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A rough calculation or an approximation of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something so that it is usable for some purpose even if the input data may be incomplete or uncertain.

2 votes

Why can't we see the satellites?

Start with the ISS: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/ it can be very bright (-5.9)--second only to the moon (at night, duh). Moreover, its angular diameter is on the order of that of Jupit …
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1 vote

How much watts per square meter does Phobos receive from Mars?

Since you have "no idea" how to address this, it's good to start with the fundamentals and make some order-of-magnitude estimates and bounds. First is the sun's contribution. The sun's output is: $$ L …
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0 votes

How much do ocean currents alone slow Earth's rotation?

Tidal friction is referring to the entire planet changing shape, not just the meager 1 TW of wind driven friction (https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/654/dissipation-of-tidal-energy). The rotat …
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0 votes

If light had mass

If photons have mass, they travel at: $$ \frac {pc^2} E = \frac{\gamma m vc^2}{\gamma mc^2} = v$$ With $c=1$: $$ v = \frac p E = \frac p {\sqrt{p^2 + m^2}} $$ and with $\hbar=1$: $$\frac E p =\frac{\o …
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2 votes

What would be the size of a hydrogen atom with its electron if it's scaled up?

So you'd have to use the Compton wavelength of the electron $\lambda_e = \frac 1 2 $ cm, and the Bohr radius is: $$a_0 = \frac{\alpha \lambda_e}{2\pi} \approx 11{\,}{\rm cm}$$ You could estimate the p …
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-1 votes

In what circumstances would a 1000 years on Earth be a single day

A thousand years on earth would be a single (solar) day if the earthed had a sidereal rotation period of 0.999001 years.
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21 votes

How are subatomic particles affected by gravity?

Ultracold neutrons have velocities of a few to tens of meters per second and can be transported from source to experiment on ballistic trajectories (governed by gravity). (See the PF2 experiment at In …
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14 votes

Why isn’t CERN afraid of a fusion reaction in the LHC?

As pointed out in the comments, the energy in the LHC is very high. High enough that the interactions are with partons inside the proton, where a parton is any one of the 3 valence quarks (u, u, d), o …
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0 votes

Do you really die if spaghettified by a black hole?

As technical answers appear, I'll just address the "imagine it" part. Tidal forces near black hole are similar to centrifugal forces on a spinning body. For a stellar mass black hole at 100 km, the ti …
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39 votes

Is an atomic nucleus dense enough to cause significant bending of the spacetime?

The density of nuclear matter is on the order of $2 \times 10^{17}\, {\rm kg/m^3}$, while the Planck density--the density at which quantum gravity is "interesting"--is: $$\rho_P = \frac{m_P}{l^3_P}= \ …
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26 votes

How many of the molecules that you inhale in a breath did Caesar exhale in his dying breath,...

This is a classic classical question that is designed to get us to understand how big Avogadro's number is. We know our lungs are much smaller then the atmosphere, but as $N_A \rightarrow \infty$, any …
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0 votes

Could you theoretically build an nuclear-blast-proof safe?

This is mostly an engineering concern. Thanks to $\sigma T^4$, these hot things the size of a grapefruit lose energy quickly. The actual reactions producing the majority of the energy are over in well …
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1 vote

Would we levitate before a collision with a massive object?

You're basically talking about the Earth going inside the Roche limit of the other body: the near side falls in faster than the rest of the planet (it's lifted into the sky), while the far side is flu …
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1 vote
Accepted

How many neutrons are there in a teaspoonful of a neutron star and if stacked end on end, ho...

So 5.5 Pg of neutrons is $3.3 \times 10^{39}$ neutrons. Their diameter is 1.75 fm--so end-to-end: 5.75 Ym.
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7 votes

What would happen if all protons in the Sun had a charge of 1.000001 times the elementary ch...

The potential energy of a uniform sphere of charge $Q$ is: $$ U_Q = \frac 3 5 \frac 1 {4\pi\epsilon_0} \frac{Q^2}R $$ while the gravitational binding energy is: $$ U_G = -\frac 3 5 \frac{GM^2} R $$ (B …
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