381–390 of 501 posts
> (as well as an obvious instant Nobel prize). South Korea has been waiting for a (real, STEM) Nobel prize for decades. These guys will be worshipped as gods if they deliver
Alfred Nobel would probably find this characterization very ironic.
I’m reminded of the paper, just over 10 years ago, that reporting measuring neutrinos travelling faster than the speed of light. When published, the authors made it clear: this is probably wrong, but we can’t see where we made a mistake … so what if we’re right and just upended relativity theory? That was turned out to be a measuring error [1]. This one may be the same, though the lead authors publishing two versions…
I don't see the similarities. This upends zero theories. I see similarities in the long line of "STP superconductors for real this time!" claims, but not findings that contradict current physical models.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can write out the equations of motion for a bicycle that will very accurately predict the dynamics. You can put these equations into a numerical simulation and predict motion very accurately. You can change the parameters of the model and do simulations with high confidence. Just because there isn't some neat little equation that says exactly what each parameter change is going to do (without doing the simulation…
You are contradicting yourself: > You can write out the equations of motion for a bicycle > there isn't some neat little equation that says exactly what each parameter change is going to do I mean, if you have the equations you can see what each parameter is doing !
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder what learning the specific system by which bikes are balanced would teach us about the world or human beings? It's such a banal thing to be so fascinating.
It's the reason I got a degree in physics, if you have good professors - discussions like this cause you to break down the problem quite quickly in your head in a working model. Think force diagrams, but with a ton more math backing it up. I actually find the ice skate a better example than a bike. We have all the physics solved for bikes, it's a complicated system but so is everything in motion. Hence we assume a sp…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Prediction markets say this will probably not replicate (and imo even overestimate the probability of replication)
link? interested in this wager
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Conservation of momentum?
There's no a priori reason conservation of momentum would apply; for that matter in 0-angle-of-attack aviation it doesn't. Maybe to put it differently, the "Newtonian" model of flight comes out of assuming CoM applies, which we know isn't universally true. EDITING: of course it always "applies" in the sense that there is a definable system in which total momentum will be unchanged, the point being that there is no gu…
The moment they push the sample and it "turns and snaps" into the magnet in this video: https://sciencecast.org/casts/suc384jly50n makes it look like a diamagnetically levitating piece of graphite moving over multiple magnets in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-tW8_SRW3g Why am I wrong? I want to believe!
Thoroughly upvoted and discussed "The first room-temperature ambient-pressure superconductor?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36864624 has barely fallen to second page yet, but as the topic is of exceptional interest, and under development, and Lowe's commentary is usually welcome and well received on HN, maybe some duplication can be justified in this case?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the actual proposed superconductivity mechanism is the relevant part of this paper. It is much easier to prove that this is superconducting than to prove why. And in a sense it is a bit less relevant. Although developing a working theory for room temperature is also probably worth a Nobel prize, so I am willing to bet some theorists are also running to their blackboards as we speak.
Do we know whether the mechanism was proposed before or after observing the results? If they found the material because of the theory, then I think it's very relevant.