Ask a physicist anything. (5)

[Maxwell511]

So Wiccan_Child, what do you think of Penrose's cyclic universe idea?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

I wonder if this is against the rules...

The Cyclic Universe idea is something of a pet theory of mine (well, not mine, obviously). The basic idea is that universes evolve to generate more black holes, since a) black holes create new universes, and b) the daughter universe inherits the physical laws of the parent universe.

This solves all sorts of problems: why are the constants the way they are? Because universes are evolving, generating any number of physical constants. In other universes, they're different.

Why are the constants conducive to life? Because we have to exist in those universes that have constants conducive to life - if they weren't, we wouldn't be here!


So, to me, it's a very exciting discovery.

 

[Nabobalis]

I wonder if this is against the rules...

The Cyclic Universe idea is something of a pet theory of mine (well, not mine, obviously). The basic idea is that universes evolve to generate more black holes, since a) black holes create new universes, and b) the daughter universe inherits the physical laws of the parent universe.

This solves all sorts of problems: why are the constants the way they are? Because universes are evolving, generating any number of physical constants. In other universes, they're different.

Why are the constants conducive to life? Because we have to exist in those universes that have constants conducive to life - if they weren't, we wouldn't be here!


So, to me, it's a very exciting discovery.

Has the paper been published yet? I mean, it sounds amazing on paper, but it does bring up a lot of new questions to mind.

I am still holding out that number 4 will be back in action soon after the mods sort it out.

 

[Steffenfield]

Ooh! This thread is back!

Such goodness!

Okay. Pop quiz.

Why is it that I can completely clear out my hard drive, like write all zeros to it.

But once the FBI gets their hands on it, I'm going to jail. *lol*

If I wrote all zeros on my computer, what's there to even read?

I don't get it.

Let me guess, Mod Hat on because I asked this. *lol*

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Ooh! This thread is back!

Such goodness!

Okay. Pop quiz.

Why is it that I can completely clear out my hard drive, like write all zeros to it.

But once the FBI gets their hands on it, I'm going to jail. *lol*

If I wrote all zeros on my computer, what's there to even read?

I don't get it.

Let me guess, Mod Hat on because I asked this. *lol*

If you write everything as zeros, then you'll have wiped it clean - but it'll be unusable.
What actually happens when you delete something (e.g., by emptying the recycling bin) is that you simply designate the piece of drive that held the information as 'writeable' - in other words, the computer is free to put new information where the old information was kept.

But until the computer's decided to put anything there, the old information still exists. There are programs out there which can pull 'deleted' files back from the grave - provided there's enough still there. I once did that to my entire music collection (curse you iTunes!), and I got it all back, with only a few glitches in some obscure tracks.

BUT

You can also download industrial-strength Incinerators: they scramble the data of the thing you want deleted using various random number generators. I think seven full 'scrambles' constitutes a military-grade deletion.

Cool stuff

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Has the paper been published yet? I mean, it sounds amazing on paper, but it does bring up a lot of new questions to mind.

I am still holding out that number 4 will be back in action soon after the mods sort it out.

Fingers crossed! But, what will happen if/when we get to the 'official' #5? Can threads have the same name?

 

[Nostromo]

In addition to what WC said:

You can recover stuff even after overwriting the drive because the drive stores information on regions of magnetic grains, each bit being stored on a little group of grains. When you want to change the information, the magnetic alignment of each group is changed.

When you zero the drive, the grains get moved back to a 0 state, but it's not perfect. The bits that were 0 to start with will be closer to a true 0 state than the bits that used to be a 1.

It leaves a sort of magnetic 'ghost' of the original information which can be detected with more sensitive equipment.

That's the idea anyway, I'm not sure how well it works out in real life, and I doubt the FBI are going to tell anybody. If you're worried, get an SSD, then your zeros are definitely zeros.

 

[Nabobalis]

Fingers crossed! But, what will happen if/when we get to the 'official' #5? Can threads have the same name?

We cab give the new thread a subtitle if it comes to that.

 

[Cabal]

We cab give the new thread a subtitle if it comes to that.

'Ask a chemist anything?'

Urgh, on second thoughts, I'll take disciplinary action from the mods

 

[Nabobalis]

'Ask a chemist anything?'

Urgh, on second thoughts, I'll take disciplinary action from the mods

"Ask a physicist anything? No?! How about one of those guys of there! Yeah the
chemists! Thought not!"

 

[Steffenfield]

Thanks for the responses!

Ooh, and just to let you know, I've been downloading, well, what I think might be illegal Christian cartoons and Christian music as well onto my computer.

I'm posting this in private on the internet so hopefully the FBI will never catch me.

Anyway, next question....

What's the longest thing that I can flush down the toilet?

I tried a whole roll of toilet paper but it kept breaking off into pieces.

Is it possible to flush, like a mile of string or something?

I'm having such poor results on this.

 

[Nostromo]

Have you tried tying some string to a turd and then flushing?

 

[Maxwell511]

I wonder if this is against the rules...

The Cyclic Universe idea is something of a pet theory of mine (well, not mine, obviously). The basic idea is that universes evolve to generate more black holes, since a) black holes create new universes, and b) the daughter universe inherits the physical laws of the parent universe.

This solves all sorts of problems: why are the constants the way they are? Because universes are evolving, generating any number of physical constants. In other universes, they're different.

Why are the constants conducive to life? Because we have to exist in those universes that have constants conducive to life - if they weren't, we wouldn't be here!


So, to me, it's a very exciting discovery.

I think that is Smolin's idea of an origin of universes. Did I link the wrong article?

Penrose's seems more subtle. The jist I get from it is that all particles with mass will decay into massless particles. Once you have a universe with just massless particles, space does not exist so you have a singularity. Then, BOOM, something happens and we get a universe with particles that have mass and therefore space and time and what not. I heard rumours that the theory makes predictions about the CMB that can be tested.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

'Ask a chemist anything?'

Urgh, on second thoughts, I'll take disciplinary action from the mods

Chemists are physicists who don't think widely enough

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Thanks for the responses!

Ooh, and just to let you know, I've been downloading, well, what I think might be illegal Christian cartoons and Christian music as well onto my computer.

I'm posting this in private on the internet so hopefully the FBI will never catch me.

Anyway, next question....

What's the longest thing that I can flush down the toilet?

I tried a whole roll of toilet paper but it kept breaking off into pieces.

Is it possible to flush, like a mile of string or something?

I'm having such poor results on this.

Assuming that, for the mile of pipeline, there's no physical barrier, you should be fine. Most modern toilets (assuming you're a standard US male with a standard US toilet ) operate by filling the bowl with water, which overflows the siphon (yay hydrodynamics!) - rather than a physical barrier that's lifted.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

I think that is Smolin's idea of an origin of universes. Did I link the wrong article?

It might well be. I read it somewhere, and I've adopted it as my own Your article was fine, I just mentioned this 'evolving multiverse' idea as it seems to fit in nicely.

Penrose's seems more subtle. The jist I get from it is that all particles with mass will decay into massless particles. Once you have a universe with just massless particles, space does not exist so you have a singularity. Then, BOOM, something happens and we get a universe with particles that have mass and therefore space and time and what not. I heard rumours that the theory makes predictions about the CMB that can be tested.

It's meant to have found its evidence in the CMBR, but like he said, it's a tentative theory. I'm not holding my breath

 

[Steffenfield]

Remember back when you said that in theory you could crush water to the point where it would turn into ice?

Would it be possible to crush say a large supreme pizza into the size of a pill and not lose any of the calories?

Would our stomach even be able to catabolize such a densely intense food product like this?

Would the pill taste yummy?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Remember back when you said that in theory you could crush water to the point where it would turn into ice?

Would it be possible to crush say a large supreme pizza into the size of a pill and not lose any of the calories?

Would our stomach even be able to catabolize such a densely intense food product like this?

Would the pill taste yummy?

The pill would likely be compressed into a hard pellet of powdered cereal and meat - depending on the size difference and method of compression, it'll probably heat up and burn to a crispy black piece of bleh.

Though a 100x compression... that can't be good for the molecules. It'll heat up. And burn. And your intestines would burn.

Either that, or it would explode. Meat and cheese and tomato and pizza-y goodness EVERYWHERE.

 

[Exiledoomsayer]

So Ive got a question..

Ive seen two lil 'exeriments'
one where you had two water bottles filled up with a hole in the side. a big hole and a small hole.
They both where 'shooting' equally far streams of water.

And another where you take a gardenhose and cover the top with your finger the water go's alot further then without.

Why is that?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

So Ive got a question..

Ive seen two lil 'exeriments'
one where you had two water bottles filled up with a hole in the side. a big hole and a small hole.
They both where 'shooting' equally far streams of water.

And another where you take a gardenhose and cover the top with your finger the water go's alot further then without.

Why is that?

It's all pressure, m'dear. With the two holes, water is filled up regardless of the size of the holes - the pressure is the same. But with the hose, if you partially block the exit, you have all this high pressure water building up, forcing water to exit faster, and thus travel further.

In general terms, all things being equal, fluid travels faster through narrower cross-sectional areas. Bottles with holes in aren't the same system as garden hoses with varying cross-sectional areas - so operate differently.