Cosmology, anyone? space7 still around?!

[JamesA]

Well, since you folks at the <font color="#0000FF">MURC</font> seems to be the knowledgeable sort (Gurm and KvHagedorn have 200++ IQ!!), and since I had quite a fun time talking with space7 regarding Einstein's &quot;Theory of Relativity&quot; (he thinks it is <u>wrong</u>), I would like to discuss the recent findings of the Boomerang team (had quite an enjoyable time listening to NPR's &quot;Talk of the Nation&quot; with Ron Williams today regarding this issue).

Alright, with what the Boomerang findings imply, what does this &quot;flat&quot; universe thingie do to the theories regarding singularities and worm holes? Is it still possible to have a topology of the universe which allows space-time &quot;short cuts&quot;? I mean, could a really really really really BIG/infinite universe have numerous holes (due to black holes) that permit information/matter/light/whatever to travel from point A to B through some sort of subspace (yep, I <u>was</u> a BIG Trekkie fan) or metaspace?

What do <em><u>you</u></em> think about this?

FYI, I have a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics, but decided on a career change and got a M.Sc. in Computer Science. I <u>LOVE</u> physics, mathematics, and computers! Too bad I am not smart enough to go through with a career in theoretical physics.



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JamesA: Just a Dumbass MURCer
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

[Paddy]

I'm no good at physics, but I am interested.

Ever seen Event Horizon?

[JamesA]

Paddy[MU],

Yeah, saw that movie. It was pretty ok. Love the theoretical stuff they were trying to sell. Actually, I have a soft spot for stories about making wishes come through.



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JamesA: Just a Dumbass MURCer
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

[Paddy]

At least it seems that we are not going to be crunched up! - that got me worried!

[JamesA]

You were worried about something that may or may not happen in billions/trillions of YEARS from NOW?! Uhh.. I think you need to worry less and enjoy life more.

BTW, I thought the SFX depicting the spacecraft going through a black hole was pretty cool. The part showing what the event horizon of the black hole would look like was quite interesting.



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JamesA: Just a Dumbass MURCer
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

[Gurm]

The fact that scientists have now done cryptographic data transfers using quantum-entangled photons proves that not only are such shortcuts and linkages POSSIBLE, they are also quite common!

There is a whole layer of physics and the nature of the universe about which we know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, and which will turn all of science on its ear when we do figure it out.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Gurm]

Also, I just wanted to add that I (to an extent) agree with Space7, although I can never understand him due to his willful ignorance of proper spelling, grammar, and other things.

Einstein himself was fond of making a claim which in and of itself counteracts his theory of relativity. That claim was that if we don't fully understand something it is because we haven't yet found the correct frame of reference.

We have yet to find a frame of reference which will adequately describe temporal physics.

And as for the whole "Boomerang" thing, I'm still not on the whole "we listened to some hissing and now we know how the universe was made" bandwagon.

1000 years ago some people listened to the ringing in their ears, claimed to have heard the voice of God, and declared the world to be flat, and the earth to be the center of the universe. I take about as much stock in their claims.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Muad'Dib]

I have no idea, but as long as Einstein was mentioned so many times, I thought it would be interesting to point out that my Grandpa played violin with him on a few occasions. He would always tell me that Einstein was a very quite and withdrawn guy (and not a very good musician (My Grandpa was a profesional violinist in case you're wondering)).

And to end it with Einstein, my signature....

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"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: His eyes are closed"
--- Albert Einstein

[JamesA]

Sorry for the sudden lack of inactivity on my part during the weekend. Had to attend my friends' wedding. Now my wife is thinking about renewing our vows just so she could have the kind of wedding she had always wanted which we couldn't afford when we were married! Oy. Advice: Don't attend weddings of the well-to-do.

Anyhoo.. I am quite intrigued by the idea of a &quot;quantum entangled photon&quot;. First of all, what the heck is it?

Gurm, can you point me to a source of reference about it, or can you, like, <u>try</u> to explain the thing to me in a not-too-technical way?

Does this have anything to do with the superstring theory? You know, <code>entangle + string -&gt; entangled string</code>...?

Thanks.


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JamesA: Just a Dumbass MURCer
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

[JamesA]

Actually, you know, it should be:

<nobr><code>entangled string &lt;- entangle(string)</code></nobr>



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JamesA: Just a Dumbass MURCer
System Details

"Have you had any licorice lately?"

[Gurm]

Ok, I'll try to explain:

Sometimes, in this mysterious universe, two particles can be "entagled". What this means is that they are identical on a quantum level. They have the same spin, the same mass, the same charge, the same EVERYTHING.

Moreover, they are somehow "linked" (thus, "entangled") such that when something happens to one, it also happens to the other. Thus, if you take two entangled photons and excite one, the other one gets excited - with no visible means of excitation!

This leads to all kinds of potential applications - magical boxes where you shine a light in and light comes out another box miles away...

But here's the really interesting part... the entanglement holds, and any effects happen instantaneously - NO MATTER WHERE THE PARTICLES ARE.

What this means is that it doesn't matter if they are 2 microns apart, 2 feet apart, or 2 million light years apart... they are still entangled, and changing one will cause the other to change - instantly.

This of course knocks the whole "speed of light as an absolute" theory on its ear, as well as most of what we thought we knew about temporal physics.

Now, the fun part begins - not only have we found entangled particles (they're really fairly common, as odd little particles go, believe it or not!), we can MAKE THEM now.

However, we aren't really sure HOW we make them. It's like when we first discovered fire...

"Og hit rock with other rock. Make flame! Oooh! Hot!"

Now it's:

"Hit particle with other particle in super-collider. Make entangled particles! Oooh! Nifty!"

But we don't know doody about how they work. The superstring people think (of course they would) that it's because of strings... but we really just don't know.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[DentyCracker]

COOL!!!

[cancer]

This is a little off the current thread of conversation (ie Gurm showing us how big his brain is ), has anyone read any Frederik Pohl? There is some pretty cool stuff on singularities, event horizons, black holes etc. in the Gateway/Heechee books. I'm a bit of a SCI-FI fan (Next Gen is dead compared to B5 - what a continuous plot through five seasons of episodes, the best Next Gen could do was illustrate vague direction with two parters with end & start season episodes. I always hated cliffhangers, its cruel and unusual punishment). Oops now I’ve done it. I’m gonna cop heaps of flack for bagging Star Trek. Don’t get me wrong I still love Next Gen it just pisses my off that the writers get stumped on plot progression and write ‘filler character development’ episodes that make Days Of Our Lives almost watchable….
Mmmm ranting not so good for health.
Cheers.


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Win98SE 4.10.2222A, DX7a.

[Jorden]

Jason, if the scientists don't know how these 'quantum entangled photons' work, do they have a solution for their use then?

What can you do with qeps?

Are they a possible solution for future fuel, transportation or something else?

What about weapons of mass-destruction (I shudder... that would make 2 bombs going off miles or lightyears apart at exactly the same time ... brrrrrr)?

And an equally interesting question: do these qeps exist in the same time-frame? (i.e. making time-travel an option)

Jorden.

[Gurm]

Jord,

Well, they are of course interested in the possibilities of mass transfer (read: star trek style teleporters) but of course that's silly-far off.

So far they have done a sort of instantaneous quantum cryptography - encrypting an image using the observed path of an entangled photon, and then decrypting it at the other end using the observed path of the matching photon.

It's a bit lossy, mainly because of imperfections in the equipment used to observe the photons.

As I said, aside from the "magic light box", the applications are wonderful to think about but not particularly useful in practice.

AFAIK these particles exist in the same time-frame. However as I said before I am not convinced that we know doodly-squat about time, so it's fairly useless to conjecture about it.

- Gurm

P.S. Cancer, I'm not showing off how big my brain is... just answering a question.

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.