3 ms·
Yea, this. 100,000,000,000 solar neutrinos pass through your thumbnail every second. This number is not substantially different at night, either.
by ericbarrett 5y ago
Yea, this. 100,000,000,000 solar neutrinos pass through your thumbnail every second. This number is not substantially different at night, either.
- devoutsalsa 5y agoUnless I orient the thin edge of my thumbnail so I’m presenting the smallest possible cross section towards the sun!
- thelittleone 5y agoI'm not embarrassed to admit I just tried this. I will walk around with thumbnail oriented thusly and make my observations. Perhaps the origin of the thumbs up? If anyone asks I will casually explain that I'm reducing my thumbail cross section to minimise the unknown effects of solar neutrinos.
- devoutsalsa 5y agoIf you can detect neutrinos below your thumb, I’m officially impressed!
- scythe 5y agohttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0319-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0319-1
- alok-g 5y agoWhat would be the number of photons falling per second on the same? :-)
- ericbarrett 5y agoGood question! I can't find a truly authoritative source, but a few calculations on the web put photon flux at the earth's surface at 10^21/m^2/s, give or take. Assuming your thumbnail is one square centimeter, that would be 10^17 photons per second, or 100,000,000,000,000,000, but only during the day :)
- alok-g 5y agoInteresting! So much higher than for neutrinos. One follow up question. When reading about low-light cameras, the number of photons per pixel seem much smaller. I guess the following factors are involved: Several orders of magnitude reduction under low light. Pixel area likewise much smaller than thumb. Exposure time less than a second. Visible light vs. all spectrum. Well, the question: Do the numbers fit? :-)