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All about Modelica: An equation-based language for modeling physical systems
Marco Bonvini’s personal website.
Topics /
Science & Space
The most popular blog posts about science & space on Hacker News. 2,038 posts.
842
China is mass-producing hypersonic missiles for $99,000
The Radical Asymmetry of Modern Warfare (P2)
843
Very Wrong Math
The difference between misinformation and disinformation is the difference between ignorance and malice. Trolling is somewhat different, incorporating an element of provocation and narcissism. But what the hell is this?
844
845
How do you power a rocket engine?
This article discusses different types of rocket engine cycles, from pressure-fed through gas generator, to full-flow staged combustion.
846
Mathematical Patterns That Eventually Fail
Sometimes patterns can lead you astray. For example, it’s known that $latex \displaystyle{ \mathrm{li}(x) = \int_0^x \frac{dt}{\ln t} }$ is a good approximation to $latex \pi(x),$ the number …
847
Planet Labs' open satellite feed
Benchmarks & Tips for Big Data, Hadoop, AWS, Google Cloud, PostgreSQL, Spark, Python & More...
848
Seven Dyson Sphere Candidates
A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from natural phenomena when enough stars are examined!
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Science upside for Starship
This blog is a direct follow up of Starship Is Still Not Understood, and is part of the series on popular misconceptions in space journalism. Now available in audio form. I think it is relatively s…
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How the US Air Force Ditched the Average and Saved Lives
The average is a myth. Understand the pitfalls of the average and how it can conceal useful information. How the US Air Force threw out the average and saved lives. Use distributions to better understand your data.
853
Warp Drive News
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
854
A lesser known mechanism for alcohol tolerance
People who drink a lot of alcohol have a high alcohol tolerance. By this, I mean two things:
855
Listening to satellites for $30
I've ever dreamed of space & satellites, it turms out you can received pictures from them.
856
Maxar's Open Satellite Feed
Benchmarks & Tips for Big Data, Hadoop, AWS, Google Cloud, PostgreSQL, Spark, Python & More...
857
Civilizational Collapse, Part 4
This is part 4 of an intermittent yet always enjoyable series: • Part 1: the rise of the ancient Puebloan civilization in the American Southwest from 10,000 BC to 750 AD. • Part 2: the rise and col…
858
Increasing the lifespan of a bulb makes it worse in every other way
This isn't quite right , but it's the type of wrong that cites its sources and hides in the part you'd never think to fact check:
859
The 8000th Busy Beaver number eludes ZF set theory (2016)
I’ve supervised a lot of great student projects in my nine years at MIT, but my inner nerdy teenager has never been as personally delighted by a project as it is right now. To…
860
How hard do you have to hit a chicken to cook it? (2020)
Some questions are timeless, innocent yet penetrating in their simplicity. Why is the sky blue? Why do things fall? How hard must one hit a chicken to cook it? It is this last mystery of the universe that we discuss today.
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Why cans of soup are shaped the way they are
What is special about cylinders, and why do they have specific aspect ratios?
862
How to grow green potassium ferrioxalate crystals from iron rust
Potassium ferrioxalate produces striking green crystals that are both beautiful and easy to grow. I'll show you how to grow them at home.
863
Feynman On The Importance Of Playing
I'm reading " Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman " (very good read). What he says about burnout, playing and doing the things you love is pr...
864
Designing Stereographic Lampshades
I saw an article on the Guardian website here on the 3D-printing of shapes which project interesting patterns of light. Ignoring the strangely forced Halloween reference, I thought this would be an interesting project to attempt for an arbitrary pattern, perhaps as a personalised lampshade. Buoyed by the continuing…
865
Calories in, calories out
This article was discussed on Hacker News. Introduction How do we lose (or gain) weight? Is it really as simple as “calories in, calories out” (i.e., eat less than you burn), or i…
866
What Developmental Milestones Are You Missing?
[Epistemic status: Speculative. I can’t make this post less condescending and elitist, so if you don’t like condescending elitist things, this might not be for you.] Developmental psych…
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Dissolving the Fermi Paradox
I’m late to posting this, but it’s important enough to be worth sharing anyway: Sandberg, Drexler, and Ord on Dissolving the Fermi Paradox. The Fermi Paradox asks: given the immense num…
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Why not string theory? Because enough is enough
Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
869
STS-93: We don’t need any more of those (2014)
It was about a quarter past midnight on July 23, 1999 when the Ralph Roe, the Shuttle Launch Director, told Eileen’s crew that they were go for launch and wished them good luck. The launch, which h…
870
An Interesting SETI Candidate in Hercules
Although the presence of ET planetary-based life as we know life and don’t know it, is all, comparatively as, and less and in gradations more technologically and cognitively achieved or advanced than our species, such life, in mathematical and thermochemical terms, is a must on a vast in raw numbers but quite possibly…