Things Noticeable this week

[DTravel]

Well, since everyone else is getting into the details here's what I had written up on this time and speed things for Scoundrel.

Alright, first the disclaimer. All of this is my incomplete understanding based largely on my readings of Dr. Brian Greene's books 'The Elegant Universe' and 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' and watching too much Science Channel. Any confusion, cognitive dissonance, changes in mood or personality, loss of sanity or violent changes in the solidarity of one's skull or contents thereof are not my problem.

Okay, in order to follow this you first have to accept that time is another dimension along with the three spacial dimensions. Cosmologists and astrophysicists don't talk about space and time as separate things. Spacetime makes up the universe, or is the setting for the universe or something. (Frankly we don't really know what space and/or time ARE. So don't wander down that path or some of the things described above that are not my problem will likely occur. Also there are really more than four dimensions. Last I knew most scientists had agreed to real number is 11. Or 9. But that's another path that leads to things that are not my problem and in this case they don't really affect this very simplified analogy.) Any rate, you don't have to understand this, just accept that we live in a four-dimensional spacetime universe. If you can't then don't bother going any further.

Now, imagine a simple two-axis graph. The horizontal X-axis will be your movement thru time. The vertical Y-axis will be your movement thru space. Your movement thru spacetime is a series of identical segments all exactly one length unit per time unit. Basically every segment is as long as one side of one square on your graph. If you are "still", not moving in space, then in spacetime you are moving perfectly horizontal on our graph. Each second you experience you travel one second thru time. If you start moving (walking, driving down the street, racing along the highway running from the cops, in your hijacked Russian rocket that you jury-rigged with alien technology to go at almost light speed) each of your segments angles up. The faster you move, the closer to vertical your segments become until if you reach light speed your line on our graph would be vertical. No time would pass for you. Time would still be passing for the rest of the universe that _isn't_ at light speed, but it wouldn't be for you.

That is the basic idea. Everyone and everything in the universe is always, constantly moving at light speed in FOUR dimensional spacetime. With me so far?

Now, there are two complicating factors. (Actually there are more than two, I'm just going to touch on two.) The first is that the relationship between space velocity and time velocity isn't one-to-one. The exact ratio is where the medium hard math of "Relativity" comes into it.

The second is that the Y-axis isn't really your velocity thru space, its your _acceleration_. Just standing on the surface of the Earth you are constantly subjected to a close approximation of 1G of acceleration. Standing in Death Valley it would be 1.some ridiculous number of zeros 1 G. On top of Mount Everest it would 0.some ridiculous number of 9s G. In orbit its a slightly smaller number of 9's G. (You don't feel the gravity in orbit because you are in Free Fall and not standing on the surface of something. Same thing when sky diving before you open the parachute, you aren't feeling it because you are in Free Fall. What you do feel is the air resistance as your body bulls its way thru that soup of gas molecules that make up the atmosphere.) This second part is why things in orbit age very, very infinitesimally slower than things on the surface of Earth.

The bits that really make people's heads explode is trying to understand the implications of this. Like, yes, if you could find a spot somewhere in the universe that is untouched or unaffected by gravity time would not pass for anything there. Not just all gravity in all directions is exactly equal, I mean NO GRAVITY at all. Not even the gravity of the physical object that is occupying that spot. Ya, don't think about that too hard.

So did that help? Or should we start mopping bits of you off the walls?

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Wendigo

So would someone, purely as a hypothetical example you understand , living in an attic in .... let's say .... London age faster than their parents living on the lower floors.

Bloody Hell That got me thinking, again That's twice in 24 hours

It's starting to come together now

This



Underground GM is keeping his Vintage Page 3 stuff in his basement so it ages slower and remains older longer

I smell a conspiracy.

Originally Posted by DTravel

With me so far?

I was confused at this point

Originally Posted by DTravel

Well, since everyone else is getting into the details here's what I had written up on this time and speed things for Scoundrel.

[Greenman]

Oh no, I scanned everything I had years ago and posted it here, everything like that would have yellowed over time and/or disintegrated -we don't have a basement not a cellar
Wendigo? He hasn't gone yet I am not watching Babestation all the time, last night I sat and watched Doctor Who and the tech programme Click I had recorded.

I was also knackered from mass cooking for my mother's birthday lunch and on tenterhooks waiting for the match(Liverpool v Man City) to finish -then I rigged up a time travel machine and went forward to see how I was doing, you'd be amazed even mods on here were 150 yrs old and still HERE!

I've noticed it's warmer again, we could be in for a one day Indian Summer but then it all goes pear-shaped later this week and another storm is brewing.

[Greenman]

This however is more important to notice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45775309

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Oh no, I scanned everything I had years ago and posted it here

Umm,

Originally Posted by Estreeter

I smell a conspiracy.

I still smell one

[bjcb0]

Originally Posted by vinceprince

I've given you the equations, I'll let you work out, I'm a bit busy at the moment.

To be fair, even Einstein could not have answered this: he had predicted gravitational time dilation, but it was Schwarzschild who actually worked out the first solution to the field equations. For what it's worth, the correction factor is extremely close to 1, although it is included in GPS calculations so it's not just theoretical.

We need to return to the porn+physics topic. Possibly Larry Niven's short story on the physics of Superman and Lois Lane sex would be good:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_of...man_of_Kleenex

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

Umm,



I still smell one

That's probably your socks!

[judy84]

Originally Posted by Greenman

This however is more important to notice.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45775309

Since we are on the subject of theoretical Physics, can I ask how much further from the Sun would the Earth's orbit need to be to reduce it's average surface temperature by 1.5 degC ? Would it be possible to change the orbit with a giant explosion...or maybe all the people in China simultaneously farting at a specific time?

[cicciobuki]

Originally Posted by judy84

Since we are on the subject of theoretical Physics, can I ask how much further from the Sun would the Earth's orbit need to be to reduce it's average surface temperature by 1.5 degC ? Would it be possible to change the orbit with a giant explosion...or maybe all the people in China simultaneously farting at a specific time?

Assuming it was at all possible (it isn't), you'd probably kill off everyone in the process.

And i'm guessing the survivors would have years of 500 days or so

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by judy84

Since we are on the subject of theoretical Physics, can I ask how much further from the Sun would the Earth's orbit need to be to reduce it's average surface temperature by 1.5 degC ? Would it be possible to change the orbit with a giant explosion...or maybe all the people in China simultaneously farting at a specific time?