Recent content by KaneJeeves

I'm an educated layman as far as physics and the history of science goes, but certainly no physics professional. While I can't provide the basis evidently required in this forum, I certainly thought my idea would at least be met with some kind of intelligent discussion, albeit at the layman's...

Maybe so, but that doesn't mean what I said isn't the case, or should be so easily dismissed. At one point in the past there was no experimental basis for the atom having a nucleus. Luckily that didn't stop Rutherford. And aren't there theories that involve extra dimensions, so that thinking...

But what if when we split a particle, what we're actually doing is creating a torus of sorts in one higher dimension? Perceived from our space it appears to be two particles. Perceived from one dimension higher it appears as a single torus intersecting the plane (for example) at two distinct points.

Interesting ideas, sort of a psychology of science :+). I guess to me it boils down to can a theory not just explain observable data, but can it be used to make something work. I read some of the ultra-complex mathematics, none of which I understand, and wonder if what's occurring is just very...

I guess my analogy was a little off. I didn't mean to stray into a religious discussion. (And how you think Islam is a liberal ideology is beyond me. But that's for another forum.) My point was this: why do/did physicists (including my personal hero Einstein) even try for a single unified...

You've been listening to too much politics in the news. No one "ripped apart" my thought experiment. All the posters gave thoughtful answers that addressed it, especially Matterwave who gave a perfect answer.

Just because there isn't currently a perfectly rigid body doesn't mean it couldn't happen. I.e. you've just moved the ball a little closer to the goal without explaining anything. I DID read in the link above about how perfectly rigid bodies aren't allowed in SR. But aren't there also...

I know I switched gears to Philosophy of Science, but aren't there any takers on this one?

SimonA - I like your contrarian view on "unification". I'm a layman when it comes to physics and the mathematics behind it, so the most I read is the more popular expositions. And almost 100% of the time unification of GR and QM is stated as the Big Goal. But I've always been suspicious of that...

Ok, I get it. And thanks for that link...talk about to the point! So on somewhat of a tangent, my thought experiment is evidently different from say the elevator in space thought experiment. In what way though? I can certainly say, "In real life you can't have an elevator in space that...

What do you mean by "mechanical disturbances"? I'm assuming the gear is perfectly solid.

My 9 year old son made an interesting observation, and I couldn't explain it. Maybe you can help. He interlocked several gears on his Lego set, all in a straight line. He then put a handle on the first one and turned it. Simple enough. Then he said to me, "Dad, when I move the first gear...