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The edge of the observable universe is approximately 42.5 billion light years distant which makes our little slice of the Universe around 85 BILLION light years in diameter which, going on the latest theories, is still only like comparing a grain of sand to the Earth when you compare our observable Universe to something like it's true size.
Brian Greene put's it succinctly when he said that the stars and galaxies, when compared to the true size of the universe, are Quantum fluctuations written large across the heavens.
And, to anyone who is interested, some very clever people have worked out that there is ten to the power of fifty (that's 1 with FIFTY zero's after it) tons of baryonic (normal) matter in the observable universe. Ten to the power of 80 atoms in it and ten to the power of 120 photons and neutrinos.
Something to think about.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/12/21 20:06:54
"How many people here have telekenetic powers raise my hand" - The Emperor, The council of Nikae
"Never raise your hand to your children, it leaves your midsection unprotected" - The Emperor
"My father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic" - Kharn
Absolutely wonderful little piece showing things in scale.
Might take a little time to load but its worth it.
That had me amazed for almost an hour, searching up things and looking at everything, it's like a museum on that website!
The background music just adds to the mystery and the discovery of it!
Quantum foam...(10 -35m)? No physical sense? This is confusing. pReon...uh...Zep...zepto...zeptometer? Uh.......quark? What's that? Um....x10 to the power of negative...I'm bad at math....
BORING!
*smashes it with a club, burns the remains and uses the fire to cook a mammoth steak*
CuddlySquig wrote:Quantum foam...(10 -35m)? No physical sense? This is confusing. pReon...uh...Zep...zepto...zeptometer? Uh.......quark? What's that? Um....x10 to the power of negative...I'm bad at math....
BORING!
*smashes it with a club, burns the remains and uses the fire to cook a mammoth steak*
Anything is boring if you don't understand the first thing about it but let me tell you that Quantum Mechanics is one of, if not THE, most profound insights into the nature of reality that we have been capable of comprehending. While it's true that you do have to have at least some mathematical savvy to grasp the finer points of QM, it's still possible for most people to learn the general gist of it.
And to understand it is to be staggered by it.
In answer to you questioning the 'No physical sense' part, it was referring to the Planck Length (ten minus to the power of 33cm) which is really, REALLY small. Imagine a number that is SO big that to write it down numerically you would have to write a number 1 followed by 33 zero's!
Now imagine cutting 1cm into that many slices. To put this into a perspective that's easier to grasp imagine if an atom were magnified to be as large as the observable universe, the same magnification would make the Planck Length the size of an average tree!
Down at that scale our latest theories say that space and even time itself breaks down and that, just as if you look at a computer game up really close, reality itself is just a roiling and grainy fuzz of energy where mini wormholes and even mini blackholes are constantly popping into and out of existence. Hence 'Quantum Foam'.
And another thing. Superstring theory states that, down on those scales there are 10 extra spacetime dimentions in addition to the left right, up down and forward backwards ones that we find ourselves moving around in in everyday life.
Alas, we can't directly observe on this scale because It's 100 billion billion times smaller than any domain that's been explored by even our most powerful particle accelerator
and is likely to remain beyond our technological prowess for many, MANY generations to come.
So it's anything BUT boring, you just have to engage your grey matter a little that's all. And if it still doesn't ignite your sense of wonder then nothing will.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/12/22 05:08:01
"How many people here have telekenetic powers raise my hand" - The Emperor, The council of Nikae
"Never raise your hand to your children, it leaves your midsection unprotected" - The Emperor
"My father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic" - Kharn
CuddlySquig wrote:Quantum foam...(10 -35m)? No physical sense? This is confusing. pReon...uh...Zep...zepto...zeptometer? Uh.......quark? What's that? Um....x10 to the power of negative...I'm bad at math....
BORING!
*smashes it with a club, burns the remains and uses the fire to cook a mammoth steak*
Anything is boring if you don't understand the first thing about it but let me tell you that Quantum Mechanics is one of, if not THE, most profound insights into the nature of reality that we have been capable of comprehending. While it's true that you do have to have at least some mathematical savvy to grasp the finer points of QM, it's still possible for most people to learn the general gist of it.
And to understand it is to be staggered by it.
In answer to you questioning the 'No physical sense' part, it was referring to the Planck Length (ten minus to the power of 33cm) which is really, REALLY small. Imagine a number that is SO big that to write it down numerically you would have to write a number 1 followed by 33 zero's!
Now imagine cutting 1cm into that many slices. To put this into a perspective that's easier to grasp imagine if an atom were magnified to be as large as the observable universe, the same magnification would make the Planck Length the size of an average tree!
Down at that scale our latest theories say that space and even time itself breaks down and that, just as if you look at a computer game up really close, reality itself is just a roiling and grainy fuzz of energy where mini wormholes and even mini blackholes are constantly popping into and out of existence. Hence 'Quantum Foam'.
And another thing. Superstring theory states that, down on those scales there are 10 extra spacetime dimentions in addition to the left right, up down and forward backwards ones that we find ourselves moving around in in everyday life.
Alas, we can't directly observe on this scale because It's 100 billion billion times smaller than any domain that's been explored by even our most powerful particle accelerator
and is likely to remain beyond our technological prowess for many, MANY generations to come.
So it's anything BUT boring, you just have to engage your grey matter a little that's all. And if it still doesn't ignite your sense of wonder then nothing will.
I took the initial quote to be sarcastic, rather than warranting a long sermon on quantum mechanics.
grayshadow87 wrote:
I took the initial quote to be sarcastic, rather than warranting a long sermon on quantum mechanics.
Don't misunderstand me. I didn't mean to come across as negative in any way. It's just that Iv'e had a child like fascination with this subject for years. And I can get a bit carried away when trying to communicate that enthusiasm.
There was a time when I didn't understand Quantum Mechanics and as a result I found it as dull as dishwater but a friend of mine who teaches it at Sheffield University (the city where I live) began to enlighten me to it's wonders and I will be forever grateful to him because it makes life so much more wonderful to know just how bizarre and strange reality is.
Apologies if I caused offence. Just trying to illuminate, that's all, jeez...
"How many people here have telekenetic powers raise my hand" - The Emperor, The council of Nikae
"Never raise your hand to your children, it leaves your midsection unprotected" - The Emperor
"My father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic" - Kharn
Muhr wrote:Anything is boring if you don't understand the first thing about it but let me tell you that Quantum Mechanics is one of, if not THE, most profound insights into the nature of reality that we have been capable of comprehending. While it's true that you do have to have at least some mathematical savvy to grasp the finer points of QM, it's still possible for most people to learn the general gist of it.
I think the general gist of it is 'that is some weird ass gak'. I mean, I watch the shows hosted by the Stephen Hawking, or that Japanese guy, or that English guy that's become famous since CERN, and the graphics are always amazing and stuff, but like most people I haven't done university maths at a post-graduate level, so I really don't know how I don't know this stuff. Without knowing the exact reasoning behind it, I'm left with just the general ideas of what they're describing, which simply isn't an intuitive thing one can get the gist of.
I mean, is anyone out there capable of understanding themselves as a collection of collapsing waveforms?
In other news, thanks for the awesome link, Ratius. I had great fun playing around with that.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/12/22 08:10:30
“We may observe that the government in a civilized country is much more expensive than in a barbarous one; and when we say that one government is more expensive than another, it is the same as if we said that that one country is farther advanced in improvement than another. To say that the government is expensive and the people not oppressed is to say that the people are rich.”
Adam Smith, who must have been some kind of leftie or something.
Well, i suppose that was one effective way of making you feel tiny and insignificant
15 successful trades as a buyer;
16 successful trades as a seller;
To glimpse the future, you must look to the past and understand it. Names may change, but human behavior repeats itself. Prophetic insight is nothing more than profound hindsight.
It doesn't matter how bloody far the apple falls from the tree. If the apple fell off of a Granny Smith, that apple is going to grow into a Granny bloody Smith. The only difference is whether that apple grows in the shade of the tree it fell from.
Muhr wrote:
Don't misunderstand me. I didn't mean to come across as negative in any way. It's just that Iv'e had a child like fascination with this subject for years. And I can get a bit carried away when trying to communicate that enthusiasm.
There was a time when I didn't understand Quantum Mechanics and as a result I found it as dull as dishwater but a friend of mine who teaches it at Sheffield University (the city where I live) began to enlighten me to it's wonders and I will be forever grateful to him because it makes life so much more wonderful to know just how bizarre and strange reality is.
Apologies if I caused offence. Just trying to illuminate, that's all, jeez...
No offense caused. Likewise, I also meant to express no ill will either. You just seemed to have your feathers a bit ruffled, so I thought I'd point out that maybe it was nothing to get riled up over. In retrospect, my post sounded kinda harsh, rather than having its intended effect. I can totally sympathize with having specific interests that you want to make sure other people understand.
poda_t wrote:Well, i suppose that was one effective way of making you feel tiny and insignificant
No way man, just the opposite for me. We are all made up of the same stuff. You or I could of been as much a part of that giant star or lived in the tiny indent of a CD as bacteria. That was a SUPER cool share on the OP part. Ive already shared that with everyone I know.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/12/22 13:23:40
Got on a decent PC to hear the music. Just adds to it I feel, music accompianment can always be hit or miss with these things. Happily it works well imho.
Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be
By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.
Muhr wrote:While it's true that you do have to have at least some mathematical savvy to grasp the finer points of QM, it's still possible for most people to learn the general gist of it.
I'm no physicist, but I did study philosophy, and I can tell from first hand experience that people often struggle with understanding things like an infinite series (What do you mean it doesn't end?) and Free Will v. Determinism (The fact that there's a "v" in there speaks to the problem.) And we don't even use math, but that familiar language so many of us speak.
Never underestimate the capacity of the alien to bewilder.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/12/22 22:38:26
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
Oh my...... I feel a need to do unmentionabel things with you now Scottie 
