benedictusk
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My math teachers say that 0 to the power of 0 is undefined, but after messing around a little, I found this: 00=00 Original equation 00=00*1 Multiply one side by one 00/00=1 Divide both sides by 00 00=1 Simplify using the division laws of exponents Are my teachers incorrect or did I make a mistake?
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Boardwalk around the earth...
benedictusk replied to BassChase's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
I think that "perfectly evenly distributed" means that the Earth is a perfect sphere, has a constant density throughout, and there are no outside sources of gravity. I would assume that if it was built from a sturdy material and gravity on it was perfectly balanced, it would float, but only until people started walking on it. -
What toastywombel said is correct, but if you still don't understand, this experiment might clear things up (you probably shouldn't actually do it to avoid making a mess, but I'm pretty sure you'll understand just by reading the procedure) 1. Get a jar of marbles 2. Open it 3. Flip it upside down with your hand covering the opening 4. Move your hand away from the opening and let the marbles fall The marbles will start to spread out, getting farther away from the center and, in general, farther away from each other. However, some marbles will collide.
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Maglevs and Vacuum Tunnels
benedictusk replied to benedictusk's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
Sorry for not replying in a long time. I got back to school from vacation and got piled with tests and homework. Also, I my Physics Research teacher told me that too many people in the class wanted to research maglevs in vacuum tunnels, so it won't be my research topic anymore. However, it still interests me and I will be doing a bit of research on it, but I will have to concentrate more on my new topic. I still have a couple more questions on how the underwater tunnel would be built: 1. How would each tunnel part be connected? 2. Each tunnel part is closed on both ends (according to a video I saw about the theoretical transatlantic tunnel) so that no water gets in. How would these walls be removed once the tunnel is put together? Due to the cost of a transatlantic tunnel, I was thinking of a location for a shorter tunnel. Perhaps from Florida to New York? Also, I thought of a way to solve the problem of where the gas goes in my design with individual people. Before launching, the person attaches the gas tank to a large metal container inside the tunnel. The gas is released into the container, which is closed after the gas is released. The container leads the gas outside the tunnel to a storage where it can be reused. The problem I see with this is that after part of the gas is released, the person will move forward a bit, and the gas tank will no longer be attached to the container, so some gas will escape into the tunnel. -
expanding and accelerating universe
benedictusk replied to Nimmer's topic in Astronomy and Cosmology
I'm not saying your idea is rubbish. I understand why you would think that centrifugal force might cause the universe to expand. I'm just saying that your theory is incorrect based on certain laws of physics. Let me give you an example to explain how centripetal and centrifugal forces work. A car is driving in a circle. Centripetal force accelerates the car towards the center of the circle, which causes the car's velocity to always be tangent to the circle. Centrifugal force is a pseudoforce, which is felt by someone in the car. This is your inertia, or resistance to change in velocity, but it is not actually pulling you away from the center of the circle. This is why centrifugal force can't be the reason for the universe's accelerating expansion. It would be better if instead of complaining about people destroying your theory, you backed it up with some science, or created a new theory based on your old theory and what you have learned from other people's constructive criticism. I'm going to analyze the rest of your theory to help you improve it. This is an interesting idea and is possible. Supposedly there is a black hole in the center of our galaxy, and it is possible that there is a cluster of black holes in the center of our universe, which would cause all the galaxies to orbit around it. This is unlikely. I see no reason for the galaxies on one plane to accelerate away from the center of the universe faster than the galaxies on another plane. If you find a way to make your ideas fit, let me know, and by the way, it's just as important to find problems with a theory as it is to find their solutions. EDIT: In case you don't know, centripetal force is any force that accelerates an object in motion towards the center of a circle. -
Maglevs and Vacuum Tunnels
benedictusk replied to benedictusk's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
By "on land" I meant underground. Sorry for not being clear about that. I did some more research and here are some conclusions: An underwater transatlantic vacuum tunnel would not be a good location. First of all, it is much harder to build a tunnel underwater than underground. Secondly, a tunnel that long would take at least several decades to build, and possibly more than a century. Finally, the tunnel's cost is estimated to be in the trillions of dollars, and the cost for maintaining it would be quite high, as well. I think that the best location for a vacuum tunnel would be underground or through a smaller body of water. For the underground tunnel, I would suggest from New York to California (about 1,500 km shorter than the transatlantic tunnel). I think that the increase in cost for keeping the tunnel straight on land would be about the same (or less) as the increase in cost caused by the challenges of making the tunnel underwater. These extra costs include the anchors and tethers, the price for ships needed to carry the parts out to the ocean, getting water out of the tunnel, and probably some more. I was also thinking about how the train traffic would be organized and most of the time when looking at designs for the transatlantic tunnel, I found that the plan was to have two tracks for trains going in opposite directions and a turn at each end of the tunnel. However, I think it would be better to have just one track with a single train that starts, stops at the end, and goes back. This would make the project cheaper as it eliminates the cost of a second track and doesn't require a large turn at each end of the tunnel. This is also safer than having several trains. The downside of this is a longer waiting time for the train, but considering the fact that the time it takes the train to get from one end of the track to the other is a little over 40 minutes (if the train goes from New York to California at 6,000 km/h), there isn't too long a wait time (probably shorter than what you wait at an airport), and a train schedule will prevent people from arriving too early. Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedEDIT: Just noticed a new problem with an underground tunnel. The tunnel would probably be made by digging, but then steel and concrete tunnel parts would have to be placed inside what was originally dug because air will get in otherwise. This would mean that building an underground tunnel would require all the materials of building an underwater tunnel plus digging and somehow finding a way to get them underground. -
This isn't Newton's third law. This is a formula used when measuring properties of waves. Newton's third law is every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
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The Mythbusters did this experiment and the result was that the best thing to do for plants is play music instead of talk.
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expanding and accelerating universe
benedictusk replied to Nimmer's topic in Astronomy and Cosmology
Wouldn't centripetal force completely cancel out centrifugal force? -
Maglevs and Vacuum Tunnels
benedictusk replied to benedictusk's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
I did some research and found out a bit of information on the theoretical Transatlantic Tunnel. The main problems, leaving cost out of the way for now, seem to me be the unstable conditions underwater. The construction plan I see most often is placing large anchors in the sea bed and using tethers to tie the tunnel (made of a buoyant material) to the anchors. However, ocean currents would cause the tunnel to sway and this might cause a train running inside to go off course. The other plan is a tunnel lying on or under the seabed, where the effects of currents would be minimal. However, all these plans put the tunnel at risk of underwater earthquakes. I think it would be best to build the first vacuum tunnel in a calmer body of water than an ocean (perhaps from Florida to Mexico through the gulf of Mexico) or on land (perhaps a transcontinental tunnel from New York to California, following a similar track as the transcontinental railroad). Because of the problems with permanent magnets, the best thing would be, like you said, superconductors to keep the train levitating. Electromagnets will be used to propel at first, to stop it, and there should probably be some placed along the track in the case of an emergency. Are there any other known problems that might occur with a vacuum tunnel running through one of the paths I proposed? -
Does Infinity exist in nature
benedictusk replied to adam SA's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
The first is an object moving below the speed of sound. The second is an object moving at the speed of sound. The third is an object moving faster than the speed of sound. The fourth is the sound barrier. Notice how in the second, there are five circles and the sound barrier is tangent to all of them, so there are five waves taking up no space between them. Their density is 5/0... or infinity Merged post follows: Consecutive posts mergedThe image isn't showing up, so here's a link. If that doesn't work, here's the URL: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Sound_barrier_chart.svg EDIT: Also, there are such things as larger and smaller infinities. -
Maglevs and Vacuum Tunnels
benedictusk replied to benedictusk's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
I see why a train would be better than launching individual people, so I'll do some research on previously made plans and see if they can improved or made less expensive. I'll probably still mess around with my idea a little bit, but I'm going to concentrate on perfecting the train method, as this is what appears to work better. Questions: Is there temperature in a vacuum, and what is it? How expensive would it be to cool superconductors in a vacuum so that they work? Depending on the cost of cooling superconductors, it may be better to use electromagnets to get the train to start moving and permanent magnets to keep it levitating. I did some research and found that there is a maglev train in existence that uses permanent magnets called the Inductrack, in which permanent magnets are positioned in a Halbach Array, which creates a stable magnetic field. Here is a link. -
Maglevs and Vacuum Tunnels
benedictusk replied to benedictusk's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
insane_alien: Thank you for pointing all that out. I am still finding even more problems on my own, which I hope to fix. Anyway, here are my ideas for the problems you pointed out: a) My idea was that the magnets only repel the person (though I'm not sure this is possible) to keep him in the air. I will do some more research on magnets and superconductors and see what I come up with. b) I was actually thinking about this earlier today, and my new idea is that the tanks with gas release the gas automatically when the person's in the right position and the container is pointing in the right direction. As for the person slamming into a wall; I don't think this will happen because the person can't control where he goes in the vacuum. He has the momentum from the initial launch, and after that, the magnets should guide him. c) I have a couple reasons for choosing this method over a train: 1. I don't know the costs of these things, but I think that launching individual people with a gas that gets reused (see my answer to d for how this works) is cheaper than propelling a train using electromagnets. 2. Launching individual people means no waiting for a train. A person goes in, launches, and five seconds later the next person goes. 3. This method is more efficient than a maglev train because you don't need to keep using energy to move forward. For a maglev train to move, energy is constantly used in electromagnets that propel the train forward, whereas in my method, after releasing some gas, you can go on at the same speed no matter how far your destination is. d) I forgot to mention this in my original post: in the tunnel, near each entrance, there is what is pretty much a vacuum cleaner, which will suck up the gas and send it through a tube to be reused by the next person. npts2020: Read my answer to part c This is another problem that occurred to me (I'm trying to come up with a solution, but suggestions would be really helpful): After launch, the person may start flipping over as he goes forward. Apart from a chance of the person vomiting, this will make it very hard to stop using the system I proposed earlier. -
Does Infinity exist in nature
benedictusk replied to adam SA's topic in Modern and Theoretical Physics
I may be wrong but I'm fairly certain that when an object moves faster than the speed of sound, the sound waves in front of the object are infinitely dense, so infinity does exist in nature. -
I'm currently researching and planning experiments for a transportation method that uses magnetic levitation and a vacuum tunnel. My idea is to build a tunnel with no air inside it and have magnets on the floor and sides of the tunnel. A person goes in the tunnel wearing a space suit with extra metal on it. The person has a container full of compressed gas. When the container is opened, the person will be launched forward due to conservation of momentum. Because he's in a vacuum, there will be no air resistance to slow him down, and he won't fall because of the magnets. Anyways, I have a few questions that I need to know the answer to in order to build on to what I have so far. How does an airlock work? (so that when a person goes into the tunnel, none of the outside air gets into the vacuum) How would the person stop moving? (I was thinking he could have another container with slightly less gas to slow him down, and then he grabs a handle on the wall, but I'd like to know if there are better ways) Is there something wrong with my idea, or anything that probably won't work? Please forgive me if this belongs in the Speculation section instead of here; this is my first post, so I'm unsure of where to place it.