An easy way to get yourself a cool $100k?

[Nereid]

"Dark-matter $100000 prize, Prove dark matter is needed and win!"

033 hits to date (http://www.darkmatterprize.net/ )

Personally I think a) he doesn't have $100k, and b) this might form the basis for an interesting set of 'extra credit' assignments for an undergraduate Physics/Astronomy course ...

But, who knows, perhaps the old English adage about a fool and his money may have some validity in the 21st century?

 

[polyb]

I have always heard a fool and his money make a good party!

It looks to me as thought his would either be an upper graduate level(at the very least) or graduate level type modeling. How many UGs do you know that could pull this off as 'extra-credit'?

I think if you prove him wrong they'll throw you a Phd. because this kind of proof would be seminal in the current debate surrounding dark matter, IMHO.

 

[Chronos]

Will he cover the cost of my particle accelerator, as well? I didn't think so. The amazing Randi million dollar challenge sounds more attainable. Heck, all I need is a peach branch and some underground water pipes.

 

[Nereid]

It's been a while ... I'd meant to come back to this, but got distracted.

"this might form the basis for an interesting set of 'extra credit' assignments for an undergraduate Physics/Astronomy course[/color]" - i.e. not that a 'full solution' gets the extra credit, but that pieces of the proposed puzzle, or exploring approaches might be a good idea.

In any case, it seems there's some discussion (here) which might be of interest to some PFers.

 

[Berislav]

Note that I'm not very familiar with this topic, but I will point out that one of the asssumptions he doesn't allow seems valid to me:

2. Matter inside or outside a spherical shell does not attract the shell. According to Newton's law every particle in a galaxy attracts every other.

The net force affecting matter inside a spherical shell (with homogeneously distributed mass) is zero for the same geometric reason that the net force on a charged particle inside a spherical shell on which charge is homogeneously distributed is zero.