Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Nerdthink Time Waster

Something to twiddle about in your head while doing boring tasks
  (+15)(+15)
(+15)
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Thought of this while washing my hands. Turned on the water. "gauge pressure" pushed the soap dispenser "Bernoulli effect" "surfactant" pulled out the paper towel. "wick effect."

Now at least two of the things that popped into my bored head were incorrect. I was pumping a soap dispenser that did not use the Bernoulli effect. I realized it immediately but it popped into my head so I didn't have any control over it. Later I looked up how a paper towel works and it doesn't use the wick effect which is actually what causes dead people to burn into ashes in a "spontaneous human combustion" situation. Again, not my fault. Just popped into my head.

Point is, I think you could make a kind of game of this. Doing whatever it is you're doing, no matter what it is, there's always some scientific process going on. So while doing it, throw out the words (to yourself, not out loud obviously) that come to mind describing what's going on.

Walking down the street you might think "static state- electrical pulse-concentric contraction-isometric contraction- eccentric contraction-pound force-resistance-inertia- respiration-hemoglobin-Krebs cycle-carbon dioxide" Just throw around some of the processes and associated words going on for that activity. Don't think about it, just throw out whatever comes to mind as quickly as possible.

On a fun scale of 1 to 10 this is a solid .5, but you're not doing anything anyway. If you already do this you're probably nuts.

doctorremulac3, Jul 28 2014

"How bird flocks are like liquid helium" http://news.science...s-are-liquid-helium
Information about direction changes propagates across the flock with a linear dispersion law, just like the spin waves in superfluid liquid Helium II! [Mindey, Jul 30 2014]

[link]






       + this is very good
vfrackis, Jul 29 2014
  

       nut morphing out loud +
xandram, Jul 29 2014
  

       peristalsis
calum, Jul 29 2014
  

       // If you already do this you're probably nuts. //   

       Oh.   

       Oh dear.   

       [+]
8th of 7, Jul 29 2014
  

       // If you already do this you're probably nuts.//   

       There are people who don't??
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 29 2014
  

       Well, yes, when you put it like that … there must be some, somewhere …   

       But they won't be halfbakers.
8th of 7, Jul 29 2014
  

       // … there must be some, somewhere … //   

       The French don't count. To a Frenchman, every enactment of physical laws is merely a god-given mystery that may or may not repeat itself the next time similar circumstances arise.   

       This is why they invented the Gallic shrug and the word "bof".
MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 29 2014
  

       Well, we should have more of this!
Mindey, Jul 30 2014
  

       I consider the activity as described a form of worship, as covered in Psalm 105:5:   

       "Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders."
bungston, Jul 30 2014
  

       I'm sure I would be healthier if I didn't rather spend the same time in intellectual masturbation like daydreaming or wondering why nothing has evolved to use radio when so many creatures evolved to use sight.
Voice, Jul 30 2014
  

       It's not just scientific. There are also abstract mathematical patterns in most phenomena ehich are worth considering. Sometimes there is even linguistic or semantic nerdery worth investigating. If only one had more than one brain so as to fully consider all these possibilities at once!
pocmloc, Jul 30 2014
  

       (marked-for-tagline)   

       " On a fun scale of 1 to 10 this is a solid .5 "
normzone, Jul 30 2014
  

       [Voice] because of nature's natural scale.   

       This adds another dimension to my day. Playing with someone else might be fun too. This could be tested by saying your first process observation out aloud and gauging the photons reflective images of your company's brain processed facial and vocal reflexes.
wjt, Aug 02 2014
  

       //like daydreaming or wondering why nothing has evolved to use radio when so many creatures evolved to use sight//   

       Um...   

       I thought it was just me who wondered that (after all the makings are already there).   

       Vacuum tube = inner ear, the electric eel has the power system pretty much baked & (almost?) any mineral you can think of is extracted & used by extant organisms, so why not a crystal.   

       <edit>   

       Though in my daydream we engineer it into a viral gene therapy treatment (making it hereditary (the modifications don't present in the (infected?) parent)).   

       But we forget an off switch so everyone can hear everyone elses broadcasts (all the time), & as we hardwired it into the brains thought (rather than vocal) centre what they send is what they think.   

       <It was meant to spread harmony & understanding, big mistake, no one likes what they're hearing>   

       So everyone avoids each other by at least half a mile (the range of the broadcasts) & the species dies for want of procreation :)
Skewed, Aug 02 2014
  

       // infected? //   

       Sp. "Assimilated"   

       // the species dies for want of procreation //   

       Not if the species continually assimilates new members, durrrr ...
8th of 7, Aug 02 2014
  
      
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