Science Quiz

[Aphex_Twin]

What about the many little bones of the head. One friend of mine studying medicine told me there are about 100 of them.

 

[RoddyVR]

i'd guess about 90%
the midsection is completely devoid of bones (the spine and ribcage is about it)
the head has some small bones, but its just 1 head and 4 arms+legs.

 

[Pirate]

Well, your spine has lots of bones, legs and arms are like 4 apeice, your head has all the teeth and little bones in your ears, then all your ribs and pelvis. But your wrists and ankles are LOTS of small bones. I'd venture to say 1/3 (33%) of your bones are in your hands and feet.

 

[Serutan]

37%. (76/205; assumes I counted right...)
This assumes that the wrist and ankle bones are *not*
included. If they are, and I remember the numbers correctly,

then it's 96/205 = 46.8%

 

[slothman]

Nope it is about 50% but none of you have it exactly yet.

 

[nonconformist]

47%

 

[slothman]

Wrist and ankle bones are included since they are generally "hand-like." Radii, et al. aren't though. BTW you were counting 205 instead of 206. Were you forgetting the hyoid bone?

 

[betazed]

@Slothman: IMHO, you should give the answer so we can get on with the next question. It has been five days and it seems no one has anwered it yet satisfactorily.

 

[slothman]

106/206=51.4563%
16 carpals, 10 metacarpals, 28 hand phalanx, 28 foot phalanx, 14 tarsal, 10 metatarsals.
106 bones in all. Anyone can ask next.

 

[Maj]

What's 1+1?

I'll hazard a guess and say that anyone daring enough to tackle this question will answer it correctly so you can ask the next one.

*bump*

 

[betazed]

ok. I will put in a question.

Suppose the solar system has only the earth and the sun with the earth going around the sun. In this configuration I throw in a small body with arbitrary velocity. What kind of motion/orbit can I expect for this body?

 

[Perfection]

Well wouldn't that depend on the location and velocity? I mean it could be at an escape velocity and truck on out of here in a roughly parabolic fashion, we could have ellipitcal paths round the earth or sun or a bunch of other things

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Wouldn't the motion be chaotic?

 

[polymath]

Eccentric? Cop-out answer but.....

 

[betazed]

Alphex twin is right.

Under most circumstances the orbit will be a chaotic orbit. This was the surprising result that the famous mathematician Henri Poincare came to when he studied this simplified three body problem while trying to predict the long term stability of the solar system. He developed quite a few mathematical concepts in the process. One of them is the Poincare map that is used widely in studying non-linear systems.

 

[Perfection]

*cough**cough**cheap**cough**cough*

 

[betazed]

Originally posted by Perfection
*cough**cough**cheap**cough**cough*

What do you mean?

 

[betazed]

Ok. I will keep this thread alive. Another deep question (ok maybe not that deep)

Why do mirrors reflect light?

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Because they are coated with metal at one end, and metal reflects light. The glass is there to protect the shiny end from oxidation.

 

[The Last Conformist]

They don't. They absorb the incoming photons and reemit new ones.