Some things have been bugging me for a while that clearly demonstrate that we're being hoodwinked. Things that are given 'scientific' explanations but clearly run on magic.
1) Syphoning liquid - Yes, I had it explained to me in GCSE physics, and yes, I understand the 'principle', but it's making water flow uphill, and that cannot be natural.
2) Induction hobs - Anyone who's watched a large pan full of cold water and potatoes start to bubble within a minute of being placed on an induction hob knows that can only be possible by harnessing the power of the Old Gods.
Any other examples?
Not so much science, but definitely technology. I find solace in these two axioms:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic AND
Anything that's invented between when you're fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things
Oh and anything to do with Quarks. Other than a noise a posh duck makes, I assume physicists are just trolling the rest of us 🙂
Aircraft. You expect me to believe that you can chuck a metal tube weighing hundreds of tonnes down a road at 100mph and it just magically takes off? Obvious nonsense - they are clearly held up in the air by faith and crashes occur when someone realises this and stands up on the plane shouting " what is holding us up here?". If enough people question it then the plane crashes for lack of faith
The kidney, once explained to one of our trainees as "blood goes in, magic pixies, blood and urine come out".
This stands up quite well as an explanation as if someone is shocked/hypoxic then the pixies go on strike.
I can of course explain in painful detail how CVVHDF works.
If Quarks were not bad enough how about gluons? Obviously made up
The popularity of Mrs Browns Boys
without a doubt someone had to sacrifice their firstborn to get that made, let alone successful
Aircraft. You expect me to believe that you can chuck a metal tube weighing hundreds of tonnes down a road at 100mph and it just magically takes off? Obvious nonsense – they are clearly held up in the air by faith and crashes occur when someone realises this and stands up on the plane shouting ” what is holding us up here?”. If enough people question it then the plane crashes for lack of faith
Unless the aircraft is on a treadmill obviously - in which case there's no doubt about whether or not it can take off...
Is a very good point
Magnetic fields don't have points. 😉
If Quarks were not bad enough how about gluons? Obviously made up
@tjagain - well I read that wiki page and now I feel very stupid 🙂
Basic magnetism is relatively easy as it is really just metal loves metal.
Wait until you get to Geo-magnetism where the 'simpleintroduction for dummies' starts with : [i]The geomagnetic field vector, B, is described by the orthogonal components X (northerly intensity), Y (easterly intensity) and Z (vertical intensity, positive downwards); total intensity F; horizontal intensity H; inclination (or dip) I (the angle between the horizontal plane and the field vector, measured positive downwards) and declination (or magnetic variation) D (the horizontal angle between true north and the field vector, measured positive eastwards). Declination, inclination and total intensity can be computed from the orthogonal components using the equations
where H is given by
.
The International System of Units (SI) unit of magnetic field intensity, strictly flux density, most commonly used in geomagnetism is the Tesla. At the Earth's surface the total intensity varies from 22,000 nanotesla (nT) to 67,000 nT. Other units likely to be encountered are the Gauss (1 Gauss = 100,000 nT), the gamma (1 gamma = 1 nT) and the Ørsted.[/i]
Hmmm,looks like the equations got stuck to the other webpage, must be magnetism of something
Have you every watched a photograph develop?
Its definitely witchcraft.
The sheer longevity of Joe Cocker's career.
Songwriting is the science bit, but how he keeps going all this time is pure magic.
@ratherbeintobago As someone who has spent a professional lifetime in renal computing now you have me curious as to what you do (and where) 😉
Anaesthesia.
we'll put you to sleep, and magically, you won't feel a thing - say the actual experts in the field, when pressed further about the detailed mechanism; will shout "squirrel" and run out of the room. True Story
@littlerob I'm curious what renal computing is.
@nickc Please don't start on the other half of my job. Anyway, isn't it something to do with GABA in the reticular activating system?
Have you every watched a photograph develop?
It's 28 years now since I last had a darkroom and still the memory of watching images appear before my eyes never leaves me.
Consciousness - currently reading Anil Seth's Being You. I could tell you something about it but you'd hear something different from what I'm saying 😂
The landing of toast on the floor butter side down, its a tragedy.
"flow". Only experienced it a handful of times but there's only one answer to "how the **** did I manage that?"
Also superglue when it first came out
@kayak23 - still no sign of a tour 😕
Anaesthesia.
we’ll put you to sleep, and magically, you won’t feel a thing – say the actual experts in the field, when pressed further about the detailed mechanism; will shout “squirrel” and run out of the room. True Story
I think this might be true because the anesthesiest that put me sleep sure as shit didn't didn't apply any science when i told him morphine would do nothing for me. he just reassured me they'd up the dose. holy shitballs snapping out of general anesthetic to full blown post op pain was quite the awakening.
The majority of face masks worn during the pandemic
The gold-white vs blue-black dress internet debate a few years prompted some pretty interesting research about colour perception. Safe to say some folks are definitely not seeing the same colour that you are for lots of complex reasons, most of which appear to not have any real logical basis or evolutionary reason at all.
Anaesthesia.
we’ll put you to sleep, and magically, you won’t feel a thing – say the actual experts in the field, when pressed further about the detailed mechanism; will shout “squirrel” and run out of the room. True Story
Doesn't this apply to a lot of painkilling and sedatives'? We know they work. We know which ones work better than others. We're really good at making them work how we want to.
But why? No one really knows. That's why you can still go into a chemist and buy aspirin which is really just synthetically made Willow bark extract.
Same with Lithium, it's been used in the treatment of mental health issues for ~80 years. Still not sure anyone's figured out why it works though.
Anyway, isn’t it something to do with GABA in the reticular activating system?
My housemate once gave me a large dose of GABA* to get me to sleep whilst I was suffering a bout of insomnia. That was fun.
*you can buy it as a bodybuilding supplement
jhinwxm Free Member
The majority of face masks worn during the pandemic
That @jhinwxm hasn't found a new conspiracy to latch onto yet, it's been 4 years.
Doesn’t this apply to a lot of painkilling and sedatives?
I'd say not a lot, no - opioids and NSAIDs are pretty well understood, as is aspirin. The actual anaesthetic agents, especially volatiles, less so.
Crystalography. So you've x-rayed this tiny sliver of rock which draws some dots on a bit of photograhic paper and from that you know what shape the crystals are, in 3D? oh you're going to take the dots and draw some lines and oh my god they're atoms.
I have never understood how condensed water can stay in the sky for such long periods of time.
+1 on the aircraft/flight thing.
I did my dissertation looking at a wing in ground-effect (not that I can remember much of it) but it still seems like bonkers stuff.
Even 'simple' things that we take for granted are crazy when you get into the nuts & bolts.
A car engine idling at ~800rpm means that the pistons are going up & down over 13 times/second.
Rev it to 5000rpm and they're now going up & down over 83 times/second.....!!
standing up. think about how complex it is. Its clearly impossible to stand on two feet hence why most animals are on 4. discount birds - they are not real
“blood goes in, magic pixies, blood and urine come out”.
I imagine passing a magic pixie would make your eyes water a bit.
I imagine passing a magic pixie would make your eyes water a bit.
That’s why the Cornish call them piskeys.
The universe. It must be infinite but can’t be.
Also universe: Speed of light appears to have changed over time.
microwaves.
I have never understood how condensed water can stay in the sky for such long periods of time.
That ones easy.
To evaporate water you put a lot of energy in, to condense it you get that energy back out. Which means it's effectively heating the air around it (or in reality the cloud is one temperature and keeps rising through colder air rather then cooling as the pressure drops like dry air would).
A cloud is actually a body of air moving upwards very quickly and that airflow holds the water droplets.
Lasers - take a bit of ruby, shine some light into it and a frikkin laser beam shoots out.
A cloud is actually a body of air moving upwards very quickly
Wind isn't visible!
But thanks for the explanation, I am sure you are right, but it's easier for me to accept that it's all just magic. Like rainbows.
Even ‘simple’ things that we take for granted are crazy when you get into the nuts & bolts.
A car engine idling at ~800rpm means that the pistons are going up & down over 13 times/second.
Rev it to 5000rpm and they’re now going up & down over 83 times/second…..!!
A fun thing to calculate is the acceleration of a piston from top dead center.
It's huge. You'd think the loads on the crank and con-rods would be the results of all the firey explosions above them. And you'd be right, but not by as much as you would imagine.
At full throttle it's about 10tones of force, which is a lot.
But at 5000RPM the piston itself (which is ~800g) is accelerating at 15,000 ms^-2, which means it produces a force equal to about 2 tones. And it's doing that whether you're at full throttle or just cruising along
To evaporate water you put a lot of energy in, to condense it you get that energy back out. Which means it’s effectively heating the air around it (or in reality the cloud is one temperature and keeps rising through colder air rather then cooling as the pressure drops like dry air would).
Don't arrive here with knowledge and reason, this thread is about magic.
I don't get this thread. If something intrigues you educate yourself. The thread started badly and the tone was set with:
"1) Syphoning liquid – Yes, I had it explained to me in GCSE physics, and yes, I understand the ‘principle’, but it’s making water flow uphill, and that cannot be natural."
....when it's gravity that makes syphoned liquid flow, and hence only 'downhill'.
The Quantum Bomb tester experiment is clearly magic...
"The Elitzur–Vaidman bomb-tester is a quantum mechanics thought experiment that uses interaction-free measurements to verify that a bomb is functional without having to detonate it."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elitzur%E2%80%93Vaidman_bomb_tester
I don't think it's just a thought experiment it's been verified experimentally.
I don’t get this thread. If something intrigues you educate yourself.
The internet is full of videos from people who have D0nE Th3yre 0Wn R3sEarch! and look where that has lead...
If something intrigues you educate yourself.
Educate yourself about the mechanism of Anaesthetics and not only can you come back to the thread and let us know, you can do the same for the Royal College of Surgeons, who I'm pretty sure would welcome the news.
Plus also, is nothing at all on this site allowed ever to be light-hearted, ever?
uses interaction-free measurements to verify that a bomb is functional without having to detonate it.
where's the fun in that?
Anything vaguely sciencey but also (coincidentally I'm sure) politically hot that the UN or other supra national bodies have colluded with information gatekeepers such as Google to ensure only an approved subset of information is available for public consumption.
These are generally bogus, or magic
Magnets. You can't have perpetual motion, but a magnet can always generate force
Gillian Anderson. The older she gets, the better she looks. Clearly magic.
Music through headphones - that voice is in the middle of my head! That guitar is only in my right ear and the bass might be mainly to the left but my brain is putting it all together in a way that is hard to explain.
If a band is in front of you playing live it all makes sense but stereo stuff in headphones does magic things.
DrP
The Brighton i360.
But.,.. if you ask me it needs a few guy ropes from the top, holding it in place TBH.
I reckon the pole is stuck in the ground the same distance it protrudes. Should be alright.
For all of the pedants about to leap on this statement & correct me; it's a joke. Unless it's true. Then, I am obviously an expert.
@DrP - what's even more amazing from your pic is why all the water isn't draining onto the beach, given how wonky the horizon is!!
Waderider
I don’t get this thread. If something intrigues you educate yourself.
You can understand something, but still find it amazing/magical. Magnets, radio waves, gravity, white dog eggs. The world is a truly wondrous place.
My iPad.
I don’t get this thread. If something intrigues you educate yourself.
And people call me a fun sponge.
The universe. It must be infinite but can’t be.
This. The whole cosmos thing. A clear, dark night in a bivi bag prompts thoughts or feelings I struggle to describe. Generally I give up and literally just stare into space.
There's a good documentary on Netflix titled 'A Trip to Infinity' with cosmologists and physicists talking about the idea of an infinite universe and they're clearly mind-blown by the idea of it too.
And Cosmos is one of my favourite books, we describe so many things as 'genius' but Carl Sagan was on another level with his ability to understand and communicate this stuff.
Music.
How can soundwaves, in a series of varying frequencies simultaneously affect the brain chemistry of thousands of individuals in a stadium to joy and rapture? The same frequencies, arranged in a slightly different order can pass unnoticed in a lift.
Properly mad, that.
Since I was young this has been a mystery to me:
Why is the sky blue?
Because the sunlight goes through the atmosphere and the longer wavelengths get scattered so only the short ones (blue) make it through.
Why is the sunset red?
Because the sunlight goes through the extra dust in the atmosphere and the shorter wavelengths get scattered so only the long ones (red) make it through.
Why is snow white?
Because the sunlight gets scattered through all the crystals and all mixed up together, therefore white.
Clearly some magic going on here.
I don’t get this thread. If something intrigues you educate yourself.
Away with you and your logic.
Thermos Flasks .
Great at keeping things hot or cold.
But how do they know?
I reckon the pole is stuck in the ground the same distance it protrudes. Should be alright.
For all of the pedants about to leap on this statement & correct me; it’s a joke. Unless it’s true. Then, I am obviously an expert.
you should see how they built it - top first then adding more and more underneath. Bonkers
2.20ish onwards
Wifi.
My laptop is not currently connected physically to anything. Yet it works (thanks to a battery with some magical hamsters in it, you can't fool me with this "electrons" nonsense...) and all the info that I'm viewing/hearing is sent through the air (definitely magic) from a "router" (more magic) which is connected to some cables, at the end of which is some more magic allowing me to access the sum total of human achievements in seconds.
Imagine just how many millions of special pixies must be finding all that stuff and pushing it through the wires to me!
🤯
I can’t post mine, but it involves a statistical analysis which is in contempt of court.
Waderider
I don’t get this thread. If something intrigues you educate yourself.
Because at the sharp pointy end of science, no one knows the answer. Let alone is able to explain it in a brief wikipedia page.
Quantum physics and relativity is still a field of physics populated by some very clever monkeys with some very clever tools looking at some very hot fire and going "oooooohhhhhhhh", Just like they did in a cave a million years ago.
Most people could probably have it explained to them what fire actually is and why it's generally red, hot and painful.
Ask them what the Higgs field is and even someone fairly intelligent will get stuck at the first "but why", after "it gives things mass when they move through it".
- The universe is expanding. I'm ok with this.
- The expansion of the universe is speeding up. Getting twitchy now.
- Scientists (of whatever species) on earth (or a planet of you choosing) in 100 billion years will have no idea of the size of the universe. All they'll be able to see are very local neighbouring galaxies. There will be no evidence of anything else being out there as the expansion will be so fast by then that no light will ever make it from distant galaxies to us. Now I need a wee lie down.
Oooh!
Olfactory memory. A certain smell can flash you back to a place and time, all because of something toy didn’t notice the time. Sometimes it’s good but other times it’s not.
The universe is expanding. I’m ok with this.
This is the problem – I am NOT at all fine with the universe expanding. What is it expanding into? What is it beyond the universe that enables the universe to expand into it? Is it something (it must BE something)? So what is it? Or is it nothing? If it is nothing, then how can the universe occupy nothing?
