Recent content by Shadow89

This. Light always* travels in completely straight lines. For you to see the laser "beam" from the side, the light has to bounce off of something, like moisture or a speck of dust. In film production, or at concerts, they will often use lasers in combination with dry-ice smoke machines and/or...

I noticed that too. My personal theory: These "beams" (actually light bounced off of moisture/dust in the air) have already been reflected one or more times before you see them. Thus, the beams may seem to radiate from Area A (brightly lit, top of the clouds) through Area B (Shadow zone beneath...

1) A fat book about mining for resources, including a detailed description of how to get useable iron from ore. 2) A really fat book about medicine, including emergency first aid. 3) The Holy Bible (I hear its really useful for getting people to do what you want).

I saw Altered Carbon. Not the most intelligent piece of writing, but relatively nice pictures. Perfect after a long day at work/school, with a beer and some chips. Same expectations on this one.

Two words:

Obviously there is a force/counterforce between the wing and surrounding air. I just think it may be confusing to say "wings push air down". There are many other inaccuracies in my posts on this thread, and it will be fairly easy for the majority of users to point them out. I have allowed...

To be slightly more precise: The blades on a helicopter "propeller" push air down. The wings on an airplane don't actually push air down. They generate lift. I understand that you know a lot about aerodynamics. Good for you. But I am just trying to give this ≈fifth-grader the general idea of...

To make a very complex thing simple: The wings lift the airplane because there is more pressure beneath them than over them. This is because the wing is curved on the topside, so the air has to travel "further" to get from front to back. The wing has adjustible flaps and such that help the...

Merlin. I just remembered, there is another effect called spherical abberation that has an effect on this. (And makes it worse). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_aberration

Dear doglover9754, I hope you consider becoming a particle physicist when you grow up. You have the right kind of curiosity. Never stop asking questions. I am not familiar with hydraulic computers, and I am not qualified to explain the functionality of the flaps on the airplane wings, but I...

Ok, that sounds interesting. Make sure you don't shine lasers in anyones eyes though. Thats always bad. Good luck with your project and i hope you learn something! :)

Also, what is this for again?

I really want to build a simple but powerful induction heater for hobby blacksmithing. Metal shaping and the design of the cooling system within the coils are not a problem. I need help understanding the electronics Obviously I must first use a transformer as a safety against "backlash" to the...

Let me know if you find out :) Also I would like to mention that some scopes have the reticle at the second focal plane. Rifle enthusiasts argue about what is best. The big difference is when you have variable zoom on a scope, one variety will have the reticle increase/decrease in size with the...

If it weren't for your space limitations, I would suggest using a thick slab of glass of the appropriate refractive index (as high as possible). You could use two in sequence, each rotating about its own axes. i.e. rotate slab 1 along x axis, rotate slab 2 along y axis, send beam along z axis...