How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems

by Randall Munroe

Physics doesn’t care if your question is weird. It just gives you the answer, without judging.

The lagoon created by the flood remains to this day, and can be seen on maps at 4.40°N, 100.59°E. The cataclysm was recorded by a bystander with a camcorder, and the footage has since been uploaded to the internet. Despite its low quality, it’s one of the most jaw-dropping pieces of video ever recorded.*

High-frequency sounds are absorbed by air as they travel through it, so they fade out quickly. That’s why nearby thunder makes a higher-pitched “cracking” sound, while faraway thunder makes a low rumble. They both sound the same at the source, but over a long distance, the high-frequency components of the thunder are muffled and only the low-frequency ones reach your ear.

(In retrospect, my plan to fluster an astronaut by throwing extreme situations at him might have been flawed.)

I really love that we can ask physics ridiculous questions like, “What kind of gas mileage would my house get on the highway?” and physics has to answer us.

When the Sun is setting in the west, its light passes through hundreds of miles of atmosphere—becoming extremely red in the process—before hitting the clouds above you. Shorter blue wavelengths bounce off the air and go off in other directions. This is why the sky is blue—it reflects blue light. White clouds reflect all colors, so when red light shines on them, they look red, too. If there are storm clouds to your west, the red sunlight is stopped before it can get to you, and the sunset doesn’t look particularly red:

On the other hand, if there’s clear air for hundreds of miles to your east, the sunlight passes all the way through to reach the sky above you, turning it red. If there are any clouds overhead, the red light illuminates them, creating a spectacular sunrise. When weather moves west to east, a red sky at night means that there are clouds overhead, but clear skies to the west—which tells you that the weather will likely be clearing up.

The cask of plutonium lies on the floor of the Pacific to this day. The plutonium is about half-decayed by now, but it’s still producing over 800 watts of heat as of 2019. Maybe some deep-sea critter looking for warmth is cuddled up to it right now.