A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
This collapse generates a body of neutron-degenerate matter with a radius as small as 10 km, but a mass comparable to our Sun’s. As such, they are the densest known material outside of Twitter, at around 1017 kg/m3.
For American readers unfamiliar with SI units, that means a pair of truck-nuts made of neutron star would weigh as much as ten million aircraft carriers.
Is nothing sacred to the writers of this article?
Truck nuts are sacred to Americans.
I'm a heretic. I zip tie them to priuses all the time.
If they hang low enough, the sparks will charge the battery.
Ten million aircraft carriers would weigh about 590 trillion kg at the low end, so the truck nuts would have to be 580 billion m^3. I'm not sure even Texans use sets that size.
The conversion is intended for Americans, not for people who are good at math.
From the article, that should be 10^17 kg/m^3, not 1017kg/m^3. No, I haven't checked the conversion to aircraft carriers per trucknut, I'm going to take the original author's word for it.
That's what I get for only reading the comment. That changes it to ~5.9e-3 m^3 per set of truck nuts, which is 5.9L per set. Still a little large for most people, I think.
I'm not a truck-nut-ologist, so I don't have much to go on, and it's frustratingly difficult finding accurate dimensions for them online. I have found this ~~delightful~~awful pair (I had to look at them, so so do you).
The entire structure is approximately 40cm tall, and I measure that as 660 pixels, it look like the main 'bulk' of it is in the lower 330 pixels, or 20cm, and about 375 pixels wide, or around 23cm. If we assume that section is half as thick as it is wide, and approximate it as a cuboid (I've rounded the numbers, and unrounded the shape), that gives a volume of 5290cm^3, which is disturbingly close to the value you calculated as necessary. Allowing for the top section, I think they might just do the job.
Obviously those numbers are very approximate, but I've started at that model enough that it'll haunt my dreams, and 'Ten million aircraft carriers' is an approximate enough description, that I think we can say it's within reasonable tolerances of being accurate.
Lol, ligand interactions are mostly gravitational. Great read!
one of the things I find amusing is how scifi loves using neutronium armor.
If you removed neutronium from the super-dense gravity of it's star... it would go off like a neutron bomb. A very big, neutron bomb. a single teaspoon of the stuff would probably crack the earth open. a single gram of the stuff would be more powerful than any nuclear weapon ever developed.
and people just love slapping that stuff onto the outside of their starships.
Well thats what the artificial gravity is for.
They also use it for walking and whatnot, of course, but that's an add-on. The real purpose is so they can siphon off some neutron star stuff and hold it between them and an enemy without it exploding.
you know.... I wouldn't put it past starfleet to think that was a good idea.
I mean, they don't use surge protectors, they don't use seatbelts, they don't have handrailing. They don't secure their cargos. and there are those times where the gravity gets conked out. (also I'm pretty sure that the gravity field that extends past the hull would attract all sorts of nasties, and some neutronium getting blasted off would be enough to vaporize the ship. even just a few grams.)
Clearly the gravity capacitors are aligned in such a way that in the case of gravity failure, the outer gravitronic shell fails first, causing the neutronium to evacuate safely in the direction of anyone else, while the inner shell maintains for a second or so longer, preventing an implosion.
That, and transporter shenanigans. They just beam up the neutronium before shutdown.
To appropriately study this exciting new branch of astrochemistry the authors have formed a new research institute the Centre for Unstable Neutron Transient Structures (CUNTS). This new institute comprises of two research groups the Baryonic Investigation Group (aka BIG CUNTS) and the Baryonic And Dark Matter Focus (aka BADMF CUNTS). We’re very proud that the exceptional nature of this research group is already being recognised with Amnesty International awarding CUNTS the 2024 Most Inappropriate and Offensive Acronym Award. While pleased to receive international recognition we have not been able to identify any offensive acronym usage and have invited Amnesty International to come and view our Award of Registered Sociopaths Equity (ARSE).
So good
We instead recommend that the existing IUPAC rules be extended, and that element 10^56 be called ununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununnunununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununununullium.
As such, they are the densest known material outside of Twitter, at around 1017 kg/m3. For American readers unfamiliar with SI units, that means a pair of truck-nuts1 made of neutron star would weigh as much as ten million aircraft carriers.
...
We thank the management of the Alien-Life Molestation Array (ALMA) for allowing us to piss around with their telescopes, while they were having lunch.
I didn't understand most of the middle but, but it was a funny read and goddamn are the writers on point.
Oh this entire post is hilarious.