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Everything posted by CaptainPanic
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The important question is: Can they snooze it, and does the service make coffee?
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Why are so many Muslim countries poor countries?
CaptainPanic replied to Mr Rayon's topic in Politics
In order to ask yourself why the Muslim countries are so poor, you first have to prove that they are poor. And they are not (click for a list of Gross Domestic Product per Capita). Muslim countries are quite average - on average about the same as most Asian, South American or some African countries. Muslim countries are distributed quite evenly across that list of GDP per capita... They are not present in the bottom 20 (those are (almost) all sub-Saharan countries). And there are two Muslim countries in the Top-5 of highest GDP per capita: Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Sure, that's because of their oil. But aren't large Western economies running well because of access to resources too? There is a clear link to access to resources, access to cheap labor (abroad) and the success of an economy. I conclude that this attempt to link Islam to poverty is based on thin air. The numbers do not suggest any significant correlation between religion and economy... so the entire discussion is pointless, and should be moved to speculations. The opposite might however have some foundation: that poor (and uneducated?) people more often fall victim to religion (in general). But I cannot believe that this correlation would be stronger with regard to Islam than any other religion. -
The compressed gas is cooled as much as possible using regular cooling equipment. After that, the pressure is released, and the expansion causes the gas to cool down further. And after it has cooled down enough, it will become a liquid. Note that this is a simplified version of the processes that are used in reality. Why gas cools down when it expands is explained here (Joule-Thompson effect). To learn some more about cooling stuff down, I think the best explanation is just the regular refrigeration cycle as used in every common fridge and freezer in every house. The evaporation/condensation causes a temperature change. And that's the essence of all cooling / refrigeration. In regular fridge/freezers you also have a liquid that evaporates / expands into a gas, and this expansion cools the gas. That cold gas can then absorb heat inside the fridge (thus cooling your food/drinks). The gas, which is now warmer, is then compressed (that's the thing that makes some noise in your fridge). The compression heats it up even more. The hot gas then goes through the condenser (all those little tubes at the back of the fridge) where the outside air cools and condenses the liquid. The cooler liquid is then evaporated again, which cools it down further, and it can go back into the inside of the fridge to cool your food. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Refrigeration.png
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In all fairness, I think that engineers are typically people who (soon after they leave school) don't really care what they learned in school, and instead adopt whatever method is practical on the job. Personally, I use Celsius all the time. Not because I don't agree that Kelvin is more fundamental, but simply because quite a few people I work with don't know Kelvin all that well, and they still have to understand what I'm talking about. So, I adapt to the knowledge of the other people (unless I have to do some thermodynamics when it's necessary to use the Kelvin scale).
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Just a few minutes ago, the space shuttle Atlantis was launched and reached (preliminary) orbit safely. This is the final flight of the space shuttle. Some more information is available all over the internet, but here are two links: BBC and NASA.
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This morning, a safety manager passed by the office and started commenting on my book shelves. I have to clean them up. I must rearrange the books, and a book cannot be on top of another book. The books (which have been on that shelf for the last couple of years, in pretty much the same arrangement) could fall off, and injure someone, according to the safety guy. An official report was filed, and it's in our computer system now. I think it's utterly ridiculous (no book ever fell, but even if it would, an injury is extremely unlikely), and I am contemplating how I can avoid rearranging the shelves. I'm feeling a little rebelious, and despite the fact that cleaning up would probably take less than an hour, I really want to refuse. The bad thing is: it's in the safety computer system now, and that means there will be a follow-up. And childish as it may seem, ignoring safety warnings is a serious thing. And that computer system doesn't see how silly the warning is. Do you have any anecdotes of safety managers who just have to say something in every lab/office they visit, even if everything is perfectly in order?
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I think you should consider to combine software development with music. If you can combine somehow your skills (computer stuff) with your creativity (music), you might become successful. How this combination looks, I cannot tell. That's up to you to find out. Just realize that music itself is not an easy business. The competition is killing, because there are millions of people who make music, and only a few who make a decent living. But those few successful musicians often have a small army of technicians around them who make stuff work. So, another way to make money (other than being involved with making actual music yourself) is to be some techie of other musicians. Just some ideas. Finally - please realize that (almost) every career starts off by doing the more boring jobs. You can move into more creative jobs soon, but you have to prove yourself first. And bossing around other people will simply take time. You probably need some experience for that anyway - experience that you can only get on the job. Just keep an eye on your own career, and its prospects. If it takes a wrong turn, don't be scared to change. It's only a job.
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Useless? I sent you a link for your first keyword. And I told you where you can find information about all the others. How is that useless? If you want to learn physics, you better accept the fact that you must read stuff - not watch movies. So, get yourself a cup of strong coffee, and get to work.
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What's the best science related job out there?
CaptainPanic replied to Mr Rayon's topic in The Lounge
Completely agree with Tr0x! Scientists cost a LOT of money to a company - but the large majority of that money is spent on stuff for work, and only a little bit goes to your bank account directly: labs, equipment, computers, materials, etc. Basically, your boss will buy you a lot of toys to play with, and all they ask in return is that you tell them what you did - occasionally... So, all you have to do is find the right playground. -
What's wrong with wikipedia? First couple of keywords you ask for appear to have quite good websites. Studying is more than asking some other people to send you Youtube movies.
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Mandatory XKCD:
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That's not what you said in the opening post. I guess the rest isn't available. I suggest sending a mail to the organization.
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Although you do need to carry ID at all times (also in most other EU countries, not just Germany), it's also allowed to cross borders at 120 km/h without even being checked by border guards. You can drive from almost any neighboring country of Germany, straight through Germany, into another neighboring country, and you never even have to stop. It's the Schengen agreement that allows this. I've been on weekend trips in Germany where I have never shown my ID. Not going into the country. Not when doing any shopping or partying. Not when going home. So, I am not sure where your idea comes from that Germany is such a police state. Athena, are you comparing the current situation in the USA to Germany prior to WWII? Or are you comparing it to modern Germany? It's funny to read a number of issues that you guys all have with Germany that apply directly to at least a number of other European countries as well.
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Those wars probably changed everything... and everything includes good and bad things. Obvious good things are: UN and EU (cooperation between countries prevents more wars), human rights and technological advances. Obvious bad things are: the horror of the wars, the trauma, the many dead people, the Cold War that followed, the nuclear threat (although arguably that has also kept the peace for several decades). But there are many many more. I think this thread is extremely broad... and I wonder where this will go.
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They're my neighbors, and I've been to Germany quite a few times. My perception is that they're nice neighbors who - as a nation - have their hearts in the right place. They seem to prioritize the right things, and in many ways I agree with their way of running things. I realize very well that Germany is a major player in the world economy, and I am happy that they are. I think they play their role in the world's political theatre exemplary now. I do not think about WWII anymore, although joking about the Germans is always funny, especially when we meet them in a football worldcup or European cup. We should never forget the wars (WWI and WWII), but we shouldn't hold current generations responsible for mistakes in the past. On a more personal level, I think Germans are quite polite. I enjoy visiting Germany and I enjoy meeting Germans. I enjoy not-mentioning-the-war. The nightlife in the larger cities is awesome (Hamburg and Berlin especially). Girls are quite pretty too
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Yep. That seems right. I'm a little confused about your battery calculation (in other words: I don't know what you're doing, so I cannot say where you go wrong). Regarding batteries, I am stepping outside my own field, but I think the calculation should be like this: Assuming a constant voltage of the battery: Ah*V=Joules So: the energy of 1 battery is (325/1000*3600)*9 =10530 J. (The mAh value of the battery is 325 mAh. This is divided by 1000 to arrive at Ah, and multiplied by 3600 because there are 3600 seconds in 1 hour, and we like to get seconds to make everything in SI units. And finally, it's multiplied by 9V. The total energy of all 10 batteries is then 10*10530 = 105.3 kJ Of course, this is still a LOT more than the hydrogen. But you should realize that the 9V battery has a weight of perhaps 40 grams, and all 10 batteries are perhaps 400 grams. The hydrogen gas has a weight of only 0.004 grams...
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In what time scale? And with just the naked eye or with the aid of technology? With the naked eye, if I look at the clouds today, then they do not seem to move. But if I look for 15 seconds, and I take a stationary referencepoint (like a tall building), then I can see that they move. In some cases I only observe movement in 24 hrs, or even a week. I just have to come back and see if something changed. Using more precise technology, we can measure that the leaning tower of Pisa actually moves by just a few centimeters per year (or millimeters per year?). We can measure that the continents move by a few cm per year. And with more precise technology we can surely measure even slower movements. The longer you wait, the more obvious movement becomes. And the better the technology available, the better your measurements. I think you have to set some limits to the time scale... because I think (not sure) that we can argue that with infinite time, you can observe all motions, however slow.
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There are 1000 cm3 in a dm3. Your conversion is wrong there (you have an order of 1,000,000). Didn't (yet) check the rest. May do that during another coffee break today. Maybe someone else beats me to it.
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What's the most dangerous country for foreign workers to work in?
CaptainPanic replied to Mr Rayon's topic in The Lounge
I disagree. I think you will find that there are thousands of Western workers in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not just the military that is present there, although they get the most media coverage. In Afghanistan, those are mostly employed in professions that are related to the military. In Iraq, other job opportunities also exist (infrastructure projects and especially oil / petrochemical industry). I admit that Somalia, (South-)Sudan and Yemen probably do not have too many jobs now. Lybia will have jobs as soon as the rebellion / revolution is over, mostly in oil related industry. And South-Africa most definitely has many jobs in every field. I do not see how I did not answer the question. -
Under mild conditions (200-300 °C) and relatively long reaction times, you get mostly charcoal. At higher temperatures (400-600 °C) and quite short reaction times, you get a liquid, called pyrolysis oil. It's quite different from melting wood though... it involves many (many!) reactions. At even higher temperatures (> 700°C) you get mostly gas. The process is then called gasification. When we talk about melting something, it means we can also do the reverse: we can also freeze it again, and it will be the same solid as before. With none of the processes that I described above will we ever get our wood back. There is no reverse... so it is not 'melting'.
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They are available on the website of the Australian National Chemistry Quiz. It's really easy to find... and I think it would have been easier to ask Google, rather than us on this forum... Did you even try to search for it? I suggest that you use the keyword "Answers" in your Google search, perhaps together with the keywords "Australian National Chemistry Quiz". Hope that helps.
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It is indeed adequate, but not always the most practical. The most important lesson here should be that you must always write down the units (mol/l or g/l or any other unit of your choice). A glucose molecule is so large that locally it is actually polar. A very polar water molecule that is near a sugar molecule only "sees" (if it had eyes) the nearest couple of C-OH groups or C-O-C groups. It does not "see" all the other ones because they are quite far away. Also, glucose is in a 3D structure (as shown here), and the C-O and O-H bonds do not cancel out completely in the middle. To make it even more fun (chemistry can be fun), glucose can actually also open and close. So, it can be a ring of 5 carbons and 1 oxygen, but it can also become linear. And it can go back too. This happens already at room temperature.
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It does, but as soon as the temperature exceeds 31°C, or the pressure exceeds 72.9 atm, it becomes supercritical. Wikipedia shows a picture of the phase diagram.
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I think the newest Pirates movie is rubbish. It's the worst of the film series. But there are movie titles with excellent sequels. I think the X-men have just produced a really good one, and also Toy Story 3 scores higher than the earlier two. mississippichem, I completely agree that District 9 is fantastic. That movie ended with a hint at a possible "District 10" though.
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What's the most dangerous country for foreign workers to work in?
CaptainPanic replied to Mr Rayon's topic in The Lounge
I'm probably stating the obvious, but I think Afghanistan and Iraq are probably the most dangerous at the moment. Somalia or (South-)Sudan might also be high in the list. Lybia and Yemen might also not be very safe the moment. South-Africa can be dangerous if you go to the wrong parts of certain towns (especially Johannesburg is famous for violent crimes). But if you behave like an idiot, you can get into trouble anywhere. Make sure you prepare before you travel. Make sure someone at home knows where you are. Make sure your paperwork (visa and possibly a work permit) is in order before you travel. Make sure your bank card works in the country you're traveling to. Make sure you have an insurance, both for traveling and for working abroad. Make sure your insurance brings you home in case of an accident, or you end up all alone in a hospital in a far-away country in case something goes wrong and you get injured. (This list is probably not complete - you're responsible for your own safety).