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Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

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Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#131

Post by Corrado »

RaoulP wrote: post #85

It never fails to amuse me that any pressure or force that we intuitively feel is "pulled" by a vacuum, is only caused by air pressure on the other sides of an object. When you see something hanging from a suction cup in your kitchen or bathroom, it's fun to imagine that the air around you is hammering the suction cup enough to keep it stuck there. With quite some force you'll notice, if you try to pull it straight o…

Wow, I never thought about that before. So, if you could draw a vacuum in your whole kitchen or bathroom, would the suction cup fall down?

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#133

Post by andreskytt »

seanwilson wrote: post #72
hprotagonist wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, of course, Popperian falsifiability is itself unfalsafiable, and therefore does not meet its own definition as a member of itself. Popper knew this, by the way. So the inverse to the trap you point out here is the claims that "if not falsifiable, then unable to be true/useful", which is just as specious.

Isn't this like saying if X is an axiom and you can prove Y via X, you shouldn't trust Y is true because you can't prove X is true? What systems for determining the truth exist that aren't built on top of some fundamental axioms?

That’s where Gödel’s theorem comes in. There’s always axioms unprovable without expanding the system

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#134

Post by AndrewOMartin »

Corrado wrote: post #132

The gold in my wedding ring was formed inside a star. I kinda sorta knew all matter was formed inside stars but it never really clicked until I thought about something as simple as a lump of gold and where those atoms really originated.

Related, most of the atoms in a new born baby are 13.7bn years old.

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#135

Post by gadders »

sloaken wrote: post #95
gadders wrote: post #2

Obvious when you think about it, but I didn't realise for ages that all the planets orbit in the same plane.

Is the obvious reason because the sun is spinning? Or some other not so obvious reason I do not know of?

Well this may not be correct, but I'm assuming the plane they spin in is the same as the equator of the Sun and in the same direction as the Sun's rotation. That would make sense if they were made of "stuff" that was thrown out from the centre and clumped together.

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#136

Post by riffraff »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #134
Corrado wrote: post #132

The gold in my wedding ring was formed inside a star. I kinda sorta knew all matter was formed inside stars but it never really clicked until I thought about something as simple as a lump of gold and where those atoms really originated.

Related, most of the atoms in a new born baby are 13.7bn years old.

as Moby would say, we are all made of stars. It was a bit mindblowing to me to realize this was true and not just some hippie-ish slogan.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_All_Made_of_Stars

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#137

Post by mercer »

JohnDeHope wrote: post #94

I absolutely cannot psychologically deal with the Monty Haul paradox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem I've coded it multiple times in multiple programming languages as a cathartic exercise. Despite seeing the results obviously printed out in a console in front of me, I just can't handle it. I lose SAN just thinking about it.

The only explanation that 'felt' acceptable to me is to imagine that you're really playing two games instead of one. In the first game, you're right 1/3rd of the time. Then you get to play a new game where you're right half the time, but you can also choose to not play that game and stick with the results of the first game. Playing the second game (picking another door) is more obviously the right thing to do in this case.

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#138

Post by throw1234651234 »

Xcelerate wrote: post #89
throw1234651234 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

W=mg Weight is mass times gravity. It is the mass of the object. As affected by a single force - gravity. Gravity is a force. A spinning ball has ANOTHER force acting on it, and therefore cannot be defined by "weight". In short, this is an absurd statement that tries to redefine a scientific definition for...I don't even know? Sensationalism?

You are not considering the effect of general relativity. See theoretical physicist Professor Matt Strassler's page where he gives the exact same example of how energy can be stored that I did: https://profmattstrassler.com/articles-and-posts/particle-ph... . All forms of energy, including potential energy in the form of a compressed/stretched spring, couple to the gravitational field. Again, read about the stress-en…

Will read and come back, maybe I am missing something. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#139

Post by throw1234651234 »

jabirali wrote: post #103
throw1234651234 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

W=mg Weight is mass times gravity. It is the mass of the object. As affected by a single force - gravity. Gravity is a force. A spinning ball has ANOTHER force acting on it, and therefore cannot be defined by "weight". In short, this is an absurd statement that tries to redefine a scientific definition for...I don't even know? Sensationalism?

You’re assuming the Newtonian theory of gravity, the parent poster uses Einstein’s general relativity. These theories disagree on quite a lot; e.g. general relativity predicts that light is affected by gravity, while Newton’s theory would not since photons are massless particles. Einstein was proven right here too. Note however that the quoted effect – difference in weight between a compressed and uncompressed spring…

Will look into all of this, thanks.

Re: Ask HN: What is a science fact that blew your mind when you learned it?

#140

Post by _nalply »

hprotagonist wrote: post #63
aazaa wrote: post #40

Science doesn't "prove" hypotheses - it disproves them. For this to work, a hypothesis must be falsifiable. Most pseudoscience (and religion) makes non-falsifiable claims, meaning they are incompatible with scientific discourse. This simple observation is a powerful tool in any bullshit-detection kit. Once produced, a scientific hypothesis of any merit will be attacked vigorously with experiments until enough parties…

Ironically, of course, Popperian falsifiability is itself unfalsafiable, and therefore does not meet its own definition as a member of itself. Popper knew this, by the way. So the inverse to the trap you point out here is the claims that "if not falsifiable, then unable to be true/useful", which is just as specious.

Aha! Now that's why some people say that science is a religion, too.
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