Recent content by Brunolem33

Are you implying that the scientists who actively participate in this "pop science presentation" are charlatans who shouldn't be trusted? And if so, what is the answer regarding the Big Bang? Was it not energy, but something else that was involved? Or do we simply don't know?

As I am watching the current season of How the Universe Works, I am a bit confused when listening to physicists talking about energy as if it was a thing. The way I understand it, energy doesn't exist by itself, but is rather the result of interactions involving matter. Energy is released...

In the early stages of the universe, before the formation of the first particles, did mass exist? If yes, what had mass? If no, can one say that the early universe was massless?

Understood, so this was quite a technical achievement...better not be a neighbor of Mr Kim...one never knows what might fall in one's backyard...

Got it! Yet, sending a missile 2,000 km up and then let it fall another 2,000 km back into the ocean is not the same as having it flying much more horizontally over 4,000 km to reach some predetermined target. I wonder what one can conclude from such a test with regards to the potential reach of...

Marcusl, thanks for the explanation. This leads me to another question: - is there any reason as to why a missile should reach such a high altitude, is that customary for ballistic missiles in general? After all the higher a missile climbs, the more time it wastes and the more the effect of...

A couple of days ago, there was this beautiful ballistic missile launched from North Korea. While reading about this momentous event, I was surprised to learn that said missile had climbed over 2,000 km before crashing into the sea some 700 km from its launchpad. Since this missile flew into...

Let me try to put this another way. When you refer to quantum theory in your answer above, it seems to me that you assume quantum theory can be used to explain "things" or "states" (I am not sure what the right word is) that predate the Big Bang.

But wouldn't this lead to assume that quantum fields, and thus all that makes quantum theory, somehow pre-existed the Big Bang? In other words, would this mean that "in the beginnng there was the Big Bang" should be replaced by "in the beginning there was a quantum field"?

I had to read this slowly to try to understand... Could you explain in more details what you mean by "vacuum decay", especially the "decay" part? As you say, vacuum is "nothing"...I have some trouble understanding how nothing can decay...

Then, if mass curves spacetime, isn't gravity the result of a reaction of spacetime, rather than an action from mass? What I mean is that gravity results from a property of spacetime, a bit similar to elasticity, and that mass only plays a passive role, like the infamous bowling ball on the...

Comeback city...to my eyes, this representation is better than that of the bowling ball. Yet, it shows the effects in only four directions...up, down, left, right... Extending that picture to all directions, I cannot imagine how it can create a space that would compel a planet to orbit a star...

Obviously, my analogy is wrong. Yet, the theory confirms the effects of gravity on space, but does it explain them? I have a hard time translating, in my head, the analogy of the bowling ball, into a three dimensional graphic. How can space be curved from all directions (pressure exerted by...

I am not sure I can express clearly my thoughts on this one, but I am going to try. The effect of mass on space, and the resulting gravity, is sometimes described, in a two dimensions graphic, as a bowling ball applying pressure on the surface of a mattress, or something equivalent. Thus, the...

Thanks, Drakkith I think you answer my questions...