uncertainty principles
Sep. 23rd, 2003 01:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helenicART-FAG.NET, something new. I've been listening to King Crimson's Larks' Tongues in Aspic on repeat all day (it's the only track you'll ever need) and writing html, and am in a fantastically good mood. On Saturday Iain and I sat in an inner-city park I used to play in as a toddler and talked about physics; he tried to explain why time slows down as you approach the speed of light and although I grasped the concept of inertial frames of reference easily enough I've never been able to comprehend what time actually is, what does it measure? "Time is the property of the universe that facilitates causality," said Iain, lying back and resting his head on his hands, but it didn't really help. I did, however, manage to understand why falling into a black hole turns you into spaghetti, which made me feel a little better. That night, eating shepherd's pie in a farmhouse kitchen with my parents and about thirty pensioners from my mum's church, he and my dad continued to work on me, using the cruet set to illustrate the principle of neutron stars so dense light cannot actually go round them, and in return I challenged him to work out the density of Button Moon given estimates of the size and mass of Mr. Spoon (20cm; 50grams) and the diameter of the button (1metre). After a few minutes scribbling on a napkin he came to the conclusion that if Mr. Spoon was able to jump a quarter of his own height it would have to be about as dense as the real moon, only infinitesimally smaller. It would still be a bloody big button though, if you ask me.
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on 2003-09-23 05:08 am (UTC)*giggles*
you're adorable. i cant see art-fag yet cause my internet is slow today but i will rush as soon as the matter is fixed.
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on 2003-09-23 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-23 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-23 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-23 07:20 am (UTC)xxx
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on 2003-09-23 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-23 07:56 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-23 09:26 am (UTC)I think that's my problem with physics in general. I have this urge to understand it, and all too frequently you can't until you've done about four years of studying. Which I don't have time to do, and I absolutely HATED it at gcse when my questions were answered with "ah ... we don't cover that yet..."
A few words of explanation
on 2003-09-23 09:26 pm (UTC)This answers your queries, "How did you find my journal and why did you add it?" There is very little reason as to why you should add me back, which you may have noticed in my one (and possibly only) journal entry. You are perfectly welcome too, just do not do it with high hopes of learning about me. And that was your first question actually, "Who are you?" But by now, I’ve written you quite a book to begin with, so that may be addressed at another time.
Re: A few words of explanation
on 2003-09-25 06:19 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-24 12:00 am (UTC)&thanks for linking me, i'll link back when i complete my site.
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on 2003-09-25 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-24 12:50 am (UTC)+pola
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on 2003-09-25 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-24 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2003-09-25 06:03 am (UTC)I think I'm going to stick to The Time and Space of Uncle Albert.
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on 2003-10-03 03:33 am (UTC)the important thing about time is that it's not just a fixed conveyor belt, always moving forwards at the same speed. it can move at different speeds and in different directions, depending on where you are and how fast things are moving. and gravity. argh.
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on 2003-10-12 09:25 am (UTC)I like.
(The scans of your recent sketch books aren't there..)
I'll stick to the metaphysics of time I think - I can, at least, understand that...
xxx