The Daily Theory

How does ice skating work?

2011-01-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

Ice skating is definitely fun, and a very popular sport in countries where it is cold in the winter. But how does ice skating work?
Actually we do not slide on the water but on ice, the physics behind this is rather simple: As the friction where the metal blade of the skate touches the ice is very small, it melts the ice locally, and gives the ability to glide. The melted ice will freeze after this immediately

Time travel is possible

2010-12-12T04:49:00.000-08:00

A group of young scientists and master students proved in practice that time travel is possible.

Myth of time travel originates long ago in urban legends, but has never been proven before. Also Dougles Adams mentioned similar travels in the trilogy, however those travels were in space.

(Image from http://www.crystalinks.com/timetravel.html)

The secret is consuming alcoholic drinks that end with "ka" like Vodka, Becherovka, Palinka, Zubruwka, and some more. The effect is a one direction travel in time, eg. a jump in the future. The theory says that these drinks open a wormhole in the space - time continuum, so not only time, but the place might be changing.

The scientists proved the theory on themselves and volunteer master students. They created a test group and a control group, where the test group was provided the "ka" drinks, and the control was drinking the same amount of water. The control group did not experience anything except visiting the toilet more often, while large percent of the test group reported short time-space jumps, while some extreme persons were relocated up to 8 hours and 20 miles. This discovery could revolutionize everything what we know about physics from Newton to Einstein, and also could provide some deeper understanding to String Theory. However this kind of time travel is not for free, side effects can be among others: headache, stomachache, vomiting, scars and wounds on the body, waking up dancing in a bar on the table and unprotected sex with the gender we usually do not prefer.

Currently scientists are working on stabilizing the travel and minimizing these side effects. Also efforts are put in making the time travel bi-directional.

Why you should not put a cat in the microwave oven

2010-12-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

The heating effect of the microwaves comes from the resonance frequency. The wavelengths of the microwave is close to the wavelength, how the water molecules vibrate. And the waves pass small energy packets to the water molecules, speeding up their movement, and this produces heat.

So why is this dangerous for the cat? Read more if you want to know.

(image source: http://www.gifbin.com/981675)

Now theoretically (never do this at home!!!), if one would put a balloon with some water in the microwave, the water would go boiling after a while and the steam would like to escape. But since the balloon is closed, it can not, and it would grow till finally it would explode. As high percentage of the cat's body (as most beings') consists of water. The chambers within water is trapped, like the stomach for example, would show similar effects to the balloon. Because of the same reason why eggs should also not put in the microwave.

What about free energy?

2010-12-08T01:07:00.000-08:00

There are many sites describing and selling "free energy" sources using strong static magnets only. I do not want to bust this myth, and say that a device like that can not work, and can not actually transform energy. However the sad fact according to the current laws of physic is, that nothing in the world is for absolutely free. Those who claim inventing free energy are stating inventing perpetuum mobile.

Using static magnets is really charming in theory, saying we use the effect that the opposite magnetic poles attract each other. But if you imagine rotation, this attraction is useful while the two magnets should get closer, but it makes the spinning slower after. Moreover a tiny thing usually might be forgotten here, namely that every magnets have two poles, and why the opposites really do have a force of attraction, the identical poles push each other away. And whatever you do these forces will point in the opposite direction.

All this means that if you don't put energy in the "free energy" generator, you will not get energy out. It might still be possible to transform energy with a device like that in a way that serves better for our purposes.

The ultimate perpetuum mobile

2010-12-07T10:31:00.000-08:00

This joke might reveal what the contradiction of perpetuum mobile is.

The rabbi is asked one day:

- Is it true that if I let fall a slice of bread with butter on the top, it will fall on the side with the butter?

- Yes, answers the rabbi.

- And is it true that if a cat is falling it always falls on the feet?

- Yes.

- So what happens if I let fall a cat standing on the top of the butter bread?

But really, what happens? Let's suppose that both statements are true. Both items should fall on the side where they are glued together. So the answer is simple: it should never fall, and keep flying. And we can say that this is the greatest discovery of all times.

The connection between weather and umbrella

2010-12-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

This is somewhat a Murphy theory, but believe me, it is based on many daily observations. The equation is simple:

If you have an umbrella with, that implies no raining that day.

Thus you can influence the weather: if you don't want to have rain, just take the umbrella with :)

Roll or fold in handbag?

2010-12-05T06:30:00.000-08:00

With the appearance of low cost airlines nowadays many travelers decide for the easy way of traveling taking only one handbag. To pack a bag for 7 - 10 days is not an easy task, because usually only one hand luggage of limited amount is allowed. There are many different thoughts about what to take and how to organize these items, for example here or here. However there are different ways of thinking about if the clothes should be folded or rolled see for example here. And this is where The Daily Theory comes in. So roll or fold?

The rolling fans argue that if you roll, you gain more space and your clothes will have less wrinkles. While the folding party says that rolling makes the clothes occupy more space and it is not the usual way to keep things organized. I would say the answer is not that simple that it could be answered with one word, as it depends on some other factors as well.

First of all the type of bag we are using is very important. If the bag is hard from the outside (like most cabin luggage) then rolling really can save some space because the pressure from the cover will leave less space to the air to come in. We should not forget however that if the bag we have (a backpack for example) is from soft material, this pressure might make the bag not fit into the cabin size, so we will end up paying extra fees on the low cost, so folding can be a better way to pack.

The third way that in my personal experience works best is a mixed approach: fold the bigger things and the ones you don't want to roll. Place them towards the middle of your bag using the least space you can. Then take the small items like T-shirts, underwear and socks and place them rolled around the big items. Finally if you have some hard items to place like deodorant or hair-drier, just push them among the rolled clothes, this allows an optimal space usage in almost all types of bags.

What is the difference ?

2010-12-05T03:42:00.000-08:00

- What is the difference between theory and practice?
- Well, in theory nothing, but in practice ...

Why do we need theories?

2010-12-05T03:37:00.000-08:00

Actually we don't, do we? However they can make the seemingly chaotic happenings of life be more easy to understand. Or -if we dig deeper- things might get even more messy. However anything you read on this page should not be considered and believed as fact, since there might no scientific evidence exist for any of these theories, indeed they can be really useful in practice.
Anyway if you are interested in theories or you have some facts that you needed to explain with a theory, feel free to contact me or comment this post.