breaking the speed of light article on howstuffworks.com

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that ~~SciGirl~~ <[email protected]>
wrote (in <[email protected]>) about
'breaking the speed of light article on howstuffworks.com', on Mon, 7
Feb 2005:

what the link is
between light as a particle and light as a wave.

Light isn't EITHER a particle OR a wave. It is something more
fundamental, that sometimes BEHAVES as a particle and sometimes as a
wave.

We can only describe things that we can't see and touch in terms of
things we can.

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Rich Grise <[email protected]>

Not much to understand, really. The point is to get the ball across that
line when you're on offense, or stop the other team from getting it
across your line when you're defense. They switch back and forth
throughout the game.

The rest is just gingerbread, much like calculus. ;-)

(big hint - be in the presence of males while watching - how they react
will give you a pretty good insight as to what's "important".)

I THINK she was going to think about how the TV works.

 

[Terry Given]

"14 = 9th grade? Algebra, sounds about right. You're doing well. Keep
up
the interest."

Actually, 8th grade, but in 9th grade math. Still in 8th grade science,
but will be working on a research project a couple days a week instead
of class because class got too easy for me and I was bored to death.
They're doing convection, conduction, and radiation. It's like sitting
in a chair for an hour listening to a repetitive explanation of why one
plus one equals two.

Diffusion equations are more fun.

Cheers
Terry

 

[Terry Given]

Real meteorologists are a long way from any TV studio and they do all
kinds of physics, fluid dynamics, math, whatnot.

- YD.

yep. rather tricky actually - geophysics really. I have a very
interesting book on acoustic waveguides - oceanics. fascinating stuff,
all the underlying physics is much the same as we use for
electromagnetics, its just nastier - anisotropy and inhomogeneity are
the order of the day.

Cheers
Terry

 

[Terry Given]

And where do we get the enormous amounts of energy and equipment
required to do that?

Digikey

Cheers
Terry

 

[Terry Given]

Well, that's not a very cheerful attitude. Just keep the engineering
units right.

John

What, dont get Northrop Grumman to do half the calcs, NASA the other half?

Cheers
Terry

 

[John Larkin]

What, dont get Northrop Grumman to do half the calcs, NASA the other half?

Yes, if you want an asteroid in your bathtub.

John

 

[keith]

No, you are making it too difficult. You don't need anything as $10 as
'limit theory' for differential calculus, just a drawing showing a curve
with a chord and a tangent.

Ok, I'm all ears. What's the area inbetween? What's the area of the
circle?

 

[keith]

Yes I missed that, but it's gross! Grise wee'd in your eye? I knew he
was strange, but you?!

 

[Rich The Philosophizer]

I read in sci.electronics.design that ~~SciGirl~~ <[email protected]>
wrote (in <[email protected]>) about
'breaking the speed of light article on howstuffworks.com', on Mon, 7
Feb 2005:


Light isn't EITHER a particle OR a wave. It is something more
fundamental, that sometimes BEHAVES as a particle and sometimes as a
wave.

We can only describe things that we can't see and touch in terms of
things we can.

Don't forget things we can imagine, things we can intuit, things we
can know by the feeling-sense, a la "gut feelings", and so on. I know
these things are real - there have been at least two separate occasions
when a premonition has prevented me from causing bodily harm to an
inattentive pedestrian.

Cheers!
Rich

for further information, please visit http://www.godchannel.com

 

[Rich Grise]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Rich Grise <[email protected]>


I THINK she was going to think about how the TV works.

Oh, but "How does it work?" opens such a wealth of possibilities for
understanding stuff! How does "Calculus" "work"? How does "The Heisenberg
Uncertainty Principle" "work"? How does "Relativity" "Work?"

And how does a freaking gas refrigerator work? ;-)

So, naturally, I assumed that SciGirl meant, "How does football work"? I
figure a 14-year old scientist would have TV down pat already. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich

 

[Pig Bladder]

It's been two years since I took that quantum course. Am I wrong?

You are now.

 

[Robert]

Yup. Without delta-epsilon proofs, calculus is just a bunch of
fooling around. ;-)

Newton and Leibniz made do without delta-epsilon techniques to invent the
calculus. Newton's "infinitesimal" has apparently been put on a rigorous
footing. See the many links to Abraham Robinson's Non-standard analysis.
Most mathematicians don't seem to see any advantage to leaving the limit
techniques.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/NonstandardAnalysis.html

Robert

 

[Daniel Haude]

On 7 Feb 2005 17:31:51 -0800,

It's like a repeat of seventh grade. My seventh-grade science teacher
thought I was obnoxious.

You are. But that's perfectly normal for a 14-year-old. I was like that,
too.

Also, it's a little annoying to me that I know this stuff now, because
I'm in suspense on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to make a
breakthrough and answer all these questions like what the link is
between light as a particle and light as a wave.

"wave" and "particle" are just words that make sense within the limits of
the respective model within which they're used. Once you've mastered the
basics of quantum mechanics you'll find that it doesn't really matter what
you call it, it just falls into place quite nicely.

Ok, I have decided off my own accord to dump google groups.

This is not "Google Groups". This is Usenet. And had you "lurked" in this
forum for a while before posting your questions, you'd have found out that
calculus-heavy postings are almost non-existent (I can't remember having
ever seen one).

--D.

 

[Daniel Haude]

On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 01:40:40 GMT,

The biggest reason people don't want to believe that you're 14 is that
you're writing coherent English. And you seem to have humility. The entire
group is gaping in awe at such a phenomenon. ;-)

I don't think she's a day older than 14. She comes in here, posts a lot
of precocious stuff and gets all sulky if people don't treat her as a
fellow adult. All smart kids are like that. She'll grow out of it like we
all did.

--Daniel

 

[Daniel Haude]

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:42:30 -0500,

Ya' dumb twit! She want's to figure out how the television works, not the
guys on the screen! I figured that out about her age, so decided to relax
and watch the game.

TV is simple. Color TV is a bit of a headache. --D.

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Daniel Haude
hysnet.uni-hamburg.de>) about 'breaking the speed of light article on
howstuffworks.com', on Wed, 9 Feb 2005:

On 7 Feb 2005 17:31:51 -0800,


You are. But that's perfectly normal for a 14-year-old. I was like that,
too.

'was'? (;-)