this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Science Memes

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Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



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[–] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Damn, this meme has some weight to it

[–] KingGordon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I am drawn to it.

[–] Custoslibera@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] TheTurducken@mander.xyz 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Perfect use of this format. "I don't know" is the foundation of wisdom. See: reddit where too many think they know.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

See: ~~reddit~~ literally any message board where members of the general populace can freely participate where too many think they know.

FTFY

[–] TheTurducken@mander.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

Dunning-Keuger effect is real amd and it takes humility to avoid it.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's not difficult. Gravity is like magnetism for things that aren't magnetic.

[–] Rinox@feddit.it 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Also for those that are magnetic

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I will assume that to be true, because it makes sense.

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

gravity applies to everything with mass. But also light which has no mass.

[–] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

"The nature of this elementary particle is best expressed through these thirty equations."

"Ok, ok, but what do those actually mean in reality?"

"Reality?"

[–] ShranTheWaterPoloFan@startrek.website 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Most of those equations are full of things that can make sense, and then there is a fine structure constant.

It's all over particles, but we don't know what it is. It has no units. It's just a number that is needed for physics to work.

[–] DudePluto@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

[The Fine-structure Constant] quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles.

Why the constant should have this value is not understood, but there are a number of ways to measure its value.

Sounds like we know what it is, we just don't know the reason for its value. (Edit: Unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean)

Wikipedia link

[–] ShranTheWaterPoloFan@startrek.website 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The strangeness of the Fine Structure Constant isn't it's value, it's that we don't know what it is.

Other constants have units that explain what they are doing. Like converting miles to meters we multiply by meters/miles. But this is just a number that is needed. That's so strange I can't think of another example.

[–] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Meh, there's pi, it has no units because it's the ratio of one distance to another...

I feel like this might be another example of OPs meme. Feyman called it a magic number we have no understanding of. It's one of the great mysteries of modern physics.

[–] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah I think I'll be subscribing to this community. Thank you for the meme.

[–] fujiwood@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Everyone always asks what is gravity.

No one ever asks how is gravity.

Poor gravity, always helping us keep our shit together but no one ever truly understands the weight on gravities shoulder.

[–] e033x@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Excuse me, but I don't see why I should have sympathy with the boot on our necks keeping us all down. Just imagine the freedom we would have if we weren't weight down by this oppression!

[–] Kase@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

dies b/c the atmosphere floated away

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

57k/year is 4,750/month... where is that not super comfortable living?

[–] DozensOfDonner@mander.xyz 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Working in neuroscience of consciousness field I feel him deeply. Although 57k sounds amazing to a Europoor

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

57k sounds nice until you realize that 1200 go to your health plan and you still need to copay hundreds every time something comes up.

[–] Uncle_Bagel@midwest.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

American salaries are also always presented as gross income before taxes instead if net income after taxes like in Europe.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

we also do gross before taxes in Germany. 57k before taxes is still a solid salary in many areas of Germany. Some MINT and Financelords might want to disagree with that, but it is in the top 15% of salaries. At that Level you pay about 5,1k taxes, 5,3k pension and 4,6k for health, 1,3k eldercare and 750 unemployment insurance. (all mandatory)

That seems quite a lot at first, but for instance unemployment pays 60% of your net income up to a year qfter loosing a job, health insurance also covers all children until they are 25 or earn more than 500€/month.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It only sounds like a lot of taxes to us Americans that don't actually do the math... I'm making almost 60kUSD so it's a very real comparison for me. Like your 4.6k healthcare tax is my 14.4k pay cut (mandatory healthcare coverage for full time employees paid for by the owner @1,200/month for me) Your 5k general tax is higher than my 3.6k income tax, but everything else offsets that by such a large margin that arguing against it is laughable.

Thing is we also pay a ton of of pocket when we go to the doctor too.

I wish we had a number to use like your 4.6k but for America so in our arguments for universal healthcare we could show just how much more we really pay...

Sorry for all the edits, I remember as I reread lol

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If i remeber correctly the US could cut its healthcare costs in half by switching to an universal healthcare system, while granting healthcare to everyone.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 1 points 2 years ago

A not insignificant amount of money goes towards administrative pay for all the middlemen involved...

Everyone has to get their slice of the... (Checks notes) necessary medical treatment of human beings... Ughh...

[–] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

but how would the middlemen line their pockets?

[–] AlexWIWA@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

You can basically half American salary numbers because we have to pay for a lot of stuff that Europeans usually don't need to pay for. $57k in America is struggling if you live in a city. Anything below $40k is one car repair away from being financially ruined.

[–] HorseWithNoName@lemm.ee 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Now do doctors of sociology

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

0 to alcoholism in 11 years.

What do you mean you don't have desk whiskey? EVERYONE has desk whiskey! Even the counselors!

[–] RIP_Cheems@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Genuinely we can't tell what it is. We once thought it was just a normal pull due to mass until Einstein proved us wrong during a solar eclipse where we could see stars that shouldn't be visible from our current position in orbit. Then we get into how it works, WHICH THERE IS NO TELLING AS THERE ARE TO MANY GOD DAMNED VARIABLES INVOLVED.

[–] theangryseal@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You’re fucking with me, right?

Stars were visible that shouldn’t have been visible?

What am I missing?

[–] neryam@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Stars that were behind the sun (within the radius of the sun, geometrically speaking) were visible due to gravitational lensing

[–] theangryseal@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh ok. That messed me all up.

I’ll have to look into that.

[–] Classy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

It isn't directly analogous because one is gravitational and the other is not, but if you've ever watched a ship sail beyond the horizon, sometimes you can see a reflection of the sail after it is no longer in direct sight, because the way that light can reflect around the curvature of the earth. It's a pretty crazy phenomenon.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage#Superior_mirage

In the case of the OP, as light from distant stars approach the sun, some of their light that may normally have passed to the side of the sun and beyond the earth, thus rendering them invisible, are instead 'bent' back towards the earth by the sun's gravitational well. But since the sun is so luminous we normally cannot see those stars. If the sun were somehow dark we would see a collection of tiny, distorted stars around the perimeter of it.

To metaphorize: imagine a ball rolling straight from a point directly in front of you, but at an angle such that it won't roll to you. Now imagine a dip in the ground, not deep enough to cause it to fall in and not escape, but enough to cause the ball to curve as it rolls, sending it to you instead. The sun acts in a similar manner on light.

[–] lowleveldata@programming.dev 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I still want to know what it is tho

[–] pimento64@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A force field generated by your mom's obesity