22 May 02 - 08:09 PM (#715790) Subject: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Amos 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 people19:00 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
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22 May 02 - 11:48 PM (#715856) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: The Pooka 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. |
22 May 02 - 11:54 PM (#715857) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Amos Any pair o' docs can be paradoctored, Pooka!! LOL!! A |
23 May 02 - 12:32 AM (#715863) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: The Pooka 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. |
23 May 02 - 07:08 AM (#715974) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: GUEST,Mr Data May I suggest re-modulating the shields and emitting a synchronised Tachion pulse from the deflector array. |
12 Sep 02 - 08:03 PM (#782541) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Amos 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 |
12 Sep 02 - 09:49 PM (#782630) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Liz the Squeak Well the physicist that I know seems to spend most of his time thinking about morris dancing and bathroom fittings. LTS |
13 Sep 02 - 12:07 AM (#782745) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Bill D "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! |
13 Sep 02 - 04:15 AM (#782823) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Steve Parkes 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 |
13 Sep 02 - 04:17 AM (#782825) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Steve Parkes 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! |
13 Sep 02 - 01:10 PM (#783146) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Amos 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 |
13 Sep 02 - 06:40 PM (#783414) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Micca Ah yes, but have you considered what happens if you have the Pasta and the Anti-Pasta??? |
13 Sep 02 - 07:19 PM (#783455) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Amos Salsa? |
13 Sep 02 - 07:34 PM (#783470) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: lady penelope Well if you're my brother, Babylon 5. What can I say.... TTFN M'Lady P. |
13 Sep 02 - 08:17 PM (#783500) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Tweed Talking Wormhole Drum (the music part of this thread from Tweed who's no physicist) |
13 Sep 02 - 08:29 PM (#783527) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Mr Happy what's a phsyicist? |
13 Sep 02 - 09:49 PM (#783565) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Phsyicists Think About?? III From: Micca The bloke that puts the bubbles in soft drinks???? |
04 Nov 02 - 03:36 PM (#818327) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Amos 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 |
04 Nov 02 - 04:51 PM (#818405) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Joe_F 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. |
04 Nov 02 - 05:10 PM (#818423) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: GUEST 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". |
04 Nov 02 - 07:19 PM (#818520) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Micca 2 Doctors= I paradox 2 gorics= 1 paragoric 0.000000001 of a goat= 1 nanogoat 0.000000000001bismols= 1 femtobismol |
04 Nov 02 - 07:55 PM (#818552) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Bill D well, I'll bet I know what SOME of these physicists are thinking about! Who woulda thunk! |
04 Nov 02 - 08:31 PM (#818576) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Amos 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 |
05 Nov 02 - 01:18 PM (#819149) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Abuwood 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 |
05 Nov 02 - 05:26 PM (#819366) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Bill D what a wonderful song. I must learn this! Very well written |
06 Nov 02 - 02:35 PM (#820159) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Joe_F 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. |
06 Jan 03 - 09:50 AM (#859734) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: momnopp 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 |
06 Jan 03 - 09:57 AM (#859739) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: GUEST,jane 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 |
06 Jan 03 - 11:55 AM (#859850) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: Amos Brava, Jane!! Mommnopp, looks like ya got your wish for a few milliseconds there! :>) A |
10 Jan 03 - 02:50 PM (#863731) Subject: RE: BS: What Do Physicists Think About?? III From: momnopp 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 |