Ask Your Resident Physicist Questions

-White chocolate is not real chocolate. #allchocolatematters
-I've never been able to get to sleep easily, a fact that's only gotten worse in recent years. I also tend to nap for a few hours during the day, which probably doesn't help... I tried listening to music, but it didn't do too much.
-Depends on how you define a "profound or noticeable effect". If that means causing a change in Earth's orbit, it could be surprisingly far away, though this is affected by how the black hole arrives in the Solar System to begin with. The only way Earth's orbit would not be affected is if the black hole entered along the plane of orbit (assuming Earth's orbit is indeed 2-dimensional on a local scale) and if the black hole orbited the Sun with the same period as Earth. This is based solely on the Law of Universal Gravitation and trying to balance the forces expressed by F=(GMm)/r^2...
Tl;dr: If a black hole got anywhere near our Solar System (within a few times the Sun's gravitational field), we'd need to be worried.

-Ground. Less weaknesses and an immunity, as well as advantage against Steel-types, gives it an edge in my book.
-Indoors. It's my firm belief that air conditioning is mankind's greatest invention.

 

-Hm... Most of the games I play are pretty popular. I guess Celeste would qualify, but only because it's an indie game.
-Cutest Pokémon? I don't really have an opinion on that, since cuteness isn't a thing I take note of with Pokémon, typically.

 

I enjoy all aspects of physics (except optics; optics can go to Hell). In particular, quantum mechanics is very interesting, even if it can be rather abstract at times. I actually have an easier time with quantum mechanics than I do with electromagnetism, which is kinda funny. Astrophysics is pretty cool, too.

 

-On a conceptual level, I don't think physics is that difficult (then again, I say this as a person with nearly 3 years of undergrad physics under my belt, so...). For most of it, especially kinematics, the best way to learn is through experiments. Seeing the physics in action helps concepts click. That's why stuff like quantum and relativity (and electromagnetism, to an extent) can be so challenging - it's so math-intensive and difficult to find easy-to-understand analogs for. YouTube is generally a good place to learn concepts, but the nitty-gritty involves some pretty sophisticated math.
Moral of the story here: hands-on is best for concepts, but beyond that, you're gonna need patience. The more advanced you go, the more true this is.

-I used to do a fair bit of drawing. I still keep a couple sketchbooks and an assortment of colored pencils and liner markers around, but I haven't had the inspiration to draw in a decently long time. It's unfortunate because I want to draw, but my perfectionism often gets the better of me.

-I think I remember seeing that either rock is the most commonly used of the three, so going paper is generally better. I could be wrong, though.

I approve of your avatar and sig choice, btw.

 

Conceptually, I guess electromagnetism isn't that bad, but the higher-level math is an absolute nightmare.

-My username follows after how a friend of my brother made his - initials, then something random. I chose Zeta because it sounded cool to 12-year-old me. It's stuck with me every since.

-The de Brogile wavelength, to me, is one of the key bridges between classical and quantum mechanics. The consequences are interesting, too - you defract every time you walk through a doorway.

-Ice cream is love, ice cream is life.

 

The one I approved of was the Lightpulsar Dragon one. I also approve of the Firewall Dragon one you're using now.
-A particular video? No, not really. A handful of YouTube content creators? Yes.
-I'm trying to cut down on the amount of soda I drink by replacing it with water.
-Lava's hot and has funny names. That's about all I know about lava, sadly.

 

-It was pretty good. Had a concert earlier today, so that was pretty fun.

-I'll combine the next two. Favorite and least favorite protagonists, huh? From any medium? For favorites, I'd have to go with Madeline from Celeste and Vin from the first Mistborn trilogy. I don't think I have a least favorite...

-As in the franchises, or the characters? If youbmean the franchises, I'd go with Zelda simply because those are more my style of game (even though I don't play a lot of Zelda games...). If you mean the characters, I'd say it's a tie.

 

Most frustrating would definitely be relativity simply because it's so unintuitive. It makes you think in a completely different way. I think quantum in general would be among the most fascinating things I've learned because the implications of quantum concepts on macroscopic systems are interesting. A lot of things can be described through quantum mechanical interactions.

-I actually binge-watched The Last Airbender over 2 (maybe 3?) days last year because I hadn't seen the whole thing until then, only bits and pieces. I loved it. Great animation style, great narrative and storytelling, good balance of humor with seriously elements. I firmly believe everyone needs an Uncle Iroh in their life.

-So potential energy in general is the energy an object has, but isn't using for anything currently. Gravitational potential energy is the energy an object has due to being above some pre-defined height (usually defined as the ground, but it's completely arbitrary). The higher up it is, the more energy it has. If that object is allowed to fall, that gravitational potential energy is gradually converted into kinetic energy (and a small amount of heat due to air resistance). Basically, gravitational potential energy exists within an object is it's not on the ground.

 

I chose physics because I wanted to understand why things behave certain ways and why things are the way they are. I didn't want to know just how things worked; I wanted to know why they worked that way and not some other way.