So far, all we have is ONE that we can count............................
I think that mistake is a kind of a typo. 10 to the 500th is often expressed in print as 10^500 and maybe that character got transposed to a comma at some point.
The bigger issue to me is the fact that everyone recognizes that string theory is currently untestable and un-falsifiable and then they get upset when this untestable, un-falsifiable theory claims that we are living in a universe that can’t exist.
Obviously the problem is in the theory. I don’t see anything earth-shaking here. They just need a better theory... and I think most physicists have known that about string theory for a long time... even most string theorists.
So, since the Universe exists - at least to me and thee, is it then a miracle or a shared delusion as we cannot exist?
What happens when you step out into impossibility? As put by A.Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes; “When you eliminate the impossible, then whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” Now we are nowhere yet near a singular solution here (Hobson’s Choice), but it is interesting how calculation is narrowing the possible causation(s).
As for me, I’m comfortable with my choice.
Some searching online supports what you're thinking (a little note: this number is 1 followed by 500 zeroes). I see the larger number used a lot, and I also see a small set of examples that used "10,500" instead, some of which were corrected.
I wonder if some writers saw "10500" instead (bad eyes, bad text, ignorance), and other writers saw "10^500" and misread that one or thought "this caret is a typo and must actually be a comma."
“The Universe as We Understand It May Be Impossible”
That’s a ridiculous headline. Converting it to understandable English:
“Our understanding of the Universe is faulty.”
Obviously the Universe exists, and therefore is possible.
I have to laugh at the arrogance of anyone who thinks he can understand the Universe.
I have a big belly laugh for this: “string theory defines all matter and forces as vibrations of tiny strands of energy.” With no apologies to Sheldon Cooper.
I have no clue how theoretical physics work. However, most of it is speculated by doing math equations on a chalk board or now white board.
BTW, what are the "extra" dimensions? Can you tell me in layman terms? I still don't believe time is a dimension, but a human construct.
'Dark matter' is the solution to everything.
There’s nothing like the universe to bring you down to earth.
I bet God knows how the Universe works.
“Wrase and other string theorists immediately realized, the cosmos must either be profoundly different than previously supposed or string theory must be wrong.”
The latter is most assuredly the reality. The string theory models are pure mathematical imaginings and nothing else. They have no empirical basis in the reality of the universe and no empirical facts for proof.
Maybe I should say she schooled me.
“And yet it moves.”
And yet here it is.
Dark matter, as defined, does not exist.
But, there is a dark force, and it is real.
If time is just another dimension, then, the “dark matter” and the “dark forces/energy” exist in the past, and it’s all of that “dark stuff” from the past that is making hay out of the current theories and forcing scientists to come up with all kinds of convoluted theories about how the universe began and how it will end.
Pay attention to the past. That’s where all current matter and current energy will “reside” as time passes, and it’s that past matter and past energy that is telling us that it exists, via measurements and calculations that keep telling us that, there is some “dark” stuff needed to make the current universe work as we understand it.
Lol. Physics becomes indistinguishable from Theology.
“which are forbidden, according to string theory”
Meh, string theory isn’t science, so who cares?