BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III

Subject: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 22 May 02 - 08:09 PM

The previous two threads on this topic can be found by searching with the Filter set to "Physicists" and "180 days". The following report from the edges of physical science is of great interest to folksingers, who spend so much time traveling to other worlds by more old-fashioned means! :>)

Regards,

A

---

Quantum wormholes could carry people

  19:00 22 May 02   Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition   All around us are tiny doors that lead to the rest of the Universe. Predicted by Einstein's equations, these quantum wormholes offer a faster-than-light short cut to the rest of the cosmos - at least in principle. Now physicists believe they could open these doors wide enough to allow someone to travel through.

Quantum wormholes are thought to be much smaller than even protons and electrons, and until now no one has modelled what happens when something passes through one. So Sean Hayward at Ewha Womans University in Korea and Hisa-aki Shinkai at the Riken Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Japan decided to do the sums.

They have found that any matter travelling through adds positive energy to the wormhole. That unexpectedly collapses it into a black hole, a supermassive region with a gravitational pull so strong not even light can escape.

But there's a way to stop any would-be traveller being crushed into oblivion. And it lies with a strange energy field nicknamed "ghost radiation". Predicted by quantum theory, ghost radiation is a negative energy field that dampens normal positive energy. Similar effects have been shown experimentally to exist.

Delicate balance

Ghost radiation could therefore be used to offset the positive energy of the travelling matter, the researchers have found. Add just the right amount and it should be possible to prevent the wormhole collapsing - a lot more and the wormhole could be widened just enough for someone to pass through.

It would be a delicate operation, however. Add too much negative energy, the scientists discovered, and the wormhole will briefly explode into a new universe that expands at the speed of light, much as astrophysicists say ours did immediately after the big bang.

For now, such space travel remains in the realm of thought experiments. The CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland is expected to generate one mini-black hole per second, a potential source of wormholes through which physicists could try to send quantum-sized particles.

But sending a person would be another thing. To keep the wormhole open wide enough would take a negative field equivalent to the energy that would be liberated by converting the mass of Jupiter.

  Charles Choi

 

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: The Pooka
Date: 22 May 02 - 11:48 PM

Wow. Remarkable. Thank you Amos. :) Yeah I had always read a wormhole is inherently unstable; so this is good stuff here.

The bit about accidentally ("briefly"??) creating a new Big Bang gives one pause. / But hey: nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Seems sound for CERN to try transporting some quantum Muons through first. / If that works, then later on we can see about "converting the mass of Jupiter" (there's a religion joke in there somewhere but no, TOO lame) and sending a macroscopic Moron through the Big tunnel. ("Open wider, please.") OKOK: I volunteer. I Want to Believe. When I get back, I'll observe Amos writing the above post about this possibility; and me leaving on my wormy journey. Disoriented, I'll need a pair o' docs. Time, gentlemen, time.

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 22 May 02 - 11:54 PM

Any pair o' docs can be paradoctored, Pooka!! LOL!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: The Pooka
Date: 23 May 02 - 12:32 AM

Yes well, I trust this para postdocs haven't adoctorated their data, the worms. That would be shinkai. Ew-Ha!

Blonde: "Oh! You idiots! I'm not the patient!"
Chico, pawing her: "Attsa aw right. We notta da doctors."

But seriouslyfolks: wormholes are cool. All this stuff is cool. Don't undertand it; but I love it.

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: GUEST,Mr Data
Date: 23 May 02 - 07:08 AM

May I suggest re-modulating the shields and emitting a synchronised Tachion pulse from the deflector array.

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 08:03 PM

AND FINALLY...

Did the dinosaurs die out because of an asteroid impact or because they made too much noise when they were mating? Working on the assumption that "100 tonnes, thrusting every 6.7 seconds would create 2200 kilowatts of energy" and that about 50 per cent of that energy would become noise, this week's Feedback column has become a devotee of the decibel theory.
See this week's New Scientist magazine


http://www.newscientist.com

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 09:49 PM

Well the physicist that I know seems to spend most of his time thinking about morris dancing and bathroom fittings.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 12:07 AM

"The hippo's rump is big & round
A small one weighs a thousand pounds
Two together shake the ground,
As they revel in the throes of for-ni-ca-tion!

Cats on the roof tops...etc...

Some "New Scientists" have too much time on their hands!

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 04:15 AM

The wormhole phenomenon is already well-known. It's the reason things you put in your desk drawer or handbag (US: purse) or the back of the cubby-hole (US: closet) always seem to end up somewhere else.

Usually things just turn up in a near but different drawer or compartment; but sometimes they vanish completely. When this happens to an object, it is reduced to its component subatomic constituents in its passage through the wormhole; on emerging from the other side they constituents reassemble into the lowest energy cofiguration, i.e. iron atoms. (This isn't a perfect process,and you tend to find things like carbon and sulphur present in small quantities, producing a steel-like substance.) The powerful microscopic forces cause the steel rod to twist and bend instrange ways as it emerges into another closed space. In our part of the universe, they tend to have the same shape: this is how those wire coat-hangers keep mysteriously appearing in your wardrobe!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 04:17 AM

And sometimes they are extruded from narrow metal tubes, which affects the final shape: that's where those funny diamond-shaped things get into your car aerial!

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 01:10 PM

So, I take it the notion of gigantic lizards generating sound energy, while experiencing connubial bliss, does not appeal as the rationale behind their disappearance? What, too close to home? :>)))


A

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Micca
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 06:40 PM

Ah yes, but have you considered what happens if you have the Pasta and the Anti-Pasta???

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:19 PM

Salsa?

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: lady penelope
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 07:34 PM

Well if you're my brother, Babylon 5. What can I say....

TTFN M'Lady P.

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Tweed
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 08:17 PM

Talking Wormhole Drum

(the music part of this thread from Tweed who's no physicist)

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Mr Happy
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 08:29 PM

what's a phsyicist?

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III
From: Micca
Date: 13 Sep 02 - 09:49 PM

The bloke that puts the bubbles in soft drinks????

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:36 PM

For those who thought the hardest part of Physics 101 was the constant
conversion from feet and inches to the metric system, including all its
Newtons, Joules, and Watts, here are some other useful conversions:

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter:
    Eskimo Pi

2000 pounds of Chinese soup:
    Won ton

1 millionth of a mouthwash:
    1 microscope

Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement:
    1 bananosecond

Weight an evangelist carries with God:
    1 billigram

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour:
    Knot-furlong

365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling:
    1 lite year

16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone:
    1 Rod Serling

Half of a large intestine:
    1 semicolon

1000 pains
    1 kiloahurtz

Basic unit of laryngitis:
    1 hoarsepower

Shortest distance between two jokes:
    A straight line

454 graham crackers:
    1 pound cake

1 million microphones:
    1 megaphone

1 million bicycles:
    2 megacycles

2000 mockingbirds:
    two kilomockingbirds

10 cards:
    1 decacards

1 kilogram of falling figs:
    1 Fig Newton

1000 milliliters of wet socks:
    1 literhosen

1 millionth of a fish:
    1 microfiche

1 trillion pins:
    1 terrapin

10 rations:
    1 decoration

100 rations:
    1 C-ration

2 monograms:
    1 diagram

8 nickels:
    2 paradigms

2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University
Hospital:
    1 I.V. League

100 Senators:
    Not 1 decision

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 04:51 PM

Amount of facial beauty required to launch one ship: 1 millihelen.
Amount required to arouse one sailor: 1 microhelen.
Number of guacas in a guacamole: Avocadro's number.

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 05:10 PM

May I reccomend an article in Science Observed, 1982. It by Jeremy Bernstein, and is entitled "Scientific Cranks: How to Recognize One and What to Do Until the Doctor Arrives".

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Micca
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 07:19 PM

2 Doctors=
I paradox
2 gorics=
1 paragoric
0.000000001 of a goat=
1 nanogoat
0.000000000001bismols=
1 femtobismol

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 07:55 PM

well, I'll bet I know what SOME of these physicists are thinking about!

Who woulda thunk!

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 08:31 PM

This means that two data = one paradata, and it takes two chutist to make one parachutist?. I suppose also it means that 1024 terraphiles = at least one petaphile?

A

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Abuwood
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 01:18 PM

Seems a good point to add this song!
IN VINO VERITAS
(Dr. H. J. Taylor)

When Science led me by the hand right up her garden path, Sir,
They tried to make me understand her Physics, Chem and Math, Sir.
It came to naught, and all they taught could not have fallen flatter,
Except for this, which gave me bliss, the liquid state of matter.

cho: And this is plain, as I maintain, since good old Aristotle
The truth has been most clearly seen reflected in a bottle.

What always jars in seminars and causes constant panics,
Is all that talk and blackboard chaulk to inculcate mechanics;
I feel I need a glass of mead, as drunk by ancient druids
And so thereby exemplify the properties of fluids.

And still today I find no way to handle apparatus.
For me alone the Great Unknown brings no divine afflatus.
Yet this this I know, when problems show no hope of resolution,
This glass of mine when filled with wine will give the right solution.

In Physics I can only make uneducated guesses,
My wooly pate can't calculate the simplest strains and stresses;
Yet when my head is almost dead with mental acrobatics,
A pint of ale will never fail to teach me hydrostatics.

To learn the rules of molecules confounds my best resources,
For Van der Waals gets me in snarls with his atomic forces.
The parachor, and what it's for, I never dare to mention:
A glass of stout includes me out of studying surface tension.

Both rho and phee are Greek to me, I find them most unruly;
I don't see why they satisfy the equation of Bernoulli.
I can't make sense of turbulence, I merely get to know, Sir,
From half a quart of vintage port the facts of liquid flow, Sir.

In deep research let others lurch and hunt elusive muons.
For QED is not for me, with all its quarks and gluons.
Let others gaze at cosmic rays revealed in sparkling bubbles
A glass of beer will always clear my head, and end my troubles.

Note: a winner in a contest held by New Scientist
tune: Vicar of Bray

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 05:26 PM

what a wonderful song. I must learn this! Very well written

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Joe_F
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 02:35 PM

One need not be a Freudian to suspect that Isaac Newton had experimental evidence for the following passage:

Only those bodies which are absolutely hard are exactly reflected
according to these rules. Now the bodies here amongst us (being an
aggregate of smaller bodies) have a relenting softnesse and
springynesse, which makes their contact be for some time and in more
points than one. And the touching surfaces during the time of
contact doe slide one upon another more or lesse or not at all
according to their roughnesse. And few or none of these bodyes have
a springyness soe strong as to force them one from another with the
same vigor that they came together.

I wish the same to this company.

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: momnopp
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 09:50 AM

Well, I love this thread, and I would love to have a physicist thinking about me...

But I digress -- I wanted to add this link to an existing thread rather than start a new one, and this seemed as good a candidate as any!

Click HERE to read about "Sound-Byte Math Music"; an article from Science News Online on something the author calls "algorithmic music".

Enjoy. Peace,

JudyO

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: GUEST,jane
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 09:57 AM

A thread I just *have* to drop in!
well right now this particular physicist is thinking a) thankyou mudcat forum for answering my noel coward query and b) I'd better get back to work... :-)

jane, physicist and proud of it

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jan 03 - 11:55 AM

Brava, Jane!! Mommnopp, looks like ya got your wish for a few milliseconds there! :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III
From: momnopp
Date: 10 Jan 03 - 02:50 PM

Amos - you're a hoot.

And that'll teach me to be specific:

I'd like to have a SINGLE MALE physicist who thinks about me...um, well, er, maybe I'd better leave this thread alone...

Peace out,

JudyO