The Science & Skepticism Thread

But am I out of my depth.
Yes. By a long long way.

... so far none of the "experts" on here have actually come up with any valid proof that what I have said to disprove 2 so called paradoxes as pure b****x.
What specifically was wrong with the proofs presented by @Rapscallion in post #489 and post #491above?

As I have told you before being right isn't governed by the number who say so.
Indeed. In maths, being right is governed by what is actually right. Something which you still don't seem to understand.
 
But am I out of my depth. You may think so but so far none of the "experts" on here have actually come up with any valid proof that what I have said to disprove 2 so called paradoxes as pure b****x. Not my fault if they or yourself can't understand something so blatantly obvious.

As I have told you before being right isn't governed by the number who say so. When I took my maths mock O-level I was sure I'd failed. Everyone else had the same or similar answers, but all different to mine. Then when the results were announced l scored 86%. No-one else got above 57%. But then you won't believe that anyway and neither will the rest of the flock.
There are so many answers to this, unfortunately I understand a direct instruction from the mods.
 
Yes. By a long long way.

What specifically was wrong with the proofs presented by @Rapscallion in post #489 and post #491above?

Indeed. In maths, being right is governed by what is actually right. Something which you still don't seem to understand.
So tell me where I am wrong,
1-1+1-1+1-1+1...........to infinite, is not 1/2 there is no answer to it as it runs to infinite. You can't say it's neither one or the other so it must be 1/2, that is just a cop out to appease yourself. It is simply neither one nor the other. End of.

The hotel paradox. A hotel with an infinite number of rooms, yet we are told that all rooms are occupied. There is only one way we can know all rooms are occupied and that is by knowing how many rooms there are, so there isn't an infinite number of rooms. With over 7 billion people as the earths population, you can accommodate them all if you truly have an infinite number of rooms and no -one needs to start swapping rooms to vacate a room or rooms. If you wanted to get the whole lot to swap rooms at the rate of 1 a second by the time the last person was re-accommodated, it would take over 200yrs. So to start changing rooms serves no other purpose than p*** off the customers, it's pointless and there is no paradox.

Gabriel's Trumpet (Horn) We are told that the trumpet is of infinite length yet the volume inside is finite. The only way the volume can be finite is if it tapers down to nothing but if the inside tapers down to nothing the horn itself must also taper down to nothing, hence the length of the horn isn't infinite, it will be of a finite length the same or very close to that of the depth of the whole. The only way the length of the horn can be infinite is if it stops tapering down and runs parallel. If it runs parallel then the hole can also run parallel and it's depth is also infinite. As I said before if you truly believe the volume inside the horn to be finite as we are informed it isn't a horn or trumpet it is just a shaped piece of metal.


If you want a true paradox, stand 10 metres from a wall and throw a ball at it. At 5 metres from the wall, it's half way there, at 2.5 metres from the wall, it's halved the distance again, at 1.25 metres from the wall it's halved the distance again and so on and so on, it keeps halving it's distance from the wall. As the ball can continue to keep halving the distance no matter how small the number it can still be halved, the ball will never actually reach the wall.
 
A warning has been given for this post
There are so many answers to this, unfortunately I understand a direct instruction from the mods.
Actually there is only one answer, the right one, all of yours however are just wrong.(y)
 
There are so many answers to this, unfortunately I understand a direct instruction from the mods.

Thank you. If only everyone did :lol:
 
Maybe they should. Might shame those who don't into doing so :lol:
 
It could be the biggest physics discovery since the Higgs boson. Or not. There's a major media event at the LIGO - Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory - later today (15:30 GMT). Most scientists in the field expect that it will announce the first confirmed detection of gravitational waves, which is a hugely important topic in contemporary physics. But the LIGO team aren't talking yet. It will certainly be a big let-down if the rumours are not confirmed.

Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity in 1916, and I think it's the only important prediction which has not so far been confirmed. The Wikipedia article on gravitational; waves is excellent, though a bit heavy going in some places, and there's a good piece by Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, in today's Telegraph.
 
It could be the biggest physics discovery since the Higgs boson. Or not. There's a major media event at the LIGO - Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory - later today (15:30 GMT). Most scientists in the field expect that it will announce the first confirmed detection of gravitational waves, which is a hugely important topic in contemporary physics. But the LIGO team aren't talking yet. It will certainly be a big let-down if the rumours are not confirmed.

Gravitational waves were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity in 1916, and I think it's the only important prediction which has not so far been confirmed. The Wikipedia article on gravitational; waves is excellent, though a bit heavy going in some places, and there's a good piece by Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, in today's Telegraph.
Certainly will be a gasp of relief from the GR camp if they are detected.
James
 
Go, Sheldon and Leonard!!! ;)
 
Great news from the LIGO team.

Incidentally, if you weren't aware of it, the engineering of these detectors is almost unbelievable. The arms of the interferometers are 4000m long, and when a gravitational wave passes through the length changes by about 0.000000000000000001m, but that's enough to detect. Amazing.

First step towards a lot more discoveries as well I imagine, we can now refine it and start to look at dark matter, and the gravity waves generated from the big bang.
 
Great news from the LIGO team.

Incidentally, if you weren't aware of it, the engineering of these detectors is almost unbelievable. The arms of the interferometers are 4000m long, and when a gravitational wave passes through the length changes by about 0.000000000000000001m, but that's enough to detect. Amazing.
Hard to see on my mini iPad but was that 1x10exp-18 ?

I believe the next step is to refine this instrument even more to eventually detect lower frequency gravitational waves - the lower frequency waves are produced by collision of even larger black hole pairs.
 
Hard to see on my mini iPad but was that 1x10exp-18 ?

I believe the next step is to refine this instrument even more to eventually detect lower frequency gravitational waves - the lower frequency waves are produced by collision of even larger black hole pairs.

Or in context, sensitive enough to detect a change in distance between Earth and Proxima Centauri by the width of a human hair.
 
Or in context, sensitive enough to detect a change in distance between Earth and Proxima Centauri by the width of a human hair.
But this is detecting a ripple in the fabric of space-time. So beyond the stretching and squeezing of the normal 3 dimensions can they detect a relative fluctuations in time as well ?
 
It's amazing to consider that anything with mass "generates" gravity, and that gravity "bends" light (gravitational lensing) but to think that gravity waves are thrown out like ripples in a pond when stuff collides or explodes is absolutely mental. No wonder trains are never on time.
 
The science and astronomy podcasts are going to be even more fascinating next week.
 
Long shot, but would anyone here happen to know of a strategy for quantifying the extent of amorphisation in an electron microscope, without relying on lattice imaging or electron diffraction?
 
I spent an evening with a guy on Saturday who believes it.

Lovely bloke, great evening. When he started on this I just ignored him. He got the message.

ETA. It wasn't a romantic evening BTW :D
 
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I spent an evening with a guy on Saturday who believes it.

Lovely bloke, great evening. When he started on this I just ignored him. He got the message.

ETA. It wasn't a romanic evening BTW :D

Chemtrails by candlelight :)
 
Please don't sign this!
There are actually a few people from this country who have :eek:
"These agents cause respiratory diseases, heart damage, as well as, temporary loss of memory, headaches, disorientation".

:runaway:

TBH not heard that before I thought they were Ghost rider trails in the sky ( AKA Aliens)
 
"These agents cause respiratory diseases, heart damage, as well as, temporary loss of memory, headaches, disorientation".

:runaway:


Compared to the mess that landing on terra firma after inhaling them in their concentrated form (and at that altitude, even breathing could be difficult) will do, I can't see any problem... :P
 
The big problem with chemtrails is that they contain a very high proportion of dihydrogen monoxide. That's really nasty stuff which is responsible for literally hundreds of thousands of deaths each year around the world.
 
Nasty stuff, isn't it? ;) Fish do unspeakable things in it! :P
 
Heres a relatively old video on the solving of one of the most famous mathematical theorems. Pretty interesting how he thought he had to keep his 'quest' hidden from others.

 
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