Recent comments in /f/explainlikeimfive

CollegeAnarchy t1_ja6a1ay wrote

Here is a link to an explanation:

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-air-resistance-roughly-proportional-to-the-cube-of-speed

I understand that link is for air, but the concept Is true for any “fluid”. For all purposes of farm equipment, the soil is a fluid because it flows around the implement.

Actually, a lot of solids can be modeled as fluids when in small pieces. Fluidizing flour, sugar, and sand is how it handled on an industrial scale.

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Caucasiafro t1_ja691g8 wrote

The entire problem is there's a set amount of energy you can get out of something. So the only way to make something "run for a long time" as a power source is to really really slowy take energy away from it. Why would we bother to do that?

There's simply no point.

Basically your question is like asking "if bank accounts run out eventually why haven't we just made a bank account we take money out of slowly?"

Because we want the money.

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TheJeeronian t1_ja68kdl wrote

We have. All sorts of things can keep going for a long time. But... Why?

What's the point of a wheel that spins for a long time inside of a vacuum chamber suspended by magnets? It doesn't do anything, besides look neat. We already have devices like that, though. A digital watch can run for years on one little battery. The oxford electric bell is still ringing to this day.

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Caucasiafro t1_ja68dn1 wrote

We...have?

I'm not sure I understand your questions. We humans have developed lots and lots of things that just keep going as long as you input some energy.

For example, there is a clock in New Zealand called the Beverly Clock, its been running since the 1860s without having to be serviced. That probably qualifies as a long time right?

I've been to factories that have had the some machines running non-stop for 40+ years, too.

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cqpa t1_ja683vn wrote

I feel like we still haven't arrived at an "explain like I'm five" version yet, though?

So maybe something along the lines of... so there's a lot of important things that are different between wood and metals. As u/Lirdon said, metals are just raw elements (i.e. silver, nickel, etc.). The atoms in metals form a special type of bond with each other that's different from the bonds that we see in organic stuff like wood. The type of bonds formed by metals lends itself really well to going evenly from a solid into a melty liquid when you heat it.

Wood is a mix of many types of organic, non-metal compounds. The bonds that these atoms in these compounds form tend to be much, much stronger.

When non-metal stuff with those stronger types of bonds gets heated, sometimes it goes nicely from being a solid to a liquid (like the plastics and waxes that u/tdscanuck mentioned). But sometimessss things get real spicy instead. In the case of wood, the compounds completely break apart into ash, tar, and the CO2 gas. Metals don't really have the option to "break apart" into other things since the nickel, copper, etc. atoms are already in their most basic form.

Maybe? Hopefully the people who actually know chemistry can come fix this lol

Edit: apparently metals can also burn but there's a bunch of reasons when metals common forms we see them don't very often. https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2018/02/18/why-dont-metals-burn/

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explainlikeimfive-ModTeam t1_ja62fuh wrote

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