Recent content by Last_Exile

Has the possibility of starspots been completely ruled out? http://blog.planethunters.org/2013/02/11/starspots-and-transits/

Bear in mind the Woody Allen "joke":

I think that it would be appropriate to offer an alternative explanation of time dilation which is not based on curvature of spacetime but on quantum field theory. Reference:http://www.quantum-field-theory.net/ I'm not saying one is right and the other wrong - just being open-minded about...

IMHO - Babylon 5 was better than Star Trek - for all the reasons given above.

Hi Marcus, Interesting discussion but I have to admit I don't follow the maths... I just wanted to say that I remember reading, about 25 years ago or more, in the New Scientist magazine (that was when it was worth reading!) an article relating to the idea of the flow of time as a phase-change...

AnotherDave Hi, I think the simplest explanation for grandpa is that is "all due to the way the maths works" For example, we all now velocity is distance/time and has uits of metres per second (m/s). Acceleration, however, is the rate of change of velocity and has the units of metres...

Hi, I have been following this thread with some interest, having just read Paul Davies book It's About Time. Einstein essentially abolished the Newtonian concept of a universal *now* which was the same for everybody with his introduction of Special Relativity and opened up the possibility...

In reply to post #16 Referring to Space and Time in Specal Relativity by Mermin p41

Hi, Maxwell's equations showed that (1) a changing magnetic field produces an electric field and (2) a changing electric field produces a magnetic field. Combining these suggested the possibility that perhaps they could be combined in such a way as to co-operate with one another. That is...

Pardon me for butting in here, but if Trent is equidistant between the flashes and the speed of light, c , is a constant for all inertial frames how would he see the front flash before the back one? In what sense would he be hastening toward or away from either flash?

Thanks Janus, that does seem to make sense. It would imply that the lensed galaxy, now appearing blue (and much further away) consisted of extremely hot stars whose ultra-violet radiation is now visible to us. My faith in science is restored!

Hmmm... Wouldn't that still mean that the light appears redder to the observer? http://www.setterfield.org/000docs/Redshift.htm My emphasis.

Hi, The recent Astronomy Picture of the Day: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111221.html Has the following caption: ...the gravity of a luminous red galaxy (LRG) has gravitationally distorted the light from a much more distant blue galaxy. I was under the impression that the more...

A total of 8 people are involved but not all of them will contribute. I want to be able to say "this process requires x number of people". 1 of the 5 people does the first part but any of the 3 people can do the second.

I have a process that takes a total of 25 mins to complete. 5 people are available to do 10 mins of it and 3 people the remainder. The process can be done many times a day. I don't know if it makes a difference but the 10 min part is only done by 1 person and the 15 min part can be done by...