Is Mo Brooks Officially the Dumbest Person on Earth

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   crankaliciousposted 5 years ago

   Apparently, falling rocks are causing rising sea levels!
   
   Brooks is a Congressman from Alabama and a member of the something laughably called the "House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
   
   Here's a video:
   
   http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rep-m … 6502083871
   
   I guess this raises important questions:
   
   1. Where are these rocks coming from?
   2. How many rocks would have to fall in the ocean to make the sea level rise 1 inch?
   3. If one of these rocks fell on Mo Brooks head, would it affect his mental function at all?

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   1. 95

      wildernessposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      1) They are called meteorites and come from all over the solar system
      2) Estimates are around 50,000 tons per year fall to earth.  About 3/4 of it will hit ocean: I leave it to you to do the math.
      3) Probably not, although he IS right in that it will raise the sea level.  A single grain of dust will do that.  He's also right that river sediment raisees the level.

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      1. 85

         crankaliciousposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Since we're doing math, the total weight of all the water on earth is about 32 trillion tons. It might be 32 quadrillion tons, actually, but let's go with the lower number for argument's sake. If you had a bathtub filled with that much water and you added 50,000 tons of rock, how much would it raise the water level given that 50,000 is about .00000000015 percent of the weight of the ocean?
         
         To use an analogy, if you have a pool and you throw a ping pong ball in, how much does it raise the water level?

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         1. 95

            wildernessposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Have to know the density of the rock falling.  As the large majority is dust that dissipates in the air (to fall later) that's kind of difficult.
            
            But in my guise as "science teacher of the year" my guesstimate is around .0000000000001".  Pretty sure that is within 27 decimals of being correct, but the "1" might be off some. I think a better analogy would be an Olympic pool and a grain of sand.  (My bathtub won't hold 32T tons of water, but it sounds like fun!)

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            1. 85

               crankaliciousposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Sounds good. So how many grains of sand have to go in the pool before the water level rises?
               
               However, ask this question: if 70% of the world's water is contained in the ice sheets and other ice around the world and 10% of it melts because the earth's temperature has risen, would that raise the ocean levels?
               
               Or this question: if Mo Brooks plus a chicken is moronic, if you take away the chicken, is Mo Brooks still a moron?

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   2. 96

      Eurofileposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      He poses an interesting opposing view of the causes of climate change, but it's not a view I would go along with myself.

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