For all you theoretical physics lovers!

[Phreak101]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

I went to bed entirely too late last night watching all of these...simply mindblowing! Especially the 3rd hour!

Enjoy!

[Bojangles69]

i have to see the one about parallel universes, seems pretty interesting

[Tren Bull]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

I went to bed entirely too late last night watching all of these...simply mindblowing! Especially the 3rd hour!

Enjoy!

aww man, all i got is dial up so its gonna take like 4 days to download that

[Phreak101]

They are all part of the same documentary. Beware, once you watch one, you won't be able to stop...it's like crack!

[Phreak101]

aww man, all i got is dial up so its gonna take like 4 days to download that

DSL is 9.99 a month bro, time to upgrade!

[Bojangles69]

ahaha reminded me of that that turtle commercial about dsl, i luv that commerical

[Tren Bull]

haha, speaking of physics, i brouth it up today in my philosophy class when my teacher said that science can not tell us whats real.

when i heard that i simply had to point out the 4 maxwell's eqns that are all based on experiment. nobody derived them, they are directly from our observations of electricity and magnetism.

and wouldn't ya know it, some motherfu_ker made a PPFFFTTT noise when i said that. little fu_kin punk. i didn't see who did it, but it came from an area of the classroom where the guys were all fu_kin pinner

[Tren Bull]

it makes me so fu_kin angry some scrawny little punk felt that he could get away with doing that. makes me want to rip out his arms, and then carve some e&m equations into his face and chest with a knife

[auslifta]

it makes me so fu_kin angry some scrawny little punk felt that he could get away with doing that. makes me want to rip out his arms, and then carve some e&m equations into his face and chest with a knife

deep breaths,calm,think calm.

[Kärnfysikern]

Is it the thing about strings with brian greene that nova showed some time ago?

[DSM4Life]

haha, speaking of physics, i brouth it up today in my philosophy class when my teacher said that science can not tell us whats real.

when i heard that i simply had to point out the 4 maxwell's eqns that are all based on experiment. nobody derived them, they are directly from our observations of electricity and magnetism.

and wouldn't ya know it, some motherfu_ker made a PPFFFTTT noise when i said that. little fu_kin punk. i didn't see who did it, but it came from an area of the classroom where the guys were all fu_kin pinner

Sorry, i think that was me

[RuhlFreak55]

Is it the thing about strings with brian greene that nova showed some time ago?

i saw that...i thought it was a cool theory

[Phreak101]

Is it the thing about strings with brian greene that nova showed some time ago?

Yes it is, very theoretical but fascinating none the less.

I'm curious as to what holds more ground with physicists in general, strings or points?

[Haro3]

son of a bitch i didnt have this much time to invest lol now im addicted

[Phreak101]

son of a bitch i didnt have this much time to invest lol now im addicted

I told ya bro! It's like crack!

[Kärnfysikern]

Yes it is, very theoretical but fascinating none the less.

I'm curious as to what holds more ground with physicists in general, strings or points?

I havent taken any particle physics yet so take what I write with a grain of salt

The standard modell of particle physics claim that quarks, electrons and I guess some more fundamental particles are point like.
The standard modell is extremely accurate, it has successfully predicted just about every experimental result in every particle accelerator so far. Its not a complete theory though since it can not be used to calculate particle mass ect.

String theory on the other hand has never been able to be tested, so string theory is just mathematics so far with no proven real world connection. No one knows yet if string theory is just pretty mathematics or real physics.

So I guess you could say that the point particle explanation is what is verified But nothing has ruled out string theory as possible either so who knows. The bigger and meaner particle accelerators beeing built now will probably be able to test string theory a bit and then hopefully we will have our answere.

We know for sure the standard modell isnt the final theory, but there is no telling if string theory is. Personaly I hope string theory is wrong, it would be very exciting if it was shown wrong and its something completely different. I think(hope) physics are close to a new revolution in the same was as physics at the end of the 18th century was close to einstein and plancs revolution.

[Phreak101]

I havent taken any particle physics yet so take what I write with a grain of salt

The standard modell of particle physics claim that quarks, electrons and I guess some more fundamental particles are point like.
The standard modell is extremely accurate, it has successfully predicted just about every experimental result in every particle accelerator so far. Its not a complete theory though since it can not be used to calculate particle mass ect.

String theory on the other hand has never been able to be tested, so string theory is just mathematics so far with no proven real world connection. No one knows yet if string theory is just pretty mathematics or real physics.

So I guess you could say that the point particle explanation is what is verified But nothing has ruled out string theory as possible either so who knows. The bigger and meaner particle accelerators beeing built now will probably be able to test string theory a bit and then hopefully we will have our answere.

We know for sure the standard modell isnt the final theory, but there is no telling if string theory is. Personaly I hope string theory is wrong, it would be very exciting if it was shown wrong and its something completely different. I think(hope) physics are close to a new revolution in the same was as physics at the end of the 18th century was close to einstein and plancs revolution.

Very good explanation Johan. My only question for you is, how can we keep using point particle physics when the particles we are using to smash can, in themselves, be broken down??

Not to mention the ungodly turbulance at the subatomic level...

[Flagg]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

I went to bed entirely too late last night watching all of these...simply mindblowing! Especially the 3rd hour!

Enjoy!

Phreak you're a champ and im gonna check that out right after i've had something to eat.

[powerliftmike]

My dad hates that book and he is an theoretical physics, haha. hes met the author and didnt think much of him.

[Kärnfysikern]

Very good explanation Johan. My only question for you is, how can we keep using point particle physics when the particles we are using to smash can, in themselves, be broken down??

Not to mention the ungodly turbulance at the subatomic level...

The leptons(electrons, neutrinos) and quarks are those that are pointlike and cant be broken down further. The baryons(proton, neutron ect) and mesons are built up by quarks so they can be broken down further.

Whats mostly used in particle accelerators are heavy atoms stripped of there electrons, like fully ionized gold. Accelerate those to relativistic speeds and let them collide and you get thousands after thousands of new particles created from the collision energy, then they studie those created particles and piece togheter all this. Clever bastards.

So the leptons and quarks are kind of the realy fundamental particles. The problem here is that quarks can not reay be studied on there own since quarks can not be separated. They always exist atleast in pairs. The force betwen quarks are wierd, it become stronger the further they are apart. So if you try to pull them apart you add so much potential energy that the energy turns into more quarks. So if you try to pull apart a pair of quarks you end up with 2 pairs instead

Leptons can be studied on there own and so far they have never shown any sign of having a internal structure. Electrons has been accelerated and used in collisions for a long long time without showing any sign of beeing breakable. Neutrinos offcurse cant be used like that since they just go through everything and anything...We cant even determine how heavy they are.

But since the quark modell makes such accurate prediction it is considered a valid modell of reality.

Its about here my knoweledge on particle physics and the standard modell ends
I have to say that I personaly find the idea of a point particles disturbing though. But then again most things in the quantum world is disturbing

Feels like Im rambling now without answering the question, so here is is a nice chart of the different particles to look at and Il shut up and the wiki article for the standard modell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_model

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...icle_chart.jpg

[Kärnfysikern]

My dad hates that book and he is an theoretical physics, haha. hes met the author and didnt think much of him.

cool, what is his research field?

[Phreak101]

My dad hates that book and he is an theoretical physics, haha. hes met the author and didnt think much of him.

That's really cool. Damn Mike, you're big enough to smash particles for him!

[RuhlFreak55]

damn it mike....i just got caught looking at your bouncy girl