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A Billion Degrees of [Science]

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    honoverehonovere Registered User regular
    So they were already dead?

    Probably.

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    BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    some rocket retrospective about the Russian Proton rocket that's being retired soon

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxzUBbm4Zwo

    BahamutZERO.gif
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    ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    The universe is full of grease!
    The researchers found that there were about 100 greasy carbon atoms for every million hydrogen atoms, accounting for between a quarter and a half of the available carbon.

    In the Milky Way this amounts to about 10 billion trillion trillion tonnes of greasy matter — that's 1 with 34 zeros after it.

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    valhalla130valhalla130 13 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered User regular
    So you're saying by washing my face constantly, I'm denying the natural order of the universe?

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    PinfeldorfPinfeldorf Yeah ZestRegistered User regular
    Billion trillion trillion is a nonsense term, what's the point of that?

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    BrainleechBrainleech 機知に富んだコメントはここにあります Registered User regular
    Pinfeldorf wrote: »
    Billion trillion trillion is a nonsense term, what's the point of that?

    Because after a point numbers become meaningless with the human system of counting

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    ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    Also, a lot of people don't understand scientific notation and "10 decillion tonnes" means nothing to anyone.

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    honoverehonovere Registered User regular
    Billion trillion trillion also means nothing to me, to be honest. At some point it just becomes "a lot"

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    Houk the NamebringerHouk the Namebringer Nipples The EchidnaRegistered User regular
    edited July 2018
    honovere wrote: »
    Billion trillion trillion also means nothing to me, to be honest. At some point it just becomes "a lot"

    I mean I agree but if you're a scientific researcher you can't conclude your report with "there's a lot of 'em".

    Trillion is probably the highest round number that people can at least understand on a basic level (like we can kiiiind of get our head around a trillion-dollar deficit, for example), so just stacking a bunch of billions and trillions together is the easiest way to get across the idea of a literally unimaginable fuck-ton without swearing in your report.

    Houk the Namebringer on
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    TheStigTheStig Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    Will the editor accept "a whole butt load"?

    TheStig on
    bnet: TheStig#1787 Steam: TheStig
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    JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    I think "billion trillion trillion" is a more useful term for the general audience than "10 decillion," which is better than "10^34," but all notations are pretty useless at that scale.

    Even our old friend the Megapenny Project kind of fails us here. You can barely grasp the difference between a billion and a trillion by using a billion pennies to construct five school-bus-sized rectangular blocks and using a trillion pennies to build a 27-story cube. Using a decillion pennies to construct a cube ten times the size of the sun and then telling the audience to imagine ten of those is useless, because the sun is already uselessly huge as far as points of comparison go.

    Copernicus was a mistake.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
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    Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    TheStig wrote: »
    Will the editor accept "a whole butt load"?

    Only in articles submitted for Brewer’s Quarterly.

    ...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
    Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
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    ButlerButler 89 episodes or bust Registered User regular
    I say we kill 'em all and let Euclid sort them out.

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    discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Eh...
    How carbon absorbs light

    I'm not sure how they're planning to use this research?
    I would assume the size of the carbon molecules is largely determined by the partial pressure of the carbon in the plasma, and that would change the spectra of absorbed light.

    ..which would be local to the star, in its observed colour already, and deduced?
    I guess we can repeat the experiment a lot and get some good statistical analysis on the likely distribution of organic compounds for certain partial pressures?

    Blah.
    It's research; I shouldn't be questioning what they wanted to do with an answer they didn't know yet.

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    PinfeldorfPinfeldorf Yeah ZestRegistered User regular
    honovere wrote: »
    Billion trillion trillion also means nothing to me, to be honest. At some point it just becomes "a lot"

    I mean I agree but if you're a scientific researcher you can't conclude your report with "there's a lot of 'em".

    Trillion is probably the highest round number that people can at least understand on a basic level (like we can kiiiind of get our head around a trillion-dollar deficit, for example), so just stacking a bunch of billions and trillions together is the easiest way to get across the idea of a literally unimaginable fuck-ton without swearing in your report.

    Well, billion trillion trillion has another problem: how is the math done? Is it billion * trillion * trillion or a billion + trillion + trillion? Just saying '34 zeroes' is perfectly fine for me in this scenario.

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    SiliconStewSiliconStew Registered User regular
    Pinfeldorf wrote: »
    honovere wrote: »
    Billion trillion trillion also means nothing to me, to be honest. At some point it just becomes "a lot"

    I mean I agree but if you're a scientific researcher you can't conclude your report with "there's a lot of 'em".

    Trillion is probably the highest round number that people can at least understand on a basic level (like we can kiiiind of get our head around a trillion-dollar deficit, for example), so just stacking a bunch of billions and trillions together is the easiest way to get across the idea of a literally unimaginable fuck-ton without swearing in your report.

    Well, billion trillion trillion has another problem: how is the math done? Is it billion * trillion * trillion or a billion + trillion + trillion? Just saying '34 zeroes' is perfectly fine for me in this scenario.

    It's handled no differently than any other large number we say like "a hundred thousand". As mentioned, trillion is just the largest number people might be familiar with how many zeros it has, so that's what you break the number up into when you say it. Even when they know how much a trillion is, it's still difficult to visualize, so the "34 zeros" reinforces for the reader just how big the number is.

    Just remember that half the people you meet are below average intelligence.
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    JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    I prefer trollish nomenclature, in which a trillion is lots^250,000,000,000.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
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    BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    Jedoc wrote: »
    I prefer trollish nomenclature, in which a trillion is lots^250,000,000,000.

    There is a real possibility that people won't know what your talking about.

    Almost certainly.



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    Duke 2.0Duke 2.0 Time Trash Cat Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    I appreciate the flatness of the Possibly variants

    Duke 2.0 on
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    BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited July 2018
    I would be real interested to see some geographic breakdowns of that graph.

    See if the 'not often' 10, 20 and 30 percents are regional.


    Edit: that is the weirdest autocorrect, my phone added 'not often' in front of the 20 and 30 in that sentence

    Burtletoy on
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    discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    Now put 'Should' on the graph

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    BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
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    BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
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    BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular
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    tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Gonna guess: bones.
    At least one bone.

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    HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Not only should it be opened but whatever dust/howling ghast that emerges upon opening should be inhaled as deeply as possible

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    Metzger MeisterMetzger Meister It Gets Worse before it gets any better.Registered User regular
    Well whoever or whatever is in there, it is F O R S U R E cursed. Just lousy with curses.

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    DouglasDangerDouglasDanger PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
    That's amazing

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    Librarian's ghostLibrarian's ghost Librarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSpork Registered User regular
    Well whoever or whatever is in there, it is F O R S U R E cursed. Just lousy with curses.

    Maybe you'll get so many curses that they will cancel each other out.

    (Switch Friend Code) SW-4910-9735-6014(PSN) timspork (Steam) timspork (XBox) Timspork


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    TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Brolo wrote: »

    Now see in our Vampire campaign in college when we found a massive black sarcophagus we just dumped it into the deepest part of the ocean we could get to.

    Much to the chagrin of the guy running the campaign who then basically threw away an entire notebook.

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    DouglasDangerDouglasDanger PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
    The link on that tweet forces some sort of talking ad on my phone, fyi

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    Captain InertiaCaptain Inertia Registered User regular
    How do we know it’s a sarcophagus? Mightn’t it be a reliquary instead?

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    HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    Or a very inefficient clothes hamper

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    BroloBrolo Broseidon Lord of the BroceanRegistered User regular

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    Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Hobnail wrote: »
    Or a very inefficient clothes hamper

    It's a cooler. They'll open it, and there'll be nothing in there but some ice and a dozen or so cans of Coors.

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    XehalusXehalus Registered User regular
    bEMtBZf.jpg

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    Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    It’s Pandora’s Box! And/or a prehistoric nuclear weapon.

    ...because dragons are AWESOME! That's why.
    Nintendo Network ID: AzraelRose
    DropBox invite link - get 500MB extra free.
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    AtheraalAtheraal Registered User regular
    My money's on it being the pharaoh's dildo collection

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    HobnailHobnail Registered User regular
    I wonder if any of them pharaohs went in for a solid gold dildo

    I bet a solid gold dildo would be pretty good

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    Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Hobnail wrote: »
    I wonder if any of them pharaohs went in for a solid gold dildo

    I bet a solid gold dildo would be pretty good

    It'd be bloody heavy, especially if it was a real big one.

    Hmm, is gold as antibacterial as silver is?

This discussion has been closed.