Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
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am i stupid or are solar panel's efficiency independent on latitude (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Consider the following drawing:

I take it that solar panel's generated electricity would be the same whether it's installed in scandinavia or africa, as long as it faces in the same direction? or am i stupid

i'm asking this because everywhere i hear how "solar panels have higher efficiency near the equator", but that's just not true. Maps such as these are common on the internet:

And they suggest that solar energy around the equator would be twice as available as on northern latitudes, but actually that's just the solar irradiation if the panels weren't inclined, but in practice, they were likely will be. So they receive similar amounts of power.

edit: so, it's the cloud cover. got it; thanks :D

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Please note whilst the jist of this diagram is correct, it's not drawn properly. The sun is so far away and much larger than the Earth. This means sunlight is about as parallel as it can be once it gets to Earth. So the lines aren't going through the atmosphere at different angles. The angle is the same, but since the Earth is a sphere it will travel through more atmosphere before hitting the ground.