Comment on If we took material like rock from space and got it back to Earth enough times, would Earth grow as a planet?

• Malfeasant@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Actually you can.

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• ccunning@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Oof - I have to rethink everything I thought I knew about E=mc^2^ 🫠

  I’ve always discounted c^2^ as “just a number” and didn’t consider it was a number of specific units 🫣

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  • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I’ve always discounted c2 as “just a number” and didn’t consider it was a number of specific units 🫣

    This is actually very common and I even remember physics teacher basically using the words “don’t worry about it, it’s just a really big number”, because their point was to imaging the big amount of energy you could get from very little mass.

    But I mostly blame old documentaries about atom bombs that just threw in the absolute basics to make what is basically explosion porn.

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    • ccunning@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I even remember physics teacher basically using the words “don’t worry about it, it’s just a really big number”

      Ok - This is literally the origin for me. My 8th grade “physical science” teacher told us this.

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      • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        My 8th grade “physical science” teacher told us this.

        Yeah, that checks out. It is an interesting concepts that can peak student’s curiosity, but to early to really get into quantum mechanics. So for people that don’t further pursue an interest in physics, that’s often the last impression they are left with.

        I had the fortune to have a physics professor as a dad. I carried a laminated double sided periodic table since elementary school. We didn’t even have chemistry of physics until secondary school …

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