Alan McDougall

What on earth makes you think this philosophical , it is obviously a question about physics? What if the two objects stopped and checked each clock against the other.Then there would be a difference between them , a twin paradox of some sort, surly acceleration would also make a difference, one object could be moving at steady speed and the other at a huge acceleration, what would happen then to the clocks on the objects relative to one another?

In my opinion there can only be two answers to this most profound of all questions 1) There was never a beginning and the Big Bang did not create everything, only our universe? OR Existence is both infinite and eternal without cause or reason. 2) God created everything?

There is no universal time or absolute time, how then can there be an absolute universal now, it makes no sense?

The very latest theory is that there are unimaginably tiny vibration strings that underpin all of reality. If you could think of a grain of sand as an analogy for the fundamental particle for building a house, the super-string is supposed to be the ultimate smallest fundamental thing in all reality. These strings are each supposed to vibrate differently and into different dimension other than the three we know of. Which might result in a multi- verse containing an infinite very strange other universes. They are not really some sort of a particle, but a weird very very very tiny closed string of some sort of basic energy that constantly creates and alters reality. I am not saying I understand super string theory, even the best minds have difficult and although I would like to be one of them sadly I am not. Keep contributing, you will get better the more you try and so will your typing !

Moving faster causes time to slow down and moving slower to speed up why? Experiments/physics have shown that two objects approaching each at great speed will notice the clock of other object passing them going relatively slower than their own, why is this? Alan

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I have just been thinking about Schroedinger's cat theory, in the unobserved state the cat is neither dead or alive, thus there is no cause or effect until the box is opened . Surly this violates causality , because cause and effect are merged in the box, until the box is opened and the cat observed?

Only very very massive stars go supernova, our sun is a smallest yellow main sequence star that will never go nova but end up as yellow or red Dwalf star in some five billion years Our sun has insufficient mass to ever go nova or supernova In my opinion the universe is a closed system and stuff is not going away as S. Hawking proposes. In an open universe it would be different because information could leak into our universe from another or out of our universe into other universes. At present this is theory but who knows maybe there is in reality an infinity of other universe out in the great somewhere.

Maybe we should ask could we so called normal people be moved to do the evil Hitler did? Was he just a person with skewed beliefs that did bad evil things In my opinion there were many worse despots in history than Hitler, they directly participated in the appalling depraved acts of their time. Vlad the Impaler is just one of them. What if we compare him to the worst of serial killers?

PostedYesterday, 04:02 AM Alan McDougall, on 16 August 2012 - 08:14 PM, said: "Below is a test that I tried in vain to beat" Correct I tried in vain until I remembered my grandson giving me this trick a year ago, I simply forgot! Alan McDougall, on 17 August 2012 - 02:38 AM, said: "I knew before hand how he did it" "Correct as I said my grandson showed me this trick a year or so ago! I did not express myself correctly, I knew before hand is a correct statement because my grandson fooled me with it and then explained it to me!- This guy is a bit dishonest in my opinion He said it was a test of ESP ability when he knew very well it was a card trick, is that being honest?

They tell us if we ever get to understand string theory and its proves factual, this will simplify astrophysics to a very great degree and maybe lead to the illusive "Theory of Everything" Ed Witten is the main proponent of this theory , the very best scientific minds have difficulty understanding it. I am not one of them just an interested bystander

Thanks you are right! Absolutely not all stars result in planets, the primordial massive blue giants , contained only hydrogen, a little helium and maybe a tiny amount of lithium. Planets need all the elements and chemicals to form and these were absent in the early universe. These blue giants due to their huge mass , went supernova, which gave the necessary conditions to create all the elements, oxygen, calcium, iron etc etc, we now see making up second generation stars like our sun and the planets revolving around it. I know this is basic stuff to most people interested in astronomy, but I put it here because of the "wrong silly post" about stars going boom and make ng planets If it was a joke my appologies!

What type of stars do this?

Nevertheless Hawking said at a recent conference that information is leaking from our universe into others via, his rabbit hole (Black Hole) He proposes this to keep his theories going

http://ndestories.org/vicki-noratuk/ Go to the link above look at it and comment please if interested? By the way I had a near death experience last August due to total AV heart block, clinically dead for over five minutes? Alan

I know you addressed this to Athena, we use antibiotics (Anti-life) so I can not claim to be absolutely pro-life. I am however against animal dissection especially in this modern age where we can simulate dissection via computers etc. I despise late stage abortion where a viable baby is torn to pieces to get it out of the mother. This is murder of the innocence!

Go to thie link below! http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/esp.html I knew before hand how he did it, he simply replaces all the cards in the second set. My grandson did puzzle me with this so-called ESP test a while ago. I put it here to see how scientific minds would solve the problem and you came up to the plate very promptly. What really made me giggle and cause me to post it here was all the long drawn out and involved nonsensical even mystical explanations given by some people on his blog, for what is but a simple card trick. This guy is a bit dishonest in my opinion Sorry for the distraction just a little fun on my part

Hi, Below is a test that I tried in vain to beat, please try it out and if you can work out how it is done I would very much appreciate if you could let us know how http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/esp3.html#beta1

The surface of a sphere, is perfectly homogeneous and isotropic so it makes sense when deriving the geometry of the universe to start with that then generalize in a way that matches relativity. Thus is the universe flat or what. In an infinite universe things might appear homgeneous , but maybe not?

Hawking postulated that information was being lost from the universe via Black Hole evaporation of some sort. This brought a Lot of the scientific community against him , because a fundamental of the universe is that energy cannot be lost it just goes elsewhere. Sorry a criminal simplification by me! He changed this theory later to keep it within the laws of psychics and added to his theory that the information in reality was not being lost, just transferred out of our universe into another universe via again Black Holes. A bit silly in my opinion from a great physicist

No where! in a closed universe energy just dissipates to almost infinite emptiness in an unimaginably distance future cold death. Stephen Hawking has postulated that information could leak out of our universe via black holes into other universe. He proposed this theory because of the huge opposition he got when he said the universe was losing information by Enegry vanishing into black holes, he just altered this stand by saying energy did not vanish but went elsewhere a bit silly in my opinion. Energy can not be created or destroyed only altered in form. Isaac Newton

Can Causality be violated by say instantaneous data transfer? Spooky action as Einstein called it or quantum non-locality and entanglement have shown fundamental particles can interact instantaneously regardless of the distance between them Alter the spin of one instantly alters the spin of its twin in the other direction. Causality is fundamental to how the universe works, entropy for instant is intertwined with causality etc What are your thoughts on the matter?

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/23jan_entangled/ Spooky Atomic Clocks NASA-supported researchers hope to improve high-precision clocks by entangling their atoms. Listen to this story via streaming audio, a downloadable file, or get help. January 23, 2004: Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance." Now NASA-funded researchers are using an astonishing property of quantum mechanics called "entanglement" to improve atomic clocks--humanity's most precise way to measure time. Entangled clocks could be as much as 1000 times more stable than their non-entangled counterparts. This improvement would benefit pilots, farmers, hikers--in short, anyone who uses the Global Positioning System (GPS). Each of the 24+ GPS satellites carries four atomic clocks on board. By triangulating time signals broadcast from orbit, GPS receivers on the ground can pinpoint their own location on Earth Right: Quantum entanglement does some mind-bending things. In this laser experiment entangled photons are teleported from one place to another. NASA uses atomic clocks for spacecraft navigation. Geologists use them to monitor continental drift and the slowly changing spin of our planet. Physicists use them to check theories of gravity. An entangled atomic clock might keep time precisely enough to test the value of the Fine Structure Constant, one of the fundamental constants of physics. "The ability to measure time with very high precision is an invaluable tool for scientific research and for technology," says Alex Kuzmich, a physicist at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Through its office of Biological and Physical Research, NASA recently awarded a grant to Kuzmich and his colleagues to support their research. Kuzmich has studied quantum entanglement for the last 10 years and has recently turned to exploring how it can be applied to atomic clocks. Particles entwined Einstein never liked entanglement. It seemed to run counter to a central tenet of his theory of relativity: nothing, not even information, can travel faster than the speed of light. In quantum mechanics, all the forces of nature are mediated by the exchange of particles such as photons, and these particles must obey this cosmic speed limit. So an action "here" can cause no effect "over there" any sooner than it would take light to travel there in a vacuum. But two entangled particles can appear to influence one another instantaneously, whether they're in the same room or at opposite ends of the Universe. Pretty spooky indeed. Quantum entanglement occurs when two or more particles interact in a way that causes their fates to become linked: It becomes impossible to consider (or mathematically describe) each particle's condition independently of the others'. Collectively they constitute a single quantum state. Left: Making a measurement on one entangled particle affects the properties of the other instantaneously. Image by Patrick L. Barry. Two entangled particles often must have opposite values for a property -- for example, if one is spinning in "up" direction, the other must be spinning in the "down" direction. Suppose you measure one of the entangled particles and, by doing so, you nudge it "up." This causes the entangled partner to spin "down." Making the measurement "here" affected the other particle "over there" instantaneously, even if the other particle was a million miles away. While physicists and philosophers grapple with the implications for the nature of causation and the structure of the Universe, some physicists are busy putting entanglement to work in applications such as "teleporting" atoms and producing uncrackable encryption. Atomic clocks also stand to benefit. "Entangling the atoms in an atomic clock reduces the inherent uncertainties in the system," Kuzmich explains. At the heart of every atomic clock lies a cloud of atoms, usually cesium or rubidium. The natural resonances of these atoms serve the same purpose as the pendulum in a grandfather clock. Tick-tock-tick-tock. A laser beam piercing the cloud can count the oscillations and use them to keep time. This is how an atomic clock works. Right: Lasers are a key ingredient of atomic clocks--both the ordinary and entangled variety. Click on the image to learn more. "The best atomic clocks on Earth today are stable to about one part in 1015," notes Kuzmich. That means an observer would have to watch the clock for 1015 seconds or 30 million years to see it gain or lose a single second. The precision of an atomic clock depends on a few things, including the number of atoms being used. The more atoms, the better. In a normal atomic clock, the precision is proportional to the square-root of the number of atoms. So having, say, 4 times as many atoms would only double the precision. In an entangled atomic clock, however, the improvement is directly proportional to the number of atoms. Four times more atoms makes a 4-times better clock. Using plenty of atoms, it might be possible to build a "maximally entangled clock stable to about one part in 1018," says Kuzmich. You would have to watch that clock for 1018 seconds or 30 billion years to catch it losing a single second. Kuzmich plans to use the lasers already built-in to atomic clocks to create the entanglement. "We will measure the phase of the laser light passing through the cloud of atoms," he explains. Measuring the phase "tweaks the laser beam," and if the frequency of the laser has been chosen properly, tweaking the beam causes the atoms to become entangled. Or, as one quantum physicist might say to another, "such a procedure amounts to a quantum non-demolition (QND) measurement on the atoms, and results in preparation of a Squeezed Spin State." Above: Georgia Institute of Technology professor of physics Alex Kuzmich. How soon an entangled clock could be built--much less launched into space aboard a hypothetical new generation of GPS satellites--is difficult to predict, cautions Kuzmich. The research is still at the stage of just demonstrating the principle. Building a working prototype is probably several years away. But thanks to research such as this, having still-better atomic clocks available to benefit science and technology is only a matter of time. Web Links Tick-Tock Atomic Clock -- (Science@NASA) Scientists are building atomic clocks that keep time with mind-boggling precision. Such devices will help farmers, physicists, and interstellar travelers alike. Prof. Alex Kuzmich -- Georgia Tech professor of physics. His atomic clock research team includes Ryan Smith and Dmitry Matsukevich. NASA's Office of Biological and Physical Research supports studies of fundamental physics for the benefit of people on Earth and in space. What is an atomic second?In an atomic clock, the steady "tick" of an electronic oscillator is kept steady by comparing it to the natural frequency of an atom -- usually cesium-133. When a cesium atom drops from one particular energy level to another, a microwave photon emerges. The wave-like photon oscillates like a pendulum in an old-style clock. When it has oscillated precisely 9,192,631,770 times -- by decree of the Thirteenth General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1967 -- we know that one "atomic second" has elapsed.

He could also have got the idea from the British? http://www.awesomestories.com/assets/boer-war-concentration-camps During the second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), when the Boers refused to surrender to the Anglos, the British rounded-up thousands of Afrikaners (Boers) - mostly (but not all) women and children - and placed them in "concentration camps." They did the same with Africans who were displaced because of the fighting. The UK National Archives provides the following description of the camps: 'Concentration' camps were established by the British in South Africa for Boer families who had been expelled from areas being swept clear of Boer commandos (or guerillas) by British troops, as well as for Africans who had been displaced by the war. In both black and white camps many died from disease, due in part to insanitary conditions and overcrowding. The Liberal politician Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman openly condemned what he called 'methods of barbarism'. Thousands died from unspeakably bad conditions and disease. As stated in the UK Archives: It has been estimated that between 20,000 and 28,000 white civilians died of disease in these camps. There were also 14,154 recorded deaths of black people from disease in the camps (over one in ten of the black camp population) and such deaths were under recorded. While the policy may have succeeded in military terms [forcing the Boers, it is believed, to surrender - thereby ending the war], it was a political disaster, earning the British a level of unpopularity on an international scale comparable to that of the USA during the Vietnam war. One contemporary critic even used the term 'holocaust'. Public criticism was, however, centred on the white camps; those for Africans, where provision was usually even poorer, were hardly mentioned in the debate. Emily Hobson, a young British woman, reported what she observed at the various concentration camps. In this clip, from a two-part documentary on the Boer War by Welsh actor and documentarian Kenneth Griffith (a Boar-War specialist), we learn more about the appalling situation. The following are excerpts from Emily Hobson's narrative, "Report of a Visit to the Camps of Women and Children in the Cape and Orange River Colonies," which was delivered to the British government during June of 1901: In some camps, two, and even three sets of people, occupy one tent and 10, and even 12, persons are frequently herded together in tents of which the cubic capacity is about 500 c.f. [cubic feet]. I call this camp system a wholesale cruelty … To keep these Camps going is murder to the children.. It can never be wiped out of the memories of the people. It presses hardest on the children. They droop in the terrible heat, and with the insufficient unsuitable food; whatever you do, whatever the authorities do, and they are, I believe, doing their best with very limited means, it is all only a miserable patch on a great ill. Thousands, physically unfit, are placed in conditions of life which they have not strength to endure. In front of them is blank ruin … If only the British people would try to exercise a little imagination – picture the whole miserable scene. Entire villages rooted up and dumped in a strange bare place. <h3 class="credits"></h3>

I know that the universe is open, if it is affected by something outside of it. If there is no outside of it then obviously it is a closed system. I think most people define "universe" in terms that require it to be a "closed system". I know the answer is probably "closed". The reason I asked is because I want to know whether the law of conservation of energy and similar laws apply in both systems. An open system might have energy added to it or subtracted from it by an external source/sink of energy. If the universe isn't connected to anything else, must I definite the word "universe" TO include everything that could possibly affect anything, Thus, there's no reason laws of thermodynamics wouldn't apply in both closed or open systems?. In an open system could entropy flow forever and anything that could happen might happen , if this is pseudo science please disregard this comment. Of course there is also isolated systems but lets leave that out.