Posted on 07/11/2006 9:46:46 AM PDT by Freeport
Public confidence in the "constants" of nature may be at an all time low. Recent research has found evidence that the value of certain fundamental parameters, such as the speed of light or the invisible glue that holds nuclei together, may have been different in the past.
"There is absolutely no reason these constants should be constant," says astronomer Michael Murphy of the University of Cambridge. "These are famous numbers in physics, but we have no real reason for why they are what they are."
The observed differences are small—roughly a few parts in a million—but the implications are huge: The laws of physics would have to be rewritten, not to mention we might need to make room for six more spatial dimensions than the three that we are used to.
Lines of evidence
The evidence for varying constants focuses primarily on quasar studies.
Quasars are extremely luminous objects, powered by giant black holes. Some of them are so far away that their light was emitted 12 billion years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Women and minorities affected the most.
Very cool.
If looking for true constants, they should look at malice and idiocy.
Hmmmm...'just mentioning to my wife a couple of weeks ago that I believe light travels faster now than it did when I was a kid.
She said it was a relativity thing.
Laz Hates Islamics.
Yes indeed. And Bush's fault.
What scientist gives a tinker's damn about "public confidence" in anything?
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It's not just a good idea...
It's ze Law!
You've heard of Planck's Constant? Well, there is a little-known number called the Kennedy, or "Tank's Constant." It's the amount of booze required for a Massachusetts senator to drive his Oldsmobile off a bridge near Martha's Vineyard.
One Kennedy is enough to get a Purdue fraternity drunk. Two Kennedys can waste a whole Connecticut county. Three Kennedys meets the needs of the Pine Ridge indian reservation in South Dakota for a week. Four is the amount of liquor sold to tourists during Mardi Gras. There has never been a recorded instance of five Kennedys or more in a single setting, but experts estimate that that much booze being ingested all at once would shift the planet from its orbit.
Good call
It's all an effect of global warming.
"I don't understand the problem. Just change the gravitational constant."
Q on the efforts of the Star Ship Enterprise crew to prevent a moon from crashing into a planet.
Ping
"The laws of physics would have to be rewritten, not to mention we might need to make room for six more spatial dimensions than the three that we are used to."
If this sort of thing keeps up, liberalism might begin to make sense.
But the article discusses how these constants may have changed. That means the constants you cited may change. However, the changes are on astronomical scales so we will all be long dead before changes become apparent in the constats you gave.
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