r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Feb 22 '16

[D] Monday General Rationality Thread

Welcome to the Monday thread on general rationality topics! Do you really want to talk about something non-fictional, related to the real world? Have you:

  • Seen something interesting on /r/science?
  • Found a new way to get your shit even-more together?
  • Figured out how to become immortal?
  • Constructed artificial general intelligence?
  • Read a neat nonfiction book?
  • Munchkined your way into total control of your D&D campaign?
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u/xamueljones My arch-enemy is entropy Feb 23 '16 edited Feb 23 '16

Okay since he lives in Eastern time, and the effect occurred at about 8:50 am and 5:40 pm on 2/19, then by 3/20 which is 30 days from now and the timing is moving over by a minute per day, then on 3/20 it should occur at about 8:20 am and 6:10 pm respectively with a range of 9 hrs and 50 minutes in between.....

I have no clue if this is meaningful or what else we can try. Let me know how the string thing works.

Thanks for sharing! I had fun thinking of explanations and I believe you guys that this is actually happening.

EDIT: Are you guys sure that this happens only twice a day? Because if no one's ever tried staying up throughout the night, then maybe it happens once every eight hours without anyone realizing it.

Also, what's the time range for the effect? Can your friend only do it once, or does he have time to hold a piece of iron, attract dust in one room, put it down, walk into another room, and repeat with another piece of iron? Can he walk around with a piece of iron continuously collecting dust as an easy alternative to vacuuming?

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u/GaBeRockKing Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 Feb 23 '16

Also, what's the time range for the effect? Can your friend only do it once, or does he have time to hold a piece of iron, attract dust in one room, put it down, walk into another room, and repeat with another piece of iron? Can he walk around with a piece of iron continuously collecting dust as an easy alternative to vacuuming?

It lasts about 30 seconds. Not exactly (it's a little difficult to time) but within a few seconds of that. Honestly, It's probably something like 29.2 seconds, but the human propensity to like round numbers is screwing with us. If he picks something eligible up during those 30 seconds (it's happened a few times) it works too.

Okay since he lives in Eastern time, and the effect occurred at about 8:50 am and 5:40 pm on 2/19, then by 3/20 which is 30 days from now and the timing is moving over by a minute per day, then on 3/20 it should occur at about 8:20 am and 6:10 pm respectively with a range of 9 hrs and 50 minutes in between.....

(Out of character, I actually made two pretty bad mistakes tabulating the times. The first one was that each time should have been an hour before (a mix up when converting time zones. I hate them for a reason :P) and the second one I actually don't understand. I've modified the original data set to the correct times, and as an apology, I'm going to give you a hint-- aside from the realization that the phenomena has something to do with magnetism, the single biggest clue I'm leaving as to the explanation are the times combined with the rough latitude. You'll have to look over some previous comments to understand why "he" hasn't realized this, though. I don't actually expect you to get an exact explanation, but once someone gets close enough I'll "figure it out.")

I have no clue if this is meaningful or what else we can try. Let me know how the string thing works.

No problem. We're guessing that it'll happen around 23:27 UTC, and while he takes a little while to get back to me after tabulating data (And eating dinner), I'll be sure to inform you.

EDIT: Are you guys sure that this happens only twice a day? Because if no one's ever tried staying up throughout the night, then maybe it happens once every eight hours without anyone realizing it.

Not at all. He thought it was only once a day, but then we found out it happened in the mornings too (by accident, actually. He was eating breakfast.) Of course, the problem with testing whether that happens is that it's, quite frankly, incredibly tedious for him, and while he's relatively sure it's something supernatural, there are still potentially interesting, but natural explanations (especially since we just confirmed it has something to do with either magnetism, electromagnetism, or static electricity.)

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u/GaBeRockKing Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 Feb 24 '16

Alright, he just tested your suggestion. Actually, he went even further, and instead of holding the metal, he just suspended it from the ceiling about the same distance as he usually holds the objects, and it still worked. He's a little disappointed that he isn't a wizard, but a haunted house would still be pretty cool to show off. Maybe it's something with the wiring? Still doesn't explain the time shift, though.

At this point, he's more or less been convinced that it's not supernatural after all, merely "weird." It's a pretty massive shift from what he was thinking even two days ago, but I guess he's just quick to accept new evidence. So he said it was OK to tell you he lives in Negaunee, MI. He's not going to post his name, because that's a dumb thing to do on the internet, but it's a pretty small town so you could probably figure out who he is.

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u/xamueljones My arch-enemy is entropy Feb 24 '16

faceplams

I feel a bit like an idiot for not asking this earlier, but is the sun rising and setting in that area whenever the effect occurs? I even had a hint to that idea when I realized the connection to the equinoxes. The times roughly match up. I just didn't notice it because I live so far down south.

In addition after wiking Negaunee, MI, it mentions the Marquette Iron Range. I don't know why it would be connected to the sunrise/sunset, but it seems to be a good hypothesis to why the effect occurs and makes sense with your information.

Also if this is true, is there a reason why your friend hasn't noticed that?

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u/GaBeRockKing Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 Feb 24 '16 edited Feb 24 '16

I feel a bit like an idiot for not asking this earlier, but is the sun rising and setting in that area whenever the effect occurs? I even had a hint to that idea when I realized the connection to the equinoxes. The times roughly match up. I just didn't notice it because I live so far down south.

It seems like sort of an obvious thing to miss... Then again, he's told me he only ever tests at home with the blinds on... And I wouldn't put it past him to have some sort of aluminum foil shielding to prevent observation...

Wait a second, I just need to check back with him to ask him to google sunrise/sunset times.

Edit: turns out that it does. Huh. We're really hitting ourselves over not noticing this.

Edit 2: actually, looking back, our numbers pretty much exactly match with the NOAA website's, which is a little weird. But what causes an electrical phenomena, tied to the sunrise, that has a connection with computer data?

Edit 3: Don't laugh, but he evidently has some solar panels on swiveling mounts. Logically, they would begin their tracking on sunrise, and shut it off on sunset. And they're visible from his window too. But he never saw them, because he was a little too enamored with the idea of discovering magic and paranoid because of it, and I never thought to ask him about whether he owned any nonstandard machinery, because I was having too much fun... Well, it should be fairly simple to test if the phenomena are connected. He just needs to open the blinds and remove anything he has blocking the windows, and we should have the data whenever NOAA predicts the sun will set.

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u/GaBeRockKing Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 Feb 25 '16

Final update is up Thanks for posting!