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Out of Pod Experience

 
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I'm a Particle Astrophysicist, ask me anything
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Korah Arnelle
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#461 - 2012-04-13 16:29:01 UTC
What's your take on Peter Woit's skepticism regarding M-Theory?
Hans Win
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#462 - 2012-04-13 19:44:56 UTC
How much incandescent light bulbs 60W each, can i power-on for 60 minutes, using only the entire energy of 1 hydrogen atom ?
Whitehound
#463 - 2012-04-13 22:05:06 UTC
What is a good physics book to read that does not try to explain nature with just lots of formulas, because I have no interest in applying them, but instead a good amount of the English language?

(I am always open to a good book suggestion.)

Loss is meaningful. Therefore is the loss of meaning likewise meaningful. It is the source of all trolling.
loco coco
#464 - 2012-04-15 00:20:36 UTC
Not sure if you're still answering questions, but could you explain why the ion engines of today are so far from what is shown in EVE, and how they could possibly be revamped (due to the only active ones being built 40 or 50 years ago) to make them get close to the effectiveness they have in-game?
Bane Necran
Appono Astos
#465 - 2012-04-15 02:23:12 UTC
Tsadkiel wrote:
[quote=Bane Necran]Have you done any research into the electrical model of the universe, and if so, what do you think about it?[/quote

very very little when i was an undergraduate. the model is needlessly complex and completely fails to adequately describe things like universal gravitation or stellar evolution and the structure of HR diagrams :(


I think you should look into it a little more. It's generally known to explain things more simply and with less contradictions than the standard model.

The main thing is that gravity isn't everywhere in the universe, but electric fields are. And as you should know, electricity is the only thing which produces electric fields. If gravity truly was the dominant force, it would make sense it would be pervasive throughout the universe instead, wouldn't it?

Also, did they tell you the Graviton has yet to be found? Meaning how gravity actually works is still just a theory with no hard evidence. So even the standard model has not yet fully explained or proven universal gravitation. If you wanted to, you could just dream up particles we cannot find to make any theory work, and this seems to be the dangerous game modern physics is playing. We're not going to find the Higgs Boson, and that's because it also doesn't exist, but everyone is afraid of that revelation because of what it means for everything we've built on assuming existence.

And i have no idea what HR diagrams are, unless you mean H.R Giger Big smile, but i may get back to you on that.

"In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness." ~Miyamoto Musashi
Elyssa MacLeod
Doomheim
#466 - 2012-04-15 03:11:27 UTC
Tsadkiel wrote:
greetings!

I am currently working on my PhD in Particle Astrophysics and recent events have shown me that i need way, WAY more experience explaining sciencey type stuff to people. SO, i figure, where better to practice then on the forums of a Sci-Fi game =D

ask away!


Ill have to bookmark this and find the question I had that noone gave me a good explanation of the last time I asked it

GM Homonoia: Suicide ganks are a valid and viable tactic in EVE.

Where is your God now carebear?
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#467 - 2012-04-16 20:25:07 UTC
Bane Necran wrote:
Tsadkiel wrote:
[quote=Bane Necran]Have you done any research into the electrical model of the universe, and if so, what do you think about it?[/quote

very very little when i was an undergraduate. the model is needlessly complex and completely fails to adequately describe things like universal gravitation or stellar evolution and the structure of HR diagrams :(


I think you should look into it a little more. It's generally known to explain things more simply and with less contradictions than the standard model.

The main thing is that gravity isn't everywhere in the universe, but electric fields are. And as you should know, electricity is the only thing which produces electric fields. If gravity truly was the dominant force, it would make sense it would be pervasive throughout the universe instead, wouldn't it?

Also, did they tell you the Graviton has yet to be found? Meaning how gravity actually works is still just a theory with no hard evidence. So even the standard model has not yet fully explained or proven universal gravitation. If you wanted to, you could just dream up particles we cannot find to make any theory work, and this seems to be the dangerous game modern physics is playing. We're not going to find the Higgs Boson, and that's because it also doesn't exist, but everyone is afraid of that revelation because of what it means for everything we've built on assuming existence.

And i have no idea what HR diagrams are, unless you mean H.R Giger Big smile, but i may get back to you on that.


an HR diagram is a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, and it shows that there are distinct relationships between a stars age, stellar type, color, and luminosity. the electrical model of the universe doesn't account for these relationships. as before, i have made numerous statements on what it means for something to be a theory so i wont get into that again, suffice it to say that theory = evidence. yes, the graviton has yet to be discovered, but general relativity and newtonian gravitation to a supremely excellent job at predicting the nature of the universe.

but who knows. it's been a while, so maybe i'll look at your model again.
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#468 - 2012-04-16 20:34:42 UTC
loco coco wrote:
Not sure if you're still answering questions, but could you explain why the ion engines of today are so far from what is shown in EVE, and how they could possibly be revamped (due to the only active ones being built 40 or 50 years ago) to make them get close to the effectiveness they have in-game?


well, there was a discussion on EVE physics earlier in the thread. it is very unrealistic in that our ships behave as if they are traveling through some viscous fluid instead of a vacuum.

ion drives work by creating very stable, controlled plasmas, and then accelerating and focusing the ions of that plasma away from the source using intense electromagnetic fields. the change in momentum of the ions must be equal to the change in momentum of the drive. however, single ions are extremely light and so the change in momentum is fairly small. because of this, ion drives are either used for precise corrections, or for very long term accelerations (ion drives can use certain solid metal alloys as a fuel, and so can last much longer in a "controlled burn" then its chemical combustive counterparts). to make ion drives more like thrusters, you would need to accelerate the ions to much higher velocities, which would either require very large diameter ring accelerators or very long linear ones.

hope this helps!
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#469 - 2012-04-16 20:35:25 UTC
Whitehound wrote:
What is a good physics book to read that does not try to explain nature with just lots of formulas, because I have no interest in applying them, but instead a good amount of the English language?

(I am always open to a good book suggestion.)


a brief history of time by stephen hawking is a personal favorite of mine
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#470 - 2012-04-16 20:44:03 UTC
Hans Win wrote:
How much incandescent light bulbs 60W each, can i power-on for 60 minutes, using only the entire energy of 1 hydrogen atom ?


the mass of a single hydrogen atom is approximately 1.67E-27 kg. if we were to convert it entirely to energy we would get...

E = mc^2 = 1.67E-27 * 9E16 = 15.3E-11 Joules.

so you can power zero 60W light bulbs for an hour... (a single bulb, lit for one hour, would require 216 kJ of energy, or 1.4E15 Hydrogen atoms)
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#471 - 2012-04-16 20:49:15 UTC  |  Edited by: Tsadkiel
Korah Arnelle wrote:
What's your take on Peter Woit's skepticism regarding M-Theory?


i am not familiar with peter woit's opinions on M-theory, but from my perspective, M-Theory, Brane-Theory, and all derivatives of string theory are NOT THEORIES. they are HYPOTHESIS'. string theory is not falsifiable. there are no predictions made by string "theory" that we can currently (or possibly, ever) measure in order to prove the hypothesis not false.

in short, such mathematical constructs do nothing more than what the current standard model does, and frankly, the standard model is more simple.

that said, when / if we DO get sufficient evidence for string / M theory i will gladly turn on a dime and withdraw this statement =D
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#472 - 2012-04-16 20:52:46 UTC
Pr1ncess Alia wrote:
Tsadkiel wrote:
Jeyson Vicious wrote:
I spent a good few hours the other weekend Googling how strong the power of freezing water is (I once heard it was an unstoppable force!). Did you ever see anything cool or amazing in school or a lab in that regard?

I tried to break a plastic water bottle in the freezer. It bloated quite a bit, but didn't bust.


yes actually! water has many interesting properties and the two most important for the effects i think you are referring to is the fact that it is an incompressible fluid and that it expands when it freezes. a good example of the former is something that some friends of mine and i did as undergrads. we decided to try and shatter a Nalgene bottle! after several attempts, all of which failed, we eventually succeeded by filling the bottle completely with water (as little air inside as possible) and dropping off an eleven story building XD the bottle deformed when it hit the ground, but the water inside was incompressible, so its volume stayed approximately constant. the resulting pressure differential shattered the bottle :3 freezing water is a major erosive force on the earth because it expands (a property observed in only a select few materials)! again, because the fluid is incompressible we might have been able to break the bottle filled with water by freezing it as well!

there may be a number of reasons why your experiment failed. the most likely may be the presence of air in the bottle. unlike water, air is extremely compressible and if it is present in the bottle, then it will simply compress as the water freezes. the second reason may be the type of bottle used. many plastic bottles are designed with their ductility in mind, and your bottle may have simply stretched under the expanding force of the water.

hope this helps!


What if I have a container strong enough to resist the force of the water attempting to expand?

Would the pressure itself keep the water from freezing (pressure does create heat) or can I achieve a container of super-cooled but not actually frozen water?


something like that yes, either the temperature or pressure. at that point it would depend on the dimensions of the container in order to determine the dominating effect. super cooling may in fact occur, but at some point it is simply going to freeze and be a solid under extremely high pressure. it's sort of the immovable object / unstoppable force problem.
Whitehound
#473 - 2012-04-16 21:21:38 UTC
Tsadkiel wrote:
Whitehound wrote:
What is a good physics book to read that does not try to explain nature with just lots of formulas, because I have no interest in applying them, but instead a good amount of the English language?

(I am always open to a good book suggestion.)


a brief history of time by stephen hawking is a personal favorite of mine

I already read it. It was a great read. Any other perhaps?

Loss is meaningful. Therefore is the loss of meaning likewise meaningful. It is the source of all trolling.
Bane Necran
Appono Astos
#474 - 2012-04-16 21:36:44 UTC
http://io9.com/5901578/one-of-the-most-terrifyingly-incomprehensible-theories-in-physicsexplained

Opinions on that?

It just so happens to use magnetic waves/fields as a way to unify the different fields of physics, but i assure you that is merely a coincidence. I'm terrible at math, and tend to work more with concepts, so i'd be interested in hearing your opinion.

"In the void is virtue, and no evil. Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence, spirit is nothingness." ~Miyamoto Musashi
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#475 - 2012-04-17 14:33:01 UTC
Whitehound wrote:
Tsadkiel wrote:
Whitehound wrote:
What is a good physics book to read that does not try to explain nature with just lots of formulas, because I have no interest in applying them, but instead a good amount of the English language?

(I am always open to a good book suggestion.)


a brief history of time by stephen hawking is a personal favorite of mine

I already read it. It was a great read. Any other perhaps?


Brian Greene's Elegant Universe is pretty good but he pushes string theory a lot.

also, anything by / about Richard Feynman is pure gold
Whitehound
#476 - 2012-04-17 14:54:29 UTC
Tsadkiel wrote:
Brian Greene's Elegant Universe is pretty good but he pushes string theory a lot.

also, anything by / about Richard Feynman is pure gold

Many thanks.

Loss is meaningful. Therefore is the loss of meaning likewise meaningful. It is the source of all trolling.
Eternum Praetorian
Doomheim
#477 - 2012-04-17 16:50:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Eternum Praetorian
Question:What do you think about this?

Because it is very relevant to the core foundations of all physics.

[center]The EVE Gateway Blog[/center] [center]One Of EVE Online's Ultimate Resources[/center]
Agamemnon Illearth
Lone Wolf Oni
#478 - 2012-04-18 13:40:25 UTC
I would like to have your perspective on reality itself.

Not the big bang and the subsequent universe we see around us, but rather why.

Why is there hard matter beneath my feet? Why 'any' matter or even energy? Why not an eternal nothingness.
It is a question that bothers me more than any other yet I know there will never be any answer to it.
I follow with great interest what a laman can in regards to science however I feel that even if all of this universe' puzzles have been solved I would still be left wondering why there even was puzzles to solve.

I would be interested in hearing what you think. Working so close with the minutia of the universe must create more questions for you.
OldMan Gana
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#479 - 2012-04-18 15:55:53 UTC
Will Manchester United win the Premiership ?

Love United- Hate Glazer
Tsadkiel
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#480 - 2012-04-18 20:24:15 UTC
OldMan Gana wrote:
Will Manchester United win the Premiership ?


*shakes and checks his 8-ball*

yes!

because of SCIENCE! *lightning bolts*