Science Memes

20648 readers

1259 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Meta Post Tags

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

If you are here asking: "Is this a science meme?"

Probably, yes. We use the Dawkins definition of meme: a replicating idea, not just an image macro with a fact on it. A good post here doesn't need to teach you something. It needs to make you ask something: who, what, where, when, and especially why or how.

Science isn't a filing cabinet of facts, it's a conversation. For example, a photo of an eel or other localized wildlife counts because most people never see one, and wonder is the first step of inquiry. A car meme counts if it makes you curious about what's under the bonnet. If you want to talk about something you noticed in the world, chances are someone else wants to talk about it too.

We moderate for vibe, not category. Pruning is light, especially where a post creates interesting discussion. Experimenting is encouraged.

See the pinned paper on Shitposting as Public Pedagogy if you want the academic case for why this works.

Research Committee

!spiders@lemmy.world

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

Sal@mander.xyz

fossilesque@mander.xyz

SciBot@mander.xyz

fossilesque@lemmy.dbzer0.com

680

p r e s s u r e (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[+] jerkface@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

[removed by mod]

[–] Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That would be a stupidly hight amount of charge.

For a very rough estimate, thunderstorms peak at about 6.7 nanocoulombs of charge per m³, or 4.2e10 fewer electrons per m³. Cumulonimbus clouds have roughly 2 grams of water per m³, or 6.7e22 atoms per m³. Thus, thunderstorms have 1 in 10e12 fewer electrons.

To fully ionize water, you would need something like a trillion times as much voltage as lightning, and the ability to insulate the sample from other sources of electrons like any nearby matter.

This might be feasible at very small scales, but the result would be just as dangerous. A bunch of protons that really want electrons nearby would pull lightning from anywhere they could, and would be unbelievably corrosive. Something like a pH of -23.7, although pH breaks down long before this point.

Such a substance completely devoid of electrons would also repel itself very strongly, so it would evaporate into gaseous protons basically instantly. "Normal" plasma is much more stable because the electrons are separated by temperature rather than by electric change. High electric charges are much more difficult to contain.

I'm not a physicist though, so I'm likely wrong on the details.