A Little Glass of Water: The Scientific Breakthrough Trump Unveiled Aboard the USS George Washington

[Gunnar]

I am sure that there must be Republican political leaders who know how dangerously ignorant and unhinged Trump's views are on well-established science and technology, including the state-of-the-art military technology our military possesses. Why are there seemingly so many of them who are so terrified of Trump's wrath that they dare not point out to him even his most obviously mistaken and dangerous views?

[Chap]

BUMPING in the hope that someone will explain why Trump's anti-magnet proclamation is nothing to worry about.

May I now ask whether anybody with a sympathetic view of Trump would like to explain why US citizens, and citizens of US allies, should not be very worried by this situation, the evidence for which I set out in my post above:

1. The President has, in words that he uttered in front of a large military audience, and which have not been denied or withdrawn, confidently proclaimed his intention signing an executive order mandating major modifications to crucial elements of very expensive and mission-critical US defense systems such as aircraft carriers.

2. However, his words show that he is deeply ignorant of the basic science behind those defense systems, and does not understand that any such executive order as the one he intends to sign would mandate major and costly modifications to defense systems in order to install obsolete and inferior technology.

3. The fact that he displayed such deep ignorance shows that he is either ignoring advice from scientists qualified in relevant fields, or (even worse) has not seen the need to seek such advice.

C'mon guys - step up to the plate and tell us what you think!

[Gunnar]

I don't understand how any fully rational and well-informed person would be likely to have a sympathetic view of Trump.

[Physics Guy]

Great little lecture, Chap.

Americans made this guy President. Way to go, people.

[Chap]

I don't understand how any fully rational and well-informed person would be likely to have a sympathetic view of Trump.

Perhaps Trump's bizarre "water and magnets" speech has led some of our regular posters to see that all too clearly. Hence their silence on this issue. Never mind, like much of his narcissistic nonsense this will soon all be conveniently consigned to the memory hole and they can get back to complaining about trans people, Mexican immigrants and so on.

[Chap]

Great little lecture, Chap.

Americans made this guy President. Way to go, people.

A relief to hear that from you!

[Physics Guy]

You really did a good job; at any rate I couldn't add anything.

I'd love to be able to say something that just made magnetism all obvious and intuitive, but I don't have that kind of understanding of it myself. I just kind of go through the math. I think the only way to have it really clear in one's mind is to visualise things in four dimensions in a way that I don't think human brains can. The math makes it seem as though it must be pretty simple in 4D, but probably in kind of the way that a granny knot is simple in 3D but would be mysterious to critters that could only think in 2D.

On my office desk I have a couple of short tubes of thick copper with a powerfully magnetic metal ball that you can just drop through the tubes. The ball falls through them so slowly that you can move one tube under while the ball is sinking through the other and keep the ball falling forever. It works because the changing magnetic field in the copper, as the ball falls through, induces an electric field that drives an eddy current around the pipe. This current generates its own magnetic field that drags on the falling ball, slowing its drop. It's one thing to recognize the theory but another to have it happen in your hands. It's bizarre. This fairly heavy inch-diameter metal ball falls as if through molasses.

I also have a "Levitron" magnetic top that you can set spinning in the air above a magnetic base, with the poles aligned oppositely, so that the top levitates. It has to be a spinning top so that it doesn't just flip over and get attracted to the base instead of repelled. It's quite hard to get the hang of spinning the magnetic top in the strong magnetic field of the base, but once you can get it going, the thing will float in midair for up to about three minutes. As air resistance slows the spin, the top starts wobbling, so that its pole doesn't stay exactly opposite the base pole any more. The bigger the wobbles, the less magnetic repulsion there is, and at some point it gets too weak to beat gravity and the top just drops. Mine will float a couple of inches above its base, so you can slide your hand back and forth under it without disturbing it at all.

Magnets are weird, but they really do work. The way an electric motor works sounds like pseudoscience, except that it isn't.

[Dr. Shades]

The more people who are victims to the Darwin effect, the better our species will be.

So, you’re an advocate of eugenics?

[Whiskey]

let’s hope gawd fills their Magass tummies when they’re praying for relief.

You'd like to think you'd have sympathy for people who are starving, even if they're starving because of their own stupidity.

Yet, here I am, and I can't find any sympathy in my heart for the fuckups who voted for everyone's mutually ensured destruction. “F” them and their whiney problems. Stupidity can be fatal, as they're about to find out. The more people who are victims to the Darwin effect, the better our species will be.

I guess I'm not nice. I don't feel sorry for stupid, even though it's not really their fault. “F” them. I'd have sympathy if their idiocy if it didn't affect me, but it does, so again, “F” them.

Genocide crap from Schmo. No surprise there.

[Dr. Sunstoned]

I thought it was over when Trump said Revolutionary War Troops Took Over the Airports, but people voted him in again. What does this idiot have to say or do before MAGA mouth breathers finally wake up?