Recent comments in /f/todayilearned
Nafeels t1_jb8u27y wrote
Reply to comment by Barachan_Isles in TIL that the Convair Model 118, a tentative flying car from 1947, was shelved because its prototype crashed when a test pilot mixed up the flight engine's fuel gauge with the road engine's and didn't see the former run out. While he survived, this killed interest in the project. by ShabtaiBenOron
Same! I grew up watching shows like Air Crash Investigation/Mayday and I still study general aviation accidents today as a hobby as well. /u/admiral_cloudberg writes fantastic reports of it and if there’s one thing in common with these accidents it’s human error. Even simple mistakes such as forgetting to extend flaps, weight balance calculations and blocked sensors would often lead to fatal mistakes; which is why pilots are often trained to stay sharp and follow a set of procedures before resorting to their own judgment.
While I love the idea of flying cars as a little avgeek, as an engineer now I’m just hesitant to embrace the idea let alone thinking of ways to implement it with barely any nuisance to the end user.
Mitthrawnuruo t1_jb8tzc0 wrote
Reply to comment by GlandyThunderbundle in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
Please see yourself out sir.
Mitthrawnuruo t1_jb8two9 wrote
Reply to TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
That’s no moon.
PlayerSalt t1_jb8sy1h wrote
Reply to TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
I thought each chinese character was a word though ? If each english letter was a word spaces would still be handy but less important
Keetjeh t1_jb8rg9z wrote
igby1 t1_jb8re6p wrote
Reply to comment by ChickenChimneyChanga in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
Prove it
UsualCounterculture t1_jb8qa7z wrote
Reply to TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
Each character is an individual syllable in Chinese so it's not hard to read. It flows. It would be weird with spaces!
96_doomer t1_jb8pkv4 wrote
Reply to comment by Fake_William_Shatner in TIL "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps" is an example of an impossible task. The idiom dates at least to 1834, from the Workingman's Advocate: "It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. by meat-juice
Ok I guess this make me more confused, cause then I'm thinking, well what even is time, like does time exist?
Is time just the movement of all existing stuff in the universe?
So if nothing is moving at all, does time move?
AnglerJared t1_jb8opaf wrote
Reply to comment by _Mechaloth_ in TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
That depends on formatting. Newspapers and novels tend to have lines of equal length and therefore break after a certain number of characters regardless. Manga might format things for more natural breaks, but it’s by no means illegible if they don’t.
GriffinFlash t1_jb8ofy6 wrote
Reply to comment by ChickenChimneyChanga in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
Wait a sec, I LIVE THERE!
Hattix t1_jb8nsuc wrote
Reply to comment by JoeTheFingerer in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
Yes, and it isn't constant over time.
A magnetic field comes from a conductive fluid core which generates electric currents via convection and the core's rotation, so the object needs to be large enough to have a dense, fluid core and maintain it over time.
In the very early solar system most larger objects (non-asteroidal) would have had fluid cores and so likely magnetic fields, but these cool over time for smaller objects and they lose the field. Ganymede's core is on the lower edge of what could retain a magnetic field until the present day.
Coupled with differences based on core composition, we therefore believe Ganymede's core to be slightly larger than Mars'.
frankstaturtle t1_jb8ngtv wrote
Reply to TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
Latin too! Made translating difficult in HS 😬
_Mechaloth_ t1_jb8mnvm wrote
Reply to comment by AnglerJared in TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
Line breaks in Japanese are more commonly done after particles.
JoshuaACNewman t1_jb8luk4 wrote
Reply to comment by AnglerJared in TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
English and other alphabets derived from the Roman alphabet used to be like this, too. Spaces and punctuation and mixed case are all pretty recent.
tejota t1_jb8llvk wrote
Reply to comment by AnglerJared in TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
And I did! I was surprised
Neither_Parking3581 OP t1_jb8kgew wrote
Reply to comment by AnglerJared in TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
Thai, Lao and Khmer too.
GlandyThunderbundle t1_jb8k47e wrote
Reply to comment by Anotheraccount008 in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
I bet they’ve been Holden onto those comments for a while, waiting for an opportunity to spring ‘em
AnglerJared t1_jb8jwpu wrote
Reply to TIL that Chinese is written without spaces between successive characters and words. by Neither_Parking3581
Japanese, too. And line breaks in the middle of words are completely normal.
It’slikeifIwrotelikethisandy
ouunderstooditbecauseth
ereareenoughcontextclue
sthatthemeaningisclear.
zephyy t1_jb8ikd1 wrote
Reply to TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
So is Titan.
Unhappy_Kumquat t1_jb8ijhv wrote
Reply to TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
It's also the gayest
JesseCuster40 t1_jb8hchu wrote
Reply to TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
To Ganymede and Titan
Yes, sir, I've been around
But there ain't no place
In the whole of Space
Like that good ol' toddlin' town
Oh! Lunar City Seven
JoeTheFingerer t1_jb8gh4f wrote
Reply to comment by Jugales in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
is there a minimum volume or mass required for a celestial body to have a magnetic field?
Charadanal t1_jb8dwf6 wrote
Reply to comment by ChickenChimneyChanga in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
Yeah thanks to your mom
dave_hitz t1_jb8diu2 wrote
Reply to TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
Don't let the astronomers know. They'll redefine it as a dwarf-moon planet or something.
wormholetrafficjam t1_jb8v5kn wrote
Reply to comment by ChickenChimneyChanga in TIL the largest moon in our solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet of Mercury by Jugales
We’re dense?! I don’t get it..