Science and Technology Quiz 4

Truronian

Truronian

Quite unfamiliar
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Spoiler The Rules :
Procedures :-
1) A asks a question, the rest will try to answer.
2) A must confirm which answer is correct.
3) Person (say B) with confirmed correct answer then asks the next question.
4) A cannot play again until B's turn is over (to prevent the thread turning into a 2 person spam party).
5) Repeat.
6) If person asking question doesn't login to confirm answers within 72 hrs of his question being posted, any one can ask a new question.
7) If no one can answer question within 72 hrs or can't get the right one, questioner can ask again.
8) Definitely no Net or book searches. The answers would be too easy to find if you were allowed to use Google and the like.
9) If answer has been confirmed and the new questioner hasn't set a question in 72 hours, anyone can ask the new question.
10) You can ask questions on any aspect of science (including the history of science and scientists) but let's try not to resort to 'm=3kg a=2ms-2 please work out F'. Come on, guys. Technology questions are also allowed and encouraged.
11) Mathematics is also allowed, but take heed of rule 10).


Spoiler Atrebates' last question & answer :

Atrebates said:
QUESTION
The US military had released photos (to news agencies) which were used in a story. The academic saw the photo & a few days later responded in the letters page "It may interest readers to know that..."

However, more interested than the readers were the US intelligence agency staff. Who rather wanted to understand how a civilian had come to know such a thing and why he was telling everyone about it.

ANSWER
The letter went along the lines of "It may interest readers to know that the nuclear device pictured recently had a power of approx [precise number]Joules"

This was kinda classified information, hence the US came to academic's house to say hi. The academic promptly informed them that this was open information after they'd released the picture. He'd taken a look at the photo, estimated the size of the mushroom cloud and calculated the power of the bomb.

You see, Mushroom clouds are not a magic property of A-bombs. They occur because the bomb greatly heats a large amount of air at ground level, hot air is less dense and thus rises upwards (forming the cloud). This is an example of a Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the same way diapirs are, and the academic thus calculated the bomb power :goodjob:

This story was related by a Uni lecturer who knew the (long retired) academic in question, I can't prove it to be true but I believe it is. The method for bomb calculation is valid and would get a decent ballpark figure.
Click to expand...



Right then...

What is interesting about these gulls:



?
 
They're the same species but showing sexual dimorphism (grey/black back, leg colour) which is very unusual for gulls

But no-one's going to see the answer to my question at the end of the last thread :cry:
 
I saw the answer to your question.

The gulls give me a stirring in the trouser department too, btw.
 
@noncon: Dude, they're only 2 years old...

@Atrebates: Nope. I'll put your last question in the OP, given that 'twas an interesting one. :)

@ParadigmShifter: The pre-edit question?
 
No I saw the answer to Atrebates question at the end of the last thread (after a edit).
 
One's an albino and the other isn't?
 
Something to do with their genetics.
 
No
No
No
No
Too vague
No

A clue:
Other gulls are involved in what makes them interesting.
 
Can we tell just from what's on the picture or do we need to know about these other gulls involved too?
 
They're anxiously awaiting their partner before performing the smash hit, "Three Little Gulls from School are We"?
 
And what did the sea do to show its appreciation for the New Gulls On the Block performance? Nothing; it just waved.
 
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