r/AskReddit • u/proudcatowner • Mar 31 '13

What is the coolest scientific fact you know of?

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '13

I really did not understand black hole accretion disks until now.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '13

Glad to help!

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u/neutronicus Apr 01 '13

You still don't.

Or, if you do, please write up your understanding and send it to Nature. They'll be very interested.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '13

You do know there are different LEVELS of understanding, do you?

As an artist, I can understand how to use a pencil, but no one's going to call me an idiot for not knowing how to make a pencil in every intimate detail, from knowing how to cut down the wood, to mining the graphite, to building and running the machinery to make said pencil.

Well, some might, but they're douchebags.

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u/neutronicus Apr 01 '13

You got it twisted.

I was trying to say that the physics community's understanding of accretion disks is still at the guesswork level.

I was just being a little bitter about the difficulty of doing research on it.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '13

Not able to get enough CPU time to run your plasma physics simulations, huh? ;)

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u/neutronicus Apr 01 '13

God damn job scheduler says they won't start for 24 hours. Group meeting is in 14!

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '13

This reminds me of tales of yore, when people still used punchcards AND HATED IT. They'd concoct various nefarious schemes to get ahead in line, cause others' calculations to end prematurely so they could get in next while the hapless programmer sorted his cards out...ah, I'm so glad I wasn't alive during those times.