Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Sign in to follow this  
Bucket

Random questions about the universe and stuff

Recommended Posts

I've been doing some looking around on the web, and I can't find answers to these questions that satisfy me. If you're curious, it's just to use as backstory for a... story. I mean, sure, I could be uber-creative and make everything up, but it's an arbitrary decision as to how I want to make the story believeable.

- Is Pluto going to be inside of Neptune's orbit any time soon? Where will it be in about 80 years?

- General Relativity tells me that matter and energy are intrinsically linked. If they are conceptually two incarnations of a single "thing", is there a name for the object?

- I'm aware of matter and antimatter. Is there an antienergy theory?

- Do theorists consider other dimensions A) other universes, possibly floating in the void like ours? B) somewhat like an outer shell or parallel to our own existence? C) literal spacial elements, only three of which we can (or need to) observe directly? D) just more ways to measure things?

And some subjective questions:

- Do you think one- or two-dimensional beings exist? Or maybe 3D creatures like us who partially overlap our own spacial dimensions?
- Are you tired of reading stories about wormholes?
- Do you think religious subjects like the afterlife or the supernatural tie in to dimensional theory?

Share this post


Link to post
Bucket said:

- I'm aware of matter and antimatter. Is there an antienergy theory?

no

- Do theorists consider other dimensions A) other universes, possibly floating in the void like ours? B) somewhat like an outer shell or parallel to our own existence? C) literal spacial elements, only three of which we can (or need to) observe directly? D) just more ways to measure things?

C for sure and maybe D.

- Do you think one- or two-dimensional beings exist? Or maybe 3D creatures like us who partially overlap our own spacial dimensions?
- Are you tired of reading stories about wormholes?
- Do you think religious subjects like the afterlife or the supernatural tie in to dimensional theory?

no, no, yes and no

Share this post


Link to post

Bucket said:
- General Relativity tells me that matter and energy are intrinsically linked. If they are conceptually two incarnations of a single "thing", is there a name for the object?

Energy-matter! But back in the day, was there a name for water and ice?

Share this post


Link to post

Is Pluto going to be inside of Neptune's orbit any time soon? Where will it be in about 80 years?

It'll take something like 225 years.

General Relativity tells me that matter and energy are intrinsically linked. If they are conceptually two incarnations of a single "thing", is there a name for the object?

Yes, "energy".

I'm aware of matter and antimatter. Is there an antienergy theory?

Not as far as I know.

Quast already answered the rest.

myk said:

Energy-matter! But back in the day, was there a name for water and ice?

Today we call it "dihydrogen monoxide".

Share this post


Link to post

there have been some, shall we say, unfortunate choices of names for objects. specifically


"black holes"

black holes are not holes, wormhole gateways or space time conduites. black holes are possibly actually quite ordinary (alebit somewhat overweight), no different to your average white dwarfe star. their only interesting property being that the surface escape velocity is greater than the speed of light. meaning none of the light gets out. so you cant see them. best watch your driving


"dark matter"

neither mysterious nor somehow partially "out of phase" with reality. everything we can see from earth is lit up, usually because it's a star. dark matter is stuff we cant see because it's not lit up. and we dont have a torch big enough to shine at it. just because the light's off in your fridge doesnt mean the beer is shifting into some parallel universe.


"dimensions"

are the sides of a box, depth, width and height. time is considered by many as a dimension in that you can also measure the distance from where the box was yesterday to today. mathematically you can compute in any number of dimensions. i.e. quaternions use 4 dimensional maths to rotate 3 dimensional objects. but you cant actually do anything physical with them because you cant get to them. now, there may be alternate "universes" but an alternate dimension would be calling witdh length isntead.


"antimatter"

is really quite uninteresting too. an anti proton is a proton that is negatively electrically charged. every other thing about it is identical. including the way it responds to gravity, the direction it moves through time and the number of calories you get when you eat one. so there is no "antienergy" because antimatter uses the same energy as anything else. so it really should probably be called "oppositelychargedmatter" but that doesnt roll off the tounge quite as nicelly.


"energy and matter combined"

to answer the question about the "combined object" that encloses both one way of thinking about it is if space itself is one big funky energy custard then matter is the lumps in that custard. it's still the same stuff, but you have to chew on it

etc.

i've got a degree in physics yer know

Share this post


Link to post

More thoughts, giving a bit more info on the story:

Dimensions are mathematical concepts which are nearly impossible to visualize in life. Consider a one-dimensional object/being. It would "appear" to be a line in the air. It may be curved or squiggly. However, this one dimension, length, is considered "time" to all beings in it. The beings move along what they believe to be a straight line because they can only move forward along this line.

This line has no width or depth. Not even in infinitecimal proportions. Likewise, a two-dimensional object's "universe" would appear to be a long banner flapping in the breeze. Logic would tell you that lower-dimensional objects would become invisible at a certain viewing angle, but the object still exists so it should be visible at all times. This is the rift between concept and reality where this is concerned, but that's neither here not there.

There is the singular possibility (and by singular, I mean chances of it happening are one in infinity) that a one-dimensional universe, the time string, could overlap upon itself. This event would require an outside force that exists outside of the time dimension.

This is where wormholes come in. Rather, antiwormholes (or superwormholes, if you will). "Conventional" wormholes exist in space and allow passage through large spans of distance in no time. Antiwormholes, however, reside in time and allow movement through time without traveling through space. "Superwormholes" may be a more appropriate term, as they exist higher on the dimensional ladder, manipulating time just as they do space.

More later, maybe.

Share this post


Link to post
Bucket said:

- Do theorists consider other dimensions A) other universes, possibly floating in the void like ours? B) somewhat like an outer shell or parallel to our own existence? C) literal spacial elements, only three of which we can (or need to) observe directly? D) just more ways to measure things?

You may want to read up on M Theory, the multiverse, and membranes, as well as the 11 dimensions that go along with them.

Personally, I like M Theory. It seems to work, it's easy to understand (to me anyways), and it's theoretically figured out what happened before the big bang (and how it happened), revealing that time did exist before stuff blew up. In terms of theories that really do explain everything, it gets the closest IMO. And best of all, it says that I can create a universe in my basement if I so please, and safely to boot.

Share this post


Link to post
cycloid said:

"antimatter"

is really quite uninteresting too. an anti proton is a proton that is negatively electrically charged. every other thing about it is identical. including the way it responds to gravity, the direction it moves through time and the number of calories you get when you eat one. so there is no "antienergy" because antimatter uses the same energy as anything else. so it really should probably be called "oppositelychargedmatter" but that doesnt roll off the tounge quite as nicelly.


Just to clarify, antiparticles also have oppositely signed baryon number and strangeness. And of course, neutral particles have antiparticles too.

Share this post


Link to post
cycloid said:

"antimatter"

is really quite uninteresting too. an anti proton is a proton that is negatively electrically charged. every other thing about it is identical. including the way it responds to gravity, the direction it moves through time and the number of calories you get when you eat one.


It should also be pointed out that whenever antimatter comes near ordinary matter they destroy each other and release a massive amount of energy, so eating antimatter might not be the best idea.

Share this post


Link to post

Foxpup said:
It should also be pointed out that whenever antimatter comes near ordinary matter they destroy each other and release a massive amount of energy, so eating antimatter might not be the best idea.

Well, it seems that someone put a bunch of it in the twin towers.

Share this post


Link to post

Most of what I know about theoretical physics has already been stated so I shall just inundate you with a bit of an anecdote.

I believe there is a 4th dimension (not time) that exists in our universe alongside everything else. I believe this because I saw it. I admit, I was really stoned at the time, but nonetheless I believe what I observed was real. What occured was that for a brief period of time (a span of at the most a few minutes), I noticed that everything appeared to not only have just the three dimensions we are used to, but the objects I observed also seemed to project out at weird angles that I really cannot describe. The effect was so confusing that I became dizzy and fell down (though I couldn't realy tell which direction down was at the moment).

Now, I've heard a theory that humans have the ability to see 4 dimensions, but we have evolved not to because our only real threats come from the first three dimensions (predators and the like) so this ability became vestigial and eventualy atrophied. I'm thinking the marijauna dulled a part of the brain that was inhibitive towards this function and thus I was able to, for a brief while, aquire this ability. This makes sense considering at the height of my inebriety, I could feel the parts of my brain clicking on and off (manifested in brief periods of numbness and the like in parts of my body and in my inability to concentrate on anything at the time).

Now, you're all probably thingking I'm crazy by now, but I believe it was no mere hallucination due to the complete incomprehensibility of its nature (it's literaly indescribable besides telling you that it was 4 dimensions and "weird angles"). Hallucenations are manifestations of the sunconcious mind, and I don't think I even subconciously have the ability to imagine such a thing as what I saw.

Real or not, the incident has changed me from being a pure atheist that only believed in science to being a rather spiritual (and more tolerant and open-minded) person. All in all, I think it was for the better.

Share this post


Link to post

Danarchy said:
I don't think I even subconciously have the ability to imagine such a thing as what I saw.

You practically have the ability to smoke too much pot, it seems.

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
×