Recent content by Jaziel

PS. Good news! I've just contacted the supplier and they confirm that the clock is definitely at fault and that they're perfectly happy to give me a refund upon returning it to them, which is a mighty relief, I must say. But thanks for your input, DaveC426913!

Unfortunately, no. This battery powered clock (which wasn't cheap) does include a knurled knob at the back, enabling the 'hand' or pointer to be adjusted, but that's it, I'm afraid. Personally I strongly suspect the clock's mechanism to be flawed in some way, but don't have anything like enough...

I recently purchased a lunar clock intended as a Christmas present for a young family friend who has become interested in astronomy. The clock face shows twelve images of the Moon in all its main phases, with the Full Moon depicted at the "twelve o'clock" position. Now I purchased this clock...

So along with frequency capability, can ENOB (Effective Number of Bits), at least as it applies of analog-to-digital converters, be viewed as a reasonable metric to calibrate differences between two comparable analog computers, yes? At risk of going slightly off-topic, would neuromorphic...

According to Google AI, one way computer power is defined is by its ability to process data and perform tasks quickly and efficiently. Processing speed (CPU) is measured in clock speed (GHz) and the number of cores, indicating how many instructions a processor can execute per second. The above...

You're telling me.

Thanks for that. What prompted the question in the first place was wondering how it would be if the parts of a spacecraft (not a space station) were tethered in such a way so that the life support section would be at one end of the tether while the the rest of the ship was distributed along the...

In discussions about simulating gravity in a spaceship by the use of tethered masses revolving around a common centre, the assumption appears to be that these masses must be equal. Would instabilities occur were this not the case? Or would the problem go away simply by placing the hub at an...

It has been pointed out that even if the Beale papers are a hoax, the two undeciphered ciphers themselves could still be genuine ciphers. There's no treasure at the end of the day, that's all. A possible alternative, mentioned by Simon Singh (I think?) is that the Beale papers are genuine and...

(Please excuse me if this is the wrong section to ask this question) With reference to 'The Code Book' by Simon Singh, will it be possible for a computer to crack the as yet still undeciphered first and third (alleged) ciphers of the famous Beale Ciphers? If so, how might this be achieved? Many...

Thanks again for the instructive comments. They have really got me thinking! :smile: Stefan, just a clarification: a perihelion flyby means viewed at a distance of 1 AU - e.g. from Earth orbit? So if that works out at magnitude 8 for a 4GW output, I take it then that its apparent brightness...

Hi Thanks for the helpful (and encouraging) responses. I guess the issue began when I read a paper by Dr Robert Zubrin (see link below) about the detection of alien spacecraft , in which he restricted his detection criteria to four kinds of non-FTL propulsion: fisson, fusion, antimatter and...

Hi Yes, sorry if I wasn't being clear enough. I meant the rocket exhaust, or even heat radiation. My apologies again. Thanks for getting back to me anyway. Jaz.

According to NASA the Space Shuttle required 12 GW to get it off the launch pad. So if a hypothetical rocket at the Second Lagrange Point (where the JWT is heading for right now) was producing the same amount of watts, all other things being equal, how far away in space could this output be...

That is interesting. So as well as blocking the worst of UV radiation, the atmosphere really does have a shielding effect when it comes to solar/cosmic radiation, at least here on Earth. Thanks for the explanation.