Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rolepgeek]

I'll keep an eye on this, I guess...

Having a sorta trippy moment thinking about relativity and such at the moment.

[hops]

All moving object, like, has the properties of a wave, maaaaaaaaaan

* Cinder creates a bong movement wave function

[Sergarr]

relativity

wave

I can't decide if I want to get amused or offended.

[Egan_BW]

relativity

wave

I can't decide if I want to get amused or offended.

Either works, depending on how you look at it.

[Max™]

Don't forget to consider your frame of reference!

[Helgoland]

Remember that whole 'swimming in spacetime' thing? Here's a cool (/cute) article on the subject, complete with illustrations that actually make you understand how it works!

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

I strongly recommend the 2-D globe-surface illustration. It is very good.

[Max™]

That's what this was.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[martinuzz]

The Dutch physicist and professor in theoretical physics Erik Verlinde has finally published his new paper on gravity, which has been highly anticipated amongst his fellow physicists. It is said that this could be the succesor to Einstein's theory of general relativity.

The 40 page article, published on Arxiv this night, is the first paper that offers an comprehensive explanation for dark matter, which has been one of the main problems in theoretical physics for decades.

Verlinde says in his paper, that dark matter is an illusion, based on our dated / obsolete understanding of gravity.

In 2010, Verlinde already made world news with his position that gravity is not a force, as assumed by Newton.
Einstein's perception of gravity as a curvature of spacetime is also dated / obsolete, according to Verlinde.
Instead of a force, the tendency of masses to move towards each other is a kind of pressure that is created by the change of information in the universe when a mass moves. When a mass appears heavy, it is because the universe resists lifting it.
In 2010 Verlinde surprised his international colleagues by deriving Newton's laws from his cosmic information theory. Back then, his theory did not include dark matter yet.
Now it does.

Sorry, my newspaper does not have a link yet to the arxiv file, probably because it's too fresh.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/baanbrekende-theorie-donkere-materie-is-een-volstrekte-illusie~a4410710/

this is a link to the arxiv listing of his 2010 paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1001.0785

[Dozebôm Lolumzalìs]

Eh, seems kind of ill-defined, but then again the same could be said for Einstein's Relativity. The universe "resisting lifting something" doesn't sound that promising, though.

[Putnam]

The 40 page article, published on Arxiv this night, is the first paper that offers an comprehensive explanation for dark matter, which has been one of the main problems in theoretical physics for decades.

can you tell me what the problem actually is

Eh, seems kind of ill-defined, but then again the same could be said for Einstein's Relativity.

not if you actually know anything about general relativity

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Interesting interpretation of gravity. I don't see the meaningful difference between gravity as a force and gravity as a pressure, though. We know that gravity works over infinite distance except being constrained by the observable universe, so the idea of this "cosmic information" is disturbingly close to invoking simulation theory.

[Putnam]

the idea of this "cosmic information" is disturbingly close to invoking simulation theory.

i don't see how? the universe acting as if it were a simulation is not strong evidence for the universe being one

[MetalSlimeHunt]

the idea of this "cosmic information" is disturbingly close to invoking simulation theory.

i don't see how? the universe acting as if it were a simulation is not strong evidence for the universe being one

I didn't say it was evidence, but it does leave the possibility open. As opposed to a universe that acts in a way which makes simulation impossible.

I'm also more talking about the tendencies of the author. If the cosmic information concept is being fueled by the belief that the universe is a simulation, the idea becomes suspect. It's the kind of thing I'd expect a person who believes in simulation to believe.

[martinuzz]

can you tell me what the problem actually is

The basic problem is that astronomical observations of star systems point at there being more gravity / mass than you would expect based on the observed stars. Dark matter is a hypothetical explanation of which no one had a clue what it actually is or if it exists at all.

Reading a bit more into it, it seems that it's not so much a "pressure" as it is entropy itself. Entropic gravity.

yes, this, I might have worded it a bit wrongly with 'pressure'.