12 DEC 2017 by ideonexus
Two Kinds of Science-Fiction Innovations
Most common are the fictions that begin with Jules Verne, and concern the single artifact—a submarine, flying machine, or death ray—and its consquence for all of humanity. These extraordinary voyages—to use Verne's term—play along the fault line between what we think we are and what we can do. Nemo is no accident, or a tragic figure, but the natural consequence of the intersection between present-day humanity and extraordinary technology. Even 2001: A Space Odyssey plays on the same t...Folksonomies: futurism science fiction
Folksonomies: futurism science fiction
06 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
The One-Electron Universe
I
received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at
Princeton from Professor Wheeler, in which he said, "Feynman, I
know why all electrons have the same charge and the same mass"
"Why?" "Because, they are all the same electron!" And, then he
explained on the telephone, "suppose that the world lines which
we were ordinarily considering before in time and space - instead
of only going up in time were a tremendous knot, and then, when
we cut through the knot, by the pl...24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
The Comet Loss Cone
To understand why comet showers occur, we go back to the Oort Cloud. The theory of comet showers was worked out by Jack Hills, an American physicist now at Los Alamos. He realized that the movements of the comets in the Oort Cloud are not entirely random. Comets in the cloud are generally moving in random directions, but if a comet happens to be moving in an orbit almost exactly toward the Sun, it will not survive for long. A comet in an orbit coming close to the Sun may get boiled away and d...Folksonomies: astronomy astrophysics
Folksonomies: astronomy astrophysics
31 JUL 2013 by ideonexus
Science Manipulates Language to Make it More Precise
Let us consider two spheres moving in different di-
rections on a smooth table. So as to have a definite
picture, we may assume the two directions perpendicu-
lar to each other. Since there are no external forces
acting, the motions are perfectly uniform. Suppose,
further, that the speeds are equal, that is, both cover
the same distance in the same interval of time. But
is it correct to say that the two spheres have the same
velocity? The answer can be yes or no ! If the speedo-
mete...The example is "velocity" which in common parlance is the same as "speed," but in science it means "speed and direction."