Dumb Questions Thread

[GranTurNismo]

New Jersey, while deep blue, does have more than it's fair share of red leaning districts further south.

There’s only 1 red leaning district in the state right now. Technically two because Jeff Van Drew switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican while in office (to protest the trump impeachment), but southeast jersey is blue like almost everywhere else here. If that doesn’t tell you the man has no actual policy principles then I don’t know what else will.

 

[Blitz24]

There’s only 1 red leaning district in the state right now. Technically two because Jeff Van Drew switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican while in office (to protest the trump impeachment), but southeast jersey is blue like almost everywhere else here. If that doesn’t tell you the man has no actual policy principles then I don’t know what else will.

Last election, Murphy won 13 of the counties and Guadagno won 8. Western, Central shore and Southwest NJ all voted red. Even in this past election Trump still won 7 of the 21 counties. Because the districts are split as evenly as possible in terms of population and the larger populations are for the most part blue, this is where you get the majority Democratic presence from the state going to Washington.

 

[TexRex]

Maybe they could make Democrap [sic] votes worth three-fifths of a normal Patriot vote in true EC fashion to give a potential GOP governor a helping hand in the polls. This popular vote thing has been going on for too long, right? Affirmative action now!

Don't give them any ideas.

 

[UKMikey]

Don't give them any ideas.

Seems like they have enough of their own.

https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/l...cle_7df1c274-5715-11eb-a31d-dfa23b30ec62.html

(archived link for those of us who are in the EEA here)

 

[TexRex]

Seems like they have enough of their own.

https://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/l...cle_7df1c274-5715-11eb-a31d-dfa23b30ec62.html

(archived link for those of us who are in the EEA here)

Nothing particularly new there. Georgia has permitted absentee voting without a reason that would keep an individual from voting in person. All states should. Republicans in Georgia had a fire lit under their asses when Biden beat Trump in the state by 12,000 votes, a huge chunk of his total coming from entirely valid absentee ballots. Even Brad Raffsenberger came out against them not long before the infamous phone call during which he personally debunked claims of voter fraud in the state. The pathetic ****ers see it as an impediment to holding power and so it has to end. Registered voters should have their vote counted no matter how they choose to cast it.

 

[wfooshee]

Why are gas stations in the US not competing in the electric vehicle fast-charging market?

If it's just a gas station or a smallish convenience store, I'd bet they don't want folks just hanging around the time it would take to charge. If it was one of those "centers" with a couple of restaurants on the property, I'd think they'd want a trapped clientele for at least a half hour or so.

Still, it's an infrastructure investment.

Chargepoint and Blink network, and probably others, have a way for businesses to set up to host a station. No clue what it costs or what the business's cut is once it's in place.

Locally, I find four Tesla destination chargers at hotels (good for overnight charging,) one Supercharger station with eight spaces, a single charging station at the Nissan dealership, a single charging station at the Ford dealership for Ford vehicles only, a single charging station by Chargepoint at the Harley-Davidson dealership that's publicly available with a charging fee, and a commercial location: Blink Network has two stations at a pool hall/pub. This is actually way more stations than I expected to find here!

 

[Liquid]

Why are gas stations in the US not competing in the electric vehicle fast-charging market?

Resistance from Big Oil Energy?

 

[wfooshee]

Resistance from Big Oil Energy?

That's a likely scenario, some franchise restriction for station owners. (Just a guess, no actual knowledge of such.)

The Tesla Supercharger station here is the only one that is at a fueling station, and that station is one of those mega convenience stores with groceries, a restaurant and stuff besides just gasoline.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Why are gas stations in the US not competing in the electric vehicle fast-charging market?

This is all off the top of my head, but I imagine the larger owner networks are competing, but only sort of. They don't want to mix their brands so they'll continue to upsell fossil fuels and take full advantage of that market. They'll also be scrambling to have electric charging points everywhere - for now that means places you leave your car while you do something else. Gas stations aren't normally so conducive to that as shopping centres, parks, cinemas and so on. For now it suits them to wear two faces and sell to both sets of customers.

 

[Pupik]

Here's my question. Why do Democrat-leaning northeastern states keep electing Republican governors?

Personally, I think governors are usually a bit more moderate or centrist, because they don't have to directly work with the US House and Senate. Both candidates are going to be "for their people" and all that jazz, and there really wasn't this big push to be buddy-buddy with the President. Of course, you sometimes get a fair bit of toadying...which admittedly helps a lot before you've declared a State of Emergency or other Emergency Declarations (natural disasters and other unforeseen issues) or want to springboard your political aspirations above and beyond just one state.

But on the other hand, they can give a little bit more to interests that are more "purple" because say...the environment still matters for tourism, or traditional things that actually transcend political boundaries (sports! artifacts! cheese!) can be manipulated or promised for more votes away from the ends of the political spectrum..

Even some Deep South red states had Democratic governors long into the 90s when their Capitol Hill representation was switching to Republican. For that matter, someone like Romney was a governor of mostly-blue Massachusetts and was one of the first for subsidized health care reform (though I can't say for sure if it was his brainchild and/or signed it into Commonwealth law based on a majority of state lawmakers' approval).

Some states are just natural 50/50 swing states...Ohio and Florida, as notable examples.

Why are gas stations in the US not competing in the electric vehicle fast-charging market?

I'm guessing that most people don't spend more than 10 minutes at a gas station and/or convenience store. The plot of land for most gas stations is only so big, though newer properties are getting larger and larger. Unless it's something gargantuan like a Buc-ee's, a toll road service plaza, or an OTR trucker needs a lot of diesel, most people aren't hanging around for long, and having no place to park at a pump is bad for business.

If an electric vehicle takes 30 minutes for a partial charge, and over an hour for a full charge, then that electric vehicle customer has to pay 3-8 times as much to make it "valuable" to the owner of the station. The charging station is also taking up "space" if not used, and we're not quite there yet on that kind of ubiquity in many different places.

Maybe in larger cities, but not quite off every major highway exit, and barely necessary at all in the sticks. On the other hand, many dealerships will assist but even I don't see it used that often outside of larger stores or those more electric-friendly (college towns, for example).

 

[RacingGrandpa]

Maybe in larger cities, but not quite off every major highway exit, and barely necessary at all in the sticks. On the other hand, many dealerships will assist but even I don't see it used that often outside of larger stores or those more electric-friendly (college towns, for example).

Meanwhile here in Sweden at the highway exit in my town with 17K people in it there is a Tesla Supercharger, a Circle K with 6 chargers, a supermarket with 3, a McDonald's with 2.
And that's just at the exit...

 

[Pupik]

Meanwhile here in Sweden at the highway exit in my town with 17K people in it there is a Tesla Supercharger, a Circle K with 6 chargers, a supermarket with 3, a McDonald's with 2.
And that's just at the exit...

We have some places/states/counties that subsidize EV usage but many which do not. And you bring up a good point, why would gas stations have them if there's very limited desire for a customer to wait around for an hour?

EV charging stations are much more common on the west coast of the US (coastal California regions and the Seattle-area Washington) and a few other areas. Even some of the National Parks have a few charging stations. My brother-in-law has a Tesla, and they choose their shopping locations on where they know the outlets are, if they need a recharge. Some upscale shopping centers get them, attractions, parking garages, restaurants...but electric cars are unusual sights in US once you're more than 2 hours away from the nearest "big city". Some places are more committed to electric vehicles than others, and I'm sure we'll see many more of them as automakers get committed to producing and selling EVs.

 

[TenEightyOne]

And you bring up a good point, why would gas stations have them if there's very limited desire for a customer to wait around for an hour?

That's what I was saying before, the same energy/fuel companies will be putting EV points in locations where people leave their cars parked while they do other things. They'll play both sides of the market, probably using different sub-brands to compete with each other for different customers' affections.

 

[BobK]

How long does it typically take to recharge a pretty much depleted car?

 

[kikie]

Can an invisible man see? Really invisible like "The invisible man".

Spoiler

My personal opinion: no because light goes straight through an invisible man's eyes, his retina. If the retina is also invisible, it can't capture light making him blind.

 

[wfooshee]

How long does it typically take to recharge a pretty much depleted car?

Hours, as in overnight, on an ordinary charger. Tesla's supercharger will get Teslas to 80% in about a half hour, fully charged in an hour to 90 minutes. other high-current chargers depend on the specific car.

 

[RacingGrandpa]

How long does it typically take to recharge a pretty much depleted car?

Most go to 80% in half an hour

 

[Famine]

Most go to 80% in half an hour

Although that entirely depends on the delivered power.

If you have a 93kWh battery and it can accept a 50kW rapid charge, it'll take 90 minutes to get to 80% charge. On a 120kW Tesla supercharger, it'd be 37 minutes. If you can find a next-gen 250kW rapid charger and your car can accept that much power (like a Taycan can), it'd be 18 minutes.

On your home 22kW AC wall box, or at a supermarket it would be just under three and a half hours - though some public fast chargers run at as little as 7kW (ten and a half hours for 80%). If you don't have a wall box and just plug it into the mains, you're looking at around 3kW and, naturally, more than a day to charge it to 80%.


That's one of the reasons I never write about charge times in EV articles without mentioning the charger type. Saying you can hit x% charge in y time really only says what the maximum power your car can draw from a charger is, if a charger capable of delivering that is available.

Battery capacity divided by charger power= time taken to charge it up (because kWh divided by kW = h).

 

[CTznOfTime]

Can an invisible man see? Really invisible like "The invisible man".

Spoiler

My personal opinion: no because light goes straight through an invisible man's eyes, his retina. If the retina is also invisible, it can't capture light making him blind.

You ask a question and you answer all by yourself, man that's no fun...

So is that líke being in total pitch darkness with absolutely no light...
Even with your eyes wide open, you wouldn't and couldn't see anything and no one could see you either...?

I guess so

 

[kikie]

You ask a question and you answer all by yourself, man that's no fun...

So is that líke being in total pitch darkness with absolutely no light...
Even with your eyes wide open, you wouldn't and couldn't see anything and no one could see you either...?

I guess so

Yes I did but I wanted to sound smart.
You clicked on the spoiler thing, shame on you.

 

[Liquid]

On the topic of why petrol stations aren't yet jumping on EV charge points, I think the idea of stations being in places where people spend more time away from their vehicle before returning is very insightful. Places like a shopping centre, theme park or town centre car park. It's something that didn't really occur to me.

Of course it is limited in that you have to make a particular journey or do a particular activity and it's not quite as useful as "I'm doing a drive through rural countryside and I'll need a charge at some point" but it's a niche market that could eventually see widespread adoption by other, more practical locations using the preexsiting petrol infrastructure.

Thinking off the top of my head, a country pub or recreational farm (ice cream places or petting zoos, you know the sort) could be good places to have them.

 

[wfooshee]

Can an invisible man see? Really invisible like "The invisible man".

Spoiler

My personal opinion: no because light goes straight through an invisible man's eyes, his retina. If the retina is also invisible, it can't capture light making him blind.

I don't know that being invisible would make them non-receptive to arriving photons, The problem is that there'd be no image, rather like setting a digital camera's sensor on the table and expecting a picture from it. Invisible lens isn't going to focus anything, invisible iris isn't going to regulate anything. If anything, the massive light input on the retinas would make him blind in short order.

 

[kikie]

I don't know that being invisible would make them non-receptive to arriving photons, The problem is that there'd be no image, rather like setting a digital camera's sensor on the table and expecting a picture from it. Invisible lens isn't going to focus anything, invisible iris isn't going to regulate anything. If anything, the massive light input on the retinas would make him blind in short order.

When the retina is invisible light goes straight through it and isn't bend, hence it being invisible. If the light goes through it, it can't capture light and objects and stuff to transmit to the brain making the invisible guy blind.
That how I see it.

 

[wfooshee]

Could be. Go make yourself invisible and see if the blindness is temporary, just while you're invisible, or painful and then permanent because you burned your eyes out. Report back.

 

[Danoff]

When the retina is invisible light goes straight through it and isn't bend, hence it being invisible. If the light goes through it, it can't capture light and objects and stuff to transmit to the brain making the invisible guy blind.
That how I see it.

Does your retina really need to be invisible for "you" to be invisible? Imagine a person that is invisible due to light rays bending around them like a black hole, or being absorbed in one location and re-emitted in another location. In either case, your retinas might be perfectly visible, just not being impacted directly by any light rays emanating from the environment around your body. I'm imagining a person who is outwardly invisible but has a set of goggles or glasses that is providing them with images from around them.

 

[Blitz24]

Could be. Go make yourself invisible and see if the blindness is temporary, just while you're invisible, or painful and then permanent because you burned your eyes out. Report back.

I have a bad feeling he might injure himself in the process.

 

[kikie]

Does your retina really need to be invisible for "you" to be invisible? Imagine a person that is invisible due to light rays bending around them like a black hole, or being absorbed in one location and re-emitted in another location. In either case, your retinas might be perfectly visible, just not being impacted directly by any light rays emanating from the environment around your body. I'm imagining a person who is outwardly invisible but has a set of goggles or glasses that is providing them with images from around them.

I don't exactly understand what you're saying but if I understand correctly, yes the retina has to be invisible if one is invisible. If not you would see a pair of floating retinas as the rest of the body is invisible. In that case, the invisible person keeps his/her eyesight. But the lenses also have to be visible to be able to see when you are invisible.

I thought that if light bends (refracts), it makes things visible and not invisible. This refraction (bending) makes it possible to focus light through the lens onto the retina giving us sight. Refraction: changing of the speed of light and angle.
If light doesn't slow down or goes faster and the angle doesn't change (not affected by something) it goes through something as if it is not there making it invisible. The same for the retina. If the lens (= invisible) doesn't refract the light it can focus the light on the retina and if the retina is invisible as well, it can't transmit images to our brain to process making us blind when we are invisible.
Why would someone were goggles or glasses if you want to be invisible? You will only see floating goggles or glasses. And it doesn't change anything because the goggles or glasses bend light but this refracted light doesn't reach the invisible retina making the invisible person still blind.


BTW isn't it so that light can't escape black holes? So light doesn't go around black holes but is sucked up by the black hole?

 

[Danoff]

I don't exactly understand what you're saying but if I understand correctly, yes the retina has to be invisible if one is invisible. If not you would see a pair of floating retinas as the rest of the body is invisible. In that case, the invisible person keeps his/her eyesight. But the lenses also have to be visible to be able to see when you are invisible.

I thought that if light bends (refracts), it makes things visible and not invisible. This refraction (bending) makes it possible to focus light through the lens onto the retina giving us sight. Refraction: changing of the speed of light and angle.
If light doesn't slow down or goes faster and the angle doesn't change (not affected by something) it goes through something as if it is not there making it invisible. The same for the retina. If the lens (= invisible) doesn't refract the light it can focus the light on the retina and if the retina is invisible as well, it can't transmit images to our brain to process making us blind when we are invisible.
Why would someone were goggles or glasses if you want to be invisible? You will only see floating goggles or glasses. And it doesn't change anything because the goggles or glasses bend light but this refracted light doesn't reach the invisible retina making the invisible person still blind.


BTW isn't it so that light can't escape black holes? So light doesn't go around black holes but is sucked up by the black hole?

This is what a black hole looks like:

That ring you see going over the top (and bottom) of the black hole doesn't actually go over the top. It's a flat ring that goes around the back, but the light from the back gets bent around the black hole such that you can see the back when looking straight at it. Everything behind the black hole is visible from in front of it (albeit in a different place). Sometimes more than once. Light rays can be bent in their path, and this makes them look like they're coming from someplace they aren't. I'm saying imagine someone that was in a bubble that bent light rays all around them such that they went out the other side the same way they came in. That person would be invisible, but it doesn't mean that they are invisible inside the bubble. It means that they're not visible to people outside the bubble. Their retinas (and the rest of them) would still be visible inside the bubble. The goggles or glasses (or some other display) would be way for them to see the outside world - which they would not if all outside light was getting bent around them.

 

[kikie]

This is what a black hole looks like:

That ring you see going over the top (and bottom) of the black hole doesn't actually go over the top. It's a flat ring that goes around the back, but the light from the back gets bent around the black hole such that you can see the back when looking straight at it. Everything behind the black hole is visible from in front of it (albeit in a different place). Sometimes more than once. Light rays can be bent in their path, and this makes them look like they're coming from someplace they aren't. I'm saying imagine someone that was in a bubble that bent light rays all around them such that they went out the other side the same way they came in. That person would be invisible, but it doesn't mean that they are invisible inside the bubble. It means that they're not visible to people outside the bubble. Their retinas (and the rest of them) would still be visible inside the bubble. The goggles or glasses (or some other display) would be way for them to see the outside world - which they would not if all outside light was getting bent around them.

Now I get it. You are talking about cloaking and I'm not. I am talking about invisibility like in Sci-Fi movies or series like "The invisible man".
Yes, you are correct but only if the bubble is transparent.
If a cloak is solid you can't see through it. It would be like having a piece of cloth over your body. I'm not sure that it is even possible to have a transparent cloaking thing. Maybe it is possible. That also means that you're not invisible as in really invisible without a cloak. You will still be visible inside the cloak. Oh, you said that as well.
If an invisible man (my invisibility) is still able to see because of some kind of technology, he or she won't be able to see his or her body because it is invisible. It is this kind of invisibility that is the basis of my dumb question.

If light is not affected and goes unaltered (not bend, reflected or refracted) through a person, this person is truly invisible, so are the lenses and the retina making an invisible person blind.

I still don't get your goggle or glasses reasoning. How I see it, and I'm probably wrong, is that these goggles inside the bubble won't work because the light is bent around the bubble and is not reaching the goggles. No light from the outside reaching the goggles, no light is refracted by the lenses and focussed on the retina. So you will still be blind.
The outside light must bend unaltered around the cloaking bubble. The slightest alteration of the light (refraction, reflection thus the speed and angle) will make the bubble somehow visible.


I always thought that light can't escape the gravity of a black hole. The light gets absorbed by the black hole making it pitch black and thus invisible.
The light that is far enough from the black hole can escape the black hole but that light will not be the same on the other side. It is the same with time (time dilation). Time and probably light will slow down when going around the apparent horizon of a black hole due to the huge and strong gravity.

It is 11:45 pm and I'm going to be. My brain is tired and so am I.

If I'm completely wrong, please be kind because I'm very sensitive.

 

[CTznOfTime]

On the topic of why petrol stations aren't yet jumping on EV charge points, I think the idea of stations being in places where people spend more time away from their vehicle before returning is very insightful. Places like a shopping centre, theme park or town centre car park. It's something that didn't really occur to me.

Of course it is limited in that you have to make a particular journey or do a particular activity and it's not quite as useful as "I'm doing a drive through rural countryside and I'll need a charge at some point" but it's a niche market that could eventually see widespread adoption by other, more practical locations using the preexsiting petrol infrastructure.

Thinking off the top of my head, a country pub or recreational farm (ice cream places or petting zoos, you know the sort) could be good places to have them.

Or vice versa:

Charging stations that are put out in the middle of nowhere out of necessity to allow for transcontinental connections, could and would encourage new businesses to pop up right there because currently there is nothing to do...

Any one of you creating a business based on this idea, please give me a small percentage of your earning