this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
914 points (98.6% liked)

Science Memes

20679 readers
961 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Meta Post Tags

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

If you are here asking: "Is this a science meme?"

Probably, yes. We use the Dawkins definition of meme: a replicating idea, not just an image macro with a fact on it. A good post here doesn't need to teach you something. It needs to make you ask something: who, what, where, when, and especially why or how.

Science isn't a filing cabinet of facts, it's a conversation. For example, a photo of an eel or other localized wildlife counts because most people never see one, and wonder is the first step of inquiry. A car meme counts if it makes you curious about what's under the bonnet. If you want to talk about something you noticed in the world, chances are someone else wants to talk about it too.

We moderate for vibe, not category. Pruning is light, especially where a post creates interesting discussion. Experimenting is encouraged.

See the pinned paper on Shitposting as Public Pedagogy if you want the academic case for why this works.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Sal@mander.xyz
fossilesque@mander.xyz
SciBot@mander.xyz
fossilesque@lemmy.dbzer0.com
914
yeah everything is probably made of like, idk, earth water, fire and air or something idrk (mander.xyz)
submitted 9 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
128 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

The difference is far too small to measure at these scales, the Earth would be falling toward the more massive object faster than the less massive object. Therefore the more massive object hits first.

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Therefore the more massive object hits first.

Only technically. The effect you're describing is so minute that it's insignificant.

It's like pointing out that the Great Pyramids of Giza are so massive that time moves 1 billionth slower for the surrounding objects. It's neat that the effect is potentially measurable, but noone is going to be adjusting their clocks to account for it

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Science is built on technicalities. In an exam, if a student considered the centre of m_1 as the centre of gravity instead of the weighed centre of m_1 and m_2 they would fail. This is no different

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Your analogy doesn't hold up, because factors get ignored in physics discussion all the time. Whem was the last time you've see a question in a dynamics class that didn't ignore air resistance for the sake of simplicity?

The effect you're describing is orders of magnitude smaller than that. I doubt the change would even register in a double floating-point variable if you did the calculations in Matlab

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Only for tiny masses..

[–] mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

Compared to the mass of the Earth, yes, we're dealing with tiny masses

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 0 points 9 months ago

It has nothing to do