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Old 07-08-2002, 05:28 AM   #13 (permalink)
luckyeddie
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Derby, England
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OK. Let's try to answer some of the sensible ones.

How does TEFLON stick to the pan?
It's a patented trade secret, and if I let you lot know, DuPont would have my a** in a sling. Seriously, it's a question which has been asked many times on the internet, and one which has generated some interesting answers. Check out the following link :

http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/ptfeidea.htm

What can cause an explosion from nothing?
You can't generate an explosion from nothing. You have to appreciate that a vacuum is not empty, and that before the Big Bang, the primordial state was not in fact 'nothing' but 'something' (possibly a lattice of dimensions or fields, undergoing 'quantum fluctuations'). We don't know, because we have not been able to produce a mathematical model which 'fits' closely enough.

and the linked question :

...why do the laws of physics break down?
They don't. It is our APPRECIATION of the laws of physics as we currently understand them which no longer fit. Again, we don't know enough. Our understanding of the physical laws of the universe are constantly being revised. Now when we understand more, you (on CricketWeb) will be the first to be told.

Why is the sky blue?
Easypeasy. It's all down to the scattering of light. Photons normally travel in straight lines, but when one hits a nitrogen molecule or another particle in the Earth's atmosphere, it undergoes a 'scattering' process, i.e. some of it's energy bounces off in a different direction. The actual direction is determined by the actual wavelength of the light, the size of the particle it hits and so on. For the makeup of our atmosphere, this effect is greatest in the shorter (blue end of the spectrum) wavelengths, and that's why the sky appears to be blue.

...and the sun red at sunrise and sunset?
Now in the early morning and late evening, the sun appears closer to the horizon. This means that in order for light to reach you from the sun, it has to pass through far more atmosphere. This gives plenty of opportunity for blue light and the other shorter wavelengths to be refracted away, leaving just the longer (redder) wavelengths to impact on your retina.

Incidentally, it is possible to get a partial 'green sunset'.
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