e=mc2

[RosieH]

From my granddad to philosophy in 21.

Prince Caspian to Meaning (philosophy of language) in 9.

My granddad kicks Prince Caspian's ass. Though Prince Caspian is quite a hottie.

[beef]

Ha ha ha, from Paul Erdos to philosophy in 6!

How very apt.

[maxxi]

started at tea and ended up in Mathematics-Quantity-Magnitude-ordering-mathematics loop.

[????]

Einstein a go go

[mockney piers]

Eh? Mathematics -> quantity is the pall mall to philosophy, not a loop.

Though i have found a loop....

[Guest]

Think this could take over from Mornington Cresent?

[maxxi]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> Eh? Mathematics -> quantity is the pall mall to

> philosophy, not a loop.

> Though i have found a loop....

It is now but it wasn't - you can see they have now suspended the editing of "Quantity" (which earlier led straight to magnitude which led to the loop) for new or unregistered users because of what they call "significant edit warring over a few links" hmmmm... I suspect dirty pool old chap!

[mockney piers]

I think there may have been an xkcd effect then.

[Salsaboy]

???? Wrote:

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> Einstein a go go

Top tune - well done.

[maxxi]

mockney piers Wrote:

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> I think there may have been an xkcd effect then.

Ah I see, I have been affected by the effect... and me without ointment handy.

[Huguenot]

You're all bloody morons. ;-)

Right.

Next go.

When light goes from one 'medium' to another, it changes speed. A 'medium' is glass, water or david_carnell. Think of this a bit like running into a swimming pool. You get slowed down.

Light isn't made up of 'white' light, it's a mixture of other colours, and when you see them all together it looks white. For example a television has red green and blue colours, but when you see them all together they appear white.

So when you shine white light through a 'medium' (e.g. glass or water), the red green and blue elements get slowed down by different amounts, and dependent upon the angle of viewing can get knocked of course by different amounts.

This is what happens when you see a rainbow - the sunlight has shone through water droplets, and the red light has gone straight on, and the blue light has been deflected. So you see a rainbow.

You can play the same trick with glass at an angle - so an angular peice of glass, for example a cheese shaped one (a prism) can break white sunlight into a rainbow arrangement of all the colours.

So far so good, and a bit dull, because we all know this.

So now the interesting part.

If you play this game with sunlight it doesn't go into a complete rainbow, it has black lines in it. Black lines means no light is reaching at these colours.

What we've discovered is that certain chemicals, or elements, absorb the light at certain colours. This is important, because it's what makes colours for us. For example if you shine a light on blue paint, the paint absorbs the energy from all the light except the blue light, which is reflected: so you see blue.

So some chemicals absorb the light of some colours - almost like saying that the sun is 'coloured'.

So by looking at the black lines, we know what chemicals are there.

This is why we know what the sun is made of!! Cool huh?

[Huguenot]

I should add, that it also gives us a pretty good idea of what david_carnell is made of.

However, the effects are best achieved by evaporating materials into a bright light, and last time we did that to david_carnell he was really pissed off.

BTW - It's called 'spectroscopy', and it's a really cool job. Knowing what things are made of gave us stuff like iron.

[Chener Books]

.

[RosieH]

Hugey, we might all be morons, but please help me, what is the appropriate reaction to a physics lesson?

Are you reading a physics book at the moment and reporting back the exciting stuff you find? I gave up physics after GCSE because my teacher (with a glass eye and turned up collars on her denim jacket) kept telling me she was just like me.

But science is cool and I applaud your attempt to engender excitement in us philistines. For myself I'm particularly excited about the discovery of Egyptian pyramids by satellite imagery - but, but but but, what would be the non-moronic response to your puppyish enthusiasm for spectroscopy?

[Loz]

... and it's interrupting a perfectly good game of Wikipedia Crescent.

[Huguenot]

:))

I'm just having a bit of fun - I thought the perfectly efficient winkey smiley would have conveyed the fact that I don't think you're all morons?

These things are just really cool, no?

I'm sharing things with you that before yesterday I didn't know!!! I'm really excited by them! They're cool!

My exclamation mark key is really gettting worn...

[Brendan]

beware nazi sex dwarves.

[Brendan]

In a bid to demonstrate to everyone who may be reading this exactly how bored I am at the moment, I?ve found 2 loops so far with this business. One was yesterday and that is way to far back to remember the details of. The other just now:-

Ancient Greek - Greek language ? Greeks ? Nation - Sovereign state ? Sovereignty ? Socrates - Classical Greece ? Culture - Alfred L. Kroeber - United States ? Americas - Spanish language - Romance languages - Indo-European languages - Language family ? Language ? Human ? Taxonomy - Ancient Greek.

This is assuming that you mean following the first link in the article not those in the italicised notes or ones relating to pronunciation.

[RosieH]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> :))

Yeah dufus. But you should know by now that I don't do the smilie punctuation face (or indeed any punctuation face, unless under the influence of anti-rage medication) - I too am just having a bit of fun.

And it is really cool.

However, we're in the Lounge, where deviation is the norm.

[Brendan]

I think some bugger throwing rocks into the cooking fire gave us iron.

Ironing came much later.

[Jeremy]

Brendan Wrote:

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> Ancient Greek - Greek language ? Greeks ? Nation -

> Sovereign state ? Sovereignty ? Socrates -

> Classical Greece ? Culture - Alfred L. Kroeber -

> United States ? Americas - Spanish language -

> Romance languages - Indo-European languages -

> Language family ? Language ? Human ? Taxonomy -

> Ancient Greek.

Nope. Sovereign state - State - Social Sciences...

it's all familiar territory from there.

[david_carnell]

Huguenot Wrote:

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> I should add, that it also gives us a pretty good

> idea of what david_carnell is made of.

>

> However, the effects are best achieved by

> evaporating materials into a bright light, and

> last time we did that to david_carnell he was

> really pissed off.

Indeed I was. As everyone knows I am made of snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails.

[maxxi]

I thought spectroscopy was something the doctor stuck up your bum?

(Billy Obvious 1994)

[Chick]

So Hugeunot, if I put a plate in the oven and heat it up does it gain more mass?

[Jeremy]

Yes, I believe it will. And it applies to other types of energy too, not just heat...