How come distilled water hasn’t replaced transformer oil as a high voltage insulator?
Pure distilled water is an excellent insulator with high dielectric strength that is greater than mineral oil, it is less expensive than oil and conducts heat better. However,…
Where exactly is Voyager 1?
This is a topic of great interest to me, especially since Voyager 1 is the most remote craft we have ever sent forth. After 40 years of travel,…
Is the Apollo 11 moon mission a hoax since a 20 W radio signal cannot propagate from the moon to the earth and form a detectable signal?
No, Carl. It’s not a problem to send a 20 W radio signal from the Moon to the Earth, because NASA engineers thought of that. They gave the…
If all the ice melted in the world, would the world actually be submerged or only a few places by the shores?
This is a post melt map of North America courtesy of National Geographic. And this is Europe The light blue on the ocean and sea coasts is currently…
Why is the speed of light so small relative to the size of the universe?
That’s a good question since so many people imagine that the speed of light is very fast, when it is extremely, extremely slow in an astronomical context. And…
How can Voyager send a signal strong enough for us to receive, in spite of its enormous distance from us? And how can it have the power to do so more than 20 years after its launch?
It’s better to reverse the question and ask not how Voyager can send a signal strong enough, but how Earth can receive a signal so weak. The signal…
What would happen if a Jupiter-sized iron planet hit the Sun at 100 kilometers per second?
First of all it could NOT hit the sun at 100 km/s – the MINIMUM speed at which it could hit the sun would be 617 km/s. If…
Why did NASA spend millions developing a pen that would work in space when a pencil is just as good?
They didn’t. The “million-dollar space pen” story is an urban legend that just refuses to die. Pencils aren’t “just as good” in zero-G; in fact, they’re absolutely terrible….
Is it true that the earth is round?
In 1989 I saw a slightly different proof that our earth is round 🙂 There are many ways to prove that our earth is round. But in 1989…
If you take a gallon of water from the deepest ocean and bring it up to the surface in a sealed container, will the pressure break the container as it is risen up into the surface?
At the depth of the typical ocean floor — about 3km — water is compressed to 98.2% of its sea-level volume. The Mariana Trench is just over 11km…