booper54

In cosmology, you can observe the Universe and interpret it, create theories, etc. Even though you weren't there when the Universe was formed, you can still take a guess at how it happened by looking at the Universe now. An example would be Cosmic Background Radiation; we can observe it and hypothesize how the Universe began using its data, even though we obviously weren't there. In religion, it's hard to observe something such as a god, which you can't observe...

But I can see what you're saying. It does require a bit of faith on the scientists, but keep in mind that all theories are scrutinized and criticized by many other people, and if they still hold up, then it must be a pretty strong theory.

I think we would not be told in case we all decided that the world was done for and went on a rampage. I had wondered at one point wether the amout of tv and media coverage may be an aclimatizing exercise for the eventual release of info.

I once read an article in Popular Science about the preplanned routine for when they do find ETI. If I remember correctly, they do eventually tell the public but keep it secret for a little while at first, perhaps just to make sure it's all true and not create a false alarm. Of course, it's not easy to keep a secret from the world.

I've always thought gravitational waves were just theoretical... And if we knew they exist then what was the point of that "Gravity Probe B" that was supposed to test their existence?

(delta)Q=m*c*(delta)t + mL

Q=heat, m=mass, c=specific heat, t=time, L=latent heat

Set the two heat differences equal to each other, so it should look like this:

m(water)*c(water)*(delta)t(water)=m(ice)*c(ice)*(delta)t(ice) + m(ice)L(ice)

The (delta)t would then be: t(final)-t(initial), or vice versa depending on which is bigger. t(final) is the same on both sides of the equation. After knowing that, all you have to do is factor and do the algebra.

So identical twins' DNA are not the same?

Vandenburg Air Force Base is only about 30 minutes away from my house! Unfortunately I didn't get to see the rocket in the sky while it was visible, but people who did said it was very beautiful.

Cap'n Refsmmat said in post #17 :

2.4 ghz? That's my phone frequency! I doubt my phone can microwave things.

I believe that's also why there is static on your phone if you're talking on it at the same time that your microwave is running.

As for your question about heat being different from kinetic energy, the temperature of something is the average kinetic energy of the molecules... so that must be why heat and kinetic energy are essentially the same thing.

I don't understand why you call it a plasma? Perhaps because I don't know exactly what it is, but I thought it was just the 4th state of matter, and is the hottest of the 4.

I think gene is talking about those gravitational waves that do not yet have any proof of existing. I don't know a lot about them but here is a site on them:

http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/GravWaves.html

According to the Big Bang Theory, at the time of the big bang, say 10^-99999 seconds after, everything was condensed into a tiny space because the universe had not yet expanded much. But what is keeping all this matter, all the matter in the entire universe, in fact, into its tiny ball? Well, the speed of light according to the Special Theory of Relativity.

Nothing can travel at or faster than the speed of light, so all the matter must have been traveling at very close to the speed of light while the universe is expanding at the speed of light. So wouldn't there have been a large gap between all this matter and the edge of the universe, at least compared to the space between the matter? Which means at this point in time there must be a HUGE gap between any matter and the edge of the universe. And would this gap be proportional to the gap during the Big Bang?

I'm just thinking out loud, but this is wierd to think about..

KHinfcube22 is your avatar off of that website, digitalblasphemy.com?

oooh, ok i see it, thanks.

Well, I can't find either of those threads anywhere

Well this one was brand new. It was created today.

How did that thread that fafalone created get deleted? The one with Einstein's paper about the General Theory of Relativity. I can't figure this out...

I think it's possible. I read somewhere on a website that, assuming we keep accelerating our technology at the rate we are, there is supposed to be some sort of "singularity" around the year 2015 or something, meaning technology will be going to infinity. Kinda like an asymptote on a graph. Of course, that's just from statistics.

iglak said in post #7 :

oh, and just like the book said, you would not be able to see another dimention, you would only be able to see in your 3 dimentions. is the thing you read flatland ?

No, I read that from a book called Cosmos .

I guess I am still sort of a beginner to this as well, which is why I use that example. : )

I had 30 fps with Day of Defeat. And that shouldn't be right for this video card because I've asked other people with this card and they say it runs fine for them. What is 3dmark?

..And thanks for the link : )

EDIT: After talking to someone who knows a lot about this kind of stuff, I'm pretty sure it's the CPU. Thanks though! : )

Okay, I've searched everywhere and I've tried everything, and nothing seems to work.

Yesterday I got a Radeon 9600 Pro 256MB. I installed it, installed the drivers, programs, etc., but when I went to play games, it is extremely laggy, like maybe 30 fps at times. I tried different settings, went to advanced display options, but it made no difference. I've updated the drivers also. Does anyone know what it could be?

From what I've read, space and time are supposedly linked together to create a continuum called "space-time." So when you have masses on it, it bends it... A good example would be if you have a plate of jello. When you put a ball on it, the jello dips in. In this analogy the jello would be space-time and the ball would be any mass, planets, stars, people, etc.

I still do not understand how, if everything is 3 dimensional, space-time is explained as a 2 dimensional plane. This leads me to believe that there is possibly more dimensions than we can percieve. Maybe there are 5 dimensions...

I read something that explained this very well. Say there is a universe with 2 dimensional shapes walking around (or, sliding around). From the top all they look like are shapes; squares, triangles, circles, etc. All they see when they look at each other is just a flat shape. But one day the 2 dimensional square walks in his 2 dimensional house, then later comes out and there is a 3 dimensional apple standing in front of him. The apple sees the square as a square on the ground, but the square sees the apple as just another one of his buddy circles, because all the square can percieve is 2 dimensional objects.

So, what if there is a 4th directional dimension, but we can only percieve 3. We would have no idea it was there. It's interesting to think about it that all directions are perpendicular to each other. 1st dim. you have only a line, 2nd dim. you have a line perpendicular to the 1st dim., 3rd dim. you have a line perpendicular to both the 1st and 2nd dimensions. What would a fourth look like?

What is A Space Odyssey about?

That's true iglak...maybe it is our intelligence that causes the greed and arrogance. In that case, intelligent extraterrestrials are possibly the same way, and perhaps they will destroy themselves.

If that's true...then it's kind of ironic. Intelligent beings are more likely to blow themselves up because of being selfish and greedy than beings of lesser intelligence.

Here is where I got the reviews about it. The first guy says it was the best show on television...but I guess that's just his opinion, so maybe it wasn't really popular.

And yes, I guess I found my answer

Oh, and the series was pretty much about everything from the formation of planets, stars, and galaxies to discovering civilizations on other planets. Actually, that's what the book was about. I've never seen the series but I would assume it's about the same kind of stuff. I think it's something like 13 episodes long...From what I've read about it it was very popular.

I guess the only way we can make guesses is by using human ideas, because we are the only things we've ever studied. Anything other than that would be random and out of the blue...don't you think?