• Carnelian@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    100
    ·
    8 months ago

    I used to see people charitably, much like you do, until very recently. After witnessing for myself people staring into the sun and injuring themselves after being repeatedly warned, I now realize there are a substantial number of people who simply have rocks clattering around inside their skulls instead of brains

    • ggppjj@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      8 months ago

      I genuinely had someone stop and ask me why you can’t see the moon during an eclipse because “it’s got light in it right”.

      They’re soon to replace our HR manager.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Answer: Light travels in straight lines (well, for this purpose) and the moon is roughly an opaque sphere. Maybe you could see it with earthshine, but I get the impression the corona is still much brighter.

        I’ve heard dumber.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        7 months ago

        There was a listener question on a science podcast recently that asked about how the temperature changed on the moon during the recent solar eclipse.

        They almost got what a solar eclipse was, but not quite. During a solar eclipse, the moon gets between the sun and the earth, blocking the light getting to the earth and casting a shadow on the earth. The side of the moon facing the earth is completely dark because the thing that normally lights it up (the sun) is completely behind it. But, the back side of the moon is getting full sun and just as hot as normal.

        I think part of the problem with understanding all this is that the sun is just so insanely bright. Like, it’s a bit hard to believe that the full moon is so bright just because it’s reflecting sunlight. It’s also amazing that the “wandering stars” (planets) look like stars when they’re just blobs of rocks or gases that are reflecting the insanely bright light of the sun.

        It’s amazing if you think about it. Light comes out of the sun in every possible direction. A tiny fraction of it hits the surface of Mercury, and only some of that light is reflected back out. The light reflected from Mercury goes in almost every direction. A tiny fraction of it hits the earth. But, even with that indirect bounce, it’s bright enough to see with the naked eye.

    • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      8 months ago

      Holy shit this. And not even “educated” people. Where I work is about half degree holding engineers… many of these engineers were seen outside staring at the partial eclipse Monday.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        8 months ago

        Sounds like your typical engineer. I passed fluid dynamics, I deserve to look at the big ball of plasma.

        My eyes haven’t hurt this bad since studying for differential equations theory… Have I told you I’m an engineer?

    • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      8 months ago

      There was a solar eclipse when I was in grade six. One of my classmates was riding his bike home, and was stupidly looking at the eclipse, and got hit by a car. The irony.

        • Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          10
          ·
          8 months ago

          It was pretty bad. He missed a lot of school. I think he ended up repeating grade six. I never saw him much after that, but I did hear that he got married to another person I went to school with eventually, so presumably his life wasn’t ruined or anything.

    • Lath@kbin.earth
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      8 months ago

      What do you mean? Sun is blocked = no sun rays = not blinded when staring directly. The logic is sound! Just like in programming.

      • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Eclipses happen every year like clockwork (it basically is clockwork, but on a huge scale). Eclipse seasons are spring and fall, around the equinoxes. You could very easily fly to see a total eclipse every few years if you want to, because we know when they are going to happen and where will have totality - it’s very routine stuff. There’s literally nothing special at all about the one that just happened, except that a lot of people haven’t seen one before because it hasn’t happened -at that location- in a time.

        So no, absolutely not something you’ll never get a chance to see again, tho you won’t be able if you go blind like a fucking moron.

      • Carnelian@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        8 months ago

        Being able to see properly is also something they’ll never be able to do again, so, I hope that one second was “spiritual” enough for them lol

          • rtxn@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            14
            ·
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            Being able to see properly

            immediately go blind

            You’re immediately taking the argument to the extreme. You won’t immediately go blind, but it will damage your retina in ways you sometimes don’t notice because the brain compensates for it. It happened to my uncle when he was a welder, he had a second blind spot where he couldn’t see sharply, but it didn’t really affect his quality of life.

      • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        There’s a pretty big difference between temporary pain and permanent damage though.

        Unless you royally fuck up walking on coals you get some pain, fuck up a little and you just get some blisters.

      • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        8 months ago

        If I had someone run through hot coals I would scold them, sure. Much like for being angry about others not believing in zombie carpenters or letting quacks give their kids overpriced sugar pills. But that’s jot the context right now, is it?