Vortigon

thank you very much for your answers been a great help.

Thank you for the great responses. I think I have it now. But I would also like to ask another quick one. A paraglider has a series of open fronted cells begining at the front of the canopy, these hollow cells are sealed at the rear and their shape helps to form the flight profile of the wing when they are filled with air. Is the air within the cells continually recycled with the air approaching the front of the paraglider? and if so how do they stay a stable shape during flight at varying air speeds and direction? Or, does the air that initially fill these cells remain? if so how does the 'outside' air interact with the boundary of the cell and the air within? How does air behave within these cells? Is it 'pressurised' somehow in comparison to the 'outer' air or is something else happening? Thanks for any help you can provide, there is a real lack of scientific accuracy in normal paragliding resource websites and I am struggling to find some correct science associated with paragliding flight.

I have a question about the forces and aerodynamics at play during a paraglider's flight. As I understand it normally flight can be thought of simply in terms of Thrust, Lift, Gravity and Drag. Imagining a paraglider in flight above a ridge, with no forward movement, remaining at a constant location relative to a spot on the ground. How does thrust apply in this situation? Is thrust even present? and if not what balances the forces of drag? How do the stated forces balance with respect to my stated normal understanding of aerodynamics? Thanks.

True I suppose. But maybe we discover a way to interact directly with another universe or perhaps our universe begins to interact with another universe and all the rules get rewritten overnight. Perhaps in a few million years we will reach a level of knowing 99% of all there is to know. And the Universe itself can be changed to whatever we choose. Maybe we will decide to create our own little universe and see how it develops. I sure we will think of something to keep ourselves amused and interested once we 'almost' know it all. Of course we won't be around that long to get to that stage anyway so it's all just theory

But thief the same was said of the distribution of stars in the sky before we understood cosmic forces. It's easy to see things as some kind of miracle of nature, thats an easy path to take. But by doing so you immediately close your mind to the possiblity of finding the solution to a problem. My personal opinion is that with enough information these seemingly random events can be fully understood. What remains to be seen if we will ever pocess 'enough information' and understanding to do this. Come back to this discussion in a few hundred years, and I am sure much of what we consider random will be fully understood and predictable. Although not everything I'm sure.

Apologies I neglected to mention that was based on the 'big rip' theory. Not proven of course and may be unlikely. Based on the idea of increased acceleration of the Universe's expansion rate, eventually reaching a point where atoms themselves are pulled apart. Big thing to leave out I know lol

The path of a dandelion falling could be predicted 100% of the time with the right information at hand. Therefore it is not a random event. If with enough information an event 'could' theoretically be predicted then I wouldn't consider it random just hard to know. If you know all forces at work on the dandelion at all times then you would know exactly where it would land.

Ha some great ideas there, many are breaking the rules though I think the closest one sticking to the rules would be CaptainPanic I'll head off now to make it, I plan on placing my savings account details in the box with 1 penny deposit. Should net my relatives alot of money in a million years

Imagine you wanted to send a message to your future relatives, a few paragraphs of information. Thing is, these relatives won't exist for 1 million years! How would you construct a container and place information in it that would exist intact for 1 million years? Rules are; -Has to stay on Earth -Must be self contained (no helpers looking after it) -Money is no Option -Must use available technology -Message can be of any type of material or construction/form etc 1. What materials/technology would you construct the box out of? 2. What materials/technology would you construct the message out of? :-)

I personally don't think randomness really exists. When something is called random, I think were really saying that we don't have all the information concerning a certain event or process to understand what happened or what will happen. If we were able to know everything completely and know all of the interactions concerned with a process throughout the entire Universe all the time then I think that we could theorectically predict any outcome to any process or event. Of course it will be impossible to ever aquire all the information about every event in the universe in real time as it occurs that may be effecting a certain process or event but theoretically if we did know 'everything' then randomness would not exist in my opinion. Even the apparent randomness of quantum mechanics I feel is just our lack of understanding, we may of course never have enough knowledge or ability to aquire enough information to predict any particular single quantum event. But if we did have 'ALL' the information about a quantum event then it's randomness could be predicted. Scientifically we just haven't reached that level yet and may never reach it.

thanks for your reply swansont. I would also like to ask how time might be affected by the 'end' stages of Universe expansion, at the point where even particles at the sub-atomic level are pulled apart. Would this cause changes in time? since space and time are so mutually dependent?

I don't agree. As far as I know space-time as we know it, didn't always exist. There was a moment when time came into being. Before that moment there was no time and after that moment time began. afaik. .................................. Q: Another question I would like to add to the debate, if we are in an ever expanding and eventually cooling universe, once all energy from the universe has been used, so that there exists no energy of any kind in the universe, will time cease to exist? Basically does time rely on some form of energy for it's existence?

Be careful trying to recharge normal batteries, some depending on their chemical type, may release a gas during the process which may build up inside the sealed unit and the battery can explode, ruining your day entirely

Thank you very much!!

Thanks for your answer I'll try to re-phrase the second question; Q: What I mean is, if we made a 3 dimensional representation of the internal gravitational forces contained within a spherical body in space, such as the Earth, showing the severity of the curvature of space-time due to it's gravity, where and how would the strongest effects be seen? What shape would the strongest areas of effect form in 3 dimensions? Would a hollow sphere within the Earth be representative of the area that has the greatest curvature of space-time? I don't think I explained my question any better actually lol I guess I am trying to relate back to the simpler model of gravity that of placing a round object on a blanket which shows how space curves proportional to the mass of the object, and how I could visualise the internal gravitational forces within the earth in a similar type of 3 dimensional way and any shape it may form. Since there is no gravity at the very center etc