Posted by Stephen Charchuk on January 10, 1997 at 11:17:15:
In Reply to: Re: Science Education crisis posted by Tyler Bradley on January 10, 1997 at 07:35:26:
: I'm still not sure about your plasma claim, but how do we detect plasma? From observations of the electromagnetic spectrum (i.e. photons). Perhaps I should have defined better that all emissions in the EM spectrum are described in packets of energy... photons. So, I am talking not only about visible light, but all frequencies of radiation. One atom/particle of plasma, gas, liquid or solid matter can release unlimited amounts of photons (in theory) so I will maintain my position
Visible light is only a very narrow part of it. Even with radio, and IR telescopes they can only account for between 1 to 10% of total mass of the universe.
;on it. You bring up a point that I had not considered though. It is a problem for cosmology that we can account for only 1%-3% of the mass that should appear, and I cannot answer this most serious question. I will research it though, stay tuned....
The current theory is that the Universe is made up of Dark Matter. And another theory is that the Universe is really a multiverse and we are only aware of our dimension in it.
: I think you're confused here. 4-space is the fusion of time and space. As temporal perception changes space, its complement, does also. In our experience, a second of time delineates a segment of space that we'll consider a 186,000 mile long caterpillar. This space contracts for an observer moving through it, and it gets both shorter and thicker the faster one travels through it- imagine the analogy as the 186,000 mile long caterpillar compressing its segments. At luminal velocity, the space in his frame of reference is contracted infinitely thin; the ideas of "ahead" and "behind" have no meaning for this rather brave astronaut. Front and rear are all at one place, and objects would indeed appear as the Cubists depict them- front, sides and rear faces of a cube would assault the viewer all at once. Time will dialate for this observer; all events in the history of the universe would appear all at once for a luminal observer.
I understood it. While traveling at, or near, C everything in front of the ship would be shifted to the blue end of the spectrum and everything behind it would be shifted to the red end, as well of having time dilated. Having time and space fused would be something completely different. You don't have to be moving to observe 4D space.