Ask a scientist

What if Superman punched you?

Lloyd England — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:57:43 +0000

What if the fictional comic book hero Superman, a man who's able to lift 200 quintillion tonnes with one hand, power the sun, or punch dimensions apart - punches you? In the following video, Jake from Vsauce3 takes a look at this question and finds out what would happen if Superman, who's powers are completely determined to whoever writes the stories about him, punches you in the face.

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How hot is a candle flame?

Michael de Podesta — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 23:10:38 +0000

A candle flame usually burns at around 1000°C, but can vary depending on where in the flame you measure, for example, the bottom of the flame near the wick will be burning hotter than at the tip of the flame at the very top. Michael de Podesta finally got around to filing some holes in the side of his lovely candle lantern in his lab so we could see for ourselves how hot a candle really gets. Its quite easy to position a thermocouple anywhere in the candle flame. And it is hot! In the above photo, you can see the end of the thermometer being placed within the flame. In the photo below the temperature reading is displayed and as you can see it's a very hot 829C!

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Can you feel temperature?

Lloyd England — Fri, 31 May 2013 09:32:36 +0000

When you get out of a shower or bath, it feels much nicer and warmer to stand on a bath mat than directly on the bathroom floor. You may think this is because the floor is colder than the bathmat, but in reality they're both at the exact same temperature. Take a look at this video below which shows Derek Muller conducting an experiment on several people comparing the temperature of a metal hard drive and a paper book. Do you think the metal hard drive would be colder than the book? Find out below, and maybe try it out for yourself at home!

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Are super-soldiers our future?

Guest Scientist — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:15:56 +0000

We've been sent this quirky question by Conor in Chesterfield;

Is it possible that in the future, instead of having normal people, we will all be replaced with genetically perfect super-soldiers, with special bio-suits to enable them to survive everywhere, hell-bent on conquest of the galaxy?

Predicting the future has always been very difficult, however we'd love to hear some of your answer's to Conor's question in the comments below.

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Who was Amelia Earhart?

Tasnim Essack — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:36:11 +0000

Amelia Earhart began her flying career at the age of 23, and became only the 16th woman to be issued a pilot's license 3 years later. She made several significant flights, including:

17th June 1928 - became the first woman to make a transatlantic flight as a passenger, beginning her career as a celebrity

21 May 1932 - became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic

11 January 1935 - flew from Hawaii to Oakland, California, becoming the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland.

First solo transatlantic flight Amelia Earhart set many of her aviation records in the Lockheed 5B Vega, which due to its sturdy and streamlined design, was favoured by pilots looking to set speed and distance records. On May 20th 1932, Amelia Eahart took off in her bright red Vega from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, with the intention of crossing the Atlantic Ocean and landing in Paris just as Charles Lindburgh had done exactly 5 years prior. However she ran into difficulty very early on, including thick clouds, ice on the wings, and a leaking fuel tank. To make matters worse mechanical faults caused her altimeter to stop working, meaning she was unable to tell how high above the ocean's surface she was flying, nearly resulting in her crashing into the Atlantic Ocean. Realising she was in danger, Earhart had to land in the first clearing she could find. At 1.46pm local time on May 21st, Amelia Earhart landed in Gallagher’s field near Londonderry, Ireland, having successfully flown 2,026 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in 14hrs 56mins. She was greeted by two farmhands who asked if she had come far, to which she replied,

Just from America.

She had broken several records on this flight including becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, the only person to have flown it twice, the longest non-stop distance flown by a woman and a record for crossing in the shortest time. Today's speed The same journey today from St John's, Canada to Derry, UK would take just 4 hours, 30 minutes. This assumes an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph, which is equivalent to 805 km/h or 434 knots. It also adds an extra 30 minutes for take-off and landing. Exact time may vary depending on wind speeds. Amelia Earhart's final flight Her previous aviation achievements were all leading up to attempting to circumnavigate the globe, which was to be achieved in several legs. After her initial effort failed due to damage to the plane, Earhart and her navigator, Frank Noonan, set out on July 2, 1937. However after completing two-thirds of the course, the plane mysteriously disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean. The United States government spent $4 million looking for Earhart, making it the most costly and intensive air and sea search in history at that time. It is still unknown whether they survived, and if so for how long. Recent evidence found on the uninhabited Gardner Island (now known as Nikumaroro) includes artifacts such as improvised tools, bits of clothing, a piece of Plexiglas the exact width and curvature of an Electra window, and a jar of branded cream from the same era.

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Why do we kiss?

Guest Scientist — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:03:29 +0000

The following video, brought to you by the excellent Vsauce, explores philematology - the study of kissing. In the video, Michael takes a look at why we kiss each other, as well as the bonds a child has with it's mother - and if that bond can be broken.

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Who is Tim Peake?

Lloyd England — Sun, 19 May 2013 23:20:55 +0000

Tim Peake is a UK astronaut who is due to fly on-board a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station in late 2015. He is the first Briton to have ever been accepted into the European Astronaut Corps and his mission will make him the first UK national to live and work in space, and to fly the Union flag on a British-government funded programme.

I'm absolutely delighted

- Tim Peake speaking to reporters at a press event announcing his mission All previous British-born astronauts have gone into orbit either through the US space agency NASA as American citizens, or on private ventures organised with the assistance of the Russian space agency. Peake, who was born in Chichester on 7 April 1972, graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1992. After becoming an Army Air Corps officer, he served as a reconnaissance pilot and flight commander in Europe, Africa and North America between 1994 and 1998. In 1999, Peake was selected for an exchange posting with the US Army, which saw him fly Apache helicopters in Texas between 1999-2002. This led to him becoming an Apache helicopter instructor in the UK, and was instrumental in introducing Apache's into service with the British Army. From 2006 until his retirement from the Armed Forces in 2009, Peake served as the senior Apache test pilot in addition to being a test pilot for Special Forces aircraft projects. He has logged over 3000 hours flying time on more than 30 types of helicopter and fixed wing aircraft, including the Hawk, Dakota, Harvard and Mi-17. Have you ever wondered what it's like to be an astronaut? Former NASA astronaut Jerry Carr talks about his experiences.

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How much energy does it take to watch Eurovision?

Lloyd England — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:18:07 +0000

It's Eurovision time again and 2013 see's the annual European music competition take centre stage for the 58th time - this year in Sweden. Eurovision organisers estimate that a staggering 125 million viewers watch the competition each year, by anyone's books that's a lot of people and, a lot of television sets. So how much energy are those 125 million viewers using? This is where it gets a little bit tricky; TV's come in a wide variety of different shapes and sizes, with some small, modern energy efficent LCD TV's using a fraction of the energy used by older, larger, energy wasting Plasma TV's. Luckily, the organisation Carbon Footprint has calculated the energy usage of several types of television set, which can be seen below;

Appliance	Per use
Primary TV – CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) 34-37 inch	198.5 W
Primary TV – CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)	4.2 W
Primary TV – LCD 34-37 inch	211.1 W
Primary TV – LCD	1.8 W
Primary TV - Plasma 34-37 inch	263.9 W
Primary TV - Plasma	3.6 W
Primary TV – Rear projection 34-37 inch	192.3 W
Primary TV – Rear projection	2.0 W

In the table above, 'Per use' is a typical 6.5 hours of viewing time each evening. However according to the BBC, the UK broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest, this year's show will be on air for 3 hours 15 minutes, exactly half of everyone's viewing time. If we assume that the chart above is a typical spread of televisions across Europe, the average energy usage of each television over 6.5 hours is 109.68 W. During the 3hrs 15mins of Eurovision, that would mean the average television set would be using 54.84 W and the total energy being used by every viewer is 6,854,687,500 W That equates to 22,277,734.375 kilowatt-hour's being used, and is equivalent to:

Cleaning every floor of the Empire State Building in New York City with a vacuum cleaner 7,309 times* or
14.1% of Scotland's total daily energy usage**.

* Based on using a 1200 W vacuum cleaner, taking 3 minutes to clean an area 5 m² **Based on data from University of Strathclyde

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How does GPS work?

Chris Lee — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:21:52 +0000

GPS, or Global Positioning System, is a navigation system using satellites orbiting the planet to pinpoint a user’s location. The idea was created in 1973 to replace existing navigation systems, and became fully operational in 1994 with the successful launch of the 24th satellite. Initially created for military applications, former President Ronald Reagan announced in 1983 that the system would be made available for civilian use upon completion. This has given rise to technology such as GPS trackers, SatNav systems, map apps for phones, and many more. There are 24 satellites orbiting 12,000 miles above Earth, each travelling at over 7,000mph and completing more than 2 orbits each day. These satellites send signals to Earth, which are received and decoded by GPS devices to provide a location. If 3 satellite signals can be received, a 2D position can be calculated (latitude and longitude), and if 4 can be received, a 3D position can be calculated (latitude, longitude, and altitude). How the signals work:

The signals can travel through clouds, meaning that GPS works in all weather conditions
The signals can travel through plastic and glass, but not rock or concrete
Each satellite sends three bits of information:
A ‘Pseudorandom code”, which identifies the satellite
- “Ephemeris data”, which gives information about the condition of the satellite, as well as the date and time
- “Almanac data”, which tells a GPS receiver orbital information about all 24 satellites

The GPS reader is able to decode the information being received from the satellites that it can ‘see’, in order to calculate your location. The image on the right shows the 24 satellites in orbit, and how a minimum number are kept visible at all times. Animated image on the right showing how the configuration of satellites leads to a minimum of 6 being ‘visible’ at all times (Source) As GPS is owned and maintained by the US Government, access to it can theoretically be revoked in hostile situations. This has led to other nations developing their own systems. Some such systems include:

GALILEO, the EU version
GLONASS, Russia’s equivalent
Compass, owned by China
Regional Navigation Satellite System, developed by India

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How do you stuff an animal?

Lloyd England — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:42:16 +0000

Emily Graslie works as a volunteer Curatorial Assistant for the Philip L. Wright Zoological Museum at The University of Montana in America, and in this excellent video below she answers questions by students from the Matoska International School in White Bear Lake, MN. So if you've ever wondered what materials museums stuff animals with, what the most common animal the museum holds or even how a skeleton is formed you can find out right here.

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