[Closed] How many people don't know how things work?

EM radiation is just different frequencies/wavelengths from high/tiny (gamma radiation, x-rays) through visible then onto low/large (microwave, radio…).

Right, but certain detection and interaction methods only really work with certain frequencies, so they are in effect different. You can't pick up light with a radio antenna can you?

Or can you? (goes off to Google..)

Thinking about it - metals are shiny because they reflect light, because the current induced in the surface of the metal causes a corresponding E and M field in the opposite direction. So why do radio waves not just bounce off antenna coils? It's to do with the wavelength of course and the size of the wires you'd need.. hmm

to be fair, with digital stations these days she’d be right

So how come on BBC Radio 3 on digital I can still listen to Bach?

There are more things that I don’t know how they work than things that I do know how they work.

but I know how to work google and books so it’s all good.

So how come on BBC Radio 3 on digital I can still listen to Bach?

Must be a recent recording?

Can’t cook to save my life but I’m not proud of it! ... I have an involuntary stomach reflex to certain foods and tastes,

I struggle with food in a similar fashion. But I love cooking. Weird, I know.

they reflect light, because the current induced in the surface of the metal causes a corresponding E and M field in the opposite direction

thinks… I didn't know that - but porcelain insulators are shiny too, so how does that work? Is reflecting the same as absorbing and re-emitting?

So why do radio waves not just bounce off antenna coils? It’s to do with the wavelength

So, a bit like the way near field earthquakes, being high frequency, shake things to bits, while far field earthquakes are long wavelength and just slosh lakes back and forth?

Former colleague didn't know bees eat honey. Not sure what he thought they made it for

Should've posted on here to ask the hive mind.

A friend from years ago thought that hens needed to have sex before they could lay an egg. He thought that battery hens were at it all the time!

Can recommend working through "Do you know?" with Maddie Moate on CBeebies. 200-odd explanations how things work and how things are made, with special cameras and animations even a small child can understand.

"Skyscraper and Flying Bird"
"Plant and Compost"
"Car Engine and Car Transporter"
"Day and Night and Solar Panel"
"Singing and Trombone"
"Bridges and Playground Flooring"
"Digger and Wellies"
"Cereal and Potato Harvester"
"Beehive and Mug"
"Digestion and Meringue"
"Clouds & Rain and Radiator"
"Metal Recycling Centre and Road Sign"
"Lighthouse and Bathbomb"
"Waves and Ice Cream"
"Library and Book"
"X-Ray and Sock"
"Tram and Map"
"Spider Web and Watering Can"
"Camera and Hairbrush"
"Sleep and Sofa"

https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/

but porcelain insulators are shiny too, so how does that work?

I would expect this is because they are glazed with a thin layer of transparent material on the outside. Because light can enter transparent materials but travels through them at a slower speed, you get refraction - and at suitable angles this leads to total internal reflection. You can get a good reflection off a piece of glass but only if you tilt it - however a piece of polished metal will give you a reflection at any angle.

So, a bit like the way near field earthquakes, being high frequency, shake things to bits, while far field earthquakes are long wavelength and just slosh lakes back and forth?

Yeah I suppose so. If you build a jenga tower on a tray, you can move the tray to and fro slowly and the tower stays up. But wobble it quickly, and it falls down. The movement of the tray is fundamentally the same, but different effects become dominant, with the end result that they are essentially different things. In physics, photons are both waves and particles at the same time, all the time, but they interact so differently with the surroundings that in certain situations they effectively ARE different things at different times.

I know someone who was going to the Isle of Man with a few friends, they had organised, she was just going along.
She was convinced that she was getting the ferry over from Leeds, and I was unable to persuade her that this was rather unlikely

I know someone who was going to the Isle of Man with a few friends, they had organised, she was just going along.......

I knew a very bright doctor who was going to the Isle of Wight for a holiday and was looking forward to driving around the TT race circuit.

I knew a very bright doctor who was going to the Isle of Wight for a holiday and was looking forward to driving around the TT race circuit.

And did they enjoy it?

https://www.goodwood.com/grr/race/modern/2020/7/introducing-the-isle-of-wight-tt/