Science Notes

Your awesome Tagline

28,029 notes

medicalschool:

Floaters are deposits of various size, shape, consistency, refractive index, and motility within the eye’s vitreous humour, which is normally transparent. At a young age the vitreous is perfectly transparent but, during life, imperfections gradually develop. The common type of floater, which is present in most people’s eyes, is due to degenerative changes of the vitreous humour. The perception of floaters is known as myodesopsia. Floaters are visible because of the shadows they cast on the retina or their refraction of the light that passes through them, and can appear alone or together with several others in one’s field of vision. They may appear as spots, threads, or fragments of cobwebs, which float slowly before the observer’s eyes. Since these objects exist within the eye itself, they are not optical illusions but are entoptic phenomena.

(via scinerds)

104 notes

curiositycounts:

I’d seen snippets raving about the iPad app, Paper, then a coworker showed it to me in person. I think I said something along the lines of “Oh my.”

It’s intuitive, creates a seamless experience and has absolutely gorgeous graphics. So naturally I had to download it and share with the Curiosity Counters. And whether for scribbling notes, sketching or showing off some serious artistic talent, this app is a wonderful (and useful) addition to any creators toolkit. 


Enjoy! 

10,944 notes

thats-textbook-enigmatic:

morph0fairy:

happilyimperfect:

darcotheferret:

cashfameandsocialchange:

dawnofeden:

e1n:

ihaventeateninthreehours:

geniusbee:

nekoconsulting:

lilywinterwood:

digitalhoarder:

BECAUSE I HAVE NO LIFE AND THIS IS REALLY BOTHERING ME…

The prevailing theory on Tumblr on how Sherlock survived the fall was that he managed to land in a laundry truck.

Benedict Cumberbatch is 1.84 meters tall and by using his body you can measure how far from the building he would have had to jump to make it into the truck. Roughly 7.32 meters.

Sherlock is standing on the Pathological Department of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Google Street View shows what appears to be Routemaster double-decker buses which are 4.38 meters tall. The building therefore is roughly 14.6 meters. 

You can use Pythagoras’ theorem to calculate the distance which is 16.33 meters. FYI: The World Record for men’s long jump is 8.95 meters and that was done with a running start. Sherlock flopped over the edge with no horizontal directional speed. I don’t think it’s possible for the laundry truck theory. 

EDIT: how much time he had to “steer” towards the truck while falling.

Time = √ 2(height)/gravity
Time = √ 2(14.6m)/9.8 m/s²
Time = √ 29.2m/9.8 m/s²
Time = √ 2.98 m/s²
Time = 1.73 seconds

Sherlock was falling for 1.73 seconds.

Question: Can you jump off a 14.6 meter building and land in a truck full of laundry 7.23 meters away in 1.73 seconds?

HOLY SHIT MATH AND PHYSICS

THIS IS LEGIT BECAUSE THEY USED MATHEMATICS

YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID

I am so bad at math but I appreciate it. This is QUALITY and jeez even visual aids YES THIS IS HOW I SHOULD HAVE LEARNED GEOMETRY 

Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble but this is not quite right.

People don’t fall in straight lines, they fall in parabolas. So Pythagoras has nothing to do with this. What we need is projectile motion physics.

The dark red is the path he would actually take.

So using these figures it still takes 1.73 seconds to fall vertically 14.6m with an acceleration of 9.8 ms-1. 

But travelling horizontally there is no acceleration or deceleration. To travel the 7.32m to the truck Sherlock would only have to take off from the roof at 4.23 ms-1. (Because of air resistance he may have fallen slower and taken a longer time therefore this number may be even lower). Average human walking speed is between 4 to 6 ms-1 (I couldn’t find an exact number) so for Sherlock to have reached the truck in that time he would only have to step off. By falling the way he did it looks like he didn’t push off but there is actually a lot more horizontal velocity than if he had just stepped so he could actually reach the truck.

Also this explains why Sherlock chose such a tall building. If the height wasn’t as large he couldn’t have made it that distance to the truck.

tl;dr: Sherlock could have made it to the truck without any particular effort. The truck theory is still viable.

I’m going to regret jumping on this, but the Parabola theory above is the correct one.  You don’t fall in a straight line like what the original theory said. 

That said, in order to make 7.32m of horizontal displacement, you need 4.23m/s of horizontal speed, which is NOT walking speed.  According to Wikipedia (on Walking), average human walking speed is 3.1mph, or 1.4m/s.  4.23m/s amounts to about 9.5mph, which is a running speed.  If you don’t believe me, get on a treadmill and set the “speed” to 9.5.  I guarantee you’ll be running like hell.

Taking into account air resistance and all that shit, I’d imagine he’d be pretty lucky to be able to land on the truck.  But even if he was that lucky, landing on the back of that truck will really break some shit.  There has to be a more elegant solution to this, although it was really really suspicious that the truck just drove by after a person jumped off the building and landed next to it.

I’m more intrigued by this:

The truck went missing in one scene. Then it reappeared and drove away, but in the following cut, the truck was back to where it was when it first started.

Maybe it was just badly edited.  But maybe…

Well this is a lot to think about…

the sherlock fandom doesn’t just speculate

they break out motherfucking physics

i am screaming omg

Projectile motion ftw. 

sweet jesus

“the sherlock fandom doesn’t just speculate

they break out motherfucking physics”

omg

(via holytimelordsbatman)

0 notes

Derren Brown’ new special - Miracles for Sale (by zemi7777)

With the cameras in hot pursuit, Derren faces his toughest project yet, going in search of an unsuspecting member of the British public prepared to adopt the guise of a pastor and miracle worker.

His chosen one then has six months to learn the trade and flourish across the pond as a convincing pastor.

The final phase of the volunteer’s extraordinary challenge sees them attempt to perform faith healing miracles live in Texas, but will Derren’s new recruit be accepted as a faith healer or cast away as fake healer? (fromhttp://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2011/04/derren-brown-miracles-sale-tonight-9pm/)

1 note

BBC Horizon - The Secret You (by anewpersonalparadigm)

With the help of a hammer-wielding scientist, Jennifer Aniston and a general anaesthetic, Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science’s greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are? While the thoughts that make us feel as though we know ourselves are easy to experience, they are notoriously difficult to explain. So, in order to find out where they come from, Marcus subjects himself to a series of probing experiments.

He learns at what age our self-awareness emerges and whether other species share this trait. Next, he has his mind scrambled by a cutting-edge experiment in anaesthesia. Having survived that ordeal, Marcus is given an out-of-body experience in a bid to locate his true self. And in Hollywood, he learns how celebrities are helping scientists understand the microscopic activities of our brain. Finally, he takes part in a mind-reading experiment that both helps explain and radically alters his understanding of who he is.

Mirrored from http://www.youtube.com/user/atheistmediadotcom

Filed under psychology brain mind self-awareness biology out-of-body experience

28 notes

The most enigmatic of all codes in the most clandestine of all places has yet to be fully broken. “Kryptos,” a coded sculpture in the courtyard of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, contains a long string of seemingly nonsensical letters that conceal a message devised by sculptor James Sanborn. Some portions have been deciphered, but the last bit remains a mystery. Solutions anyone? (via NOVA | Kryptos)

Filed under decryption encryption math numbers