Recent content by Ty1erC

I'm stuck on this idea. How are initial radioactive isotope quantities assumed in radiometric dating? There are current abundances for all isotopes, but wouldn't these abundances have been different in the past (much higher)? I honestly can't grasp how radioactive isotopes with short half lives...

Substantial in their own right, yes, but not on the level of relativity or evolution. (not yet, anyway.) Those are concepts that are clear and understandable and answer huge scientific questions. Maybe it's just the nature of quantum mechanics, but several varying and ambiguous answers don't...

I've found some more articles online, and I think I've come to the conclusion that my questions are unanswerable at the moment. The hypotheses about dark/vacuum energy that are out there have yet to become substantial theories. I'm not educated on the math that goes into this stuff, so I can't...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-virtual-particles-rea This is why I am so perplexed. There's a lot of ambiguity in the various things I read.

I'm trying to understand the nature of the virtual particles that exists in empty space. I understand that they 'bubble' in and out of existence, but why do they exist in the vacuum of space? If all particles spend some of their time as virtual particles, does quantum mechanics suggest that some...

would it be correct to call the effect time dilation? the galaxy in question isn't flying away from us through space, but space it self is expanding. wouldn't the longer period just be a result of the 'light source' emitting its photons from an increasingly greater distance?

it was my assumption that cepheids could be used 'across the board' as a standard candle that was causing my confusion. thanks. but if they could be used, i would presume that the periodicity would be seriously affected by the expansion of space. the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is...

I'm trying to fully understand how Cepheid variables are able to give us accurate distance approximations to galaxies. If these galaxies are receding away from us at ever-increasing speeds, wouldn't we notice the variable stars' periods getting longer and longer over time? How can we accurately...

i read brian greene's book 'the fabric of the cosmos' a long while ago, and i remember being surprised by the notion that one's 'now slice' of reality can angle toward the past OR the future of someone else's. (toward past if moving away, toward future in moving toward someone who is...

Let me preface this by saying I am no physicist. This is a hobby of mine, and I'm trying to piece together knowledge as pick it up from different sources. I understand the particle/wave duality of particles like electrons (at least I think so). I cannot grasp, however, the leap in thinking...