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SgtLongcoat

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  1. SgtLongcoat
    I recently found an online play-through of a game called OneShot, a fourth wall breaking game in which the main character, Niko, has to restore the sun (just a giant lightbulb) to a world in which the previous sun died out with the help of the player, who acts as a... far from omniscient god of the world that can't directly interact with anything and can only be heard by Niko. Throughout the game, characters reference a material called phosphor, which they say gives off the power of their previous sun, and is used to provide light, generate power, and grow plants.
    While bored, I decided to do a quick google search for phosphor, and it turns out it's actually a real thing, although it doesn't function as it does in the game. In real life, phosphor is a luminescent material used to coat various lights in order to change the color that they emit, with the simplest example being LEDs. For example, most white LED lights actually utilize a blue light to generate their light. How does the light become white then? The answer is that there's a phosphor coating around the light which absorbs light at the blue wavelength, and re-emits light at longer wavelengths, resulting in a full spectrum of visible light instead of a single color. And it should be noted that phosphor isn't a single compound, however, but an entire category of compounds. By changing which compound is used, as well as its density, its possible to achieve a variety of affects from simple lighting to creation of glow-in-the dark materials.
  2. SgtLongcoat
    Many people understand that game designers take certain liberties with physics in video games. It makes the games more fun to play, especially when it's the difference between jumping off a cliff and either rolling to inexplicably survive, or dying due to a ton of fall damage. Or the difference between having an awesome volcano map and burning up the moment you set foot within a few meters of lava. No, wait, magma, lava is outside the earth's surface. But, you get the picture.
    Of course, when the mechanics in question have NO AFFECT whatsoever on the game play, designers have no excuse.
    Take a look at Wailord, a Pokemon based on the blue whale, for example. In game, Wailord is listed as having a weight of 877.4 lbs (398 kg), and a height of 47'7" (14.5 m), being one of the heaviest and largest Pokemon in the game. Ignoring the fact that Wailord and other 'mons can survive outside of water, however, can bring about an almost paradoxical revelation: the fact that Wailord seemingly floats above the ground in battle both does and doesn't go against the laws of physics. The reason? Wailord is actually less dense than air, meaning it should not only float, but float out of the troposphere.
    Want proof? Based on Wailord's in game model, it is approximately six times as long as it is tall, giving it an approximate length of 58 m. It is also almost perfectly round, meaning it has a depth of about 14.5 m. Given Wailord's shape, a cylinder with two half spheres on either end, it has an approximate volume of 8779.4 m3. Knowing that density = mass / volume, it's possible to calculate Wailord's approximate density as being .045 kg/m3. A quick google search reveals air's density to be 1.225 kg/m3. Even halving his estimated length doesn't help much, only increasing his density to about double the current, which is still well below air's density. Considering that less dense objects tend to float above more dense objects, this would mean Wailord should be floating well out of range of whatever battle its trainer sent it out into.
  3. SgtLongcoat
    Undertale… where do I even begin? To describe it simply, it’s a game which shows us that there are consequences to our actions, and attempts to show that there are other solutions in video games than violence. It’s one of the most amazingly funny and heart-wrenchingly emotional experiences you can get out of a 2D game. That being said, mostly for the rule of funny, the game tends to ignore the laws of physics.
      One of the most blatant examples of this occurs during the game’s pacifist route, where one of the characters, a skeleton named Papyrus, jumps out of a closed window, causing it to shatter. The problem? By jumping out the window, the force Papyrus exerted on the window would have been directed outside the house, meaning the shards of glass would have landed outside. Despite this, when jumping, the ENTIRE window breaks inwards, and lands INSIDE the house.
      There are several tough bosses in this game which drive people insane, some of which also break the laws of physics… or blatantly ignore them… But the fact that one of the easiest, kindest bosses in the game can so casually break the laws of physics just goes to show how dangerous he may be…
  4. SgtLongcoat

    WoP #4: Car Crashes

    By SgtLongcoat,

    A couple days ago, I was waiting to be picked up (since I'm a seventeen year old chicken who still doesn't have his license), and I unfortunately almost witnessed a car accident. A child, maybe four or five years old, went to chase after a ball which went across the street, and the driver couldn't see him because there was a parked car in the way. I tense up because I'm about ready to bolt over and help the kid, but luckily the driver stops about a yard away from hitting the kid. He's one lucky kid.
    The weird thing about this, though, is that the force of friction acting on the car to move it forward before the brake is applied is the force of static friction, which is greater than the force of friction which acts to bring the car to a stop after the brake is applied, that of kinetic friction. This means that, in order for the car to come to a stop, the brake would need to be applied for a longer amount of time than the gas would to bring it up to speed, being kinetic friction has a lower acceleration than static friction.
    In addition, the impulse the kid would've felt had he been hit would likely be enough to cause serious injury, considering the magnitude of the momentum of the car compared to the child's momentum in the direction of the car's motion (~0 kg m/s), and the fact that the car's velocity wouldn't change much due to the child's relatively small mass compared to the car. I truly am glad the car stopped in time, because human road kill isn't something I ever want to see.
  5. SgtLongcoat
    Something tells me that the junior/senior class trip to Italy might not be happening this year, as Italy has recently been hit by a series of earthquakes, the most recent of which hit cental Italy and was a 6.6 on the Richter scale. According to recent news, approximately 90% of buildings in the area, many of which had significant historical value, were affected or destroyed by the shockwaves, and many were injured (luckily no reported casualties). As the shockwaves radiated from the epicenter, surrounding areas felt aftershocks of around 4.4 on the scale, and aftershocks are estimated to continue for the next week or two.
    Being forces between two tectonic plates at fault lines are what cause these tremors, it can be assumed that there's been an increase in the amount of tectonic activity underneath Italy. For everyone's sake, I hope these tremors end soon, because if they migrate any further south, there may even be a chance we see Mt. Vesuvius erupt again.
    I wish the best of luck to the people of Italy in rebuilding and returning to their normal lives. My heart truly goes out to them.

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