Recent content by Unbeliever

Given the frequency of relatively minor asteroidal impacts, similar to the Tunguska event, it seems to me that ancient literature would be rife with stories of them, probably interpreted as acts of the gods or God. For example, in the Bible is the story (2Samuel 24 and 1Chronicles 21) of David...

I was thinking of something with a disk shape, with a rim around the edge extending above and below the surface, like two frisbees stuck together back to back.

Thanks shroder! I didn't really expect it to be practical, I was just wondering whether it could provide any lift. I expect that the lift it might provide is less than that needed to generate the cold/hot gradient, since the machinery involved would be fairly heavy, so the lift to weight ratio...

I was thinking about Bernouli's principle, which shows how to get lift by creating a difference in air pressure above and below the wings of an aircraft, and became curious as to whether a difference in pressure arrived at by other means might also result in lift. Specifically, if air were...

Is the temperature of Venus's atmosphere due solely (or primarily) to its density? What would happen if the sun's light could be blocked from its surface, would the atmosphere eventually freeze? If so, how long would it take?

Yeah, I've seen that floating frog. They used an extremely powerful magnetic field. Fascinating!

Can anyone help me understand what's happening in this video? Is it a total bamboozle, or is there anything to it?

Mseems to be another step in the process of dethroning humanity from the center of importance in the scheme of existence. With only 4D space/time, we could at least console ourselves with the thought that our intelligence and civilization might put us in the running for most importance, but with...

Thanks, Coin, that helps a lot! I'll look at that link when I have time, it looks really fascinating.

OK, I was curious about that aspect of the idea of parallel worlds. I thought that the atoms in a quantum computer make use of other dimensions to arrive at their solutions, but if they're not making use of the same dimensions proposed in M-theory, then what dimensions do they make use of...

Thanks, PhanthomJay! I have yet to read that particular work, but I intend to get to it soon. I'm interested to see what Hawking thinks about it.

If M-theory is correct, and there are indeed an infinite number of parallel universes making up what cosmologists call the "Bulk", then there must be an infinite number of civilizations occupying the Bulk, as well as an infinite number of lifeless universes. If Lisa Randall is correct, and...

This might help answer some of your question about M-theory: Horizons - Parallel Universes - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 What I'm curious about is: if M-theory is correct, could gravity "leaking" from other membrane universe to ours account for what we think of as dark...

Thanks! I thought that sounded a bit too good to be true. The one in the animation doesn't use water, though, right? That seems more practical.

Here might be a very good idea if it could work: http://inventorspot.com/articles/energy_tower_power_15_Earth's_9102 My question is: how much energy would it take to pump all that water 3000 feet up? Could this construct have a positive net energy, or is it just more pie in the sky?