Recent content by Janus

  1. Janus

    Newest Blender features (5.2)

    This next test was to see if the Blender fluid simulator would interact properly with the new cloth feature. Particularly, how the fluid would behave with respect to the tearing of the cloth. The fluid does respond to the cloth's simulated shape, however, the cloth does not appear to react to...
  2. Janus

    Newest Blender features (5.2)

    Okay, this turned to out work out better than expected. What I bascially wanted to do was to have an effect where a balloon would inflate, expand, and once it reached a certain point would rip open. The first issue was mimicing the inflation. The legacy cloth simulator had a pressure feature...
  3. Janus

    Newest Blender features (5.2)

    Blender has released its latest new version (5.2), and as per usual, they have added a number of new features, two of which I'll touch on here. One is a material feature and the other a physics simulation feature. The material one is call "Thin wall", it is used when you want a material...
  4. Janus

    Basic skills that kids are lacking

    Mailing a check isn't much safer. Mail theft is a real thing. My wife and I were very carefull about only using official mail boxes to mail anything that contained a check, but still had one intercepted, and then used to forge fake checks written against our account. Our check was intercepted...
  5. Janus

    Basic skills that kids are lacking

    That's assuming that one knows the relationship between North, South, East and West.
  6. Janus

    An "Untranslatable" Word?

    I am of Finnish descent and grew up in a region of Northern Minnesota, where people of Finnish descent made up roughly 1/5 of the populace (As compared to 1/500 nationwide) This actually had an effect on the speech in the area which gave it a dialect that varied from the standard "Minnesota...
  7. Janus

    What force causes precession?

    Maybe this image taken from an old Physics text may help.
  8. Janus

    Undergrad Why doesn't time dilation prevent aging in the twin paradox?

    He would not physically "see" a pancaked planet, that is something inferred by applying Relativity. What he would physically see is blue-shifted light coming from the planet and the planet appearing to approach at a speed greater than c. Now, he will understand that the planet isn't physically...
  9. Janus

    Today I Learned

    Not quite that old, but it was a bit small, just a two-seater. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-38_Tomahawk#/media/File:Piper_PA-38_Tomahawk_3-view_line_drawing.svg The flight instruments were basic and not much in the way of avionics. ( basically a VOR and a Radio) No headset either, you...
  10. Janus

    Today I Learned

    TIL that the Piper PA-38 Tomahawk, the plane that I took my initial flight lessons and solos in ( over 40 decades ago), is, on two separate lists, considered one of the ten most dangerous small single engine planes to fly.( to the point that it was sometimes referred to as the "Traumahawk".)...
  11. Janus

    Are these rabbit pellets???

    Definitely look like rabbit pellets. We raised a few rabbits when I was in High school, and they look very familiar. If you have a garden or flower patch, they make excellent fertilizer.
  12. Janus

    How effective is nuclear propulsion?

    Given that this type of engine have about twice the exhaust velocity of the Shuttle's main engines, then if you were able to substitute, then about twice as fast as given above.
  13. Janus

    How effective is nuclear propulsion?

    To reach Alpha Centauri in 100 years, you would need to reach a speed of least 0.043 c (12900000 meters/sec) Given the exhaust velocity of even the main shuttle engines, this works out to e^2931 kg of fuel per kg of payload mass.( here e is Euler's number) This is more mass than contained by the...
  14. Janus

    How effective is nuclear propulsion?

    For simplicity's sake, we will assume a shuttle in orbit with a fully fueled external tank. IOW, we won't factor in the Solid fuel boosters. The Shuttle itself has a mass of 75,000 kg. The external tank has a empty mass of 35,500 kg and holds 718,500 kg of fuel and oxidizer. This puts the...
  15. Janus

    An "Untranslatable" Word?

    While Finnish does have words for "yes" and "no" It also does something similar. So for example, The question Maalaatko taulua?" ( Are you painting a picture?) is answered with "Maalaan"( I am painting)