Annoying Questions I'd Like Answered...

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Dec 07, 2012 11:07 am

Gee, guess it's good that my go to is Rum and Coke.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Fri Dec 07, 2012 2:06 pm

hyzmarca wrote:How fast, relative to the Earth, would a one kilogram iron sphere of uniform density have to be traveling such that it's contact with Earth's atmosphere releases enough energy to destroy all matter in the observable universe, not accounting for the constant expansion of space-time?

We get the most interesting questions here. As long as the sphere lands on Avril Lavigne and/or Kate Middleton first,, I'll gladly meet my explody fate.

Koumei wrote:I have a plan, though, and it involves buying box jellyfish.

Make sure you wear rubber-gloves laced with silver. Box jellyfish are not only super poisonous, but are also filled with malignent energies.

Also, for that matter, why not try a blue-ringed octopus? They're one of the deadliest animals on the planet. And it's more free than buying a jellyfish, since you just have to find one, plus they live around Austrailia. They're my choice of pool-murder instruments.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Fri Dec 07, 2012 7:00 pm

Why're you so convinced you're going to die before longterm health effects kick in, Koumei?

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 2:19 am

A multitude of reasons, actually.

Non-smoking-related cancers are common enough in my family, with my dad indeed dying from a series of them (spinal, lymphoma, "everything" in that order). And apparently paying $30 a month to a cancer foundation doesn't actually give you immunity.
I'm being realistic about depression and my chances of finding a hilarious or artistic way of checking out at some point in the future. Were this America, I'd have already blown my brains out at some point from a vending-machine gun.
I live in the state of serial killers (note: it's also the religious state. Draw your own conclusions). It would be foolish to just assume I'm not going to be chopped up and left in a barrel of acid.
In this state, speed limits are actually guidelines and if there is video evidence of you doing 255kph in a 100 zone, police are too busy beating the shit out of unarmed homeless people to follow up on that. Remember that road accidents kill more people than terrorists and sharks combined. Even TERRORIST SHARKS.
My body is already rebelling and finding new ways to stop working all the time.

Also, having discussed it with my girlfriend, her vote is for alcohol, which is basically what was "more recommended" here even in a "Well if you're determined to play either D&D 4Ed or Pathfinder, I guess go do PF."

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:21 am

Rather than looking for a timely end, I believe conceiving awesome things to do and then doing them instead would be even better.

Drinking to the grave is boring. Mundane.

I say- make a list of exceptional or fun things to do and do em.

Whipstitch · Post by **Whipstitch** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 8:20 am

Pfft. Conceptually awesome doesn't really beat chemically awesome when you're dealing with depression. That's part of what makes it you know, depression.

With that said, beating back depression with a depressant doesn't work so hot.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 9:02 am

Why use box jellyfish, when you can use Irukandji jellyfish, which deliver the same sting at a tiny fraction of the length?

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 11:35 am

Because you want people to be able to identify the cause of death of random guests so they can say "Don't go into that pool, it has jellyfish" and I get peace and quiet of course. When it's invisible, then there's just a mystery cause of death.

Chamomile · Post by **Chamomile** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 2:12 am

I can't tell how many of those things are supposed to be jokes. Very few of them seem like a threat significant enough to even care about. Of the ones that are, while I can't find exact statistics in five minutes of googling, they don't seem like threats so dire that you may as well give up altogether on living more than about five years.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 1:23 pm

hyzmarca wrote:How fast, relative to the Earth, would a one kilogram iron sphere of uniform density have to be traveling such that it's contact with Earth's atmosphere releases enough energy to destroy all matter in the observable universe, not accounting for the constant expansion of space-time?

OK, there's all sorts of problems with that.

First up, not the atmosphere. A "cannon ball" would hit very little weight of gases on the way to the ground once it gets supersonic, let alone relativistic. The explosion will totally be travelling with the ball, thanks to it's copious momentum advantage.

And once you start talking about more energy than is stored in all visible matter (and you are, pretty much by definition), you've also got silly amounts of momentum, which the thickness of the earth isn't going to absorb at all. You just turn the ball into a highly relativistic particle jet that barely even slows down on the way through. I mean, it sort of already was, or should be, because it's hitting all that hydrogen out in the not-really a void of space before it even gets here, but whatever.

Ah, then you've got to deal with the quantum effects of that high energy environment, which you can't because quantum theory can't handle that at all. You could totally get a massive fusion explosion equivalent to losing, crazy-high end, eighty million tonnes of mass (a square-meter core through the earth with perfect conversion), but the sun does that every twenty seconds, it's not a big deal to the rest of the universe. Or even the planet.

Hell, that's not even 10^25 Joules worth of local energy remains post-collision, at the upper-end, where the gravitational binding energy for the earth alone is 10^32 Joules, so you're talking at least ten million (or vastly more) near-infinitely fast cannon balls even to tear apart just our own little planet. And that's not covert it to energy, just blast it apart for good.

So let's hit the earth with the earth, from opposite directions relative to the cosmic microwave background. That gets rid of the momentum of the collision system stealing all the energy away as a tight beam too. Now you've got all that energy momentarily in one place and ... that's right, energy and pressure and mass are all kinda the same thing, so all you've done is make a black hole, which won't destroy anything either, unless it happens to spiral in too close in the future.

Which rebinds me. Your cannon ball probably won't even become a spreading particle beam past a certain speed, because that sort of energy density is the same thing as a black hole, so the universe loses track of it all in a collision and you have a proper black hole. A really small, fast-moving one at that. It'd simply punch a comic-like hole through the planet (which would close behind it quite fast), and only cause a small fusion explosion from early edge-effects as it first collapsed. Only tear off the atmosphere or something equally lame, not even boil away the oceans.

But it's a trick question, eh. The visible universe will be destroyed by entropy over time, until it's indistinguishable from empty space. The speed the cannon ball needs for this to happen is none.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 6:34 pm

I want to run this by you guys to see if this passes for reasonable sci-fi. It is for a setting in a game I'm running.

The main planet the game starts on is a semi earth-like moon orbitting a gas giant. The giant has no rings, and most of the other moons are barren and rocky.

The planet is technically outside the habitable zone, but increased geothermal activity combined with the amount of radiation the gas giant puts out makes the planet hotter than it normally would be.

Said geothermal activity correlates with a likewise stronger magnetic field, which takes out the worst of the background radiation.

Due to being close to a large planet, there are tides in not only the oceans, but also in the upper atmosphere; if you can't see the Red Star in the sky, mountain climbing is suicide. Anyone living that high is either really resistant to lack of air, or not technically alive anymore. At sea level you don't notice as much, although air currents tend to be a good bit stronger than in our world (lots of windmills and geothermal energy around, most habitable areas have some sort of windbreak).

One month out of the year, the "Red Star" covers the "White Star", and there is a month of winter and darkness. The aurora displays are immensely powerful compared to our world, and the "Red Star" puts off a small amount of ruddy light (it looks like an eerie black orb with glowing red trails along its latitude), which means that there is light (suitable for low-light vision), and some amount of heat, although it does get bitterly cold. All plant life goes into torpor for a month, natural animals hibernate, the rest deal with conditions the best they can.

Now, keep in mind that for most of the moon's history they have had no knowledge of what goes out outside their world, so the common concept of "one year" is the time between periods of darkness. Which isn't technically even one revolution around the home planet, as the position of the sun relative to the gas giant is changing. Wizards, scholars, and outsiders have adopted a different calendar than the rest of the populace, which is technically accurate from a mathematical and astronomical position, but isn't widely accepted amongst the common folk (If you're American, think "Metric System").

When I write it up for my campaign setting, I'm going to zazz it up a good deal. I just want it to be juuuuuust scientific enough that my players buy it. It doesn't have to withstand academic vigour (and considering it seems like every time they look into space they find new shit they can't explain yet, I have enough wiggle room to park a bus in...)

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 7:30 pm

Hmm, question to that:
how has the massively superior gravity of the gas giant not stripped that moon of its athmosphere yet?
if it's smaller, it has less mass and thus less gravity/pull to keep its athmosphere in the first place, even without the gas giant next door it would sooner or later have evaporated into space on its own . .

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 7:45 pm

Ted the Flayer wrote:I want to run this by you guys to see if this passes for reasonable sci-fi. It is for a setting in a game I'm running.

The main planet the game starts on is a semi earth-like moon orbitting a gas giant. The giant has no rings, and most of the other moons are barren and rocky.

so the planet's satellite is a class M moon, like Pandora from the Avatar movie, or Endor (ewok habitat) from Star Wars?

yup, it passes the SoD sci-fi test. inhabitable moons around an inhabitable planet are acceptable. anything else you do would just be the world physics of that planet, and as long as you imagine the moon being a planet, say earth, could the things on that planet be acceptable on earth, and it seems you haven't done anything REALLY crazy for a setting where magic, advanced physics, etc couldnt contain and control anomalies.

MiB had a galaxy on a marble on a cat's neck, wherein the galaxy containing the cat was also in a marble for creatures using it to play a game of marbles.

the only question i have would be, what about interstellar travel? will it play a part in this setting, and how will you handle it if it does?

if you are just dealing with the moon as the planet, then nothing else matters and is only flavor except int he case where an astrological event may cause problems ON the planetoid/moon itself.

AQIWA: what is the height in mm of a cylinder with diameter of 1 inch of 1 avoirdupois pound of pure gold at 19.32 g/cm³?

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 7:46 pm

The moon is close enough to earth's mass that it has roughly the same gravity.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:02 pm

Shadzar:

Most interplanetary travel is through massive portals. The main planet is unique in that it has gates to every inhabited planet in the system (and a few that are no longer inhabited, the gates are thousands of years old).

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 8:35 pm

Titan has a fully developed atmosphere despite orbiting Saturn. It actually has a surface pressure 50% higher than Earth's, so having Earth-like atmospheres around a moon of a gas giant isn't implausible at all.

-Username17

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 9:23 pm

Ted the Flayer wrote:Shadzar:

Most interplanetary travel is through massive portals. The main planet is unique in that it has gates to every inhabited planet in the system (and a few that are no longer inhabited, the gates are thousands of years old).

ok, well Avatar, Star Wars, and a little bit of Stargate thrown in...i see absolutely nothing wrong. and everyone knows i bitch about SoD a lot so if you can convince me, you can probably convince anyone it works.

you would have to REALLY screw up for someone to not buy into your planetoid built and weather patterns and such. just remember to figure out your weather patterns, seasons, and sunrises per day based on revolution of the planet (gas giant) around the sun, and the moon around the planet.

maybe have someone predict ignition of the planet the moon is around as a prophecy to doomsday. someone is bound to ask about it OOC, but maybe someone would want to get into it IC, or worse... they may wish to ignite the gas giant during play and jsut destroy all the work you did. you know how players are, give them an inch and they take everything that isnt nailed down (and half of what is).

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:24 pm

shadzar wrote: AQIWA: what is the height in mm of a cylinder with diameter of 1 inch of 1 avoirdupois pound of pure gold at 19.32 g/cm³?

I got 14.7mm, but that doesn't seem right at all, It's been a long time since I've done any mathematics, but I just divided the volume of the cylinder by pi*radius^2, and got that.

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:37 pm

Korgan0 wrote:
shadzar wrote: AQIWA: what is the height in mm of a cylinder with diameter of 1 inch of 1 avoirdupois pound of pure gold at 19.32 g/cm³?
I got 14.7mm, but that doesn't seem right at all, It's been a long time since I've done any mathematics, but I just divided the volume of the cylinder by pi*radius^2, and got that.

yeah, i am getting something strange also. otherwise i would be able to have the thickness of a D&D pure gold coin figured already. that is why i am trying to check my math.

i get 22.5 mm height for the cylinder.

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 10:57 pm

shadzar wrote:
Korgan0 wrote:
shadzar wrote: AQIWA: what is the height in mm of a cylinder with diameter of 1 inch of 1 avoirdupois pound of pure gold at 19.32 g/cm³?
I got 14.7mm, but that doesn't seem right at all, It's been a long time since I've done any mathematics, but I just divided the volume of the cylinder by pi*radius^2, and got that.
yeah, i am getting something strange also. otherwise i would be able to have the thickness of a D&D pure gold coin figured already. that is why i am trying to check my math.

i get 22.5 mm height for the cylinder.

the mass is 453.59237 grams, according to wikipedia, which means 23.477865942 cm^3

1 inch is 2.54 cm, which gives r = 1.27 cm, which gives A = 5.067070511 cm^2, which gives 4.63 cm, or 46.3 mm

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:12 pm

Ted wrote:Due to being close to a large planet, there are tides in not only the oceans, but also in the upper atmosphere; if you can't see the Red Star in the sky, mountain climbing is suicide.

I'm actually fairly iffy on this. Atmospheric tides exist on earth, and even without them the depth of the troposphere varies wildly by latitude (much deeper at the equator than at the poles), but U.S. flight regulations are latitude indiscriminate. Most of the stuff I can find on human safe altitudes is latitude indiscriminate. I tried to do some reading about specific mountains to see if their latitude influenced how hard they were to climb/frequency of altitude-related problems, but I wasn't getting anywhere and then I said "I am never going to climb a mountain in my fucking life why am I doing this." Before I gave up, I was getting the unsubstantiated impression that the frequency of altitude-related problems varies between mountains of even the same altitude, but it seems to have more to do with the region's shitty weather making the mountain a hellish place to be more than anything else. That said, it seems plausible and my amateur efforts to poke a hole in it failed, and I think that means it passes.

shadzar · Post by **shadzar** » Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:27 pm

RadiantPhoenix wrote:
shadzar wrote:
Korgan0 wrote:
I got 14.7mm, but that doesn't seem right at all, It's been a long time since I've done any mathematics, but I just divided the volume of the cylinder by pi*radius^2, and got that.
yeah, i am getting something strange also. otherwise i would be able to have the thickness of a D&D pure gold coin figured already. that is why i am trying to check my math.

i get 22.5 mm height for the cylinder.
the mass is 453.59237 grams, according to wikipedia, which means 23.477865942 cm^3

1 inch is 2.54 cm, which gives r = 1.27 cm, which gives A = 5.067070511 cm^2, which gives 4.63 cm, or 46.3 mm

now THIS gives me 50 coins to a pound of gold (~1st edition, 4th edition), what i KNOW should be @0.9mm thickness 1 inch diameter coins! (4.63mm thick coins for 2nd and 3.x editions for those wondering.)

now to figure out where i screwed up my spreadsheet. maybe i converted g/cm3 to lb/in3 wrong, or just shouldnt before finding r and h since its only leaves converting 2.54cm diameter to the 1 inch...funfunfun, and thank you both.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 12:13 am

DSMatticus:

I got the idea from an article that said that the atmospheric tides on Titan were extreme compared to Earth, making Titans winds pretty harsh. I may be overestimating the effects a bit.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 12:31 am

So for Bakuhatsu High I want to include a section on "Magic is real, but so is Science". Basically to bullshit a way that the supernatural stuff can happen at all. What with magic not existing in this world (and the game world having "this world" as the past), that's tricky. What with me not knowing much about Physics, it's probably harder.

It includes a single "other world" (spirit realm, ~= the Astral Plane), and has the usual superhuman speed/strength, unleashing of energy attacks, and psychic powers (telepathy/telekinesis) as major things.

What's the easiest way to bullshit this?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Dec 10, 2012 1:13 am

Clarke's Law.

Sufficiently advanced technology or science is indistinguishable from magic.

I also like to say that the reverse holds true: Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from advanced technology or science.

Which is a perfectly reasonable bullshit explanition, in my opinion.