Awesome explanations

[AxTekk]

Saw the following awesome explanation for climate change in a blog -

I think most people would say that if we set all the forests in the world on fire it makes sense that that would effect the climate. What we've done is dug up hundreds of millions of years worth of concentrated forests and burned them in all in the span of about 100 years.

- and was wondering if anyone else had heard any great explanations for seemingly complex ideas lately?

Another really great one was when my physics teacher explained gravity. He asked us to imagine two bowling ball on a trampoline, and pointed out that they would inevitably roll together because the trampoline surface effectively wants all the objects stretching it out in one place. Really great intuitive explanation of a very complex concept.

[FaisalOrb]

I like the kid that explained the four spacial dimensions on youtube
He explained the first dimension as a line on a paper (string)
The second as an entire paper which is basically a bunch of lines stacked side by side (Plane)
The third, which is the one we exist in, as a bunch of papers put together like a book
And then the fourth would be a bunch of books put together
Which from our point of view would be an infinite amount of all that we could ever know of existing at the same time

[hoorayjay]

The explanation Tony Abbot gave about boat people. Saying that Jesus knew that everyone has their own place and that place isn't necessarily Australia.

[24901miles]

The level of CO2 in the atmosphere has risen to over 400 parts per million steadily since the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution, for hundreds of thousands of years, the level of CO2 fluctuated regularly between 120 and 278 parts per million. That's an increase of anywhere from 122 to 280 parts per million over the levels it could otherwise have been.

To put that into perspective, remember Chemistry class. Carbon Dioxide is one carbon atom with two oxygen atoms attached. Diamond is an allotrope made entirely from carbon atoms. If you were to take every carbon atom from the excess CO2 in the atmosphere (just say 50% of the 400 ppm is 200 ppm) and use it to make a diamond, that diamond would weigh about 2.83147729 * 10^16 kilograms.

If that diamond were a perfect cube, it would be 30.47 kilometers on each side. That's 18.933 miles.

If that diamond were placed smack dab on the top of the Walgreens in Times Square, New York, it would cover everything between Hempstead, Sandy Hook Bay, Florham Park, and Lake Tappan.

Before settling into the earth's crust, it would be 56.3 times as tall as One World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower.

[24901miles]

At 6/3/14 02:20 AM, 24901miles wrote: If that diamond were a perfect cube, it would be 30.47 kilometers on each side. That's 18.933 miles…smack dab on the top of the Walgreens in Times Square, New York

Now with a visual aid!

[i-am-ghey]

At 6/2/14 09:30 PM, AxTekk :

Another really great one was when my physics teacher explained gravity. He asked us to imagine two bowling ball on a trampoline, and pointed out that they would inevitably roll together because the trampoline surface effectively wants all the objects stretching it out in one place. Really great intuitive explanation of a very complex concept.

If I were asked to explain gravity to secondary school students, I would probably say the same thing too.
This explanation is both intuitive and correct.

Matter acts as a source of gravity. If you put two lumps of matter into an empty space, the matter disturbs the vacuum producing an attractive force. :-)

So matter is your bowling ball and empty space is your trampoline.