this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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Science Memes

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4 fundamental forces (lemmy.dbzer0.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by stebo02@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
 

Made this meme while studying CP violation in weak interactions... weak force why cant you be normal?? :cry:

Credit for the image on the right: KhezuG on DevianArt

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[–] will_a113@lemm.ee 126 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Shouldn’t gravity be like a tiny, vaguely dragon-shaped worm off in another field?

I mean messing with the strong force in a fistful of atoms gets you a nuclear bomb. Meanwhile, my old, achy self can jump up and resist against a whole earth’s worth of gravitational force.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

While that is true, for how long can you resist gravity? Gravity is the endurance hunter of the fundamental forces. Sure, you can lift your arm and resist the entire earth's gravity. But for how long, before you succumb to gravity's irresistible pull?

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

resisting gravity is super easy, as evidenced by the fact that most things aren't black holes.

[–] Mesophar@pawb.social 2 points 1 day ago

Perhaps the gravity head should be a snail then

[–] archonet@lemy.lol 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

Au contraire, mon frere. "Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space."

if you have enough mass moving quickly enough, someone's gonna have a real bad day. Gravity is fantastic for getting a lot of mass moving very quickly, it's why space missions slingshot around planets to get from A to B instead of burning propellant straight there. Even dropping tungsten rods from orbit can get you atom-bomb-sized explosions, and if you had any means of (even weakly) accelerating them before that, gravity would help further accelerate them.

That, and have you seen the amount of propellant required to overcome gravity? Compare that to the amount of fissile material you need to make a viable nuclear device. It's peanuts. A (small) nuke might as well be a rounding error compared to the amount of fuel you need to overcome gravity and leave earths orbit, gravity is that much of a fuck.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

That, and have you seen the amount of propellant required to overcome gravity? Compare that to the amount of fissile material you need to make a viable nuclear device. It's peanuts.

You inadvertently argued against your point. It takes only a few kilograms of fissile material to generate the energy needed to escape the gravitation of the 6 billion trillion kilograms gravity of earth.

But not really because you only compared chemical energy to fission.

[–] archonet@lemy.lol 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, but we have no useful way to channel the energy from nuclear fission into propulsion, so that's a moot point if we're talking in practical terms. At least, we don't without irradiating everything. My point was not that combustion-based propellants are energy efficient, merely that it takes a lot of energy to escape gravity, and while theoretically nuclear propulsion would be more efficient, in practice, burning shit is really the best we can do without giving someone cancer every time we want to put something in orbit, because gravity is a fuck.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You can do nuclear without irradiating everything Just like a nuclear plant doesn't irradiate everything. The only reason it isn't done is safety. Rockets fail too often.

The argument that gravity is in anyway a more powerful force than weak force (fission) or strong force (fusion) is wrong. The only thing gravity has is distance. The strong force is 100 trillion trillion trillion times stronger than gravity.

[–] will_a113@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I was more just speaking to how it’s many orders of magnitude weaker than the other 3 forces. Though it does work on an infinite scale, so maybe it ought to be a tiny but unbelievably long vaguely dragon-shaped worm thing.

[–] TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Upvoted for Mass Effect, my beloved.

[–] oxideseven@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You didn't really overcome it though. After 2 seconds you got pulled right back.

[–] will_a113@lemm.ee 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yup. But try pulling a proton out of an atom for 2 seconds.

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

idk, man. that gravitational sigularity over there would like to have a word with you.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Close up off monstrous, horrifying, dangerous gravity dragon... pull back and back and back, and realize it was 1000x magnified. It's magnificent roar a barely audible squeak.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

And then you look away from it for a couple billion years and it combined with with all of its friends into the devourer of worlds