this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

At what velocity are the box's dimensions and effective mass determined?

[–] stembolts 148 points 2 days ago (2 children)

USPS GOAT. Fuck privatización.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 2 days ago (3 children)

But sometimes I have mildly inconveniencing experiences with the postal service in my extremely rural town that require me to navigate my extremely rural town's nearly non-existent public services so we should absolutely surrender complete control to Amazon

[–] [email protected] 56 points 2 days ago

Private companies love the heartland and will work out of patriotism even if rural routes are less profitable! 🤡

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We recently moved in a very rural area. The rural carrier for our new route gave us a form to fill out, and by the end of the week we were receiving mail. UPS and FedEX on the other hand, wouldn't deliver to us for a month. USPS will carry our packages up our driveway to our steps; UPS and FedEX throw them in the ditch by the mailbox.

Also, did you know you can buy stamps, cards, and envelopes directly from the rural carrier? Here's a fun quote from the rural customer registration form:

Rural carriers maintain a supply of stamps, cards, and envelopes for sale. Additionally, your carrier will accept Certified Mail™, Registered Mail™, insure packages, and prepare money orders. Generally, rural carriers can extend practically all services available at a Post Office. Please purchase a sufficient supply of stamps and affix proper postage on all outgoing mail.

Imagine how bleak things would be if Amazon was running the show. USPS is truly the best

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Imagine how bleak things would be if Amazon was running the show. USPS is truly the best

I'm sorry you are only subscribed to Amazon letter prime, in order to get your packages you must collect them from your nearest whole foods or upgrade to prime plus.

We're sorry prime plus is not available in your service area.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

You see, this one service does all things right but one of them irks me. Meanwhile this other one does everything wrong but has one thing I agree with. I'll switch to it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Milten Friedman is the reason we are where we are today.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Anyone else notice that a large flat rate box has the same limit and the post only counts a small flat rate box?

[–] [email protected] 89 points 2 days ago (3 children)

8 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 1 5/8"

Don't write yourself off yet, learn metric.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

For most of the rest of the world, that's about 219 mm × 137 mm × 41,3 mm

[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 days ago (2 children)

For those of us that don’t use arbitrary made up units at all, that’s 1.35515609E+34 Planck Length x 8.477460474E+33 Planck Length x 2.555613997E+33 Plank Length.

Use real measurements. A meter is how far light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second? Statements made by the utterly deranged.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

Finally a truly universally usable measurement for everyday use

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

I'm sorry but... Length and Units? Actually disgusting. There is only ONE thing that exists, and it is inversely proportional the base rate of growth in half of a circular degree about a complex orthogonal dimension.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

just try your best, try everything you can

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

moving from Europe to America the amount of times I'm like "it's 12 3/8ths" to try to, yknow, join in, and everyone's like "call it 12 or 13"

motherfucker that's a huge gap!

[–] [email protected] 159 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Imagine shipping this tiny little box and it weighs 60 pounds. Poor mailman.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Last package of the da... Yo wtf?!?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It's the 32 KG mop all over again

Note: Above video is marketing for an exercise plan, but it's also funny to watch occasionally when he has new episodes. As far as I know, the weights are real, but they're always loaded funny in the videos. Max plates visually for the weight the dudes are lifting

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[–] [email protected] 94 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Apparently neither of you are aware of how dense I am. ;)

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago (2 children)

But do you fit into that box? 🤔

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

first, ya cut a hole in that box...

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Nothing one of those fancy new blenders couldn't handle.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 days ago

I have mixed feelings about this.

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Wait until I fill that box with quark-gluon plasma.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I'll go one better.
A (non-spinning uncharged) black hole with diameter 1+5/8th inches (so it fits in the box) has a mass of about 2.3 earths.

(Near as I can tell QGP filling the whole box is around a ten billionth of that.)

Of course the box would Very quickly no longer be outside the black hole. QGP would also cause the box to no longer be a container in short order. To put it mildly.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 days ago

It would also reach its destination very quickly. Or rather the other way around. Free delivery.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

He said "physically" which is wrong because Neutronium. What he possibly meant was "practically" in which Osmium would be the only element you can practically fit in the box since it isn't possible to synthesize neutronium at that amount or handle that much safely.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If mailing 70 lbs of unstable particles that can't exist outside of a lab is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

No you mean theoretical. As neutronium is a theoretical substance. To our knowledge there's no way to find it outside of neuron stars. It is therefore physically impossible, within our current state of knowledge.

It's highly unlikely, bordering on theoretically impossible to assume that mankind will be able to synthesize enough to fill a cardboard box with. Then the practical side says even if that was possible, there would probably no way a cardboard box could contain that (and a plethora of other practical impossibilities).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That and the neutrons would rapidly undergo beta decay producing a LOT of free energy and other particles.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I guarantee that it is physically impossible to fill a cardboard box with pure neutronium. Is it physically possible to get over 70 lbs of the stuff in there in a stable, shippable manner? I don't know, and neither do you. It's certainly far, FAR beyond the capability of any technology on Earth, but I guess it might maybe possibly not break the laws of physics. I can't prove that though, and neither can you, so neither of us can actually prove the statement wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It’s because all the packages have the same domestic weight limit.

Seems silly, but makes sense in the context.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Okay so I originally assumed this was probably due to some union rule or something like that. But I didn't find any reference to it in the NALC guidelines, anything in the USPS resources center (which is hard to use), anything in google searches, and the original employee documentation or spec.

I did find the USPS History section and it turns out they have someone whose job title is "Postal Historian", Stephen Kochersperger.

But, anyways, I found the address (not email of course haha) for the USPS history office so I have wrote up an letter and put it in the mailbox. I will eventually update yall

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This is the case for most "Dumb laws": there's an outlier that becomes kinda silly, but it's not really worth the effort to change.

I saw one "It's illegal to hunt Blue Whales in Idaho". Because it's illegal to hunt endangered species in Idaho, and Blue Whales are endangered, not because legislators were super concerned about saving Idaho's whale population.

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[–] [email protected] 85 points 3 days ago

at a typical temperature and pressure, sure.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Neutronium... I am having early 2000s trivia website flashbacks! Wasn't a teaspoon of that stuff several tons or something?

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Could you create a device that would compress some substance to the extent it would reach this weight or is that impossible?

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 days ago (6 children)

Such devices exist, namely stars. Neutron stars are theorized to have neutronium at their core, essentially a soup of neutrons so densely packed that nothing else fits between them - in order words, the densest theoretical material (osmium is the densest material found on Earth).

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I believe that would be some form of fusion

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (2 children)

you can balloon the box out a ways to get more volume

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The surface area of the box is about 135 inches. If this surface area were spread over a sphere, it would have a diameter of about 6.5 inches and a volume of nearly 150 cubic inches (nearly twice the volume of the uninflated box!). 150 cubic inches of osmium weighs about 120lbs.

So, indeed you could exceed the weight limit of the box by ballooning it out and filling it with something that's at least 7/12ths as dense as osmium (or a little more dense than lead).

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (4 children)

What about a piece of neutron star in those dimensions? Would it still be lighter than 70 lbs?

[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Good news, after obtaining a piece of neutron star in those dimensions, you wouldn't need to worry about it anymore.

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