GOOD TO KNOW

(Thanks to RussellMc)

Comments

[Betsi]

first--don't you just hate those pesky rumors?

[Morgana]

This is happening in Geneva, which may explain Swiss cheese!

And... antimatter really exists?

[Rachel (I think they're watching me).]

I'm totally third.

[Jemmy]

Being sucked into a black hole was one of my big fears when I was 3. The other was that Count Dracula would make me tour his bread factory.

[Morgana]

Buried in a link within a link, fascinating:
Antimatter sounds like the stuff of science fiction, and it is. But it's also very real. Antimatter is created and annihilated in stars every day. Here on Earth it's harnessed for medical brain scans.

"Antimatter is around us each day, although there isn't very much of it," says Gerald Share of the Naval Research Laboratory. "It is not something that can be found by itself in a jar on a table."

...Simply put, antimatter is a fundamental particle of regular matter with its electrical charge reversed. The common proton has an antimatter counterpart called the antiproton. It has the same mass but an opposite charge. The electron's counterpart is called a positron.

Antimatter particles are created in ultra high-speed collisions.

One example is when a high-energy proton in a solar flare collides with carbon, Share explained in an e-mail interview. "It can form a type of nitrogen that has too many protons relative to its number of neutrons." This makes its nucleus unstable, and a positron is emitted to stabilize the situation.

But positrons don't last long. When they hit an electron, they annihilate and produce energy.

"So the cycle is complete, and for this reason there is so little antimatter around at a given time," Share said.

And then there's the link at the bottom for the top 10 ways to destroy the Earth.

[Morgana]

Sorry, meant to edit that and accidentally posted the whole darn thing. I blame the anitmatter.

[Rachel (I think they're watching me).]

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

[pepe]

therefore in addition to earth-detroying antimatter we have the "make people overpost" anitmatter.
we learn something new everyday.

[Just Ducky]

"They would each take about 100 hours to gobble up one proton."

Their motto: Gobbling Up the Earth, One Proton at a Time.

[Just Ducky]

Black Hole Factory might BAGNFARB.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

I'm not convinced.

WWSHS?

[CJran]

The perfect guy job. Smashing things together and studying the debris. *polishes resume*

[slyeyes]

If I get sucked into a black hole, it will make me very angry, very angry indeed.

*leaves to go work on her Illudium Q42 explosive space modulator*

[CJrun]

Sly, boy do I hope never to want to come back and find that! I am usually able to make do with the Samuel Jackson soundboard.

[Alfred]

The Chances are Miniscule. But so are what we are trying to look at...

REally though, even if we where sucked in by a blackhole, the time and space around us would come with. So it would barely be noticed. I think thats correct,

[CJrun]

Alfred, it boggles the mind. I still have problems with Einstein's notion of Time as a spiraling 4th dimension. I [sort-of] understand the math, but it still seems cobbled together. I do like string theory and think that is exactly the direction in which they will find the answer. We'll see, someday, but Nature usually offers more simple explanantions, what they called 'elegant,' when I was way over there on the spiral.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

OK. Here's a not-funny question that I still have not gotten a good answer for. Relativity requires 27 dimensions. String Theory requires 11. The physicists always stipulate that those should be counted as N-1 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time. How would the theories change if we had 3 or more dimensions of time? And no, I don't want to think about "make a left at 3:00 pm".

[Alfred]

When we refer to 11 dimensions we are refering to new types of time. The time certain dimensions do things and move is added on after the first time of 3D.
Then we take all the dimensions and possibilites for all the universes and every possible form of dimension and how they move.

Of course time itself gets pretty interesting. I theororize that time can be attracted to a mass big enough. There is some proof of this, because Jupiter seems to be doing this.
If this is true, then Time may have a speed of its own.

I hope that clears it up. I am looking for a video that explains Time and Dimensions better.

[Alfred]

Or do you mean something like
Dark Matter, Matter, and Antimatter. That would be interesting. And is theorized, but no proof yet for it.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

That would imply that chronons have mass. If you got enough of them together, could you make a time black hole?

Then again, does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care about time?

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

Dark matter is just regular matter that doesn't give off its own light - like planets and moons and people, right?

[slyeyes]

Does it really matter?

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

*snork* That is the question, isn't it?

[CJrun]

DPC, it's really about making the theory fit the math; ugly as sausage making. I always go back to the King of Lineland. Relax, there's an answer that you can't comprehend, not because the math is wrong, but because your assumptions are wrong. Post Newtonian math and physics all seem to require some salt grains. I remember my favorite Calculus professor used to help us see the point when he showed us 'mess.' To solve the equation, we didn't have to really figure out 'mess' if we could get 'mess' into the top and bottom of an equation; all you had to do was to get 'mess' to cancel out.

The process towards reconciling Newtonian and Quantum physics into a Unified Theory may ultimately become mankind's greatest achievement, but right now they are still 'messing' around. I honestly think when it is completely cracked, ordinary people will be able to read and understand the theory without having to wade through the algebraic gymnastics. You should go back and look at the pages of 'mess' that eventually became e=mcc. Anyone can look at a mass and imagine it being accelerated, then say 'when that hits me it will be energetic, to say the least.' Or not....

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

To solve the equation, we didn't have to really figure out 'mess' if we could get 'mess' into the top and bottom of an equation.
-----
I wish I had had your professors when I was trying to derive the time-dependent Hamiltonian for a particle on a ring.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

ordinary people will be able to read and understand the theory

------

Have you read Gamow's _Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland_?

[Alfred]

CJRun- Very true, we are dealing with Mess right now.
Einstein was proven correct because of the Moon Landing and the Atomic bomb working within his equations.
The problem is that for understanding what we need to understand, we come against what is called "Complex Systems" And by definition, they are hard to follow.
As my proffesor said, "The Butterfly flap may effect the weather in Cincinati, But it has to go through a lot of Elephant farts to do it."
This Atom is affecting that proton, even though there is no recordable connection. Stuff like that.
It has created a lot of Junk Science. I had a teacher that was very similar to the crazy Future seeing teacher in the Harry Potter series. She actually knew some science, but made it work into her opinion. Such things as, "We can control the universe by our own emotions." Stuff like that.

This of course why there is so much theororizing at the moment. The evidence is pointing in all sorts of directions.

[slyeyes]

That's the thing about black holes. They're never around when you really need one.

[Alfred]

"The thing about Space is, its black. And the thing about Black Holes is, there black also. So they are kind of hard to spot until your right on them."
Semi Quote from the computer in Red Dwarf.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

Sorry - the black hole seems to have sucked all of the humor out of this thread.

How long would it tak for a booger to tunnel out of a tissue?

[CJrun]

Sheewt. I was required to take Physics without using Calculus and we had to show our work to prove it. I took Calculus just because it was fascinating. My masochism ended after a couple of years, but I love reading about the people doing the theoretical work. I have no idea what a time dependent Hamiltonian is, but if it was a problem set by others and all the needed information was given, that might be fun. Working in math theory, to me, has never appeared fun, as it seems you never know if you have the needed information. I imagine it to be like leaving the house every morning and not knowing whether you have the keys to lock up house and start the car. I would go nuts.

[slyeyes]

time dependent Hamiltonian

Is it bad that I thought that was some kind of a horse race?

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

Not a horse race, no. But it WBAGNFA jazz fusion B.

[casey]

After a bottle of Merlot, this is what this thread looks like to me:

"alshdfaowiehtoapnvpoaiheroiaer jhapsoiudaopjvopaeij. aonvfopaihewv! al;vnewopijaewor???"

[CJrun]

There are blackholes and they sucked the nerd out of me into full, blog display. OK, that's not possible. However, I am proud to report that after 2-days I only feel awful after sampling the whole mojito thing, Monday night. Never. Again.

[slyeyes]

This thread has given me the hankering to go Star Trekkin' Across the Universe.

But first, I have to chase the Klingons off the starboard bow.

[AlanBoss]

Interesting.

The CERN partical accelorater thingie (I believe that's the technical term) is a central player in Dan (DaVinci Code) Brown's "Angels and Demons." You should get a load of what the Illuminati (or...maybe...someone else?) does with it.

"Miniscule" odds are just a little too close for my tastes.

That said. As a guy of the male gender, I have to say... Cool!!!

[Ted Simple]

"...But the chance of planetary annihilation by this means 'is totally miniscule,'"

This sounds like me when I was trying to have unprotected 'relations' with a female when I was 16. If the chances of something happening are 'totally miniscule", it will, in time, happen.

[Boo Augustus]

Let's just pray none of the scientists are ever, ever compelled to utter "Hey ya'll, watch this."

[Beppie]

God, I hate it when scientists never tell us when they are about to destroy the earth.

[Greg]

I want to know who decided to call the thing Large Har...oh Hadron. Nevermind.