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Is the universe a doughnut?
Cosmos Magazine ^ | September 6, 2007 | Paul Halpern

Posted on 11/04/2007 10:07:35 PM PST by SunkenCiv

Someday spacecraft will be powerful enough perhaps to journey at extraordinary speeds, spanning the vast interstellar voids. Our technology might develop until we become a vast, powerful intergalactic society, capable of resolving the deepest quandaries ever known. Only then could we definitely answer what is perhaps the ultimate question: "Is the universe shaped like a doughnut?" This last question pertains to an idea attributed to Homer and mentioned by guest star Stephen Hawking in an episode of The Simpsons. In the episode, Lisa Simpson joins Springfield's chapter of the brainy organisation Mensa, which assumes mayoral duties and vows to remake Springfield into a perfect society. The prospect of experiencing a blossoming utopia attracts the attention of the British cosmologist Hawking, who - in his first animated appearance on the show - decides to visit and see it for himself.

Is the universe a doughnut?

(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: crevo; freepun; stringtheory
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To: CholeraJoe

LOL, I hope so. Boy, I’d LOVE to eat at that restaurant!


21 posted on 11/05/2007 2:38:21 PM PST by LibWhacker (Democrats are phony Americans)
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To: Eastbound

Space might not be three-dimensional. How many dimensions it might have is really up to us. For the convenience of our mathematical analogies AKA theories it is taken to have from four to 26 dimensions. The sphere is a topological entity of which a convenient mental image might be earth, but that is only two-dimensional so we would have to extend our imagination to add a third and a fourth or more dimension. Four dimensions and eight dimensions have particularly rich algebras so most theoretical work is done in those numbers. In spite of popular ideas of relativity, time is not one of the dimensions and is a very different animal.


22 posted on 11/05/2007 2:47:32 PM PST by RightWhale (anti-razors are pro-life)
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To: RightWhale
"but that is only two-dimensional..."

If earth was a cube and you wanted measure the volume, wouldn't you need three variables instead of two? a x b x c = volume? Why only two variables (dimensions) to determine the volume of earth? Or were you using the word, dimensional in another sense?

23 posted on 11/05/2007 3:00:34 PM PST by Eastbound
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To: Eastbound

If you were in the Navy you would have measured your position on earth with Latitude and Longitude, which is two dimensions. That’s all you would need. The sphere is taken as the surface only. Volume of a sphere adds a dimension, but then you aren’t dealing with the sphere itself.


24 posted on 11/05/2007 3:05:03 PM PST by RightWhale (anti-razors are pro-life)
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To: RightWhale
..time is not one of the dimensions and is a very different animal.

Oh sure thing, that's what you think... Until you ride a river of space [WARNING: PDF file] over a waterfall that's plunging at the speed of light into a black hole and notice that time itself has been reoriented radially in the direction of your motion and become one with the other dimensions of space!

LOL, just kidding. As you may be able to tell, I did not fully understand this article. But I LOVED it and offer it up here for your enjoyment as well. :-)

25 posted on 11/05/2007 3:39:35 PM PST by LibWhacker (Democrats are phony Americans)
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To: SunkenCiv

If the universe is a doughnut, would you still be able to fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way?


26 posted on 11/05/2007 5:32:04 PM PST by bigheadfred (don't say anything to the holier than thou types)
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To: RightWhale

Understood. But now am curious to know why you don’t consider time as one of the three prime aspects of the material universe?

As in Space, Matter, Time. Take away any one of the three and the universe ceases to exist in any identifiable way.


27 posted on 11/05/2007 5:32:49 PM PST by Eastbound
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To: SunkenCiv
Wow. That article was cool enough to cause me to miss the first six minutes of Big Bang Theory.
28 posted on 11/05/2007 5:36:55 PM PST by Hyzenthlay (Halo 3 is making me realise that Microsoft is not entirely evil.)
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To: SunkenCiv; Rennes Templar; LexBaird; mikrofon; martin_fierro; lowbridge; trooprally; ...
In an unrelated specialty, pastry also can explain the Fall of Rome... and a bismarck produced a treaty system that kep the peace in Europe for forty years.

Meanwhile, Napoleon entered the time-space contiuum as a great military leader, then morphed into a custard-and-pastry confection. What could be a crûeller fate, my little Hot Cross Bun? A Rubber Biscuit?




Pun for All and All for Pun....
Funners & Punners
ping list PING! (see keyword FReePun)
If you want either on or off this
family-safe occasional ping list,
you must be out of your minds....
(on or off requests, just FReepmail).

VOTE TOMORROW! LOCAL ELECTIONS COUNT!!!! What we plant at the grassroots, we harvest at the Capitol.

29 posted on 11/05/2007 5:46:14 PM PST by The Spirit Of Allegiance (Public Employees: Honor Your Oaths! Defend the Constitution from Enemies--Foreign and Domestic!)
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To: LibWhacker
". . . the Big Rip or the Big Crunch . . ."

As an aside, does this have anything to do with the underground testing in Nevada back in the 50's and 60's? I've read some really strange stuff and other-wordly events supposedly happening because of a 'rip'.

30 posted on 11/05/2007 5:49:05 PM PST by Eastbound
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To: Eastbound

Maybe the application of time shrinks the toroidial issue.


31 posted on 11/05/2007 5:50:02 PM PST by bigheadfred (don't say anything to the holier than thou types)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

"And that, My Liege, is how we know the universe to be doughnut-shaped!"

32 posted on 11/05/2007 5:53:12 PM PST by Old Sarge (This tagline in memory of FReeper 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub)
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To: SunkenCiv

‘’Cosmologists have built a house of cards and it stands,’’ said Dr. James Peebles, a cosmologist at Princeton.

-From the NYTimes version of this story, March 11, 2003

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9403E3D6163EF932A25750C0A9659C8B63


33 posted on 11/05/2007 6:00:52 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

I doughn’t know how to respond. I knead more time to think so I can at yeast rise to the occasion.


34 posted on 11/05/2007 6:12:27 PM PST by hispanarepublicana (Please understand me, everything's alright. I just musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night.)
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To: SunkenCiv
"Ich bin ein doughnut!"
35 posted on 11/05/2007 6:13:30 PM PST by Revolting cat! (We all need someone we can bleed on...)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

What I would like to know is:

How much do these guys make for sitting around contemplation the time/space continuum?

I b’n sittin’ around contemplating my navel all these years, jus’ like da Burgie Man, and ain’t made a nickel.


36 posted on 11/05/2007 6:13:37 PM PST by wizr (I ain't perfect, but Jesus loves me anyway. You, too!)
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To: The Spirit Of Allegiance

I’m so confused right now, I could be a scientist.


37 posted on 11/05/2007 6:22:43 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: Eastbound

Is Georgia in protospace? I know West Virginia was in protospace. But yet, we still had wifi. And somehow we were able to drive across the boundary.


38 posted on 11/05/2007 6:31:34 PM PST by Sender (You are the weapon. What you hold in your hand is just a tool.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Hey hey,
night fights day,
there’s food for the thinkers and the innocents can all live slowly
all live slowly.
My my,
the sky will cry
jewels for the thirsty and the guilty ones can all die slowly
all die slowly.
And all the world is biscuit shaped
its just for me to feed my face and i can see hear smell touch taste and
i’ve got one two three four five senses working overtime
trying to take this all in
i’ve got one two three four five senses working overtime
tryin to taste the difference between the lemons and limes,
pain and pleasure and the church bells softly chime


39 posted on 11/05/2007 7:00:07 PM PST by null and void (No more Bushes/No more Clintons)
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To: SunkenCiv
Is the universe a doughnut?

Actually, it's a container of cinnamon swirls we call galaxies...

40 posted on 11/05/2007 7:15:08 PM PST by mikrofon (And some Milky Ways)
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