Astronomers Deal Blow To Quantum Theories Of Time, Space, Gravity

Space Daily ^ | Huntsville - Mar 28, 2003 | Editorial Staff

[djf]

Eunuchs run unix.

God runs MVS!!!

[js1138]

12 billion years without a reboot.

But come to think of it, the last reboot was a lulu.

[MilleniumBug]

Time to dust off my old college paper on the long range stabilization of interstellar vacuum fluctuations by cooperative macroscopic effects of virtual rotating wormholes. Maybe they'll pass it now.

[inquest]

The history of science demonstrates the hubris, however, in assuming that our models are absolute.

I know, really. Next they're going to be telling us that hubris is made up of something called hubrons.

[bluecollarman]

How will this affect "StarTrek" ? Can we still go Warp?

[Dimensio]

How can we be sure? Perhaps the universe requires frequent restarts, but since it gets recalled from a backup each time, we don't remember it.

[JusPasenThru]

This is just the point I've been trying to make for a long time...

[js1138]

There's a movie in that somewhere.

[ALS]

rats! Now they'll have to make up a whole new confusing set of erroneous terms!

[djf]

We need a new paradigm. Einstein was demonstrably wrong about a couple of things. After he perfected Special, he came out with the general theory. Some mathematician saw it and decided to work out the general theory with 4 space dimensions and one time dimension. He played around with the equations he generated and POOF!. Out popped Maxwells field theories.
Then, Bell came along and proved quantum logic correct, which trashed EPR and locality. Whatever is happening, we might not be able to put it into numbers... etc

[MainFrame65]

I'm partial to Earth, Air, ...and firewater.

[ThinkDifferent]

There's a movie in that somewhere.

At least a couple. Also check out Permutation City by Greg Egan.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Time is nothing more than measurement relative to observation.

You are incorrect. Time is a necessary component of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Our attempts to measure time are arbitrary, as a "second" is no more a universal constant than is a meter. But the flow of time is a consequence of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, as entropy would have no meaning if time was a human "invention" or simple product of human observation.

Second, the motion of any body within a uniform gravitational field can be best described as that path that takes the longest proper time, or, from another perspective, an object in a gravitational field always moves from one place to another so that a clock carried on it gives a longer time than it would on any other possible trajectory. So regardless of any units you use to measure it, time does have a real existance outside of observation, because it directly effects the behavior of systems without any observation necessary (the planets falling towards an unknown sun behave differently than an object in the Earth's gravitational field, regardless of whether anyone "measures" anything.

Your declaration might have been true if time was a constant, but, like all physical quantities, it is variable. Electricity is not simply a "measurement," even though the units we use to measure electricity are arbitrary and our measurements usually are only of a difference in electrical potential (just like time is measured in differences). Read up on space-time theory and relativity theory and you will see that you are quite mistaken. Time is a quality all its own...

[Hank Kerchief]

Wasn't Einstein very unhappy with quantum theory?

God does not play dice with the universe.

- Albert Einstein

Since Einstein was instrumental in developing the quantum theory, as an explanation of certain photo-eletric effects, I do not think he objected to it. The remark quoted was in reference to the Copenhagen interpretation of the uncertainty principle of Heisenberg, I believe.

Hank

[Arthur McGowan]

Time is caused by the fact that things don't all happen at once. Space is caused by the fact that some things are over here, and other things are over there. These scientists who insist on making things complicated just kill me.

[Windcatcher]

As someone with a Master's in Physics, all I can say is...

KA-BOOM!

The conclusion, if true, is going to cause decades of dogma to be tossed out the window.

[Hank Kerchief]

Time is caused by the fact that things don't all happen at once. Space is caused by the fact that some things are over here, and other things are over there. These scientists who insist on making things complicated just kill me.

That's right. And the relativity of time works like this: the rate of time is in inverse proportion (slower) to how much you hate what you are doing (sitting in the doctor's office waiting room) and in direct proportion (faster) to how much you love what you are doing (snuggling with your honey).

Now that we have space and time worked out, solving the problems of politics and economics should be a snap.

Hank

[MHGinTN]

Is it appropriate for me to offer again my theory of dimensions having variable expressions, as in Time has past, present, and future, and space has expressions linear, planar, and volumetric?... I better not, I should just stay on the porch and await Physicist's explanation.

[gcruse]

The basic idea is that space time should fluctuate

It's like I told my procrastinating wife, "What the fluctuating for?"

[paul51]

I was just thinking about this the other day too!....Just before COPS came on