Anyone got really stupid questions that someone else on here might be able to answer?

[AlaskaElfForGin]

I only ask because I have a really stupid question but haven't asked in case you talk about me ...

So if someone else could ask something ridiculous first that would be great!

From the top:

Jelly wobbles because it's a scaffold of long chains (protein) linked to each other forming little open chambers that trap water.
It's not a rigid structure, but flexible, like an igloo tent of sorts. So it wobbles under the weight of the water in it, when it's moved.
The cold is to make the protein chains link together. The heat breaks the links.

And does it weigh more than it used to because we've got all the buildings everywhere that we didn't have before?

No. But you might need to calculate all the probes and satélites we've sent to space and compensate with the meteorites that have fallen in.

"And does [the Earth]* weigh more than it used to because we've got all the buildings everywhere that we didn't have before?"
*see what I did there?

@longwayoff - unless you are collecting your building material from outer space, the total mass of material on the Earth isn't changing if you take bits of it to make a building. So there will be no impact on the mass of the Earth from doing this. (unless you are thinking that if it's a man-made object it no longer counts as part of the natural Earth, but I don't think a physicist would make that distinction).

Another question is: how do we know the mass of the Earth?

Thanks @DadDadDad. Well yes, obviously, that's why it made me laugh. And I've no idea about calculating the mass. Please don't make me try it.

Why do we have ‘finger tips’ but not ‘toe tips’ and how can we ‘tiptoe’ but not ‘tip finger’ ?!! 😂

q

Thank you @JamieVardysHavingAParty and @DadDadDad

I think the dawn varies too but people don't notice it as they are asleep. I've noticed the dawn chorus being marginally earlier the last few days.

Dawn the last few days has been at 8.02 here so I was very much awake like I expect most people were.

However sunset was at 3.45 yesterday and will be at 3.46 today. It’s only a minute but it quickly adds up.

If you look at this chart you can see that for the next few days the sunset gets later much quicker than the sunrise gets earlier.

That was the sunrise and sunset times for the east I just posted. Have a look at the times for Cardiff and see the difference.

And now Mainland, Orkney.
Look at how much later the sunrise is.

Love the dusk/dawn explanations. I think most people notice dawn when you wake up at 6.30am and it’s a blazing bright sun outside compared to winter where I leave my house at 8 and it looks like it’s still 2am.

We can work out the mass of the Earth, by doing very delicate measurements of the constant of gravitation (if you hang a 10kg mass a distance of 1cm from another 10kg mass, the force of attraction between them is about 0.00007 N, the weight of say 3 mustard seeds), and knowing the radius of the Earth plus a useful mathematical result about the gravitiational fields of spheres.

Thanks for the milk/tea explanations.

I don't really notice the sunrise, I do notice the dawn - I meant that many people don't notice the sunrise not the dawn but said the wrong thing. I had something on my mind.

see what I did there? grin

Yes. A silly bit of mansplaining.

About the dawn thing I'm happy with the explanation that @MillicentMartha gave but don't understand it.
It's way beyond GCSE maths but it sounds right.
Glad other people have noticed it as well

That’s why if you toast one slice of bread it’ll toast unevenly, because it is not designed to be used for one slice.

How do you figure that? A toaster toasts using an element. It’s a very simple bit of kit. It neither knows nor cares how many slices of bread it has.

@Lweji - I'm assuming this thread grants immunity from mansplaining given the thread is literally intended for people to admit their ignorance on everyday things and ask for an explanation...

Unadopted roads

when a new estate is built all the land belongs to the developer. They sell off all the individual plots to the home owners, leaving the road. They then have 2 choices for the road's long term upkeep. OPTION1: leave it up to the home owners via a management company and service charge or as a condition of sale. OPTION 2 is to have it adopted by the Local Authority via a s38. To have it adopted the LA has to agree that it will take it so will have engineers checking and rechecking the road is built properly and is of the right width etc. On new estates adoption is generally preferred, but there may be a reason that this is not possible eg a historic easement or the roads are too narrow to get bin lorries down.

Re sunset vs sunrise times, here’s a graph I copied from google. My shaky blue arrows show that the latest sunrise times don’t match up with the earliest sunset times. Why that is, I’d have to google!

Ratbagratty
That’s mistletoe

Well, it seems to be because the solar day, solar noon to solar noon, doesn’t quite match up with 24 hour clock. Solar days are longer than 24 hours at the solstices and shorter at the equinoxes, averaging out at 24 hour over the year. So coming up to the solstice the solar days are getting longer, meaning solar noon is getting a bit later each day shifting the sunrise and sunset later according to our 24 hour clock time. At the same time, daylight hours are getting shorter. The interference of these two conflicting changes mean that sunrise times changes appear to lag behind sunset times changes. If we used a solar clock and divided the day up into 24 units which are longer at solstices instead of a conventional 24 hour clock, the sunset and sunrise times curves would line up.

I think!

Oh, and the variation in the solar day length is mainly due to the tilt of the earth’s axis and also partly due to the fact the earths orbit around the sun is an ellipse rather than a circle.

I have one I'm embarrassed to ask. But I shall.

When you 'let someone in' whilst driving and they say thank you by flashing their rear lights two or three times. Which lights are they using to do this? Is it hazards?

(I usually just raise my hand if its to thank someone behind me. If its dark and I'm coming towards someone and they let me pass, then I will do a couple of headlight flashes.)