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What Is Space?

nautil.us

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Re: What Is Space?

#31

Post by booleandilemma »

Noxchi wrote: post #8

How fast are you really going? One of the things I've thought about is relatively. Consider a toddler strapped to his car seat in a luxurious BMW cocoon while his father speeds down the autobahn at 200km/h. He calmy drinks from his sippy cup. You're in a passenger jet above him going 700km/hr. You're going 500km/hr faster than him. But how fast are you really going? Consider that the Earth is spinning around the sun…

Relevant quote:

"Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you". - Jeremy Clarkson

Re: What Is Space?

#32

Post by tombh »

Razengan wrote: post #16

Some related questions that I don't know where, or how, to ask: - Is there a “quantum” of space? Where/how is location stored? - If electromagnetic repulsion is what makes matter “take space”, and if virtually all macroscopic phenomena are governed by electromagnetism and gravity, then could this reality be said to be “gravelectromagnetic”, and might there be other “dimensions” governed by other forces, like “cones”…

Nothing to add, I just love where your questions send my mind, thank you.

Re: What Is Space?

#34

Post by kobeya »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #29

This continues to be one of my favorite questions. In high school we were creating a vacuum in a bell jar to do the 'drop a feather and drop a weight' experiment and my physics teacher asked it. "So if we didn't have our apparatus in there, and we sucked it dry, what would be in there?" It makes a great interview question because it helps identify people who have a hard time holding an unknown concept in their head a…

I went into entrepreneurship because I hate these kinds of interviews. You think a good way to tell whether I'd be good at writing code is my opinion on philosophy outside my domain of expertise?

Re: What Is Space?

#35

Post by recursio »

copperx wrote: post #27
basicplus2 wrote: post #10

Maybe space is the ether afterall

It could be infinity. We don’t really don’t know. But it could be. It has to be something, but it could be infinity, right? - DJT

At the macro level, Space could expand outward infinitely, or maybe if you travel further enough and you return to where you started. Or maybe there's the multiverse thats teaming with infinite universes?

Most physicists will tell you that at the quantum level, the most fundamental level is at the Planck scale, and the "nothingness" of space is still teaming with particles popping in and out of existence. Some particles being hypothetical and have yet to be discovered.

Re: What Is Space?

#36

Post by kobeya »

Noxchi wrote: post #8

How fast are you really going? One of the things I've thought about is relatively. Consider a toddler strapped to his car seat in a luxurious BMW cocoon while his father speeds down the autobahn at 200km/h. He calmy drinks from his sippy cup. You're in a passenger jet above him going 700km/hr. You're going 500km/hr faster than him. But how fast are you really going? Consider that the Earth is spinning around the sun…

> 1. When does this stop? What is the most supreme center in the universe?

There isn't one.

> 2. Just as the child could roll down his window, and have instant access to the outside, is there a way we can do the same?

No. See Michelson–Morley in 1887.

Re: What Is Space?

#37

Post by hackits »

kobeya wrote: post #34
ChuckMcM wrote: post #29

This continues to be one of my favorite questions. In high school we were creating a vacuum in a bell jar to do the 'drop a feather and drop a weight' experiment and my physics teacher asked it. "So if we didn't have our apparatus in there, and we sucked it dry, what would be in there?" It makes a great interview question because it helps identify people who have a hard time holding an unknown concept in their head a…

I went into entrepreneurship because I hate these kinds of interviews. You think a good way to tell whether I'd be good at writing code is my opinion on philosophy outside my domain of expertise?

I dislike the one where they ask you how would you handle a situation that is highly dependent on the organisation and the organisation goals and procedures. The only answer really I give is not to answer such silly questions.

Re: What Is Space?

#38

Post by anonymoose111 »

kobeya wrote: post #34
ChuckMcM wrote: post #29

This continues to be one of my favorite questions. In high school we were creating a vacuum in a bell jar to do the 'drop a feather and drop a weight' experiment and my physics teacher asked it. "So if we didn't have our apparatus in there, and we sucked it dry, what would be in there?" It makes a great interview question because it helps identify people who have a hard time holding an unknown concept in their head a…

I went into entrepreneurship because I hate these kinds of interviews. You think a good way to tell whether I'd be good at writing code is my opinion on philosophy outside my domain of expertise?

google interviews try to gauge how smart you are, not how well you can program

Re: What Is Space?

#39

Post by tombh »

platz wrote: post #9
Noxchi wrote: post #8

How fast are you really going? One of the things I've thought about is relatively. Consider a toddler strapped to his car seat in a luxurious BMW cocoon while his father speeds down the autobahn at 200km/h. He calmy drinks from his sippy cup. You're in a passenger jet above him going 700km/hr. You're going 500km/hr faster than him. But how fast are you really going? Consider that the Earth is spinning around the sun…

there are no absolute reference frames. only relative ones! however, at least there is a fixed relationship between reference frames they all must obey with regards to the speed of light.

Just thinking out loud here. If the speed of light is absolute (it's not relative right? it doesn't change in any reference frame?), then could the speed of light be considered the base axis, or to continue the metaphor in the parent comment, that the speed of light is the 'outside the car'? Also, doesn't time 'stop' when you are at C, so that the whole idea of space (speed * time) sort of collapses?

Re: What Is Space?

#40

Post by resu_nimda »

Razengan wrote: post #16

Some related questions that I don't know where, or how, to ask: - Is there a “quantum” of space? Where/how is location stored? - If electromagnetic repulsion is what makes matter “take space”, and if virtually all macroscopic phenomena are governed by electromagnetism and gravity, then could this reality be said to be “gravelectromagnetic”, and might there be other “dimensions” governed by other forces, like “cones”…

- The Planck units [0] are generally associated with the attempt to quantize space and time.

- Macroscopic phenomena are in turn governed by microscopic phenomena, where the strong and weak forces dominate, so I would say our dimension is equally governed by those. At high energies we know the electromagnetic and weak forces combine into the "electroweak" force, and it is commonly hypothesized that at even higher energies (such as those seen only during the very beginning of the Big Bang), all of the forces are unified. If you already knew that or were talking about something else, my apologies.

- There is the concept of the Big Crunch, where gravity would pull the universe back to a single point, perhaps in an infinite cycle. To the best of our current knowledge though, the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating, and gravity will not overtake it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units

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