xkcd
A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
All chemical propulsion is just controlled explosions that we use to push a thing forward. It's not that different, as long as you don't use it in the atmosphere or near humans.
Yeah I know, it's the same principle behind modern fuel engines. Still, using nukes for propelling something forward is a bit of a stretch.
Not just nukes, but nuclear shaped charges, at a rate of maybe one per second for a manned vehicle or even more for a faster cargo only mission.
It's not uncommon in scifi. Netflix's Three Body Problem also explores such a solution in quite some depth.
It would probably work just fine, but it needs a huge ship. It could get up to a few percent of the speed of light.
FWIW, nuclear test ban treaties are considered to outlaw it. I think we're more likely to solve the technical difficulties of antimatter propulsion than we are to get over the political difficulties of nuclear bomb propulsion.
So soup sounds like an idea and is actually an idea. Checks out.
I dont know, soup has always been a better idea than it first seemed to me
What is this transition lense slander
I know right, I recently replaced my glasses with transition lenses and it's pretty nice.
Who doesn't want automated sunglasses? Not seeing any downsides yet. Only thing I know they don't work in cars, but I don't generally drive so it's ok
The technology has come a long way since the 90s
I find that they don't "un-tint" when going inside fast enough for my liking, personally.
Creates kind of the opposite effect of going from a dim room into a bright space. Instead of evrything seeming extra bright, it just dimmed everything and made it more difficult to see.
One problem my mom did not anticipate was that she would be stuck effectively wearing sunglasses for my brother’s outdoor wedding, where was sitting up with the bride and groom for the whole thing (Indian wedding). She just looked like an asshole, and continues to look like an asshole in the just about every photo of the ceremony. Oops.
Why would wearing sunglasses outdoors make someone look like an asshole?
In the cold they take too long to transition to clear. So you end up taking them off for a few seconds when you go inside. It's only minorly annoying.
To be fair, regular glasses mist up anyway when going inside from the cold, so you take them off anyway
I was under the impression that bloodletting could in some cases actually be beneficial.
Yeah, for people with hemochromatosis (too much iron in the blood) the main treatment is still bloodletting.
Yeah, it's still practiced. But the whole four humors thing is a bit old hat.
I think there's a few of these misplaced. Heelys>transition lens.
Excuse me, what about pizza in squares?
I guess because there is no crust to grab. Gotta get grease and maybe sauce on your hands to eat the inner squares.
oh lord that alt text
I think sliced bread is overrated as fuck. It used to be nice back when people couldn't just buy knives for cheap, but nowadays it just means getting stale bread faster.
For some types of bread, the machine can do it much more uniformly and without crushing. This can be difficult for humans.
What's wrong with Transitions lenses. I like mine
Transitions are game changing. Sounds like someone who doesn't wear glasses all the time. I even had transition sunglasses before I needed glasses - got tired of taking them off going in/out all day.
Not sure who created this (I kkow, XKCD), but it's mediocre.
Double-ended extension cords belongs in the top ~~left~~ right corner. Sounds bad and is bad.
Double-ended extension cords belongs in the top left right corner. Sounds bad and is bad.
Remember, you’re probably more technical than the average person. Double ended extension chords sound fine if you haven’t heard of them before until you think about it for five seconds.
I’ve worn glasses my entire adult life and I had to get rid of them because being half blind every time I transition from outside to inside was interfering with my job.
Every single glasses of mine have had transition lenses, I can't imagine my life without them anymore.
Replying to spammers sound like a good idea at first, should be top left.
One of the cooler parts of Three Body Problem was when they attempted the Orion Project to accelerate a probe to 1% of light speed.
Pizza is way too right and too high on this graph.
I don't get the diverging diamond interchanges one
Diverging diamond interchanges are a type of road intersection that appears very chaotic from the outside, but are actually pretty simple and safe to navigate