Re: Fix me Phil!

[Nemesishk]

If a photon doesn't have mass why is it influenced by gravity? (blackholes, curves around stars etc.)

[philhellenes]

@Nemesishk Good question. It puzzled me for a long time. The answer is that the light isn't being influenced. Light can ONLY travel in a straight line. Even when we measure it's "curve" or displacement, the light has actually travelled in in a straight line, from ITS perspective. It is the SPACE though which the light is travelling that is curved, NOT the light. That is why gravity seems to influence light. The mass/gravity curves the spacetime. The bent light merely reveals the curve. :)

[styxway]

and please, please please.... :)

[Clausfarre]

Great book list Phil. Do check The Matter Myth by Gribbin and Davies out. It is wonderfully entertaining and reaches all corners of science including, of course, quantum physics. Let's start a book club!

[OverusedChewToy]

Just check 'em out on wiki, or something. There's a long history of philosophical thought focused around morality and things of that nature.

[OverusedChewToy]

Hah, guess you're right. Nice to see someone on here who knows his philosophy (not me :P ). Still, its philosophical implications are hard to rule out. Also, an ethical theory is basically a a way of applying reason to ones morality. Examples include Ethical Egoism, Utilitarianism, Divine Command Theory (lol) etc.

[OverusedChewToy]

Also, let me give an example of metaphysics without a physical grounding- Epicurus' Atomistic Materialism (Atom meaning indivisible), which ,as its name suggests, predicted the breakdown of "reality" into base parts (atoms...until they were split ;) ). So metaphysics can be quite powerful predictors without physical scientific grounding ,although it is admittedly a rarity.

[philhellenes]

I think it was Democritus who came up with the word atom. I'm pretty sure what he envisaged was something very small and very hard. He had no inkling of the true properties or behavior of the object Dalton finally named as an atom (though we should have waited and called quarks atoms as they seem to be truly indivisible).

[OverusedChewToy]

I'm interested to hear what you think the role of philosophical Ethical Theory plays, as to whether it only has a limited use or practical implications?

[philhellenes]

I'd give an opinion, IF I knew what Ethical Theory was or is. :)

[OverusedChewToy]

Yes, metaphysics is useful, but only in limited academic settings- just like epistemology to a degree. As an Ontological Naturalist, the only metaphysic i agree with that everything that is possibly explainable has a natural explanation- that the supernatural either doesn't exist or doesn't have any effect upon our existence or that of the cosmos.

[OverusedChewToy]

Nice dig at metaphysics. It is playing at what might be--but it's pushed science in certain direcitons. Example: I've read on Reductionistic Materialism leading to the periodic table of the elements. (from how reliable a-source i don't know :P)

[philhellenes]

Agreed. Metaphysics, has a place, but you can bet anyone whoever used their imagination to make a real breakthrough already had VERY detailed knowledge of real physics, ie had their kite chained firmly to the ground. Nice to hear from you. :)

[Dalbert342]

love your definition of metha-physics

[fluxmaden]

Hmmmm, there is one problem, about that photon traveling at speed of light ya its true but there is something bugging me i need to understand, u see if the distance, example earth and a star, lightyears away. the time for the photon to travel from the star to earth will not be an instance.

[philhellenes]

This is where the relativity in special relativity comes in. You are correct that, as seen from OUR perspective, the journey of the photon WOULD take time, but, if you COULD ride side by side with the photon, AT the speed of light, the journey would take NO time at all.

[fluxmaden]

Cool reply i get it now, light and time. But haha if we were to travel side by side with a photon, won't our molecules break up?

[philhellenes]

We can't go that fast. As we get near lightspeed we get heavier, so much so that VERY close to the speed of light we would become almost infinitely heavy and it would take infinite energy to accelerate us that last percentage point to actually reach lightspeed. That is why we can't reach such a velocity, ever.

[fluxmaden]

Thanks phil you really helped me alot, most was on the "time taken for a photon to reach earth" subject. Well since we have mass we can't reach that limit. Thanks

[theinquisitor]

Anti-matter isn't the opposite of matter, it only has the opposite charge, but it has the same nuclear charges and is affected by gravity the same way as matter. Negative matter would be the opposite of matter. That is stuff which has negative gravity, or repels everything. So if it did exist, it would be separated out as far as possible in remote areas of the universe as it is repelled by matter and negative matter. Like negative energy, if you add it to something, the something is decreased.

[ashboxtoo]

Yes, philosophy tends to over shoot our own capabilities sometimes (thats the understatement of the week). It is an odd, and for me saddening feeling of definitive knowledge of our own physiological restrictions.

Ill digress even more now, and say our conscious acknowledgment of these restrictions further separate our consciousness and our brain. At least that is the best way I can describe how I feel when contemplating this.

LMAO Too many questions.

[ashboxtoo]

Contradictory to that idea, everything existing at once, something that never ends, supports infinite expansion or contraction. Is the gap between my fingers the same size as the entire universe? The gap has infinite spaces between it, yet its demonstrated in a finite area of space.

Sorry if this is off topic, but theres no other place I thought best to post it, and this video re-provoked my thoughts about it.

Cheers.

[ashboxtoo]

The notion that nothing can't exist and everything exists infinitely. In my brain, after the pain has gone away, concludes often that expansion or contraction are also impossible. Infinite cant ever appear in a moment in time as finite, because beyond that place is nothing, and nothing doesn't exist. Perhaps its the perception of time and space illustrated by light that creates the idea of expansion or contraction. (Continued)

[Balphaus]

I watch videos like this for entertainment...

What happened to my childhood?

But seriously, I love the discussions between you, Az and Ourben, very entertaining and insightful.. I just found out I know a lot more about astrophysics than I thought too!

Keep them coming.

[lolsusl]

Okay I am stuck with your statement that particles just pop out of nothing.

To have that happen in the same very moment a different particle has to go away, go in nonexistens. The same should happen with the antimatter particles, one goes another comes.

But how can the pacticle borrow engery from nothing - in the vacuum is still nothing. Nothing has no engery.

I am totally confused about that. Can I post a video where I expain what I don't understand and you answer me?

[ourben]

Yes yes exactly! Borrowing energy from a 'vacuum' - you're getting a new video ;-)

[mwilliams0]

you seem like a guy I would want to sit around a campfire with and kill a bottle of whiskey. I have beeen busy lately m8... this is a great video.

[azrienoch]

I don't think his "nothing exists" was meant to say that there are no somethings that exist, but rather, that "nothing" is basically another sort of something. However, tomorrow (more accurately, when I wake up) I want to start a chat about metaphysics, if you don't mind.