(sucks to be Colorado)

10/23/2013 1:27:31 PM

Old as balls... I posted this when it was news. Thread in lounge.

2010

message_topic.aspx?topic=606982

But still one of the coolest things ever!

[Edited on October 23, 2013 at 1:31 PM. Reason : ]

10/23/2013 1:28:52 PM

yeah i know it's old. i've been using this in class for years. i just came upon this picture at a conference i'm at today and didn't know if it was posted on here before.

10/23/2013 1:32:53 PM

http://what-if.xkcd.com/53/

Quote :

"How quickly would the ocean's drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space was created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean? How would the Earth change as the water is being drained? –Ted M."

10/23/2013 1:33:50 PM

ha and i even contributed to that thread. well, maybe more folks will see it now.

10/23/2013 1:34:00 PM

Quote :

"i've been using this in class for years."

You have been using it in class for years because of the thread I made in 2010

Lots of good discussions and calculations in the lounge thread... lets see where this thread goes!


[Edited on October 23, 2013 at 1:38 PM. Reason : ]

10/23/2013 1:37:13 PM

^^Indeed, they will actually click on items you post

10/23/2013 1:38:00 PM

^^well i used it that day because of your thread (which is awesome) but i had used it (or something similar?) when i was teaching at my previous school but didn't retain the image when i moved schools.

[Edited on October 23, 2013 at 1:39 PM. Reason : ]

10/23/2013 1:38:47 PM

10/24/2013 9:25:08 AM

Let's do something large.

Let's do something like....

"There's a 1 out of 1x10^10 chance."

That means there's a one in ten billion chance of aliens existing.

Is that not rare enough for you? Okay. Let's do 1 out of 1x10^15. That's a one in one quadrillion chance.

Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are at least 125 billion galaxies in the universe.

It is estimated that at least ten percent of all sun-like stars have a system of planets, there are 6.25×10^18 stars with planets orbiting them in the universe.

If even a billionth of these stars have planets supporting life, there are some 6.25×10^9 (billion) life-supporting planetary systems in the universe.

6,250,000,000.

Now, what are the odds that NONE of these have any life on them?

10/24/2013 10:45:05 AM

^ using very conservative estimates, it's within the realm of reasonable probability we're one of a very small handful of intelligent life, or life in general.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120821-how-many-alien-worlds-exist

(k this is just our galaxy, so universe-wide that's a lotta life)

[Edited on October 24, 2013 at 12:47 PM. Reason : ]

10/24/2013 12:44:23 PM

The good ol drake equation

The thing is, it's also coming to light that red dwarf stars (which are much more common in the universe) also have planetary systems, and a good number of planets have the potential to be in the "Goldilocks" zone where liquid water could exist in large quantities on the surface.

10/24/2013 1:08:36 PM

10/24/2013 1:27:15 PM

Quote :

"Stephen Hawking also said in chapter 6 of his Brief History of Time that physicist John Archibald Wheeler once calculated that a very powerful hydrogen bomb using all the deuterium in all the water on Earth could also generate such a black hole, but Hawking does not provide this calculation or any reference to it to support this assertion."

10/24/2013 7:39:29 PM

10/24/2013 7:47:01 PM

More like Gene Ray 7x7x7

10/24/2013 7:48:40 PM

Quote :

"using very conservative estimates, it's within the realm of reasonable probability we're one of a very small handful of intelligent life, or life in general."

What makes you so certain those other planets would consider us intelligent?

10/24/2013 7:56:25 PM

The Drake Equation*:
Singing (poorly) + Rapping (mediocrely) = Success

*originated by Ja Rule...mocked, and eventually implemented by fiddy

10/25/2013 4:41:44 PM