Liquid Space

New Scientist ^ | 03 November 2001 | Paul Davies

[pistola]

IS SPACE just space? Or is it filled with some sort of mysterious, intangible substance? The ancient Greeks believed so, and so did scientists in the 19th century. Yet by the early part of the 20th century, the idea had been discredited and seemed to have gone for good.

[FormerLurker]

Would not the Aether be LVX?

[Asclepius]

... Would not the Aether be LVX? ...

LVX, as in, the sign of the mourning of Isis, the sign of Typhon and Apophis etc., etc., LVX, let the Divine light descend and all that?

[FormerLurker]

Correct. From what I understand, Aether=Akasha="the Fifth Element"="Spirit" - derived from a word meaning "to shine" in ancient Sanskrit

LVX = The Latin word for Light, implying Light in Extension in esoteric teachings.

[Asclepius]

LVX = The Latin word for Light, implying Light in Extension in esoteric teachings.

'sounds right to me, comrade.

[scouse]

So the plenum cannot exert a frictional drag

Must consist of atoms of Teflonium. :^))

[Physicist]

Reactionary New Scientist hype bump.

(Is it just me, or is FR getting fuzzy, squishy and new-agey?)

[avg_freeper]

One of my favorite things to watch is a minivan driving around with a bunch of balloons inside. The van accelerates and the balloons swing forward.

Putting my knowledge of buoyancy and all aside it still looks like a cool "anti-pendulum".

[PoorMuttly]

Muttly want Quantum Ether.

Muttly have empty jar ready.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Why don't don't you go preach in the "RELIGION" section. This article is discussing theoretical physics and philosophical possibilities. Not scripture.

LOL!

Hard for me to tell.

[M. T. Cicero II]

I find this stuff very interesting. But alas, my flashlight will still only run for x hours on 4 "D" cells. If these guys want to be heros, they should build a quantum-vacuum-matter-energy converter so my maglight would run for ever!

[Yeti]

IS SPACE just space? Or is it filled with some sort of mysterious, intangible substance? The ancient Greeks believed so, and so did scientists in the 19th century. Yet by the early part of the 20th century, the idea had been discredited and seemed to have gone for good.

Can't read past this. Ever heard of luminiferous ether? When, according to Einstein, gravity bends space, what is it bending? Nothing? How do you bend nothing?

Very annoying. I know some have said there is no ether, but its existence is assumed in most electromagnetic theory, relativity, etc..., and it has never, ever been "discredited."

[longshadow]

Side question:

"Leonard Parker discovered in the late 1960s that an expanding or contracting Universe would create particles out of a pure vacuum. In effect, the stretching of space jiggles up some of the virtual particles and turns them into real particles.

Would this be the same mechanism that causes the creation of matter during Inflation, or is this referring to a different mechanism? If I understand it correctly, the Inflationary matter creation mechanism requires the presence of a gravitational field in the "stretched" space, but there is no mention of any type of field in the above quote.

[PatrickHenry]

Like the ether of old, the quantum vacuum exerts no frictional drag on a particle with constant velocity. But it's a different story with acceleration. The quantum vacuum does affect accelerating particles. For example, an electron circling an atom is jostled by virtual photons from the vacuum, leading to a slight but measurable shift in its energy.

Is it me, or sloppy writing? An orbiting atom isn't accelerating, is it? He's got to be thinking of rotation.

[FormerLurker]

Reactionary New Scientist hype bump.

Do you think Einstein to be "New Agey"?

Aether and the Theory of Relativity - Albert Einstein (1920)

[FormerLurker]

An orbiting atom isn't accelerating, is it?

I believe the author was talking about an electron from an atom that is accelerating through this "quantum vacuum"..

[GallopingGhost]

bump

[FormerLurker]

An interesting link;

A Rotating Wave Theory of the Electron as a Basic Form of Matter

[Physicist]

Do you think Einstein to be "New Agey"?

No, but then I haven't heard Einstein discussing "astral light" and "dancing Wu-Li masters" without blushing. (My "new age" comment referred to the posters on the thread, rather than the article.)

In any case, Einstein never accepted quantum mechanics, let alone quantum field theory, so his beliefs on the structure of the vacuum must be regarded as outmoded.

[longshadow]

An orbiting atom isn't accelerating, is it?

Think centrifugal/centripedal force.

Since the velocity (which is a vector quantity that describes BOTH direction was well as magnitude of speed) is constantly changing for anything that is in "orbit" (meaning that it's direction is constantly changing, even if the speed remains constant), if follows that some force MUST be acting on it to provide acceleration to change the direction of travel, as per Newton's Law.

[FormerLurker]

I suppose you could say since its velocity is changing it has acceleration..