What is the most amazing/awesome fact about the Earth?

Math Man wrote:

t94bell wrote:

It's not about Earth, and isn't even right. It takes millions of years.

So..."millions" is not "over a 100,000"?

How's that again?

Well, you could say over it takes over 1 second for a photon of light to radiate from the core to the surface, and you'd be correct. Considering (from what I've learned) that a photon takes about 16 million years, he could be a tad bit more specific.

More people live in Kona than the rest of the universe COMBINED.

While technically radioactive decay could be considered a nuclear reaction, the two terms are generally not used interchangeably. What we generally think of when we think of a nuclear reaction is not currently happening inside of the earth.

Humor me, then, with an answer to this question: What happens inside a nuclear reactor?

Learn.d_Astronomer wrote:

While technically radioactive decay could be considered a nuclear reaction, the two terms are generally not used interchangeably. What we generally think of when we think of a nuclear reaction is not currently happening inside of the earth.

Humor me, then, with an answer to this question: What happens inside a nuclear reactor?

In a nuclear reactor, a nuclear chain reaction occurs due to the presence of a critical mass of fissile material. The neutron or other subatomic particle given off by the decay of one atom collides with another fissile atom causing that atom to give off a subatomic particle causing a chain reaction. In a nuclear reactor, this process can be controlled by altering the amount of fuel to be below, at, or above critical mass, changing the temperature, or other methods.

A nuclear explosion occurs when this process is accelerated by the presence of a super-critical mass of fissile material.

Radioactive decay is the process by which an unstable atom gives off a subatomic particle to become more stable. The difference between the two is that radioactive decay is more or less random and governed by the material's half-life rather than the chain reaction associated with a nuclear reaction.

Technically the decay is a reaction, and I already admitted that and said that if the poster I called out as being wrong meant decay that I was sorry.

My point was that most people don't use the term nuclear reaction to refer to that process and use the terms radioactive decay and nuclear reaction to differentiate the two phenomena that I described. The "nuclear reaction" occurring in the Earth's crust is no more of a nuclear reaction than what is occurring in your body right now and in the dinnerware in your kitchen.

It is the way it is because if it was any other way we wouldn't be around to observe it. The Anthropic Principle (or, the coolest idea ever).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

No Way wrote:

Nope Nope wrote:

Cool fact. But not entirely true. The circumference of the planet earth is just a bit less than 25,000 miles. So, unless that plover takes a really circuitous route it is not flying over 25,000 miles to get from Northern Canada to Southern South America.

I think he meant 2,500, just a typo man.

I hope you are joking. Or is this you?

2,500 miles will barely get you half way to the equator from northern Canada. Forget about reaching southern South America.

In fact, 2,500 miles probably wouldn't make the top 100 bird migrations - hardly worth mentioning.

t94bell wrote:

Math Man wrote:

So..."millions" is not "over a 100,000"?

How's that again?

Well, you could say over it takes over 1 second for a photon of light to radiate from the core to the surface, and you'd be correct. Considering (from what I've learned) that a photon takes about 16 million years, he could be a tad bit more specific.

Agreed.

Fair enough. It seemed a simple explanation to the issue. Obviously I didn't think it through.

Nope Nope wrote:

No Way wrote:

I think he meant 2,500, just a typo man.

I hope you are joking. Or is this you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

2,500 miles will barely get you half way to the equator from northern Canada. Forget about reaching southern South America.

In fact, 2,500 miles probably wouldn't make the top 100 bird migrations - hardly worth mentioning.

Three days and six pages later, there have only a handful of people who can successfully produce a fact, and few if any of those are amazing.

webby wrote:

Three days and six pages later, there have only a handful of people who can successfully produce a fact, and few if any of those are amazing.

I bet she could:

Given that the circumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles, this could only be true if they flew all the way around.

Precious Roy wrote:

The Earth has creatures like the American Golden Plover. This small bird flies over 25,000 miles from its breeding habitat in Norther Canada and Alaska to its winter home in Southern South America. 2,400 miles of the journey are flown straight, without rest over open water.

Riiiiiight wrote:

Given that the circumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles, this could only be true if they flew all the way around.

A bit late to the party, aren't you?

Nope Nope wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

The Earth has creatures like the American Golden Plover. This small bird flies over 25,000 miles from its breeding habitat in Norther Canada and Alaska to its winter home in Southern South America. 2,400 miles of the journey are flown straight, without rest over open water.

Cool fact. But not entirely true. The circumference of the planet earth is just a bit less than 25,000 miles. So, unless that plover takes a really circuitous route it is not flying over 25,000 miles to get from Northern Canada to Southern South America.

I meant round trip migration. And the route is not a straight line. The birds generally follow coast lines to get where they are going.

"Earth is mostly iron, oxygen and silicon:

"If you could separate the Earth out into piles of material, you’d get 32.1 % iron, 30.1% oxygen, 15.1% silicon, and 13.9% magnesium. Of course, most of this iron is actually down at the core of the Earth. If you could actually get down and sample the core, it would be 88% iron. 47% of the Earth’s crust consists of oxygen."

http://www.universetoday.com/14382/10-interesting-facts-about-planet-earth/

Well there is always this wrote:

I bet she could:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Most amazing-slash-awesome thing on this thread so far, by a wide margin.

Precious Roy wrote:

Nope Nope wrote:

Cool fact. But not entirely true. The circumference of the planet earth is just a bit less than 25,000 miles. So, unless that plover takes a really circuitous route it is not flying over 25,000 miles to get from Northern Canada to Southern South America.

I meant round trip migration. And the route is not a straight line. The birds generally follow coast lines to get where they are going.

OK. I'll give you a pass. But if you want to talk about amazing migrations, why not go with the real champion? - -

"The Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a seabird of the tern family Sternidae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe, Asia, and North America (as far south as Brittany and Massachusetts). The species is strongly migratory, seeing two summers each year as it migrates from its northern breeding grounds along a winding route to the oceans around Antarctica and back, a round trip of about 70,900 km (c. 44,300 miles) each year.[3] This is by far the longest regular migration by any known animal."

Aghast wrote:

It takes over a 100,000 years for light to get from the core of the sun to the earth's surface.

Really??!!! Try 8 minutes.

Do you think light travels at the speed of a snail??

3434556767867wetrwer wrote:

Aghast wrote:

It takes over a 100,000 years for light to get from the core of the sun to the earth's surface.

Really??!!! Try 8 minutes.

Do you think light travels at the speed of a snail??

8 minutes from the time it leaves the sun's surface. The point is that it takes light a long time to go from the center of the sun, where it is initially produced in nuclear reactions (fusion that is, gotta be careful around here!) to the surface of the sun. This is because there is a lot of sun in the way, and the light gets absorbed and re-emitted over and over again, each time going in a random direction. Gradually, over the course of a million years or whatever, the light random walk/diffuses its way to the surface, then zips the rest of the Earth in 8 and half minutes.