Recent content by Herringbone

Well, actually I think somebody's said this since I remember reading it several times in the past. But I've been wrong before so I did some calculations and came up with this: Since GR tells us that the ratio of a photon's gravitationally shifted frequency to the original frequency is...

You're right. I should have said "... the photon's energy would be consumed as the photon attempted to climb out of the gravitational field."

Hi, I think you've got the right idea in "balancing" the potential energy of the cannonball with it's kinetic energy but remember, a photon's energy is not kinetic but is linearly related to it's color (frequency). E = hf Consider the point where an object's gravitational field is...

Hi pelastration, Not sure I get your analogy but no problem with the experiment. I'll just turn up the air conditioner until the water freezes and boom, the screw is screwed. Or (providing the conditions didn't prohibit it) I'll just use an electric screwdriver that provides enough...

Like I said, not the best analogy but I see it like this: The source of energy that turns the peg is me. I create the "lil' Bang" for my guitar string. The tuning peg is fixed to the "space" of my guitar string's 'universe' (the guitar) which serves to constrain the final size of the...

Well, I agree that the guitar might not be the best analogy but after all the pop representations of string theory its kind of hard not to go there. And aside from the obvious difference of open vs closed loops and fundamental string stuff, I can see some analogies, albeit extremely...

The string tension “force” sort of reminds me of a pre-Einstein description of a force, which got me thinking. My guitar string is essentially held together by the exchanges of photons between the atoms of the metal. If I were to cut one end of the string while it were under tension, the...

tension The classical definition of tension that I'm thinking of is the internal force within something that act against a set of external forces working to pull the thing apart. For example it's the EM force providing tension in my guitar string that prevents it's breaking from the...

Yeah, "vibrating bits of spacetime or energy" never made sense to me either. The string's (incredibly huge) tension is an interesting property however. Tension in a classical string is created by the electromagnetic force. What is the force creating tension in a superstring? Is there...

Cooper pairs are pairs of coupled electrons that have the interesting property that they can act like bosons instead of a pair of fermions. For a non technical explanation of superconductivity, check out: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solids/coop.html#c2

At one time, I read where strings were vibrating bits of space-time. In "The Elegant Universe" TV program, they were described as vibrating bits of energy. In "The Elegant Universe" book they are described as consisting of fundamental "string stuff" and that questioning their composition...

time? Hi, I've always imagined that time is the "one" dimension defined by changes in another dimension(s). In a universe where NOTHING changed, time would not exist. As a particle approaches the speed of light or falls into a gravitational field, our ability to perceive changes along...