

John Cuthber
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Everything posted by John Cuthber
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A single observation, no matter by whom, nor how well documented is an anecdote. As such it carries a lot less weight than a study that looks at many observations.
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Solar experiment that gets 7KW per square meter of sunlight??
John Cuthber replied to SolarGraphene's topic in Experiments
"1 degree C temperature rise in °F = 33.8°F" No it isn't 1 degree C change is equivalent to a 1.8 degree F change. -
everything averages to a circle, so that doesn't tell us anything. If you tried to make that rim shape with spokes they wouldn't be in simple tension since that would twist the wheel more or less out of shape. If it takes more material (and it does) there's no surprise that it lasts longer.
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At first glance I think all of these records involve people exerting forces greater (sometimes a lot greater) than their own weight. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olympic_records_in_weightlifting
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Science Creates Religion? Religion Creates Science?
John Cuthber replied to Nicholas Kang's topic in Religion
"Unless you have established you philosophy for living with no contact with, or knowledge of, the Bible your "laws" are at least in part based on it as they are on all of your experiences. Everything, including the Bible, that has been part of your culture has influenced you in some way." Indisputably. The Bible has taught me to be very skeptical of authority and to make up my own mind about things. But I don't follow its teachings, in many cases I actively reject them. "Is a citizen of Uganda subject to the laws of Canada?" No. And yet many people would try to say that the laws of both countries are based on the Bible. Well that's plainly not possible, because it's the same book in both cases, yet the outcomes are different. There may, of course, be some influence from it (and from other philosophies) but the laws are independent of the scriptures. We make up our minds about what is right and wrong in spite of the Book- not because of it. The further civilisation advances, the less we look to old books for guidance. -
Why do we usually associate the paranormal with religion?
John Cuthber replied to petrushka.googol's topic in Religion
To some degree, I do. Since none of them (ESP, deja vu, intuition, religion) is apparently real. Clearly, there are differences but I can happily lump them together as "mistakes the mind makes because of the way it's built". -
Science Creates Religion? Religion Creates Science?
John Cuthber replied to Nicholas Kang's topic in Religion
"I'm not about to go through the Bible and make a list for you.." OK, that illustrates the problem nicely. There is no way to go through it and work out which bits are "real". As for the 10 commandments, even they are unclear. Exodus 34:12-26 King James Version (KJV) 12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: 13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: 14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: 15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; 16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. 17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. 18 The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. 19 All that openeth the matrix is mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. 20 But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. 21 Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. 22 And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year's end. 23 Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year. 25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. 26 The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk. The whole question is a mess(more on that here) http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments#How_many_Commandments.3F and so there's no actual way of telling what bits of the Bible are the work of God and which bits are made up by people (for whatever reason) Since you don't know what bits are actually "real" i.e. the Word of God, you don't know which bits to obey. You have to make up your own mind about which bits are right and which bits are wrong. Well if you are making up your mind about right and wrong, that's fine by me. But remember- you are making the decision so it's not the work of God. You are not basing your laws on the Bible- you are deciding which bits of the Bible fit your laws. -
"I wanted to hear thoughts about it before I elaborated further, thanks." OK, given this "it has many performance advantages and one disadvantage..." I come to the conclusion that the inventor is unable to count or doesn't know what constitutes a disadvantage. This may be a problem. Two obvious disadvantages are the difficulty of manufacture and the requirement for cross bracing or rigidity- you couldn't just hold it in place with spokes like an ordinary wheel. Then you can add the fact that it takes more material And the difficulty of fitting rim brakes and... So, let us know- what are the advantages?
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Why assume that martian plants need potassium?
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Just for the record, people were living in North America before anyone had heard of iodine, vitamin C, Vitamin D or a few other things that may have been mentioned in this thread. Our intrinsic lack of vitamin C and our variable vit D production are essentially irrelevant because we can farm things which make them for us. It's absolutely stupefyingly obvious that people are adapted to live there because the people living there are showing no signs of dying out; on the contrary, they thrive. Regarding the earlier comments about our suitability for life on the moon- "It occurs to me to wonder how many posters here would accept that event as evidence that humans are adapted to the common environments found on the moon." Well, our big brains and sense of cooperation is the reason we can get by in cold climates and also the reason we can visit the moon. I have yet to see any other animal walking on it so, compared to all the other species, yes, we are uniquely well suited to life on the moon. No other creature has done it.
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Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light
John Cuthber replied to copernicus1234's topic in Speculations
Yes, that's the basis from which he made the extensions. That's what Studiot said. Does that mean you have now realised that there isn't a problem? -
It's not possible to say because I don't know exactly what you are doing. But reflux makes most reactions a lot more practical because it lets you keep the mixture hot at a constant temperature for as long as the reaction takes. To some extent, it's irrelevant; you will need to distil the product and so you will need a condenser anyway.
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How do you think a reflux condenser would supply energy? In fact they are used to remove energy from a system.
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Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light
John Cuthber replied to copernicus1234's topic in Speculations
It's also worth remembering that the production of EM radiation by effectively waving a coil in front of a magnet is possible and was used as a means to transmit radio signals before more efficient electronic systems were invented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexanderson_alternator Unless Copernicus can show a meaningful distinction between one form of em radiation and another there's no question that light is based on the same physics that Ampere and Faraday knew about. -
Yes they do, but not much. The point is that the salt can't easily get out of the sea (unlike water which can evaporate). So most of the world's salt is already in the oceans.
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I have a 2 stroke engine, what can i do with it?
John Cuthber replied to Elite Engineer's topic in Engineering
Run the engine at three o'clock in the morning and annoy the neighbours. (You didn't ask for useful things you could do with it) -
Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light
John Cuthber replied to copernicus1234's topic in Speculations
No. The equations are based on the laws which were discovered using experiments that are not optical. But the point of using experiments to derive laws is that the laws are generally applicable. In particular, while they were discovered using very low frequencies, the laws of induction etc still apply at high (optical) frequencies. -
Science Creates Religion? Religion Creates Science?
John Cuthber replied to Nicholas Kang's topic in Religion
I think the Bible is a good thing in so far as it puts people off religion. And the second bit is worryingly similar to this http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/08/19/todd-akin-gop-senate-candidate-legitimate-rape-rarely-causes-pregnancy/ re the law. Do you realise that it changes because people stop following what the old laws were and that's usually becaus they stop following what the religion said? Different times: different laws.But the church usually opposes those changes. -
I don't have the figures, but they are not very efficient. About the only time they get used is when the fact that they are quiet is more important than the running cost.
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Mathematical definition of thermodynamic reversibility
John Cuthber replied to studiot's topic in Classical Physics
OK, what happens to the pistons and fluid system, (in particular, what happens to its reversibility) when you introduce this requirement? "That was meant to mean that there are no dissipative processes." -
Which chemicals do you use to enhance your muscles?
John Cuthber replied to chemicalman's topic in Chemistry
I wouldn't use any chemicals to do that. The risk/ benefit analysis doesn't work. -
probably more similar than most of us like to think.