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8 Shocking Things We Learned from Stephen Hawking's Book (The Grand Design)
Mother Nature Network ^ | November 4, 2010 | Live Science

Posted on 11/12/2010 1:18:50 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin

From the idea that our universe is one among many, to the revelation that mathematician Pythagoras didn't actually invent the Pythagorean theorem, here are eight shocking things we learned from reading physicist Stephen Hawking's new book, "The Grand Design," written with fellow physicist Leonard Mlodinow of Caltech.

This book, covering major questions about the nature and origin of the universe, was released Sept. 7 by its publisher, Bantam.

1. The past is possibility According to Hawking and Mlodinow, one consequence of the theory of quantum mechanics is that events in the past that were not directly observed did not happen in a definite way. Instead they happened in all possible ways. This is related to the probabilistic nature of matter and energy revealed by quantum mechanics: Unless forced to choose a particular state by direct interference from an outside observation, things will hover in a state of uncertainty.

For example, if all we know is that a particle traveled from point A to point B, then it is not true that the particle took a definite path and we just don't know what it is. Rather, that particle simultaneously took every possible path connecting the two points.

Yeah, we're still trying to wrap our brains around this.

The authors sum up: "No matter how thorough our observation of the present, the (unobserved) past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities."

2. The power of light This fun fact: A 1-watt night-light emits a billion billion photons each second. Photons are the little packets that light comes in. Confusingly, they, like all particles, behave as both a particle and a wave.

3. Theory of everything If there is any "theory of everything" that can describe the whole universe, it is M theory, according to Hawking and Mlodinow. This model is a version of string theory, which posits that at the tiniest levels all particles are fundamentally little loops of string that vibrate at different frequencies. And, if true, all matter and energy would follow rules derived from the nature of these strings.

"M theory is the only model that has all the properties we think the final theory ought to have," the authors write.

One consequence of this theory is that our universe is not the only one – untold numbers of cousin universes exist with different physical laws and properties.

4. General relativity If most people think of general relativity at all, they assume this high-minded idea of Einstein's applies only to super-large objects completely outside the realm of normal life, such as galaxies and black holes.

But actually, the warping of space-time does affect things we know and use, the authors point out.

"If general relativity were not taken into account in GPS satellite navigation systems, errors in global positions would accumulate at a rate of about ten kilometers each day," the book states. That's because general relativity describes how time flows slower the closer an object is to a large mass. Thus, depending on satellites' distances from Earth, their onboard clocks will run at slightly different speeds, which could offset position calculations unless this effect is taken into account."

5. Oppressed fish A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls. This law was meant to protect the poor fish from a distorted nature of reality, since bent light might show them an odd portrayal of their surroundings.

Hawking and Mlodinow bring up the incident to make the point that it is impossible to know the true nature of reality. We think we have an accurate picture of what's going on, but how would we know if we were metaphorically living in a giant fishbowl of our own, since we would never be able to see outside our own point of view to compare?

6. Pythagoras stole the credit In passing, the authors casually assert that the famous Greek mathematician Pythagoras did not actually discover the Pythagorean theorem.

A little digging suggests the formula (a2 + b2 = c2, which describes the relationship between the three sides of a right triangle) was actually known earlier. The Babylonians, for example, seem to have documented the basic idea in ancient mathematical tablets before Pythagoras came on the scene in 570 B.C.

7. Quarks are never lonely Quarks, the adorably named building blocks of protons and neutrons, come only in groups, never alone. Apparently, the force that binds quarks together increases with distance, so the farther one tries to pry a lone quark away, the harder it will pull back. Therefore, free quarks never exist in nature.

Protons and neutrons are both made of three quarks. (Protons contain two "up"-flavored quarks and one "down," while neutrons have two downs and one up.)

8. The universe is its own creator One of the most talked-about assertions in the whole book is that we don't need the idea of God to explain what sparked the creation of the universe.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going," Hawking and Mlodinow write.

Instead, the laws of science alone can explain why the universe began. Our modern understanding of time suggests that it is just another dimension, like space. Thus it doesn't have a beginning.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," they write. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist."


TOPICS: Astronomy; Books/Literature; Conspiracy; UFO's
KEYWORDS: leonardmlodinow; pythagoras; stephenhawking; stringtheory; thegranddesign
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To: Sudetenland

It’s worse than that, number 1 rules in “all possibilities” which necessarily includes God and number 8 rules God out. Both can not be true.

He should have been a democrat Congressman.


41 posted on 11/12/2010 2:19:20 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide

Virtual particles require the prerequisite of energy, time and space. But only green energy.


42 posted on 11/12/2010 2:24:07 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: MHGinTN
When you figure out how DNA information has compiled from that process, let me know.

That's a comment better-directed at the folks whose logic leads to such interesting questions ... whether they claim it came from randomness, or nothing.

43 posted on 11/12/2010 2:25:42 PM PST by r9etb
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; SunkenCiv
if all we know is that a particle traveled from point A to point B, then it is not true that the particle took a definite path and we just don't know what it is. Rather, that particle simultaneously took every possible path connecting the two points.

That explains why my commute seems to take forever some days.

44 posted on 11/12/2010 2:27:53 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: re_nortex
Does it play 78 RPM? That's more my speed! :-)

AND 16 as well, for your declining, um, Sunset years....

45 posted on 11/12/2010 2:28:17 PM PST by Calvin Locke
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To: r9etb

It is my belief that the information comes fromt he mind of God, not from nothing. Of course I cannot even begin to expalin how ‘the mind of God’ IS since it is God Who made time and space and any other dimensions, and put the energy/command into it to generate all that there is. I havce figured out that particles are condensates, but what a feeble thing to finally get given the enormity of the whole sheebang God has created! Oh yeah, and I’ve figure out that dimension time is a volume not a linear thing.


46 posted on 11/12/2010 2:53:10 PM PST by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: martin_fierro

You taking the Mobius Strip to work???


47 posted on 11/12/2010 3:10:56 PM PST by sodpoodle (Despair; man's surrender. Laughter; God 's redemption.)
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Comment #48 Removed by Moderator

To: re_nortex
There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, compared to science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.

Even if true, I have always failed to see how Hawking thought this was a "scientific" statement. If you take out the unscientific term, "based on," and replace it with the more defined "caused by," it's not clear how the (assumed for purposes of argument) fact that religion is "caused by" authority (whatever that is, eh, Steven?) makes it less valid than science which (here) is "caused by" observation and reason" in the observer.

Hawking himself says the past cannot be known definitely and that we might all have a skewed vantage for observation because, for all we know, we live in a "fishbowl." If those are true, they militate AGAINST the validity of observation, and reason based on observation, and therefore against the superiority of science or mere religion.

Also, as noted above, Hawking glosses over the idea of what, exactly, is "authority" -- the "authority" that religion is based on or is caused by. Authority must be some kind of power, even if only analogous to the power of gravity. So how would this differ at all from the basis for science in Hawking's conclusion? Aren't religion and science equally, fundamentally, based on POWER of some sort?

No matter how hard people try, they cannot get around the reality that God is just as valid an explanation for the creation of the universe and humans as science without God.

They don't have to accept that God is the explanation for the what is observed, but it surely is not scientific to rule that "hypothesis" out.

49 posted on 11/12/2010 3:54:47 PM PST by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

ping for later review.


50 posted on 11/12/2010 3:56:25 PM PST by huskerjim
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To: Sudetenland; All
Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe

NYT: Maybe we are alone in the universe, after all.

51 posted on 11/12/2010 4:04:41 PM PST by fightinJAG (Step away from the toilet. Let the housing market flush.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
A few years ago, the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls ...

How many goldfish are registered to vote in Monza, Italy?


52 posted on 11/12/2010 4:07:59 PM PST by magooey (The Mandate of Heaven resides in the hearts of men.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
1. The past is possibility According to Hawking and Mlodinow, one consequence of the theory of quantum mechanics is that events in the past that were not directly observed did not happen in a definite way. Instead they happened in all possible ways.

Uh, okay.

8. The universe is its own creator One of the most talked-about assertions in the whole book is that we don't need the idea of God to explain what sparked the creation of the universe.

Wait, I thought that you said that "the past is possibility" and that "events in the past that were not directly observed did not happen in a definite way. Instead they happened in all possible ways."

53 posted on 11/12/2010 4:21:28 PM PST by FreeReign
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To: martin_fierro; AdmSmith; bvw; callisto; ckilmer; dandelion; ganeshpuri89; gobucks; KevinDavis; ...
I guess we'd better throw out our flashlights, cause clearly they don't work. ;')
Cats use cunning physics to lap milk
by Ian Sample
Thursday 11 November 2010
Perfectly judged tongue speed allows cats to draw the maximum amount of milk into their mouths when they lap, say scientists. Cats are smarter than people think -- at least when it comes to hydrodynamics. High-speed video footage of household pets feeding has revealed the exquisite balance of forces at work when a cat laps a bowl of milk... the cat's tongue makes only the briefest contact with the liquid's surface, before quickly retracting to pull a thin column of milk into the mouth. The act of lapping is judged so perfectly the cat catches the milk in its mouth before gravity overcomes the liquid's inertia inducing it to fall back into the bowl. The unusual study began when Roman Stocker, an expert in fluid mechanics at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, became fascinated by watching his eight-year-old cat, Cutta Cutta, drinking at breakfast time.
Sounds like the expert in fluid mechanics was badly hung over, and was staring daggers at the noisy cat-lappin' going on a few feet away.


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54 posted on 11/12/2010 4:32:56 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: Las Vegas Dave

Whoops! Thanks Las Vegas Dave!


55 posted on 11/12/2010 4:36:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: re_nortex; All
These elite liberal “scientists” don't know a damn thing.

It's just a whole bunch of ridiculous THEORIES to get more government grants or to sell books. They don’t understand the universe at all.

This is just like all the global warming fake science liberals created.

The media wants us to think that because these idiot goons call themselves scientists that we have to believe what they say. Well I say global warming was a hoax and so are these stupid theories.

56 posted on 11/12/2010 5:47:28 PM PST by Democrat_media (Why is no government creating a product we can hold in our hands like a cell phone..?)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

B4L8r


57 posted on 11/12/2010 6:02:37 PM PST by AFreeBird
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To: SunkenCiv

I’ve always loved cats. When I was a kid (maybe eight years old)I got down on the floor to watch my cat lap up milk. I knew hhow she did it 57 years ago! And the government hasn’t paid me a penny to reveal it! One other trick my kitty could od: you could toss morsels of meat in her general direction and she would snatch them out of the air with one claw-extended paw. she had me traine3d pretty well: when she wanted out int he summertime, she would climb the screen. When she wanted out int he winter she would jump up onto the matle beside the door and stretch out to look out where she wanted to go. When she wanted in, she climbed ont he sctreen again or climbed up into the space between the ‘storm window’ plastic and the glass od the window ... we were too poor to afford plexi or glass storm windows.


58 posted on 11/12/2010 6:31:36 PM PST by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
8. The universe is its own creator

Yah mon.

59 posted on 11/12/2010 6:40:29 PM PST by Yardstick
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60 posted on 11/12/2010 7:21:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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