Posted on 10/30/2014 7:58:13 AM PDT by C19fan
The largest physics experiment ever built is now testing the nature of reality. String theory, supersymmetry and other theories beyond the Standard Model are under scrutiny. More than 10,000 people have been involved. Total cost is nearing $10 billion. This, of course, is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which helped discover the Higgs Boson.
Simultaneously, the ACME experiment, run by a team of less than 50, built for a few million dollars (and much, much smaller), has created a more precise test of these advanced theoeries. This experiment hinges on an extremely painstaking and precise method to picture the shape and size of electrons.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...
Sheldon Cooper is not amused.
DANG!!!! Beat me to it.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts” - Richard Feynman
He gave up on String Theory and is now working on Dark Matter.
Apparently he chose wisely.
Less flippantly, IMO the Standard Theory just doesn’t explain what the universe is like at the largest and especially the smallest scales. If ST doesn’t explain it, then we’ll have to look elsewhere.
I find it interesting that the author didn’t seem to feel a need to comment on how many physicists support String Theory. If this is settled science, why are these deniers still poking around? /s
:)
I am no astro physicist. But I am an Engineer. I also stayed at a Holiday Inn last night.
I have always wondered how we know for sure how big the Universe is. I actually wonder if we are able to see all the light that is produced in the Universe. For portions of the Universe that have traveled away from us on the farthest edge as we travel (expand) in the opposite direction away from the opposite edge, is there a limit or space and time in which light will never reach us?
Good, I never understood string theory anyway.
#2 Now I know why Sheldon is switching to another field. He realizes that the kid from North Korean who defected was right all along.
Ah yes. The String Cheese Theory. Well known in late-night physics labs.
Man trying to figure out God’s plan will never be totally successful.
Everything we think we understand is only an approximation.
That doesn’t mean we should stop trying. Only that we need to understand we may never understand certain things.
For instance, a very simple example:
We know for certain that a specific length of material will form a circle of a certain diameter. But try to process that as a mathematical formula and you end up with an infinite number. An approximation APPROACHING the actual length but never getting there. But close enough for practical purposes.
So our math is a bit off or we really don’t have a handle on exactly what is happening.
If he was smart he’d marry Amy Farrah Fowler and sit on the couch all day watching soaps and eating bonbons.
No limit, but the intensity is decreasing at the cube of the distance, so the ability to detect becomes the challenge.
Either red shifted out of sight or not enough time elapsed since the beginning of the Universe, either way, there are dark corners of the universe humanity cannot see.
Speculation on the size of the universe remains speculation.
yep. If the four forces of the Universe were created at the moment of the Big Bang ( Gravity, Weak Force, Strong Force, Electromagnetism )... then what came before them? and what created that matter that condensed to the size of thumbnail, and then exploded? This is where a creator comes in, one would think.
that for me is the ultimate question.
Thank you for the response. How do we know there are only "dark corners"? The map of the universe seems curiously symetrical to me. What if the extent of what we call the universe only represents 30% of what is actually out there? It would seem that detail would change a lot of calculations.
I suppose we just have to have faith.
#9 As you are only an engineer you would not be able to understand any of this.
Sheldon Cooper : )
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