Random Questions Thread

Would a person flying (self propelled) at 800 kph (497 mph) make any noticeable noise?

Would having glowing irises serve any practical purpose?

To the latter, three ideas come to mind:

First, visibility: a being with glowing eyes is easier to see in the dark. (Whether this is useful or not may depend on the local ecology, environment and culture.)

Second, sight: it might produce enough light to aid vision in the dark, with the effectiveness and effective range being dependant on the brightness of the glow.

Third, signalling: if the species in question operates in low-light conditions but nevertheless uses sight as a primary sense, it might provide a means of communicating, whether relatively simple things light emotions or expressions, or actual complex language.

edited 21st Oct '14 3:50:00 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

They'd make a small sonic boom like Felix.

EDIT: If you shot someone with a 9mm bullet that had a muzzle energy of 1 MJ, what would happen to them? Would the bullet make a small hole and pass through cleanly without imparting all of its energy, or would the person struck basically explode? Neither?

edited 21st Oct '14 4:26:49 PM by KSPAM

They couldn't make a sonic boom. They're not breaking the sound barrier.

Depends on propulsive method. If there's no engine to whine or buzz, there's no noise to make. Sub-500mph is subsonic, so no sonic boom.

Surely it'd make like whooshing sound as it flew overhead?

No, that's made by the jet or rocket engine: combustion and the engine parts moving around are both pretty noisy, the displacement of air is not. Note that I'm not covering the noise generated by, say, clothes flapping in the sidestream.

A married woman gives birth to a child who was assumed to be her husband's biological child (he is listed as the father on the birth certificate) but actually isn't. If the child's biological father found out, could he sue them for custody?

Depends on the state I think

Woops, I thought he said 800mph, not kph.

EDIT: Anyway, about my previous question...

edited 21st Oct '14 6:43:04 PM by KSPAM

Muzzle energy is not a very effective way to increase gun damage, it might increase the temporary cavity a bit, but it'd be much more effective to simply increase the projectile size. Adding energy would probably just result in over-penetration, in this case the problem with a 9mm projectile is its size, the damage area is just too small.

Hence why sniper rifles and other weapons that cause a meaty "splat" have larger rounds.

(The former basically, clean hole the same size as a normal 9mm.)

edited 22nd Oct '14 1:51:50 AM by Slysheen

Thanks for the glowing eyes and flight answers everyone.

The only thing I though of for uses of glowing eyes would be make the irises more distinct if the rest of the eye was dark. As far as I can tell this is the reason humans have white in their eyes, as eye/ iris position is important in communication.

So you'd need a bullet designed to break apart on contact with the target in order to transfer most of its kinetic energy to the victim?

Yeppers, hollowpoints exist just for that reason, though they don't break apart. They expand and sort of mushroom on impact. The entire bullet stays in the target

Police like to use them specifically because of that, little chance of over penetration and therefor little chance of collateral damage.

Other mainline rifle rounds like say the 5.45x39mm the Russians use actually tumble end over end upon entering the body with a chance to fragment during that tumbling. Really nasty stuff, one of those to the chest and you're pretty much finished.

edited 22nd Oct '14 5:34:45 AM by LeGarcon

And if you fired a hollowpoint bullet carrying 1 MJ of kinetic energy, I'm guessing it would pretty much splatter someone just like a grenade?

I dunno, I'd have to sit down and do math I guess, one MJ is one ton moving at around 160 kph. Now to think how that plays out at bullet weights and speeds

Any reason why Akvavit is rarely distributed outside Scandinavian countries?

My guess is that it doesn't sell well enough to offset the extra cost of exporting it.

A silly question.

How would you describe the girl (with the umbrella)'s attitude?◊

I would say playful, taunting, and maybe graceful?

"Flippant", perhaps? The impression that I get is that she's taunting the blonde girl: she considers herself untouchable, and has decided that it amuses her to toy with her opponent by taking the combat lightly.

edited 24th Oct '14 8:10:22 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

Sounds about right.

My first impression was that she was a bit of a showoff. But not necessarily in a bad way.

Are there any well-known mythical Summoner-Familiar duos? Preferably ones where the familiar is capable of fighting.

Sort of vague question.

How would you turn an intense anger and hatred to intenser love and compassion?

It may depend on why the subject is angry at and holds hatred for the object, and what bases there might be for love and compassion...

One method might be to show previously-unknown common ground, or to show the causes of the anger and hatred to be something that they hold in common (perhaps stemming from common or analogous experiences), and thus grounds for empathy and sympathy.

Hmm... I think that I've seen it suggested that people sometimes rail against flaws in others that they don't want to admit in themselves—perhaps revealing such a case in the subject and having the object overcome those flaws might result in the subject admiring the object?