https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/1dozb9y/ask_anything_wednesday_engineering_mathematics/
created by AutoModerator on 26/06/2024 at 14:00 UTC
70 upvotes, 15 top-level comments (showing 15)
Welcome to our weekly feature, Ask Anything Wednesday - this week we are focusing on **Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science**
Do you have a question within these topics you weren't sure was worth submitting? Is something a bit too speculative for a typical /r/AskScience post? No question is too big or small for AAW. In this thread you can ask any science-related question! Things like: "What would happen if...", "How will the future...", "If all the rules for 'X' were different...", "Why does my...".
Please post your question as a top-level response to this, and our team of panellists will be here to answer and discuss your questions. The other topic areas will appear in future Ask Anything Wednesdays, so if you have other questions not covered by this weeks theme please either hold on to it until those topics come around, or go and post over in our sister subreddit /r/AskScienceDiscussion , where every day is Ask Anything Wednesday! Off-theme questions in this post will be removed to try and keep the thread a manageable size for both our readers and panellists.
Please only answer a posted question if you are an expert in the field. The full guidelines for posting responses in AskScience can be found here[1]. In short, this is a moderated subreddit, and responses which do not meet our quality guidelines will be removed. Remember, peer reviewed sources are always appreciated, and anecdotes are absolutely not appropriate. In general if your answer begins with 'I think', or 'I've heard', then it's not suitable for /r/AskScience.
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Past AskAnythingWednesday posts can be found here[3]. Ask away!
Comment by MikeOfAllPeople at 26/06/2024 at 15:00 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thank you for the opportunity for me to ask this.
I'm a helicopter instructor pilot and I was recently researching the math and physics behind aircraft performance, specifically related to maximum range and maximum endurance airspeeds.
I came across this online textbook which explains the concepts very well, but only for airplanes.
I have only a little experience in airplanes, so I am finding some of this a little confusing. Specifically, the author notes that the calculations are different for jet airplanes and propellor airplanes. For jet airplanes, the calculations involve *thrust*, and for propellor airplanes, the calculations involve *power*.
Now, for helicopters, I have always read that the math is similar to what this book says about jets. That is, max endurance is the bottom of the curve, where total drag is lowest. Max range is where the ratio of drag to speed is lowest, which is on the tangent line drawn from the origin of the chart.
However, I do not intuitively understand what is different between thrust and power, why the calculations are different, and why helicopter performance charts match the thrust version versus the power version.
I did find this stackexchange post[1] which seems to answer my question, but it's a bit over my head. I'm not the brightest math student, so any further insight would be much appreciated.
1: https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/81809/how-do-power-and-thrust-curves-compare
Comment by aluminium_is_cool at 26/06/2024 at 17:09 UTC
3 upvotes, 3 direct replies
with the huge amount of data that we have about the weather in the past several decades, how can't we make an AI that learns from it and gives accurate forecast for the next 2 days at least?
Comment by SubstantialPressure3 at 26/06/2024 at 15:31 UTC
2 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Why hasn't the supermassive black hole in Sagittarius A destroyed the entire Milky Way galaxy, if it's so strong that even light can't escape?
How does that work if almost every galaxy has a supermassive black hole in or near the center?
Have we seen any evidence for micro black holes?
What happens to matter and energy expelled from a black hole? I read that it doesn't come from the black hole itself, it comes from an accretion disk around the black hole.
So there's something around the black hole that accumulates all the matter and energy sucked into the black hole, and at what point is it expelled? And what happens to it?
Comment by pingpongtits at 26/06/2024 at 18:55 UTC
2 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Now that we know being off-Earth (in interplanetary space) is terrible for your kidneys, what sort of solutions are you kicking around to protect astronauts from radiation damage? Is the equipment itself in danger, especially since tech is growing more and more refined?
Comment by OpenPlex at 26/06/2024 at 19:12 UTC
2 upvotes, 4 direct replies
What is a function?
My mind immediately visualizes a function as any mathematical expression, for example 1 + 1 or 2 × 2, but then the explanations on Wikipedia seem far more complicated and like you need to first learn many prerequisites before you could hope to understand what a function is.
Does an intuitive explanation exist?
Comment by FVjake at 26/06/2024 at 15:02 UTC*
2 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Let’s say I had a long string of LEDs, say 1km, with the LEDs spaced a meter apart, open circuit at the end. Could I, in theory, send a voltage pulse down the wires that’s below the voltage threshold of the LEDs but then send another precisely timed pulse that will constructively interfere with the reflected first pulse to create pulse that is above the threshold voltage of the LEDs and turn on a single LED where the two pulses interact?
Edit: LEDs are wired in parallel.
Comment by [deleted] at 26/06/2024 at 14:43 UTC
1 upvotes, 3 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by obnoxygen at 26/06/2024 at 16:06 UTC
1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
How is category theory different from linear transformation (that I studied in my misspent youth)?
Comment by tjernobyl at 26/06/2024 at 17:39 UTC
1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
How far are we from practical uses for carbon nanotube thread and synthetic spider silk?
Comment by LeepII at 26/06/2024 at 20:45 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Would it be possible to create a magnetic field so powerful it would actually move air? My thought is a long rail gun for orbital insertions. Several miles of magnetic rings long. Could it be possible to actually start "thinning" the air by pushing the outer shells of the N2/O2?
Comment by [deleted] at 26/06/2024 at 22:30 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by Mark_d_K at 26/06/2024 at 20:41 UTC
1 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Why is rust still a problem when engineering motor vehicles? Is it purely a cost issue, are there no effective remedies, or is it planned obsolence/maintenance? At least it seems like materials like stainless steel cost less than an order of magnitude more than their non-corrosion-resistant counterparts. Sure, there is paint, but that doesn't work for say motorcycle chains.
Comment by vZaa at 26/06/2024 at 15:32 UTC
0 upvotes, 5 direct replies
Hello, this is very weird, but I wanted to know how maths formulas work. I found a "formula", i found it from 5 * 6 - 2 = 4 * 7 ; 9 * 10 - 2 = 8 * 11. It would be a(a+1)-2 = (a-1)(a+2). I call it a -2 formula. I wanted to know how it's different from a^2 - b^2 = (a-b)(a+b) that we learn in school. Everybody tells me mine isn't really a formula. I know it cancels out fast, but every formula does, doesn't it? Why is it different?
Comment by rainawaytheday at 27/06/2024 at 00:00 UTC
0 upvotes, 1 direct replies
When I eat a burger, fries, milkshake, a redbull and some pepto-bizmul, how does my stomach know how to deal with all these different compounds?
Comment by [deleted] at 27/06/2024 at 00:17 UTC*
0 upvotes, 0 direct replies
[removed]