily break down human waste to an relatively clear and odourless fluid before it is dumped in the (possibly open) sewer.

The edit is a literal translation, not how the word is actually used. There is definitely some nuance in the translation, but I'm not sure there is a consensus about what that nuance is exactly as I've seen differing attempts.

A lot of people would considerably improve their life by not comparing to others. I also think technological advancement, eg using tools or finding a cure for cancer, could be a considerable improvement, regardless of other species to compare to. On the big scale of things: our planet is not going to be around forever, so any perceived improvement will eventually be moot. I find the entire concept of improvement as meaning of life a bit pointless, as nearly everything can be worded as an improvement. Increasing your comfort or happiness is also an improvement, even if killing others makes you happy.

If the balloon is large compared to the sail, this would affect controllability of speed and direction. Likewise, I doubt having the position of the top of the sail out of your control is desirable. While perhaps feasible, is there a reason to do this bevond novelty?

Overall, there simply are a lot less words in Dutch than in English. English has more choice for nuance.

How am I moving goalposts? The question is whether a phone can survive vacuums of different levels of mildness. Swansont wasn't replying to the fact that it was an increase or a decrease in pressure (which was never the point of the analogy), but that the scale of the pressure difference in dimreepr's analogy was all wrong. I don't understand why you wouldn't agree with that.

The bolt elongation is irrelevant. Whether you use flexible bolts with very large deformation or stiff bolts with small deformation, that doesn't (significantly) change the force on the block.

Is a phone manufacturer going to risk lawsuits when the cabin depressurises and all the phones explode in 0.2 bar ambient pressure? Also see swansont's post above: the pressure difference between what you call "reasonable pressure" and "semi decent vacuum" isn't that impressive.

Why would phone manufacturers make phones that could pop in an airplane or while climbing a mountain? If the phone can survive that safely, I think it is pretty unlikely to break in a vacuum. Do you have any indication for sealed areas in consumer electronics?

Here is some evidence of religion slowing down research (yet still not affecting the outcome): Funding for stem cell research is blocked for religious reasons.

You first need to calculate the force you are applying with each bolt. Without checking the equations used, I get 50 kN for each bolt from this online calculator. According to my mechanical bible this is a bit bellow the max force for the bolts used, so it is plausible. Now you divide this force over the area to get the stress. Combined with the Young modulus, you get the strain. Multiply with 35 mm, and you have your (approximate) result. Obviously, there will be pretty large errors introduced everywhere, especially in deriving the force, but the order of magnitude should be good.

When scientists work on a model, they do not, and should not, have faith (or trust), that it will work. They trust that it could work. Vast difference.

Unless you are a physics teacher with a vacuum pump on your desk ;-).

Water boils quicker at lower pressures, so in a vacuum, any water droplets will boil away very quickly.

He might also be referring to the lateral thickening (poisson effect).

What are the screws screwed into? The drawing doesn't show any thread. What do you mean by deflection at 35 mm from ground? In what direction? How did you measure the deformation? It is in general bad manners to write everything in capital letters.

Quetzalquatlus had an estimated weight of 150 kg and needed a wint span of over 10 m to fly.

Why? What is the relation between religion and morality?