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We are Composed Mostly of Nothing.
Rather humbling fact, isn’t it?
i’m so freakin out right now
Another mind-blowing fact: not a single atom in your entire body will still be there the day you die.
unless of course you die today… but you get the point
It gets worse. New Scientist was recently speculating that electrons may have no rest mass, acquiring it all from the energy of Zitterbewegung (don’t ask, I don’t get it). And protons weigh much more than their component quarks because of their confinement energy.
Physics is a very strange and wonderful world.
“We are Composed Mostly of Nothing.”
Some of us more than others 🙂
Oh great Physics.
Gee, I wonder why I switched to astronomy from quantum electrodynamics and renormalization theories. When John Wheeler stated “black holes have no hair”, I punted. Now I have no hair from trying to understand it. Guess I’m too old a dog to learn cutting edge new tricks. Let Hawking et al. have at it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_hair_theorem
$1 says not one single person in this thread will click that link and read it. Good luck.
In other news, gravity sucks and water is wet.
#9, Improbus, when you figure out why gravity sucks (or why it makes spacetime curved) and how to unite gravity with the other three fundamental forces, share it with me and I’ll guarantee us the Nobel Prize for Physics. 🙂
BubbaRay
The trick isn’t reading it, rather the challenge comes down to comprehension. Now, would you like to put some money on that?
Then why can’t we see through our hands…Mr. Smarty-Pants?
#12 We can… what we see is the other side…… 🙂
I read once that with every breath we take, we breath in at least one atom that was, at one time or another, breathed in by every historical figure in known history. Every breath contains at least one atom that was once in Einstein’s lungs, Gengis Khan’s lungs, Hitler’s lungs, Jesus’ lungs, etc, etc, ad infinitum.
How’s that for blowing you mind?
BubbaRay, I read half of it. Do I get fifty cents?
Seriously, “black holes have no hair”? Quantum physicists’ humor is not very good. Honestly.
Example: Why did the chicken cross the quantum singularity event horizon? It was obeying the Einstein field equation of general relativity with zero cosmological constant, in the presence of electromagnetic fields, or optionally other fields such as scalar fields and massive vector fields, of course!
Hahaha! Pure genius. Those guys are a hoot!
#13-I’m not falling for the old “The Bear Went Over The Mountain” Theorem!
11 The trick isn’t reading it, rather the challenge comes down to comprehension.
Damn straight…
I can click on the link and read it, but it just goes in one eye, and out the other.
e.g. “…in the presence of non-abelian Yang-Mills fields, non-abelian Proca fields, some non-minimally coupled scalar fields, or skyrmions;…”
What??
Cool and very old idea. There’s a whole bloody movie about this (among other things) called “Mind Walk” ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100151/ ) from 1990 (17 years ago? Ouch, I’m feeling old) Truly a thinking persons movie…no lasers or good vs bad guy plot. It’s just following 3 characters around as they discuss the nature of physics, culture/philosophy and poetry.
Yes everything consist of nothing…just energy states. Granted energy states interact (the reason you can’t put your hand through a wall or see through objects). But given that the energy states are themselves just potentialities of quantum states, it turns out the universe consists of nothing. Nothing and everything is pretty much the same thing. Reminds me a Steve Wright joke…if you had everything, where would you put it?
#11, BobH, the challenge comes down to comprehension
Like I said, that’s why I retired from theoretical physics to go into the experimental side — astronomy / solar physics. It’s a whole lot easier on the math side and I have a lot more fun!
#14, Mark T., Yep. $0.50. But the chicken that crossed the event horizon will never report back (or will she?). The real b*tch is current entropy theory — re: information can’t be destroyed. The big guys are working on that one, no mathematical theory consensus has been reached, and probably won’t be until gravity is united with electroweak and strong nuclear forces.
That’s the cool thing about experimental stuff, there’s enough software around where an old guy can just plug in the data and go. No more tensor-this and fast fourier-that.
I can’t believe anyone actually clicked that link!
So the negative electrons in the chair repel the negative electrons in your body?
I’m never even gonna try to have a positive thought then!!
But seriously folks–what is this “information” that gets lost?
I’ve heard of “energy” never being lost, that it just changes form, but “information” is new?
So–if the entire universe get compressed into a singularity “information” is lost and that violates the laws of physics?
I thought physics within the first few nano-seconds of the big bang where unknown or undefined? Wouldn’t the same be true on the reverse trip?
And I’ve heard it said that if on the collapse of the universe ((or is it just when “things” enter a black hole?)) that if information is lost, that would introduce all kinds of anomolies in the field of physics? Why would that be true?–One set of rules for the universe except in Black Holes, and another set of rules in the Black Holes. Not even an exception or conflict–just a different set of conditions?
Maybe these scientists like being opaque to show how smart they are?
I’ve been asking people this question: “Human body is made out of what?” Answers are usally something like: “hmm, 55% water, ah, hmm??”. More correct is: “99.99..% of empty space and the rest of is energy”. That will get them scratching around that empty space between their ears.
#22, bobbo, this is for you: “The Elephant And The Black Hole.”
This has to do with entropy and the destruction of information, or, as the Firesign Theatre would say, “How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?” (qv.)
Enjoy: http://tinyurl.com/3yksfb
Let me know how twisted your mind is when you return.
BubbaRay
Thank You for the reference to Firesign Theatre. And remember, in the words of young Tirebiter… “I’m coming Mother”
[absolutely, totally off topic]
#25, BobH, Your groat cakes are getting damp! I don’t know how ya’ do it, but ya’ still put me through too many changes!
Trivia: What was “Long in the leaf but short in the can?”
Run, don’t walk, to buy “The Bride of Firesign” You’ll enjoy it, guaranteed.
MOOOORRRE SUGARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
“How can you be in two places at once when you’re not anywhere at all?”
More likely, entanglement reveals being in two places simultaneously is not a parlor trick at all but merely the way it is.
My brain is definitely empty after trying to follow all of that.
Was this actually news to anyone?
BubbaRay,
I’ve been a fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson for a long time. He used to introduce all of the Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics lectures and the Distinguished Authors lectures at the Hayden Planetarium. Unfortunately, he no longer does. His 20 minute intros were often better than the lectures, even when the lectures were really good.
#27, Chris, More Sugar? Now I’ll never, ever make it to the Antelope Freeway, exit 1/256 mile….
24—Well Bubba–I’d like to say I have a headache, but you have to have “something” in conflict for that to occur. The ONLY THING I understand about that article is “elephant.”
This all smacks to me of arguing about how many angels fit on the head of a pin? “Theories” contesting with one another? Where is the experimental data? It will be fun when “science” provides some insight into these areas.
Being totally ignorant without the horsepower to understand these concepts, I can’t even tell==when Alice is riding the elephant–that is a totally metaphorical statement, right? They are actually talking about the quantum state of an electron==not a person, right?
Tyson told the tale of what would happen to a person who approached the event horizon==gravity would pull his legs off into the hole before the torso, brain, etc==such being the gravity gradient?
Not fair to tease the ignorant by switches references like that from hard physics, to metaphors, from fact to theory. Its too much like being in two places at the same time, and no where at all.
Cripes!!!
Bobbo, fear not, the hard radiation and debris around a black hole would kill you before the tidal forces ripped you apart. However, if you want to jump down a black hole the bigger the better. The black hole at the center of the Milky Way is so big that the gravity gradient would not tear you apart before crossing the even horizon. The smaller the hole the higher the gradient.