Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Ironside]

nope

i read in a book thats noddy went to toytown i still dont believe it toytown is boring legoland is much more fun as i have a theroy that he went there instead

[Geo the Sarge]

So if you were in a spaceship travelling at the speed of light, and you switched your lights on, what would happen?

You can't travel at the speed of light in a spaceship.

Aww! Why not?

Anything with a mass would need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light.  This would also mean that the object would have to have infinite mass as well.

How do you know that though? Space = no resistance, so even with a small motor, a spaceship would just continue to accelerate until it reached the speed of light, no?

No.

As an object increases in speed, its mass also increases.

Now you're just pulling my pisser.

At trivial speeds (such as the ones we experience in our day to day lives, or even during a spaceship's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere), the effects are so small that they aren't important.  At high speeds (those approaching the speed of light) the effects become very evident.

What is meant by increases in mass here Dan?

for example, I believe a bullet fired at high velocity reduces in size. The greater the velocity, the greater the reduction.

Is size in this example different than mass?

Like Red, it's way above me but I find it fascinating.

Geo

Geo

[Ironside]

it reduces in size but increases in weight giving it a better inpact

[Geo the Sarge]

it reduces in size but increases in weight giving it a better inpact

obv I know that, but what's the differnce between mass and size?

What would you know about weapons anyway, you were a shinybum 

Geo

[AndrewT]

An incredibly good read, absolutely awesome.

That's not to say I accepted the notions it propogated. My mind is condiitioned always to ask the same question - "how do they know?". 

They don't;  if they did it would be a theorem rather than a theory. Simples as Andrei would say.

Theorem is a mathematical term and is completely unrelated to a theory which, in the scientific sense, is an idea which already fits in with observed data.

[cia260895]

surely something that is moving that fast will icrease in size due to the heat generated by flying through the air so quickly,

so when it increases in size this will effectively put more drag on it thus slowing it down again??

[Jon MW]

An incredibly good read, absolutely awesome.

That's not to say I accepted the notions it propogated. My mind is condiitioned always to ask the same question - "how do they know?". 

They don't;  if they did it would be a theorem rather than a theory. Simples as Andrei would say.

Theorem is a mathematical term and is completely unrelated to a theory which, in the scientific sense, is an idea which already fits in with observed data.

Maybe you're thinking of the difference between a hypothesis and a theory?

[gatso]

surely something that is moving that fast will icrease in size due to the heat generated by flying through the air so quickly,

so when it increases in size this will effectively put more drag on it thus slowing it down again??

and then when it slows down will it get cooler and smaller and therefore accelerate again due to the reduced drag? you may have solved perpetual motion

[cia260895]

surely something that is moving that fast will icrease in size due to the heat generated by flying through the air so quickly,

so when it increases in size this will effectively put more drag on it thus slowing it down again??

and then when it slows down will it get cooler and smaller and therefore accelerate again due to the reduced drag? you may have solved perpetual motion

do i get a t shirt for that?

[gatso]

obv. there's a spare one kicking around with bolt's name on you can have

[boldie]

it reduces in size but increases in weight giving it a better inpact

obv I know that, but what's the differnce between mass and size?

Apologies for any following confusion.

Size is me being 6"4. Mass is closer to a weight thing so; me being 80 kilograms. (Mass is actually different from weight..they are not the same but it helps to put it that way)

The difference between mass and weight is best explained here;

http://www.hitxp.com/phy/cph/020902.htm

[12barblues]

So if you were in a spaceship travelling at the speed of light, and you switched your lights on, what would happen?

You can't travel at the speed of light in a spaceship.

Aww! Why not?

Anything with a mass would need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light.  This would also mean that the object would have to have infinite mass as well.

How big is infinite?

It's, er, infinitely big.  Infinity is a concept not a number.  Some infinities are bigger than others.

[Jon MW]

So if you were in a spaceship travelling at the speed of light, and you switched your lights on, what would happen?

You can't travel at the speed of light in a spaceship.

Aww! Why not?

Anything with a mass would need an infinite amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light.  This would also mean that the object would have to have infinite mass as well.

How big is infinite?

It's, er, infinitely big.  Infinity is a concept not a number.  Some infinities are bigger than others.

shush - I was going to save that for later if the opportunity for fun with it came up

[12barblues]

Sorry!

I can give examples, but I can't say I feel very comfortable with the idea.  I'll leave a proper explanation to you proper mathematicians.  Infinity is a tricky little devil imo.  Over to you......

[Jon MW]

Sorry!

I can give examples, but I can't say I feel very comfortable with the idea.  I'll leave a proper explanation to you proper mathematicians.  Infinity is a tricky little devil imo.  Over to you......

meh cba

I think the simplest way of understanding that there are basically 2 levels of infinity is:

Number of numbers between each integer = infinity
Number of numbers all together = infinity

But there is more of the second than the first, so they're not equal.

I have just found this though - - which is cool