Sillychris

YOu could use one of those thermal heat packs for your winter gloves to stop the ants from freezing. Real cheap. I always keep a couple in my backpack for emergencies (they usually get used for thawing beer... which is a type of emergency) https://www.google.ca/search?q=heat+packs&espv=210&es_sm=122&tbm=isch&imgil=l2yW9d8OtzRooM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcRUQ5z0FgGznn-ZTXmSO1n5RPmgnC6tvYdz5PIgxmkTbcnZfdOO%253B600%253B400%253BXpSqV78K4furMM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.webbikeworld.com%25252Fmotorcycle-accessories%25252F2009%25252F2009-powersports-dealer-expo-page-8.htm&source=iu&usg=__tliL__AIhm2t1kdebiaZNFa2nOQ%3D&sa=X&ei=NAceU5DEMajcyQH-8IDYBA&ved=0CDQQ9QEwAA&biw=1364&bih=683#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=l2yW9d8OtzRooM%253A%3BXpSqV78K4furMM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.webbikeworld.com%252Fmotorcycle-accessories%252F2009%252Fheat-packs.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.webbikeworld.com%252Fmotorcycle-accessories%252F2009%252F2009-powersports-dealer-expo-page-8.htm%3B600%3B400

1) How do I build a ship like yours? 2) Can I stay with you guys? 3) Can I have a sandwich?

I wouldn't worry too much about cosmic radiation. Cosmic ray particles are pretty high energy, but the flux isn't exactly steady. Just cross your fingers that a proton with the kinetic energy of a baseball doesn't hit your vessel. In regard to other forms of radiation, UV is pretty intense up there so make your container opaque. It only needs to contain 1 ATM, so anything with a pressure rating will work. If it were me, I'd make it out of pvc or abs with threaded endcaps for easy access.

Don't be negative. He's not asking us to do his homework, he's asking us to throw factoids at him that he may not have found on his own. Asking the community is a perfectly valid form of research. On a side note, I read the entire thread and learned a lot of interesting things. I am pretty happy this got posted.

How do you get into orbit on the launchpad!? In regard to 5th horseman, I would like to point out that Cyberclad's entry does not show his periapsis but it does show orbit on the nav ball. He is on the leaderboard and this is what led me to ask the question in the first place.

I would prefer the rules to be clarified by the OP

Can you define orbit, please? What I mean is, does it have to say "orbit" on your navball, or do you have to be in a stable orbit of Periapsis>70km?

That is so untrue in the case of a railgun... Kinetic energy of the projectile is what does the damage. For example, a rifle round and a rimfire cartridge both with the same bore size the rifle round is going to do a lot more damage to the target because it has a lot more powder and a lot higher muzzle velocity. Specific example: I hunt deer with .223 remington cartridges and grouse with .22 rimfire cartridges. Both bullets have the same bore size, but the .22 rimfire round wouldn't even slow down a deer and the .223 rifle round would make a grouse explode. The difference is that the rifle round has magnitude of order more gunpowder behind it and thus goes waaaaay faster. When it strikes the target, that energy has to go somewhere, and most of it goes into putting a crater in the deer. What makes railguns so powerful is the absurd muzzle velocity you can pack into them. It's true that they slow down before they get to their target 100 km away, but they are still going ridiculously fast when they get there.

When interstellar trade becomes a reality, genuine Earth brewed beer will be the most highly sought after drink in the galaxy. Except for humans on Earth. Our most highly sought after drink will be THE BLOOD OF THE ZERG!

It was a failing of the education system, for me. Fortunately, I got my head out of my ass before it was too late.

Let's try to list all the effects that could be significant on a timescale long enough for space junk to coalesce. I will ignore the space junk in the whispy upper bits of the atmosphere, since it will aerobrake and die. -gravity of the space junk -earth's magnetic field -solar wind -resistance of stray atoms in space (There really is no such thing as a perfect vacuum) Since most of our space junk is metallic in nature, electric currents will be induced in it as it journeys through the earth's magnetic field. In turn, these electric currents will create their own magnetic fields in the junk. These effects may be tiny, but the timescale is large. Ultimately, the induced magnetic field could lead to an attractive force between two objects. If their velocity vectors were not too different (think docking) the induced field could stick them together. There is also the tiny gravitational contribution that will always be attractive at all ranges. Outside the magnetic field, we have solar wind. Although I can't find any literature supporting my guess, I seriously suspect that solar wind could ionize metals over time. This would lead to a net charge and thus a repulsive interaction between any of the space junk... likely greater than the gravitational attraction (it doesn't take much charge to beat gravity between very light objects). On the plus side, this may kick some of it into a lower orbit inside the Earth's magnetic field. Stray atoms: Fortunately, these atoms are subject to the same gravity as everything else and would be living in orbits. I think the net effect of drag from these guys would be zero or very close to zero. So, here is my guess: If a space junk satellite were to coalesce, it would be somewhere between the upper reaches of the atmosphere and the upper reaches of the magnetosphere... probably somewhere near the top of the magnetosphere due to the stuff getting kicked down by solar wind. And as far as the asteroid belt coalescing into a planetismal? Totally negatory. Tidal forces from Jupiter will simply not allow it.

Is it possible to combine sci fi with fantasy? Abso****inglutely. eg: Star Wars. The Jedi are wizards. Explanation? "The force". Not very scientific. example 2: Dr Who.

I used to have a squadron of 12 x-wings, all armed with a missile and 4 x-8 space fighters armed with dual heavy missiles in orbit around Kerbin. I also used to have a space station armed with 8 missiles and a moon station armed with 8 missiles. They were all stock and no cheats. This was of course before I discovered the f1 key. Unfortunately, I purged them all to allow orbital construction of the laggiest ship ever Man I coulda blown this challenge away 3 weeks ago.

In case anyone was wondering: 1) Wheels are not required. 2) Capsules are not required. 3) Parachutes are not required. My pilot bailed out on touchdown and got a little further than the wreckage. Distance: 34.6km Note: I did not use infinite flap sploit. I also did not touch the controls after deployment of glider.

I never said that persistence is not an important factor. I just didn't like the way you were undermining intelligence with an inconsistent comparison. I agree that persistence is more important to success than intelligence (quite strongly, in fact). It's also interesting that a higher intelligence can sometimes lead to a decrease in motivation, since things come easily to a smart child and they get used to not having to try very hard. I know it's only anecdotal, but I have observed this in a lot of my friends. To be perfectly honest, my stats have been almost strictly from introductory level psych texts. If you want to compare multiple characteristics at the same time (like intelligence and persistence), you can't just vary them both at the same time. You have to do a meta-analysis if you want to expect any meaningful data. Basically what that means is you look at all permutations of combinations of the desired characteristics. For two characteristics, it's easy. The combinations are: 1) Smart and determined 2) Smart and lazy 3) Dumb and determined 4) Dumb and lazy If you just cherry pick out the combinations that prove your point... well, you're cherry picking. Good strategy in hockey, bad strategy in science.

I think the most interesting thing about communicating with an alien species in close proximity is we'd finally found out whether DNA is an inevitability for life to exist or if there is some other molecule we haven't imagined which could enable life. For all you virus lovers out there, I don't really consider RNA to be distinct from DNA

Here is my contribution: 2410 meters. And a very fun challenge.

And so are pretty good rocket science simulators! Can you imagine if Nasa had access to KSP and MEchJeb back in the Apollo days?

oops... sanoj688 already said that. In real life, not only do I permit people to copy my designs and ideas, but I encourage it. Nothing excites me more than seeing one of my creations proliferate and be built on. Well except maybe foosball.

"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" -Isaac Newton. 'nuff said.

The only thing I have to offer to the conversation is this: Naysayers say it's very complicated, requires infrastructure, etc. Engineering obstacles. So let's do it! When has complexity ever stood in the way of human minds? Fear of complexity is for farmers and dogs.

Addenum: Intelligence is correlated to highest level of education completed, and highest level of education completed is correlated to happiness AND financial success. If you don't believe me, check the stats.

Come now, let's not resort to inconsistent comparisons; it is such a childish debate tool. Or perhaps we should. A determined and persistent genius is more likely to be successful than an apathetic, lethargic below average intelligence person. (See what I did there?) Perhaps we should try only manipulating one variable at a time when trying to prove something. SCIENCE!

That's a good point, I guess coming from a physics background, I'm biased towards more compressible numbers (which is why I vote for a move towards hexadecimal). You run out of orders of magnitude a lot less quickly with 10^x than you do with 2^x

Your link proves my point more than it does yours. "They find that the former Mangarevans combined base-10 representation with a binary system. They had number words for 1 to 10, and then for 10 multiplied by several powers of 2. The word takau (which Bender and Beller denote as K) means 10; paua (P) means 20; tataua (T) is 40; and varu (V) stands for 80. In this notation, for example, 70 is TPK and 57 is TK7" Symbol heavy. Not binary.