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Crazy Buddy
Crazy Buddy
12:19 AM
@Gugg Manish has already written a post in our meta for that... :P
16
A: Why do so many posts use the term 'in doubt' or 'have a doubt' regarding established physics?

ManishearthIt's a phrase, common to Indian English (and some other Asian dialects), that means "I am confused". The word "doubt" is used as a noun here to mean "a confusion" or "an issue" or "a question". It's fine if you edit this out, just don't proactively go looking for this to take it out.

 
Crazy Buddy
Crazy Buddy
12:54 AM
BTW, Does this question seem to be ST or QG?
0
Q: Can an object be infinitely small?

user2453780I read somewhere that the earth has to be smaller than 1 cm to become a black hole, according to Schwarzschild. Since big bang came from a singularity, I am wondering, is there any minimum volume for anything?

string-theory black-holes spacetime quantum-gravity
I think general-relativity is far enough instead of those... o_O
 
 
3 hours later…
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
3:34 AM
@DavidZ Yeah, but I'm no good at TikZ ... yet
Plus TikZ doesn't solve differential equations for you. Though there's probably a LaTeX package for that, too
 
David Z
David Z
3:59 AM
@CrazyBuddy actually general-physics maybe
@ManishEarth lol, probably... TeX is Turing complete so it's definitely possible. But it would take days.
 
 
4 hours later…
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
8:06 AM
@DavidZ Yeah, I know about TeXs Turing-completeness :) But I can't imagine solving differential equations with it, too complicated :P
 
 
6 hours later…
Anonymous
2:16 PM
 
Anonymous
?
 
Anonymous
2:27 PM
"(layman)" means popular-sciencee, and so is the "blind" question (As it says, it's philosophical) and it's obviously popular-science as iit doesn't ask for any mathematical reasoning/"real" (in my terminsology) physiics .
 
RhysW
RhysW
2:57 PM
@Dimension10 "I am a donkey donkey donkeym, !!! ,,, ..."
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
@Dimension10 Because more useful tags were removed to accomodate the meta tag
And, please don't go on popular-science tagging sprees.
 
Dilaton
Dilaton
3:18 PM
@Dimension10 done and agreed: This question is not specifically about QED, so the QED tag is not needed and QFT is good enough. In addition, the OP seems as hinted by the term layman in the title, be looking for a popular explanation.
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
Hmm, yeah
That makes sense
Still, I suggest you stop mass-retagging with [popular-science]
(a) It's a meta tag (b) I probably will put up a burninate request for it soon on meta.
 
Physics Meta
Physics Meta
0
Q: What's the rest mass tag for?

Dimension10What's rest-mass for? It's probably too specific. Why not burinate it?

discussion tags
 
Michael Brown
Michael Brown
Guy talking about "energy dimensions" is telling me to have an open mind :/ physics.stackexchange.com/a/72984/17320
 
Crazy Buddy
Crazy Buddy
Hi there @MichaelBrown ... Welcome to our chat - h-bar :D
@MichaelBrown Don't have conversations with them... Leave those people...
 
Michael Brown
Michael Brown
@CrazyBuddy Thanks. Hi :) Yeah I'm not going to continue it...
 
Dilaton
Dilaton
3:32 PM
@ManishEarth popular-science is a level-filtering tag in the same way as research-level and homework and therefore important for people to accomodate the view of the site to the level of physics they are interested in. This was explained in this nice upvoted suggestion to increase the usefulness of our physic site for everybody as discussed in this meta post.
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
@Dilaton And I am uneasy about the other two tags as well
Also, you're not sure why the post was upvoted. It could be for the research level bit. I abstained from voting because I agreed with one part and disagreed with the other
 
Dilaton
Dilaton
@ManishEarth so instead of a burnicate request for the popular-science tag I would look forward more to your promised suggestion about how the book policy can be relaxed, such that people can reasonably ask for reading materials (or references as as defined by researchers and university students), which is still completely prohibited with the current policy.
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
I'll probably get both done
@Dilaton Yeah, and for that I need time. Hopefully this weekend
 
Gugg
Gugg
3:46 PM
 
Dilaton
Dilaton
@ManishEarth I think your books part of the answer to the "good-list-bad-list" question could amlost be copy pasted, it contained very nice and reasonabble suggestions (the only thing I do not see is why there should be only one answer but this is a detail).
Many people certainly would feel releaved if things could be relaxed along the lines you described there (this is just the old inofficial cummunity agreement we had BTW) such that well defined reading material questions could be asked again ;-).
@Gugg this is very cute :-)
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
@Dilaton Only one answer? Hmm, I'm iffy on that too. It can't just be copy pasted, and I want to do it right if I'm going to do it
 
Gugg
Gugg
@Dilaton Somebody on the main site has one of 1.5 kg.
And the other one was running backwards.
 
Dilaton
Dilaton
@Gugg haha, my sweet cat is a bit to massive too, but I love her anyway :-D. Maybe these mass problems are due to a not yet detected second higgs lurking somewhere in the background :-P
I like this video more, because the one going backward seems a bit to brutal, if what the one answer says is true in fact ... :-/
 
Gugg
Gugg
No, the answer is completely false. The hamster was running backwards.
 
 
1 hour later…
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
5:18 PM
 
RhysW
RhysW
@ManishEarth are you ok? :P
no way do you read that too!
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
@RhysW huh?
@RhysW as in?
I just saw a link
 
RhysW
RhysW
ah, that site is just generally awesome
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
I don't follow notalwayslearning
 
Gugg
Gugg
5:37 PM
Why isn't there a hamster tag yet?
 
Pulsar
Pulsar
@Gugg I agree. After all, we already have a mole tag :-)
4
 
Gugg
Gugg
5:54 PM
That's probably only because moles are blind and therefore able to conceive of and perceive all dimensions of M-theory, as opposed to us 3+1D-dimwits.
Besides, what would a mole need a 15W light for?
 
 
1 hour later…
Gugg
Gugg
7:01 PM
@ManishEarth Should I delete my answer on blindness, now that the question isn't about sight anymore? :) physics.stackexchange.com/q/72979/17609
 
RhysW
RhysW
@Gugg thats certainly an interesting question
i wonder if we were all blind, and unable to move, how could we prove we lived in a 3D+1D world
 
ManishEarth
ManishEarth
@Gugg Closed question, doesn't matter much. I'd say keep it.
 
Gugg
Gugg
@RhysW 1) "We" don't prove things in physics. 2) Unable to move seems to imply unable to do experiments (other than Gedankenexperimenten). But that sort of rules out superdeterminism as well, so not too sure about that point.
 
RhysW
RhysW
7:53 PM
@Gugg perhaps i would better phrase it as if we were unable to use our sense of sight or touch, how would we infer the theory that we exist in a 4d spacetime
 
Gugg
Gugg
@RhysW It smells like 4D, doesn't it? :)
 
RhysW
RhysW
@Gugg instinctively i would think we would be able to do it with sound before any other sense
but then im still flumoxed as to how we can tell the difference between sounds infront of us and behind us if they are the same pitch, volume and distance from us
 
Gugg
Gugg
@RhysW I would think heat would give us a clue.
 
RhysW
RhysW
@Gugg without a sense of touch?
 
Gugg
Gugg
@RhysW I don't know the definition of touch, but does it involve feeling the heat of a nearby fireplace?
 
RhysW
RhysW
8:05 PM
@Gugg by my definition yes,
unless you have an interesting answer involving being able to feel heat
then im curious to hear it :P
 
Gugg
Gugg
Wikipedia seems to make a distinction between touch and temperature: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense#Temperature
 
RhysW
RhysW
8:21 PM
@Gugg ah in which case, enlighten me with your heat one! im interested now
 
Gugg
Gugg
Strangely, I'm getting less interested. :) Indeed, if you don't know your body's layout or don't have a body, it will be difficult. Philosophers call this Brain-In-A-Vat, I think. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat
 
user54412
@RhysW that's actually a really good question i want to know the answer to
 
RhysW
RhysW
@ChrisWhite ive been trying to figure it out for months with no success
 
Gugg
Gugg
Perhaps we could we convinced by somebody telling us. :)
 
RhysW
RhysW
@Gugg true, im convinced we are in 4d despite never having done the experiments myself
 
user54412
8:27 PM
wonder if it would be on topic at Biology?
 
RhysW
RhysW
@ChrisWhite might be worth asking @ManishEarth hes a mod there too i think
 
Gugg
Gugg
@RhysW You are now ripe for Philosophy SE.
 
user54412
@RhysW nah, i think that's Chem you're thinking of
 
user54412
@Gugg regarding fridges full of beer, my guess is throw it all in at once if there will be air between the bottles in the final state
 
user54412
since the rate of heat extraction is probably proportional to (T - T_final)
 
user54412
8:29 PM
but if it will be completely packed, then you have issues
 
Gugg
Gugg
@ChrisWhite The bottles are shaped like usual bottles, so there will be air in between them. (Unless I'm missing out on some brilliant math.)
 
user54412
stack some upside down?
 
Gugg
Gugg
Obviously. But still.
 
RhysW
RhysW
@ChrisWhite will have a check, might be worth doing
 
Gugg
Gugg
@RhysW and @ChrisWhite I think this has to do with whether we can "know" stuff a-priori. Perhaps something like M-Theory is such, that it is unique in its consistency and self-explanatory power.
 
user54412
8:35 PM
wonders if multiline ascii art can work in chat
 
user54412
`this is a
long comment`
 
user54412
`this is a long`
`multiline comment`
 
RhysW
RhysW
@ChrisWhite not really :P
 
user54412
> how about
> this?
 
user54412
sigh
 
RhysW
RhysW
8:36 PM
what are you doing? :P
 
Gugg
Gugg
Sandboxing?
I think there's a room for that.
 
user54412
@Gugg the interesting thing is if the bottles are very closely packed, the fact that they are separate inhibits convection on large scales - basically you have the same structure as styrofoam - so the inner bottles would take forever to cool
 
user54412
my understanding is this is a problem for, e.g., dams, since without metal cooling rods inserted, the concrete would take decades to cool and solidify
 
user54412
@RhysW I have a "beautiful" ascii rendition of closely-packed beer bottles that needs monospace type
 
RhysW
RhysW
@ChrisWhite ahh
man my internet is sucky today, cant even keep up at 144p ...
 
Gugg
Gugg
8:40 PM
The bottles are a bit like cylinders (Do I need to explain a bottle to you?), so there's plenty of room for air?
 
user54412
@Gugg wait, bottle or can?
 
Gugg
Gugg
@ChrisWhite Bottles. This is some fancy party. Can't serve cans. :)
 
RhysW
RhysW
beer or wine bottles? :P
 
user54412
well, you did say "Assume that I know how to get as much bottles into the fridge as possible" so I assume you've figured how to pack even bottles in with no space
 
Gugg
Gugg
@ChrisWhite Without breaking them, I think I'll still have room for air left. :)
 
 
1 hour later…
RhysW
RhysW
9:46 PM
2
Q: How can we tell which direction sound is coming from?

RhysWPretty self descriptive, without being able to view the source of the noise how can we tell the difference between a sound in front of us and a sound behind us if pitch, volume and distance are all the same. Also assume that it is not biased to one side more than the other, e.g its not to your ...

hearing
 
user54412
@RhysW cool, but that wiki article linked in the answer is... umm... suspect
 
user54412
not for being wrong, but for being copy/pasted by someone without even reading it
 
user54412
unless I'm missing something - where is Figure #6?
 
user54412
oddly enough, the only people on the internet who seem to recognize this plagiarism are these folks, whose entire business is just replicating other internet sites
 
RhysW
RhysW
10:22 PM
@ChrisWhite irony ha a beautiful way of working like that
 

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