[Challenging Questions on Space-Time] Need Physics Experts!

Sep 16, 2010 16:34

Okay I know this doesn't have much to do with the fandom and all, but I figured I would start here (I know several scientific minds do dwell here ( Read more... )

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hibbary September 17 2010, 04:30:01 UTC
Kind of bizarre that you should post this. I've been watching a lot of astrophysics programs and listening to lectures lately.

I don't know how much of this will be new to you but you could check out lecture #9 http://academicearth.org/courses/introduction-to-astrophysics

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lynx_vilnensis September 17 2010, 09:57:47 UTC
It is difficult to say whether time is an actual "dimension". Some theories postulate that, others consider this a separate "property" of the local multidimensional continuum. It very well may be that we grew too attached to a "simple" pictures, portraying the time as just another coordinate. Personally I prefer to wait and see on this question. :)

Regarding the behavior of (sub)atomic particles, it hasn't yet been proven conclusively, but some suggests that the state and its evolution of the particle may depend on its energy, which in most practical cases means its speed.

And, finally, about the unification... Unification today seems as unlikely as it was for the past 30 years. I do not discount the possibility that the next day we will wake to the wonderful news, but again, in my humble opinion, it is much more likely that a new theory/model would emerge, of which both the relativity and quantum physics will be only a special, rather narrow, cases. The way classical mechanics are now viewed as an extreme case in relativistic

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fayzbub October 6 2010, 12:44:34 UTC
It's an interesting point, and I probably don't have too much to say that would be of any use; however (hee hee!) I was interested when you said that: "All atoms and sub-atomic particles move and vibrate". The reason I think (personally) that time is an actual dimension is because all atoms and sub-atomic particles DO move and vibrate. Time has to be a real, tangible dimension for this phenomenon to occur within it. The traditional three dimensions currently recognized, without time as the fourth postulated one, would be static and I believe could not have come into being without time as a discrete dimension in it's own right, moving everything else along and interacting with the other three just as much as they do with each other. The problem I've always had is with one single dimension, as I find myself unable to imagine anything with only one.
But as I said, I'm no physicist, I never even went to university, so a physicist would probably be the one to ask.

Alison

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