A Conversation for Ask h2g2
e=mc2
Gnomon - time to move on Posted Nov 7, 2000
I thought neutrino detectors were filled with dry cleaning fluid or antifreeze or something, not water.
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The Fish Posted Nov 9, 2000
Still.... you can't really prove ANY of this physics... you can only come to a surmation beyond reasonable doubt 
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Gnomon - time to move on Posted Nov 9, 2000
My pet peeve: "but you can't prove that, it's only a theory".
Nothing can be proved in Science. It's not like Mathematics. All you do with any theory is establish it beyond reasonable doubt. This applies to the theory that the earth goes around the sun, the theory of evolution and the theory that I have a head (see Borges' story "I have no head" for an interesting insight on this last one).
No scientist doubts the theory of relativity (except for a few of the minor details). All the evidence agrees with it. No other view of the world is as accurate in predicting what happens at high speeds and in large gravitational fields.
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Vakuum Posted Nov 9, 2000
Nothing can be proved in science.. yeah,I am in for that one.
When I had physics in college some time ago.. well, I hated it. I love the theories, they are really interesting, but sooner or late comes the maths into it..and I get stuck.
But yeah.. I think we can trust the theories quite much. Nothing else is prooved, and there is no better explanation out there. (Ok, you DO have the bible, and it's a cute little story..... but I wouldn't call it trustworthy.)
Oh.. I want to learn physics again.. 
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Niz (soon to be gone) Posted Nov 9, 2000
I don't know if this will help but lately I have started reading these books I came across. They are called "Introducing......" and have titles including quantum mechanics, chaos, philosophy, sociology etc.
They are really well put together, interesting and easy to understand.
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Vakuum Posted Nov 9, 2000
Great.. thanx.
I'll take a look at that sometime. (Read: when I don't have too much to read for my modules.) 
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The Cow Posted Nov 10, 2000
Make your own neutrino detector:
Get a rather large container (10m x 10m x 10m at a minimum)
Fill with water or other reasonably dense fluid... water's cheap.
Put in a disused salt mine (to block out all the photons by several hundred meters of rock)
Turn the lights off
Put a ludicrously powerful camera there on continously open.
Wait.
You should get a nutrino every few years, on average.
*from the researcher who brought you 'Make your own Scanning Electron Microscope*
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Xanatic(phenomena phreak) Posted Nov 13, 2000
Sheesh, you´re gone to Dublin for a week and when you return there´s all these new smileys. Anyways, Vakuum if you´re not very good at math how has that affected you studying physics? Cos I´m no good at math, but I also like the natural sciences.
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Vakuum Posted Nov 13, 2000
It did affect my physics, as the physics they thought us in college, was full of formulars.. it was angles whith reflection of light, and then there is all this things with speed, and time and force, and "how fast a rock will fall, considering the wind is changing, and this and that factor playing in.. and so on.It just appeared to me, as though I liked the theories, there would always be some mathematics in it sooner or later and when that math got a bit complicated, I really had to struggle to pass the subject, because 90% of the tests we had, had to do with calulating. I would have given you some nice examples, if it weren't because my physics books are in Norway, and not here with me.
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The Cow Posted Nov 13, 2000
Every theory will be debunked sooner or later.
It's just that the theory will usually be *improved* upon, eg: newtonian physics is a good approximation to relatevistic physics, which is a good approximation to Grand Unified Theory...
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The Cow Posted Nov 14, 2000
No, it doesn't.
That's why there's Physics Studies...
** 95% maths free! **
** High in theories, Low in calculation **
my apologies to all those with Phys. Stud. degrees
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Virus I Posted Nov 19, 2000
About the wire thing. If the wire was infintely rigid it would in theory transmit a tug faster than light. However it would then have infinite mass, and therefore be untuggable. Does mass relate to rigidity?
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The Cow Posted Nov 19, 2000
No.
Rigidity is more a property of shape than material (although a plasticine tower is doomed to failure)
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Virus I Posted Nov 20, 2000
Cow - Not so sure you're right about that. To be infinitely rigid it would have to be infinitely dense.
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protecter of the jam doughnut Posted Nov 25, 2000
I found some articles recently in a book written by Terry Pratchett titled The Science of Discworld which gives the facts as the scientists are aware of them in an easy to read slightly humourous setting
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The Cow Posted Nov 26, 2000
Yes, I've read that. One of the advantages of being a pupil librarian - get to see all the good books first!
Key: Complain about this post
e=mc2
- 41: Gnomon - time to move on (Nov 7, 2000)
- 42: Vakuum (Nov 7, 2000)
- 43: The Fish (Nov 9, 2000)
- 44: Gnomon - time to move on (Nov 9, 2000)
- 45: Vakuum (Nov 9, 2000)
- 46: Niz (soon to be gone) (Nov 9, 2000)
- 47: Vakuum (Nov 9, 2000)
- 48: The Cow (Nov 10, 2000)
- 49: Xanatic(phenomena phreak) (Nov 13, 2000)
- 50: Vakuum (Nov 13, 2000)
- 51: The Cow (Nov 13, 2000)
- 52: Vakuum (Nov 14, 2000)
- 53: The Cow (Nov 14, 2000)
- 54: Virus I (Nov 19, 2000)
- 55: The Cow (Nov 19, 2000)
- 56: Virus I (Nov 20, 2000)
- 57: Virus I (Nov 20, 2000)
- 58: protecter of the jam doughnut (Nov 25, 2000)
- 59: The Cow (Nov 26, 2000)
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