#science explained

You've probably heard the term "retrograde", likely in conjunction with the planet Mercury. But have you ever wondered what it really means when a celestial object, or anything for that matter, is in retrograde?

Firstly, retrograde refers to anything, although especially planets, moving backwards. You or I could technically be in retrograde if we moon walk! But when someone says, for example, "Mercury is in retrograde", they're describing the visual phenomenon of Mercury appearing to "moonwalk" or move backwards throughout the night sky. Crazy right? Is Mercury, or any object, literally moving in reverse?

Before you start worrying your head about the implications and consequences of such odd motion, the answer to the previous question is no. Celestial objects (or planets at least) do not literally move backwards.

This visual effect is called apparent retrograde motion, meaning the planet only seems to move backwards from one's perspective on Earth. In reality, it continues its orbit in a normal forwards fashion. This illusion is caused by differing and relative speeds of Earth and other celestial bodies as they orbit the Sun.

Earth takes 365 days to orbit the Sun, but Mercury circumnavigates the Sun in 88 days. As Earth catches up to Mercury (who you can think of as having "lapped" Earth in a track race) and looks back at Mercury, it creates the illusion that it is moving backwards in the sky.

Here is a helpful visual explanation!

Like i feel like it’s really easy and i’m overthinking it but like i just can explain why…? I was off ill while the topic was taught so i feel like i’m doomed for failure.

The specific heat of a substance is the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by one Celsius degree. Both metals have the same mass and the same initial temperature, so the only value that now matters is the specific heat.

As the value tells us the amount of heat that is required to raise the temperature, means the bigger the value is, the more heat energy one has to transfer to the metal for it to actually increase it's temperature.

Now I am not a particularly science-y person, but these are so good at breaking down big concepts into pieces I can kind of understand. Plus the wizards of the disc make constant appearances to break things up/add contrast/keep things of being overwhelming.

On the ceilings of buildings, small circular devices called smoke detectors act like a pair of eyes watching over us while we sleep. However, did you know that the "way of seeing" of each device is different depending on the technology inside?

The world of fire protection divides it into two major camps: Photoelectric which relies on light sensors, and Ionization which works at the level of micro electric current particles.

Knowing the difference between the two is key to designing safe buildings. On Substack this afternoon, Elkofire summarized the simple science behind how these two sensors work. We dissect why certain rooms require optical types and why industrial areas require ionization types more. Because when it comes to saving lives, choosing the right technology is the fine line between preparedness and disaster.

Why Health Studies Done on Animals Don’t Always Apply to Humans — Caveat Scientia Caveat Scientia Articles Foundations E-Book About Caveat Scientia Knowledge comes with a warning label. Science & Medicine  ·  Preclinical Research Why Health Studies Done on Animals Don’t Always Apply to Humans Most people have seen a health headline based on an animal study. Far fewer know what happened when…

And I was like “why is it literally impossible to see specifically orange tabbys in the dark?”

And then I realized I literally know the scientific answer to that question.

So here’s a brief explainer of why you can’t fucking find your dumbass orange kitty in the dark when he’s smack dab in the middle of your floor.

Ok, so. Have you ever wondered why tigers are orange? They live in a bright green environment, and they are stealth predators. So you’d think they would be green, right? Or black, if they’re hunting at night? Well, most prey animals are red-green colorblind. And do you know what orange stripes is nearly indistinguishable from when you’re red-green colorblind? Green foliage. Literally, go look it up.

Well, that doesn’t explain anything, you say, most humans aren’t red green colorblind. And to that I’d say you’re correct, except at night. See, cones allow us to see color (they’re color receiving cells in your retina) but they don’t work in low light. Thats why you have a hard time telling what color T shirt you’re holding in the dark, even if you can see the shirt itself, if it’s night and you don’t have the lights on, you probably can’t make out the color. Unless it’s black or white. See, you have other cells in your eyes too. These are called rods. They’re for depth and shadow, so they only receive “dark” and “not dark”. These are what are active in low light.

So, you can see a bright white and dark black blob sitting on your carpet at night, because your rods are active and telling you “hey, white and black blob, probably another creature”, but your orange tabby? Without your cones to help you, they blend in to a lot more than just foliage. Turns out, orange and stripey blends in with just about any roughly textured, medium color surface in the dark. Say, your hideous carpet in your apartment that’s nowhere near the same color as the cat in the daytime, but almost exactly the same shade of textured greys at night. Or your hardwood (it’s actually vinyl made to look like hardwood but I digress) or literally any other surface that has some texture and is not pure white or pure black.

Without your cones helping you, you have as much chance of finding your orange floof as that forest prey animal has spotting that tiger before it’s too late.

Anyway I didn’t look anything up for this, this is all just crap I already knew. No sources I just already knew this stuff and I’m capable of thinking critically and putting facts together to form a conclusion.

This is all my own thoughts from my brain, I don’t use AI, and I’m horrified I have to clarify that.