2662: Physics Safety Tip
| Physics Safety Tip |
 Title text: In general, avoid exposure to any temperatures, pressures, particle energies, or states of matter that physicists think are neat. |
Explanation
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This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a BOT PHYSICISTS ARE EXCITED ABOUT (STEP AWAY, BUSTER) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks. |
In general, the circumstances that are required for life are quite boring to a physicist. That's because physicists often study materials in extreme circumstances, which life has not evolved to tolerate and therefore (for most organisms) cannot tolerate very well. Thus, extreme conditions are very dangerous for most organisms. Even for especially resilient organisms, such as tardigrades, there is a point past which they will stop being biology and start being physics, in which case their resilience will not save them. Thus, if a physicist is excited about something, it likely exists in circumstances where your own existence—as well as other life—would meet an end. One (partial) exception is particle beams; people can stick their heads in particle beams and survive—but not unscathed.) Also, physicists used to be excited about (particles produced by) cosmic rays before they had powerful accelerators.
Transcript
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This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks. |
- General Physics Safety Tip:
- [The next line of text is shown in gray.]
- (From What If 2, xkcd.com/whatif2)
- [A flowchart consisting of three rectangular boxes, a diamond box, and three arrows is shown.]
- [The first rectangular box, at the top, is the starting point. It says:]
- Should I stand near this thing?
- [A down-pointing arrow leads to a diamond decision box. Two arrows lead from it, one pointing to the right and labeled "No", the other pointing down and labeled "Yes". The diamond box reads:]
- Are physicists excited about it?
- [The "No" arrow from the diamond box leads to the following rectangular box:]
- Maybe
- [The "Yes" arrow from the diamond box leads to the following rectangular box:]
- No
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To be fair, many physicists are excited about habitable planets. And fluid dynamics, which would include Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere. A friend's son is a "condensed matter" physicist, meaning he studies ordinary matter. Nitpicking (talk) 02:42, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
- Note that standing near a planet is generally deadly. Only safe place is standing ON the (habitable) planet. And while technically fluid dynamics covers everything fluids do, the interesting parts are tornadoes, whirlpools and similar not-entirely-safe things. -- Hkmaly (talk) 00:32, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
When I was an undergraduate, the diamond press was exciting - it creates the pressures near the core of the Earth - being a hydaulic press it was very sensitive to temperature, it was the only air conditioned lab in te building. made it quite popular on summer days. Arachrah (talk) 08:14, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
I had to laugh more from the explanation than from the comic. Kudos! Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 06:36, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
"They have thoroughly studied everything there is to study about these ordinary conditions" is, er, a bold claim.172.70.85.5 09:09, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
For some reason I'm reminded of the Charles M. de Talleyrand quote: "A diplomat who says yes means maybe, a diplomat who says maybe means no, and a diplomat who says no is no diplomat." 172.69.33.175 20:59, 23 August 2022 (UTC)
It's a good idea not to stand next to Honest Joe's Perpetual Motion Machine, or you may have all the energy sucked out of you. 172.69.79.173 09:32, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
Point of info: it's pretty hard to not stand near dark matter, a thing which physicists are really excited about. 162.158.162.215 06:32, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
I get excited about many things, such as my friends. Should I stop standing near them? :( Psychoticpotato (talk) 13:51, 2 May 2024 (UTC)
