Elite Engineer

Been thinking about this for a bit since I posted the topic. If you were drop to a glass oval and a glass sphere, from say 50 cm onto a wooden floor, would the oval not shatter but the sphere would? My understanding is that the oval will distribute the force around evenly while the sphere will not

Superb explanation!

Obviously light bulbs don't shatter, but my questions is, why DON'T they? What specifically prevents the higher external pressure from caving in the bulb? ~ee

If/when fusion energy is actually developed, what would most likely be the economic model? My understand is that if we were to create a fusion process that it would be a plentiful amount, and would be a huge supply. So would energy be cheaper or would it be priced as more expensive? Reasons? ~ee

I don't normally post sensitive stuff like this but, one of my friends brought this up, and it would be MIND-BLOWING on either side of the aisle. If Trump were to become transgender, would he technically be the first female president?

I was reading about the meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013. It's composition was only 10% iron..so it seems that meteors composed of mostly dust and ice will either burn up in the atmosphere or explode. Higher compositions of iron (guess...> 50%) may make it to the surface.

I mean, the general average composition. If I recall, the Meteor crater in Arizona was mined because scientists believed it was made of iron. I would imagine an asteroid composed mostly of ice wouldn't hold up against the atmosphere. We're talking more hardy asteroids..i.e. Iron, Magnesium, etc. All of this in a physics perspective.

So I've been on a astrophysics bender the last week. Found out about Shoemaker levy, the asteroid that collided into Jupiter's atmosphere and exploded. My question/thought is: Can asteroids also explode on impact with our atmopshere, if they're going fast enough. SML was traveling at 35mi/sec, so when it hit, it was completely obliterated. Is there a flatline of where an asteroid travels too fast that simply disintergrates on impact with our atmopshere? ~ee

well I'm sure the live or partially dead vaccines are efficient. It's just the vaccines that use a few proteins from the bacteria, like the vaccine for Lyme disease that used DbpA and OspC.

Vaccinations can be as low as 40% effectiveness and as high as 95%. In thinking of ways to raise the efficiency of vaccines with < 50% prevention, wouldn't it be more advantageous to use part of a whole cell lysate (taking out the bad stuff) than using a handful of proteins that produce immunogenicity? At least this way, you're catching all the small interactions with cell components/ proteins that you would miss with just using a surface protein or flagellin. Sure, you may raise the immune reaction a bit, and produce an elevated fever, but this would be common place in time. If you get a colonoscopy (very short procedure) you're out of commission for the whole day. your thoughts? ~EE

Vaccinations can be as low as 40% effectiveness and as high as 95%. In thinking of ways to raise the efficiency of vaccines with < 50% prevention, wouldn't it be more advantageous to use part of a whole cell lysate (taking out the bad stuff) than using a handful of proteins that produce immunogenicity? At least this way, you're catching all the small interactions with cell components/ proteins that you would miss with just using a surface protein or flagellin. Sure, you may raise the immune reaction a bit, and produce an elevated fever, but this would be common place in time. If you get a colonoscopy (very short procedure) you're out of commission for the whole day. your thoughts? ~EE

Hi all, So I'm helping my niece develop a science fair project (7th grade). She wants to calculate how much power she can generate by running a specific distance My question is, is there any difference in calculating the power (Work/time) via staircase vs. flat distance. I ask this, because in most of the physics examples I've seen that calculate human horsepower, they're usually done with a stair case, and the distance is measured by height of the staircase, and the force is the runner's weight in newtons. The staircase method is kind of annoying and would be easier for her to do with just running on a track field. Is there anything I should know about that's different between the height and the flat distance calculations? I don't think there is, but just want to check. ~ee

But is this done while the individual is still an embryo? What about grown people who already have the the full genetic disease?

Thank you!

It pains me to see people suffering from debilitating genetic diseases, where (if their lucky) the only treatment is to mildly reduce the symptoms. Maybe not now or even in 20 years, but is there any possibility that an individuals genetic errors could be fixed? I really can't think of any mechanism that could do this, even in a far-reaching theory. Your thoughts? ~ee

It pains me to see people suffering from debilitating genetic diseases, where (if their lucky) the only treatment is to mildly reduce the symptoms. Maybe not now or even in 20 years, but is there any possibility that an individuals genetic errors could be fixed? I really can't think of any mechanism that could do this, even in a far-reaching theory. Your thoughts? ~ee

Plastic bin. I'm surprised I never thought of this before, or no one ever told me.

Do you have the same problem as me? Mold growing at the bottom of your garbage can. Sure the bag holds most of the garbage whether it be solid or liquid. However, some garbage material does leak through to the bottom of the can..usually liquid stuff like broth, milk, water, chicken juice etc. After several weeks of cleaning the can with bleach, the mold is back again, feasting on my withdrawn garbage. I've thought of different solutions that may keep the mold at bay. Can't used bleach or ammonia, cause of the smell, and vinegar and alcohol will evaporate away. But then an idea struck me: Why not coat the bottom of the can with table salt? It doesn't smell, it's cheap, and it won't evaporate away. Your thoughts? ~ee

My only complaint is the aesthetics. It feels like the site was purchased by Google.

Not sure if this update was necessary or just happened. Do you like it or no? Try and provide a reason behind your choice...

This was fantastic. Exactly what I wanted to find out. I had no idea uranium was that expensive. Well this is why I asked the question. Sure it's "very restricted and monitored", but people steal all kinds of heavily guarded things. Also, the complexity of the device itself seems like a larger hurdle too.

ok, so grenade is not feasible...but why not use the storage space in a tractor trailer? The point I'm trying to obtain is, why hasn't this been done yet? Is it theoretical constraints or logistical? Also, not talking dirty bombs that have limited explosive impact...but a bomb with the explosive capabilities equal to that of Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

Why use highly complex rocketry and satellite guidance? If a terrorist wanted to get the job done...well you get the picture. I would think if this were somewhat feasible, it would have happened somewhere or at least been thought of. So my question...is it possible? ~ee

I thought that VT's were meant to power the computer...but now I know they're to produce a signal, (i.e. 1's,0's)

Yes, this was spot on. I was thinking..why have a power source power your vacuum tubes to power your computer..but the vacuum tubes (and later transistors) don't actually "supply" power, but provide/ amplify signal. Right? So transistors and later IC's require less voltage because they're smaller? so the vacuum tubes supplied power to the logic gates, or the tubes were the logic gates?