Comments on: Submit your physics questions, win cool prizes

By: dlbancroft

dlbancroft — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 06:47:00 +0000

Some scientists think this might actually be the case, with electrons at least! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-electron_universe

By: Momma Bear

Momma Bear — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:46:00 +0000

Does light move faster or slower in a dark hole? (hypothetically.. of course)

By: CGulow

CGulow — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:40:00 +0000

This is why I gravitate toward holographic and/or info-centric theories of reality.

By: Jim Saul

Jim Saul — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:14:00 +0000

I totally get what you mean by your example, and it’s a great question, but because the door is hanging on several hinges, which support different amounts of the door’s weight and are not frictionless, you probably could tell from a photo by the angle of the door to plum, perhaps even by a microscopic amount of flexing in the material of the door.

Now a door hurtling through a vacuum you couldn’t… hey… is that image in the opening of twilight zone or outer limits?

By: Charee Peters

Charee Peters — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Based off of recent discoveries in high energy/particle physics, we have quite a few constraints on what dark matter should be particle-wise. Doesn’t it seem odd though that we still have yet to detect this at all? Especially if there is so much of it in the universe.
Also we know that all other fundamental forces work at different ranges, except for gravity.
So why are so many people ruling out the idea that there is something wrong with the way that we view gravity?
I think I know a decent answer to this question, but I really like to ask people to see how they explain it. :)

(Nashville, TN)

By: Sabrina Ahmed

Sabrina Ahmed — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:45:00 +0000

OH MY GOODNESS, I JUST HEARD ABOUT THE EVENT!!!!

HOW COULD I BE SO BUSY AS TO NOT READ/HEAR ABOUT **THIS**??!?!?!

I am SUCH big fan!! :D

How is your son??!!

(I apologize for the unrelated post! I’m not sure about what to ask you since I don’t feel that I know enough!! I just couldn’t help it!! I wish this could be my first Brian Greene event!! I live 30 minutes away from Columbia too!!! Sighs…)

By: Gregory Payne

Gregory Payne — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Oh I see what you mean. Isn’t that like saying I can’t exist without oxygen? How can I be related to oxygen in the way that space is related to time?

By: Andreas Beer

Andreas Beer — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 08:38:00 +0000

If I had a snapshot in time of a swinging door, is there any way to determine in which direction it is swinging? I never got this “kinetic energy” part.

By: teufelsdrochk

teufelsdrochk — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:49:00 +0000

The Stirling Engine produces electricity from heat, particularly solar heat. Can the price per watt of a Sterling engine be brought down below $1/kW via mass production? In particular, can a $100, 1kW dish-solar Stirling Engine be produced?

By: teufelsdrochk

teufelsdrochk — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:46:00 +0000

The yield of corn has undergone radical improvements through breeding.

Is it possible to breed the inedible oilseed-producing plants (jatropha, pongamia, moringa, etc) to produce oil from wasteland?

By: florb63

florb63 — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:12:00 +0000

It will oscillate! If I remember the numbers correctly it makes the trip from pole to pole in about an hour and a half.

By: Jim Saul

Jim Saul — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:51:00 +0000

Since the neutrino is affected by weak nuclear force, and probably has a non-zero mass wouldn’t there be an interaction? Or are you sure that electromagnetism the only force that a Bose-Einstein Condensate interacts with?

By: Penter

Penter — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:38:00 +0000

If static electricity causes electrons to be exchanged upon contact, does this mean when I pet my cat, there is a transfer of cat electrons to me?

Perspiring minds want to know.

I still do not live on the East Coast. Neither does my cat.

By: Penter

Penter — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:29:00 +0000

If E=mc2 does g=m/c2?

I do not live on the East Coast.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:17:00 +0000

What causes inertia

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:15:00 +0000

So I’m wondering if there is a similar relationship between time and energy, space and matter, or even time and matter.

Space isn’t a thing in and of itself; it’s a description of (spatial) relationships between things (matter and energy.) Time is a description of (temporal) relationships between things. If you remove all matter and energy, space and time don’t exist. Conversely (and somewhat more intuitively) matter and energy don’t exist without space and time. All four are dependent on the others for existence.

By: catonpalm

catonpalm — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:00:00 +0000

If a person go out exploring space, get too far, time become distorted from Earth time, would that affect the person?

I’m not anywhere near NYC.

By: Neil Franciotti

Neil Franciotti — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:59:00 +0000

If you were in the position to choose one grand scale project to put a great amount of money and brainpower behind, modeling the exceptionalism of say the Manhattan Project, what would it be, or what area of science would you grant the project to?

By: gmillerg

gmillerg — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:15:00 +0000

Well space and time have been shown to basically be two different sides of the same thing. Space doesn’t exist without time and time doesn’t exist without space. And matter and energy are interchangeable as well (E=mc2). So I’m wondering if there is a similar relationship between time and energy, space and matter, or even time and matter.

By: reikonyc

reikonyc — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:03:00 +0000

What is the connection between time and matter? Time is linear and the universe is expanding. If the universe contracts, would time reverse?

Reiko (I live in NYC)

By: Ross Mayo

Ross Mayo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:02:00 +0000

Yes. A B-E condensate is sort of like taking the tight waveform of one piece of matter and making that wave synchronize across many atoms. If you shot a neutrino through it, it would do nothing, since the neutrino has no charge and wouldn’t warp the condensate at all.

By: Ross Mayo

Ross Mayo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:56:00 +0000

It’s 2 words (dark energy) vs eight words(we don’t know where this energy came from)?

It’s because it sounds a hellova lot cooler on a grant application.

By: Ross Mayo

Ross Mayo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:54:00 +0000

http://xkcd.com/895/

The reason you haven’t heard the explanation is because it is a set of 11 equations that Einstein came up with and are a little difficult to explain via pure math. :)

By: Ross Mayo

Ross Mayo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:48:00 +0000

Why do you assume the universe would ‘pop’? That’s kind of a weird assumption.

By: Ross Mayo

Ross Mayo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:46:00 +0000

This is one of the most misunderstood things in physics. The universe as a whole is expanding, it isn’t expanding into anything at all, the ‘space’ within the universe is separating more and more.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_expansion_of_space#What_space_is_the_universe_expanding_into.3F

By: Ross Mayo

Ross Mayo — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:44:00 +0000

Yes. The poles are older than the equator. But the speeds the earth moves at are so incredibly slow compared to ‘relativistic’ speeds the difference is tiny, even for the whole time the earth has been around.

By: JD Fekula

JD Fekula — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:38:00 +0000

A century from now, how do you think future scientists will regard the last 25 years of physics?

(I’m in the NYC area)

By: iris nelly gomez-lopez

iris nelly gomez-lopez — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:23:00 +0000

what are your expectations of the public that will have access to this kind of science? Is marketing influencing the way you make science?

By: MarkS

MarkS — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:20:00 +0000

Can you explain why particles have ‘spin?’ and why quarks have flavors? What is spin, does it have effects on human scaled objects or on Galaxy sized objects? Is it related to other dimensions or forces or is it the result of certain events?

I have doubts about the cosmic redshift. Not that it exists, but that the explanation is as simple as a dopler shift. Have other theories been mooted and what were the results? Here’s a theory: time is two dimensional and the matter that appears red is on a divergent vector. Another: Space-time has a “color” that distorts wavelengths of light, redder and redder the further you look into it. Could we do without a big bang?

How does an atom get a “field?” Isn’t that empty space between one atom and another? Magnetism is passed like light, in quanta, but how do the packets of quanta know where to go? Do they shoot out in all directions like pollen and only register if they hit their mark?

Newton described gravity with elegant equations. The math describes what happens between the things gravity acts on, but it doesn’t explain what it is; gravity is just assumed. Are we in an similar situation with Einstein’s equations and the thing called the fabric of space-time? Is there a thing that we’re all swimming in? An Ether?

I’m in LA, trying not to be a crank

By: moonglum

moonglum — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:10:00 +0000

If there are an infinity of universes, how large is that infinity. Aleph null, aleph one, or what? And if there are an infinity of multiverses, how large is that infinity?

I live in Austin (not NY), and like DVDs.