imatfaal

But expansion increases with distance so its inverse should be related to the reciprocal of distance; however gravity is related to the reciprocal of the square of distance. edit Just noticed you said negative not inverse - but same argument applies.

Try squaring each figure and seeing how it relates to the x and y (and to x^2 and y^2). I think you will quickly work it out then. if not I will post the answer

Ah - that makes sense. As a very speculative follow up: if you get massive photons in an electrical superconductor; do you, by analogy, get massive gluons in a colour superconductor?

Not at all - the assumption is yours; to whit, that an explanation exists that is both valid and you can comprehend. Bell's inequality, whilst still argued over, goes a long way to confirming that classical theories cannot explain qm effects. The second reason for my contention is that, if a simple and true heuristic existed I wouldn't be trying to get my head around grassmann variables; ie the educators of the world would seize upon it with great sighs of relief.

Many of the stories in the UK press about non-religious intolerance for religious holidays (or one religions intolerances for anothers holidays) are just make believe. At least one newspaper every year will run a story about a council banning christmas - or at least calling the holiday something else normally Wintertide- and on closer inspection they are just false. Anyone offended by someone wishing them happiness and good cheer by saying Merry Christmas is, frankly, a bit weird. I am a fully-signed up atheist - yet in a twelve month period I have been to Christmas parties (with carol singing ), diwali celebrations, joined in an eid feast, and was invited to a sri lankan buddhist celebrations host by my catholic sri lankan neighbour PS David Cameron say multi-culturalism has failed - to be honest in London it seems to be doing just great.

But at a point the translation into terms that are comprehensible to your mind removes the validity of the theory - it is then worthless. It is not just that QM doesn't make wrong predictions, it is the fact that no simple classical theory can make the correct predictions.

Lemur - the fact is that with modern physics there is a choice between "something ... designed and desired to be understandable" which tallies with our innate preconceptions of the way the world works and theories that actually describe experimental reality and can claim to be consistent with the facts. If you can get hold of it, have a read of the introduction to Leonard Susskind's The Black Hole War which looks, briefly but nicely, at this matter. Whilst I can see the points of the argument that claims an almost deliberate obfuscation, it is incorrect; there are no easy, accessible, and everyday routes through QM and most of modern physics.

The article doesn't mention superconductivity - but does mention cooper pair formation. Cooper pairs would lead to normal superconductivity wouldn't it?

I think oldman was saying that the ratio of times of emission and the ratio of strengths of forces should be inversely proportional - rearrangement of that simple equation would give time for graviton emission in terms of the ratio of energies and the time of emission of a photon. This would be dimensionally correct - but I am really very unsure that there is any physics behind it

Limbaugh does sound like someone was frantically googling in the background and providing info to a host totally at sea.

Lady Nancy Astor: "Winston, if you were myhusband, I'd poison your tea." Churchill: "Nancy, if I were your husband, I'd drink it."

I do a fair amount of academic reading on an exercise bike - either real book or kindle. When you get in the zone it is great; time flies, the exercise part loses any grim boringness, and the reading sinks in. But, when you cannot get into the correct frame of mind it becomes a form of torture; perceived passage of time slows to a crawl, nothing makes any sense, and thus it is tedious and unfulfilling. I now find that, if after 5 mins, it really isn't working I just switch on some tunes or play computer games; ie I give up! I can force myself to exercise and I can force myself to study, but I cannot force myself to do both at same time

Low energy annihilations will produce two gamma rays with 511 KeV. The lhc operates with particles at much higher energies - the lead nuclei will eventually have c 500 TeV so 511 KeV won't be a problem. PET scans work by detecting those two gamma rays that are given off when a positron annihilates with an electron in the body.

Your assertion that gps in general are not fulfilling their duty of referral is baseless - certainly some gps are bad at their jobs (anyone care to suggest a profession that has no slackers?) but the vast majority of specialist referrals come from the family practitioner. What makes you think gps are discount medicine? They are not cheap and they are trained to the same standard as hospital physicians. You continue to contrast doctors and archaeologists - 3 year degree 3 year phd; and you are as well academically qualified as you can be; most medics in England finish taking exams in late twenties early thirties with their memberships - that's ten years training. I am also unsure that archaeologists continue to be reviewed theoughtout their working lives to ensure they have kept abreast of latest ideas. And if an archaeologist screws up , it will be in the very rarest case that they will be sued for multiple millions Take a look at the gains in life expectancy and disease survivability - they are pretty good, and getting better, Drs cannot take much of the credit for that, but they can takes great deal.

Love that pseudomap Dr Pangloss - do you have a link for the originating site please?

With respect stop browsing forum and start typing up something substantive http://abstrusegoose.com/327

Lemur - when you are ill, who works out what is wrong with you in order that you can be put on track to the correct level of medical attention? If we all knew, in advance, what was wrong with us then medicine would be a great deal easier. Levels of triage work very well in situations where many of the ailments can be easily identified and most fall into similar categories; but GPs train so that they can spot the outlier, the rogue extreme and that is what makes the highly trained generalist very useful.

Jacques - I haven't read the article, but I know from past experience that sciencedaily can sometimes exaggerate and cherry-pick. I will try and find time, and I should recommend you do as well, to read the actual article; I won't understand half of it - perhaps you will do better, but its much better than a journo's take on the article.

O I dunno Captain - the cascade of events after the tragic act of Mohamed Bouazizi sound much like those of the 'the butterfly that causes the hurricane' much-beloved of chaos theorists. That we mortal humans could not hope to ever come up with such a system to describe such seemingly infinite complexity does not rule out the possibility that such a system could exist

It seems to me that much of science is basically the effort to push back the how/why barrier. Many concepts that in my youth were documented but not explained are now well understood BUT the underlying causation is now in the state of being measured but it is yet unable to be fully conceptualised theoretically.

No. The forces holding atoms in place and together are enormously more massive than those involved in the expansion of space. We are able to recognize and measure the expansion of space only because of the huge distances involved. At a human level, even at a solar system level, the EM force and gravity are far far bigger than any background expansion. Its the space that is expanding and by an incredibly tiny amount; to such a small amount that it does not affect lumpen creatures like us at all, but on the mind-boggling scales of inter-galatic space (with no competing forces) it becomes important.

Blossom - does that really follow? If total energy is infinite how come I am slightly chilly in my office; surely if it was infinite, after everything else was heated up to a mad form of plasma there would still be enough energy to keep my office nice and toasty. I would be more likely to say that on a cosmological scale that total energy is zero - ie everything balances out.

Klaynos, SwansonT, AJB etc Does it ever "become clear" - or do you just learn to work around the problems? I know that some things I understand mechanically/consciously; others I have grown so 'happy' with, that the understanding is more natural/unconscious. Do the counter-intuitive contra-logical ideas of much of modern physics become part of your foundation of understanding that is no longer questioned, or does it always remain a little bit 'out-there' and alien. Sorry if this is off-topic and too philosophical

And if you can afford that - can we get jobs as advisors? If you really want to study nuclear/atomic physics then I am sure there are other avenue that you can go down - I don't know what age group you are part of but you can build your own geiger counter. At a slightly easier level - but with great results - what about a cloud chamber? You can get trails from cosmic rays, which is beyond cool (well it is in my tiny mind)

Lemur - what are you trying to say? Your post makes little sense.