General chit chat

‘Suddenly, from behind the rim of the Moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.’

Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14, in orbit around the Moon, February 1971.

Do you remember a perfect summer’s day? Not precisely where or when, but a moment of languid warmth, the scent of a freshly mowed lawn, itchy bites, airborne wish-weed seeds and buzzing insects. If you do, in a way you’re remembering Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity! Special Relativity deals with moments, or more precisely events. An event is something that happens at a particular location in space and at a single instant in time. Einstein’s theory tells us how we should measure the distance between events and how to think about their connection to each other. It is a theory of space and time!

E=mc2

(E) The Energy of an object at rest = (m) Mass (amount of matter) of an object (which I found interesting that mass is not the weight of an object, because that weight will change in different environments; for instance something will weigh different on the Moon than here on Earth because of the different gravitational forces) x (multiplied by) (c) The speed of light in a vacuum (299 792 kilometres per second) (2) squared.

How many times have I seen those letters, symbol and little number at the end, and wondered what it was about? Many. But I never had any idea whatsoever, as it never seemed to have an explanation with it, usually being used in some sort of comedy type situation; and up until now I’ve never bothered looking for one. Though I still don’t see how E=mc2 helps me measure the distance between events . . . events aren’t objects? But I’m happy to have some understanding of that seemingly simply little equation. I suppose the lawn mower is an object, as are the seeds and the insects; and by multiplying their mass by 299 792 and squaring it, that Energy may have something to do with time and space?

I tried reading a little more here and there (I’ve gotten most of this from a Brian Cox book), so I could understand it more, but it is just soooo way beyond me! Once it started using symbols to represent variables . . . and quoting even more, seemingly simple little equations, I knew I was lost. I’m hoping the DVDs will be easier to understand. The chapter is about motion, and here’s a little bit I found very interesting:-

We’re all walking around on the surface of a sphere of equatorial circumference of 40,000 km and mass 6000 million-million-million tonnes (wait a minute, I thought mass wasn’t weight? . . . Oh well:)), spinning around an extravagantly tilted axis once every 24 hours, and that the whole vast spinning thing is barrelling around the Sun at close to 30 000 kilometres per second in order to make it around the 940-million-kilometer orbit every year.

I love this stuff, it seems to make my problems so very insignificant, so much so that whilst I’m thinking about these things, they disappear for a time:). We are just one rock in this Universe, as yet, we’ve got very little hope of reaching another one. The nearest exoplanet (a planet that orbits a star outside the solar system) that may sustain life is Wolf 1061c, and it's around 15 light years away – a year has about 31 536 000 seconds . . . remember light travels at 299 792 kilometres per second. Life and everything in it goes too fast for me, but not fast enough for that!

Hi @Former-Member, I don't understand all this either and physics equations are beyond me. The Brian Cox videos are much easier to grasp than the book you are bravely tackling. I know that Einstein's theory essentially says that space and time are interlinked. I'm not so sure of what the ramifications are. But, like you, I get relief from my small worries at times by contemplating the vast complexity of the cosmos and how we are each just one miniscule part of something magnificently grand. I too think sometimes about the earth slowly rotating and revolving around the sun, even while we feel we are remaining still. The sun, in turn, wanders the cosmos on its own path. Change happens all around us even when we feel our lives are stuck in one place. Natural miracles!

Well, I’ve watched the first episode of my Brian cox series – and I’ve got to say he’s fallen off the pedastil I’d built for him. The episode was about Nuclear Fusion, not to be confused with Nuclear Fission?!? I wonder why not, they both muck with things, in my opinion, that should not be mucked with! Fission (a splitting or breaking up into parts) is the division of one atom into two, and fusion (a merging of separate elements into a unified whole) is the combination of two lighter atoms into a larger one. An atom is a basic unit, a fundamental piece of matter; matter is anything that can be touched physically, everything in the Universe is made of matter, and so, everything is made of atoms.

Perhaps it isn’t a case that we shouldn’t be mucking with them entirely, but not until we truly understand what it is we’re mucking with. The process of fusion, is in a way, attempting to make a Star on Earth – Stars are not meant to be made on Earth. Fusion requires temperatures far greater than the heat at the core of the Sun, that sort of heat isn’t meant to be on Earth. That sort of heat travels 100’s of millions of kilometres and is still capable of heating our entire Planet; that sort of heat creates such a brilliance of light that even from the distance of the Sun, it illuminates not only our Planet, or even just our galaxy, but a large section of our Universe. What are we doing?

I sometimes think that Genius is a form of neurobiological disorder. Yes the genius minds of our species can create and perform incredible things. But I think they have a very unhealthy focus. They are unable to take in all of the potential negatives in what they’re thinking. They say nuclear fusion would be physically impossible to create another Chernobyl or Fukushima, but I would think if someone was to look hard enough there would be an article stating the nuclear fission was perfectly safe – before accidents occurred. Why can’t we just accept what nature already provides?

Fusion will still create radioactive waste, it may only remain active for 50-100 years, just one generation or a lifetime, which is better than the quarter of a million years that our genius’s guess fission waste remains active for. But I don’t think there is any safe timespan or level of decaying atomic process on the only planet we have to sustain life as we know it, full stop! I can’t help thinking of the enormous amount of carbon substance being used to create the almost unbelievable amounts of power needed to just experiment with fusion – when we’re already burning too much already!

Perhaps instead of focusing so much on providing power for an ever expanding population with an endless desire for more gadgets, we could think a little more about that population and those gadgets. They have spent billions upon billions upon billions of dollars in fusion experiments, over a period of nearly 70 years, with no tangible result – I wonder how better off we could be if they’d spent that money on other projects. Our obsession with progressing is defeating us, I think the only thing that could give us more hope is regression. I think it’s time to admit we can not sustain what we have created.

Don’t worry Mazy, I’m still fascinated with this man and the facts that he is presenting.

I just wanted to have a blurb 🙂

I'm not for nuclear fission or fusion either, @Former-Member, and didn't know that Brian Cox was. I was in the Nuclear Disarmament Party when I was in my 20s. But I have only watched some of Brian Cox's shows. You have been much more dedicated in your pursuit of his media than I. I'm sure you know much more about him than I do at this point. It's some other shows that I've liked of his, more where he is simply explaining science as he understands it. To me he has a way of illuminating my understanding of physics and the cosmos. But, like all of us, I guess he has his own views, controversial no doubt, that he shares along the way too.

I'm no expert on environmental matters but I tend to think solar energy is the best way forward, as it is inexhaustible as long as there's life in the sun, which has to be longer than we are here. I know what you mean though about all of us looking at living more sustainable lives and I agree. But there is also a pragmatic side of me too and I recognise that the world will drive itself to extinction over its gadgets and consumerism rather than cut back too much. So, as I see it, there needs to be some attempts at making the crazy lives we live now more viable in terms of the survival of the planet as we know it.

There's another part of me that also thinks that humans will become extinct at some point, long before the sun runs out of energy for us. It's possible we are heading for that now. On the other hand, there have been people crying 'apocalypse' at all times in history. Perhaps it has never been so insistent as it is now though, with almost 100% of the scientists recognising the danger. But, even without us and even without all the animals and plants we know, the Earth will go on. Perhaps not as the 'sparkling blue and white jewel', but perhaps in some other form. What I mean by all this is that, I do think humanity itself will die, as each of us dies in the long term. But it makes sense to do all we can to avoid this, as it is generally our instinct to avoid death ourselves.

Hmmm, bit of a ramble there. Just getting out some of my musings on these subjects, as ineffectual as they are in the scheme of things.

Looking forward to your next blurb on the Brian Cox phenomenon.

This is just a general blurb, not a celestial or Mr Scientist one:) I went into the city today! I've run out of some pills I take, just one's for my joints and stuff - and it's only been since the middle of this Summer that I've been taking them every day like I should, so missing a couple won't hurt. I don't make phone calls, I can send texts, I can answer a call (though not much goes in), but something in me just doesn't want to press the button and make one. So, I thought I was going to have to go into the city to make the appointment, and then go back to the city to keep it. But I found the courage to ask if the Doctor could write me a script without an appointment, and aparantly he can as long as I've seen him within 6 months . . . which aparantly I have (in Feb, must have been when I got the pills last) So it was a very successful trip:) I intended to drop into the chemist I use on the way home and get them, but instead I did something even more 'out there' - I picked up a hitch-hiker . . . a male hitch-hiker!! I don't know what made me do it? I think I thought they were female, as they were thin with long hair ... but they weren't. I also know what it's like to be kicked out in the middle of know-where, with no choice but to start walking and find out what thirst is all about + it was starting to rain. I was able to take him quite a ways down the road, though he was heading to another state, so he still had a long way to go. He was very quiet and only said that he was trying to get back to his Family as he hadn't seen them for a couple of years. I felt good to help him out (even though it was a him).

Sounds like your act of kindness was greatly appreciated @Former-Member

@Former-Member

Nuclear Disarmament Party!!! Way to go Sister!!! I was once arrested for protesting against Coal Seam Gas, it drove me a bit batty in the end and part of what 'brought me back', wrong, right or otherwise, was the thought 'why worry so much about CSG when we are pumping out decaying radioactive material by the ton!'. It's a lot harder to 'see' the damage that that does, and yet it is so much more destructive and dangerous to life!

I watched another episode of Brian yesterday, this one was about Time and how incredibly individual it really is - fascinating. I've hooked him up a swing chair from the top of the pedestal, . . . he can sit there for now 🙂 It went a little into String Theory and in particular the theory of the Multiverse, which is something I must admit, I had some thoughts of my own already. The theory is our Universe is just one membrane and the 'Big Bang' occurred when our membrane touched another Universes membrane - re-energizing and refilling the elements of both.

I have a lot of trouble trying to get my head around 'infinity', something that never ends. I believe everything must have a beginning, in String theory is it believed that Time has always existed . . . can't get my head around that . . . everything has to begin somewhere. So the only answer I can come up with is that we will never know everything - if we ever did . . . everything would cease to exist. So in other words, the energy of existence . . . our thoughts or the essence of 'life', is what creates continuance.

When it comes to infinity the only way I can 'picture' it is if it is a loop. Not just an everyday circular loop of course, when your talking about something more complicated than anyone or anything can imagine. I think of a plain piece of white paper, I take a led pencil and scribble on that paper, and I scribble more, and more, and more, until there is no white left on the paper. Then I raise that paper to my eyes and look at it flat, at it's thinnest; I then imagine every piece of paper ever made, all of them covered in different, individual scribble. I then think each piece of paper joins in some way, through different times, distances of space, dimensions, realities and ways of which we have never and will never know, yet all are connected. This is the loop I think of when I think of infinity.

My idea of the Multiverse involves black holes. Massive celestial enteties that are vitally important to the orbit of Galaxies and yet draw those same Galaxies into them, due to immense forces such as gravity and pressure. I think those forces are the type that would make a 'Big Bang' possible. Perhaps they have something to do with the individual Universe membranes touching? Once a black hole has drawn in all the the Galaxy surrounding it, it doesn't stop drawing in. When a black hole, draws in another black hole, it becomes a massive black hole - I believe it also becomes massively forceful and it's ability to draw in becomes stronger.

I also believe when a massive black hole is created, it is creating Universes within Universes. I think as these holes come together their forces will eventually be stronger than the expansion of our Universe, and there will inevitably be a time when all of the elements of our Universe and all the the Universes, within our Universe will be combined into one super massive black hole. That entity will have such all powerful force, that I think it is able to draw the membrane of another Universe to it, and that is how Universal membranes touch, creating such energy that it re-energizes and refills the elements of both membranes and all the Universes within them.

I too think the forces of Nature (readily given, not Human creations of) are the way to go for our energy requirements. Solar, thermal, wind, hydro, steam, etc. in combination. None of which I think are truly environmentally friendly, I don't think there is any way of harnassing and storing energy in a 'freindly' manner. All of these methods require materials that require processes that are toxic. But they are definitely my better picks of a bad bunch. The best of our Scientists tell us we need zero emmisions by 2050, I think most of us realize that's not going to happen. The fact that China, a country with about half the Human population is now racing through it's industrial and technological age, I think those emmisions are going to double.

There is a part of me that hopes the Human race will become extinct, and yet another that doesn't believe we deserve that. We should have to face the consequences of abusing this Planet when it finally ends. We think we've known horror, I think there's much worse to come. But if by chance this Planet does manage to get rid of us, I think insects will be the next to reign. I'll go as far as saying I think it will be an exosketetal insect as the environment on Earth will be much harsher.

Well, my rambling musings are probably much more ineffective than yours; but I've thoughally enjoyed sharing them with you and hope you enjoy my blurb.

Good morning, @Former-Member. Interesting rave! Somewhere in there I probably reached the limit of my own speculations and entered into the place I designate 'mystery'. You mention that humans are perhaps not meant to know everything. I agree with this. We are miniscule in the scheme of things, including our tiny brains. For me this includes too the question of life after death. I see it as an inherent mystery, something none of us can know. But it's fascinating to speculate on all these vastly more mysterious parts of life. Probably one of the reasons I like Star Trek so much. Just enough delving into mysterious issues, with just enough accessible, pop nonsense, lol.

I've had disturbing dreams overnight, generated by a desperate drunken phone call from a friend last night, the second who has threatened suicide over the past week or so. Even after a couple of years of responding to similar distress calls on the forum, I find myself really ill-equipped to deal with this in real life. I have great concern for this friend, but I feel somewhat traumatised by the phone call. I live a very quiet life in order to keep my moods as stable as possible. She is in a bad way and probably needs to be in hospital. I pulled out everything I could think of to help her and reminded her that hospital is a possibility. Her mum is coming to stay with her today, which is just as well. I feel bad because, although I am concerned for her, I am probably more worried about the impact on my own mental health in the face of it. There's a confession! At the same time, it makes me reflect on what I have put my partners through at times of more acute mental and emotional torment.

To change the subject to something brighter, the birds were chirping away when I went out for a smoke this morning. No currawongs this morning but last night's chorus was food for the soul. Hope the day brings good things to you and anyone else reading this.

Good Morning @Mazarita 🙂