Misc
Kaye effect
A falling stream of shampoo shows the Kaye Effect The Kaye Effect is a property of complex liquids which was first described by the British engineer Alan Kaye in 1963. [ 1 ] While pouring one viscous mixture of an organic liquid onto a surface, the surface suddenly spouted an upcoming jet of liquid which merged with the downgoing one.
Shear thinning is an effect where a fluid's viscosity —the measure of a fluid's resistance to flow—decreases with an increasing rate of shear stress . Another name for a shear thinning fluid is a pseudoplastic . This property is found in certain complex solutions, such as lava , ketchup , whipped cream , blood , paint , and nail polish . It is also a common property of polymer solutions and molten polymers. Pseudoplasticity can be demonstrated by the manner in which squeezing a bottle of ketchup, a Bingham plastic , causes the contents to undergo a change in viscosity.
Shear thinning
Sonoluminescence
Single-bubble sonoluminescence - A single, cavitating bubble. Long exposure image of multi-bubble sonoluminescence created by a high-intensity ultrasonic horn immersed in a beaker of liquid Another long exposure image of sonoluminescence in a beaker of water. Each bright blue dot is an individual bubble that is emitting light.
Twistor theory
In theoretical and mathematical physics , twistor theory maps the geometric objects of conventional 3+1 space-time ( Minkowski space ) into geometric objects in a 4 dimensional space with metric signature (2,2). This space is called twistor space , and its complex valued coordinates are called "twistors." Twistor theory was first proposed by Roger Penrose in 1967, [ 1 ] as a possible path to a theory of quantum gravity . The twistor approach is especially natural for solving the equations of motion of massless fields of arbitrary spin .
Decibel
The decibel ( dB ) is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity (usually power or intensity ) relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities. [ 1 ] A decibel is one tenth of a bel , a seldom-used unit named in honor of Alexander Graham Bell . The decibel is used for a wide variety of measurements in science and engineering , most prominently in acoustics , electronics , and control theory . In electronics, the gains of amplifiers, attenuation of signals, and signal-to-noise ratios are often expressed in decibels. The decibel confers a number of advantages, such as the ability to conveniently represent very large or small numbers, and the ability to carry out multiplication of ratios by simple addition and subtraction. A change in power ratio by a factor of 10 is a 10 dB change.Muscle Types
Muscle tissue has four main properties: Excitability (ability to respond to stimuli), Contractibility (ability to contract), Extensibility (ability to be stretched without tearing) and Elasticity (ability to return to its normal shape). Based on certain structural and functional characteristics, muscle tissue is classified into three types: cardiac, smooth and skeletal. Cardiac
A suntanned arm showing browner skin where it has been exposed. This pattern of tanning is often called a farmer's tan . Sun tanning or simply tanning is the process whereby skin color is darkened or tanned.
Sun tanning
The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy a civilization is able to utilize. The scale has three designated categories called Type I , II , and III . A Type I civilization uses all available resources impinging on its home planet, Type II harnesses all the energy of its star, and Type III of its galaxy. The scale is only hypothetical and in terms of an actual civilization, highly speculative; however, it puts energy consumption of an entire civilization in a cosmic perspective. It was first proposed in 1964 by the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev .
Kardashev scale
Many people have made use of, or invented , units of measurement intended primarily for their humour value. This is a list of such units invented by sources that are notable for reasons other than having made the unit itself, and of units that are widely known in the anglophone world for their humour value. [ edit ] Conventional These units may or may not have precise objectively measurable values, but all of them measure quantities that have been defined within the International System of Units . [ edit ] Systems [ edit ] FFF units
List of humorous units of measurement
Chronostasis
Chronostasis (from Greek χρόνος, chrónos, "time" and στάσις, stásis, "standing") is the illusion in which the first impression following a saccade (quick eye movement) appears to be extended in time. The most well-known version of this illusion is the stopped-clock illusion , where the first movement of the second hand of an analog clock, following the viewer's directing attention to the clock, appears to take longer than the next movement. [ 1 ] When eyes execute a saccade, perception of time stretches slightly backward. [ 2 ] The viewer's brain registers that they have been looking at the clock for slightly longer than they really have, producing the illusion that the second-hand is frozen for more than a second. Although this happens every time the eyes move from one fixation point to the next, it is rarely noticed. One explanation is that the brain is filling in the gap while the eyes move from looking at one thing to the next.
Occam's razor
Occam's razor (also written as Ockham's razor , Latin lex parsimoniae ) is a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in logic and problem-solving. It states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected. [ edit ] OverviewA Grand Unified Theory ( GUT ) is a model in particle physics in which at high energy, the three gauge interactions of the Standard Model which define the electromagnetic , weak , and strong interactions , are merged into one single interaction characterized by one larger gauge symmetry and thus one unified coupling constant . In contrast, the experimentally supported Standard Model of particle physics is based on three independent interactions, symmetries and coupling constants. Models that do not unify all interactions using one simple Lie group as the gauge symmetry, but do so using semisimple groups , can exhibit similar properties and are sometimes referred to as Grand Unified Theories as well. Unifying gravity with the other three interactions would provide a theory of everything (TOE), rather than a GUT. Nevertheless, GUTs are often seen as an intermediate step towards a TOE.
Grand Unified Theory
Supersymmetry
In particle physics , supersymmetry (often abbreviated SUSY ) is a proposed symmetry of nature relating two basic classes of elementary particles: bosons , which have an integer-valued spin , and fermions , which have a half-integer spin. Each particle from one group is associated with a particle from the other, called its superpartner , whose spin differs by a half-integer. In a theory with unbroken supersymmetry each pair of superpartners shares the same mass and internal quantum numbers besides spin, but since no superpartners have been observed yet, supersymmetry must be a spontaneously broken symmetry [ citation needed ] . The failure of the Large Hadron Collider to find evidence for supersymmetry has led some physicists to suggest that the theory should be abandoned. [ 1 ]In theoretical physics , the hierarchy problem is the large discrepancy between aspects of the weak nuclear force and gravity. [ 1 ] Physicists are unable to explain, for example, why the weak force is 10 32 times stronger than gravity . [ edit ] Technical definition A hierarchy problem occurs when the fundamental parameters ( couplings or masses) of some Lagrangian are vastly different (usually larger) than the parameters measured by experiment. This can happen because measured parameters are related to the fundamental parameters by a prescription known as renormalization .