Recent content by Oldfart

A question that some of these posts seems to raise is: Might some animals be capable of understanding concepts which we humans cannot grasp? For instance, could it be that a microbe could develop ability to visualize five dimensions because this skill enhances its ability to survive?

Who gets to decide if a question is philosophical or not? In the hunt for the Higgs Boson, were we not trying to see if the HB actually exists?

No, I still like it, which is why I an here. After freshman year I switched to ME, fearful of the need for graduate school to make anything of a physics degree. Never looked back.

I liked it because it was easy in high school.

forest ranger

You got that right! Not doing that again!

Ha Ha! I had a colonoscopy today and you did not!

Andromeda is not "sometimes visible" but rather is easily visible in clear dark skys if you know where to look. You'll see a faint fuzzy patch of light.

Well, we won't really know until some idiot tries it, right? Maybe I'll give it a shot tomorrow...

Hmmm... What if you lightly soaked the paper in alcohol first? Anyone want to give that a try?

That's interesting, dauto. If I'm lost in Alaska and about to freeze, and find two hammers and some paper, is it possible that I could start a fire to save my life?

Thanks. Pervect, I think I'm now starting to get it! Seems now that there are two types of distortion: (1) Everyday distortion due to centrifugal forces acting on the spinning object, something that even an old ME can understand, and (2) Distortion due to light delays like you mentioned. So to...

Thanks to all for your replies! Unfortunately, I've been trying to study the Noether-Herglotz theorem and your other comments without much luck, the math exceeds my paygrade, so to speak, I'm an ME, class of 1958. But I appreciate your efforts, really do! For whatever it's worth, I envisioned a...

If I had a spoked disc made of unobtainium that could be spun up to .9999c outer rim speed, what would it look like as compared to the disc at rest? Assume I can photo the spinning wheel with an ultra fast camera.

But the table will be locally accelerated and deformed in way of the book, the table legs will be deformed. the floor in way of the table legs will be deformed, etc. This is easier to visualize if an anvil is placed on the table, but in any case energy is transferred to make these things happen...