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[GiglameshDespair]

Magical Fun in Happy Fun Land

[My Name is Immaterial]

A. Receptacle for a Substance made of Loose, Granular Adventurers.
B. Magical Sadness in Depressed Sadness Land.
C. Adventurers of [placename].
D. The Quest for The Box of Sand!
E. Adventurers of [placename] and the Quest for The Box of Sand!
F. Various Nonsense from/in [placename].
G. grisha5grisha5grisha5grisha5grisha5
H. How many [nouns] can the [partymember] [verb]?
I. D&D 3.5 Semi-Sandbox PBP Game.

[Tawa]

Compromise: Magical Dullness in Passive-Aggressive Dullness Land.

[My Name is Immaterial]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[GiglameshDespair]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

+1

[Graknorke]

Could someone please explain the Oberth effect in an intuitive way? I understand in terms of "it makes the equations give bigger numbers", but not really why that it.

[Arx]

A rocket firing causes the same velocity increase at any speed - whether stationary or moving at half the speed of light or whatever. Thus, since

E_k = 0.5*m*v²

That velocity increase is 'worth' more energy if the base velocity was higher (x² < (x + 1)²).

Basically because the net delta V is determined by a nonlinear equation.

Caveat lector and all that, I'm not a professional rocket scientist or anything.

Edit: missed a close parenthesis in the tangle of BBCode.

[Graknorke]

Thanks, but I understand that much already. I think I might just be trying to over-complicate what is a simple answer.

[nogoodnames]

If you're not understanding where the extra energy comes from, consider what happens to the rocket's propellant while it's burning. It's being shot out in the other direction and losing speed. The Oberth effect works both ways, so the faster the the rocket is traveling, the greater the kinetic energy loss for the propellant.

At least, that's my understanding of it. Also not a rocket scientist.

[Avis-Mergulus]

Is saying 'like' like it's a comma considered a bad or annoying thing to do in English?
I understand that people probably don't exactly follow my posts with bated breath, but has anybody ever thought that I say 'like' too much?
Like, I get this is slightly dumb to worry about stuff like this, but help me out here.

[Helgoland]

Well, I've never noticed you over-using 'like', so you're probably fine. But it can and will make you look like* a brain-dead bimbo when overdone.

*Metaphorically speaking, of course.

[Putnam]

assuming intelligence levels based on language usage is wrong

not morally, like wrong in the "earth is flat" sense

[Rolan7]

Is saying 'like' like it's a comma considered a bad or annoying thing to do in English?
I understand that people probably don't exactly follow my posts with bated breath, but has anybody ever thought that I say 'like' too much?
Like, I get this is slightly dumb to worry about stuff like this, but help me out here.

First off, it's okay.  I did it a lot, uncontrollably, in high school.
It's also *associated* with a certain subculture in California, of girls with low intelligence.  "Valley Girls".
But that was years ago.  Now, I feel like it's fine.  In moderation.  The Valley Girls did it almost every sentence.

It's practically like saying "uh," or "well,".  It's a little different, but not really worse.

[Graknorke]

You'd be fine in America. Everyone else will judge you mercilessly. It's like that Australian thing where they raise the tone at the end of every sentence like it's a question? It might be kind of weird at first but it gets annoying fast?

[Avis-Mergulus]

I do it a lot because it gives me time to think about the exact way I'll formulate the next bit of the sentence. I do it in Russian too, but there it's not a subculture-specific word.

I think I'm fine with being a valley girl, though.