#2312: mbmbam explain

[Cueball, Megan, and White Hat are standing next to each other, talking. Megan has her hands raised to the side, in a shrugging gesture.]

Megan: Odd how in physics “mb” is both millibars (pressure) and millibarns (area).

Megan: mbmb could mean millibar-millibarn, which is a unit of force, strangely.

White Hat: Units are weird.

[Same scene - Megan is now checking her phone. White Hat is raising his right index finger.]

Cueball: So what’s mbmbam, the My-Brother-My-Brother-And Me unit?

Megan: Millibar-milliibarn-attometer, I guess? That’d be a unit of energy. 10-47 Joules.

White Hat: “One podcast”

[Same scene in a frameless panel. Megan holds her phone to her side. White Hat has his arms raised to the side, excited.]

Cueball: 10-47 sounds small.

Megan: Yeah, it’s roughly the energy you’d need to lift one yeast cell by one Planck length in Earth’s gravity.

White Hat: Planck yeast!

[Same scene in a regular panel. Megan has put away her phone, and has her right index finger raised. White Hat has his hands balled into fists, frustrated.]

Cueball: Doesn’t Planck yeast rise on its own?

Megan: Yeah, that’s what makes quantum foam. But data suggests our universe is flat.

Megan: String theory says it’s because spacetime has unleavened dimensions.

White Hat: …I hate you.