Future/near Future technologies

[Urban Ranger]

Didn't IBM or somebody else made a quantum circuit several years ago?

[Kramerman]

speculation on what dark matter is

?

Much of the mass of the galaxy and indeed known universe is unacounted for. The rates of rotation of the galaxies are much faster than they should be with the amount of matter that can be seen. Scientists then speculate about dark matter. Some specualtions of this are that it is made up of innumerable black holes, formed during the big bang when the incredible pressure exerted on bodies of mass. This was enough to compress matter into black holes that can be made up with very little mass compared to the standard black holes formed by the collapse of stars, because of the compression of their birth.

There are many other theories too, but most of them, including this one, are just speculation, at this point. A Unified theory of Physics is becoming more and more necessary before too much more significant discoveries or theories can be made with Relativity and Quantum Physics

Kman

[Der PH]

This morning I read an article in a german science magazine about tachyons (which are hypothetical particles, which cannot travel slower than the speed of light. Quite fascinating, but VERY hypothetical).
One of the presented theories tells, that neutrinos could in fact be tachyons. Sounds quite weird to me. Anybody heard anything about this?

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Re: Future/near Future technologies

Originally posted by Combat Ingrid
I don't know about rubies etc, but I know you can make diamonds by using high explosives

These are not false ones, though.

[Az]

There are cheaper and easier ways to make diamonds, both industrial, and ornamental.

[Combat Ingrid]

Re: Re: Re: Future/near Future technologies

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
These are not false ones, though.

I can't remember saying that
However, I think these diamonds usually are of slightly worse quality than the "real" ones. Maybe their structure is not as well ordered or something...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Frogger
Quantum computing is a big steaming pile of crap.

Don't they have very very small scale quantum computing working already?

[NeOmega]

Originally posted by Der PH
This morning I read an article in a german science magazine about tachyons (which are hypothetical particles, which cannot travel slower than the speed of light. Quite fascinating, but VERY hypothetical).
One of the presented theories tells, that neutrinos could in fact be tachyons. Sounds quite weird to me. Anybody heard anything about this?

For a while I thought neutrinos were called tachyons. But then I saw the word neutrino and it refreshed my memory, somewhat.

[NeOmega]

More questions:

What is an ion engine?
What is a quantum computer?

[Richard Bruns]

Quantum computing may be overhyped, but they are well on their way to building them, and they have already developed quite a rigorous body of theory regarding their operation and programming.

There is a revised theory of gravity called MOND that gets rid of the need for excessive amounts of dark matter. I don´t know enough to debate its merits, though, and it is still just conjecture. But then again so is dark matter, since nobody has ever really proven it exists.

Artificial diamonds and gems are rather easily made and are of good quality. The problem is that they are too good, the crystalline structre is too perfect so they are easily recognised, and they don´t look as good, because it is the imperfections that give beauty to the gems and those are almost impossible to reproduce. Well, you can reproduce them but it costs more than digging up the real thing.

If you really want to blow your mind, start studying the new physics theories regarding time. They are dreaming up all sorts of unbelievable things and proving them with the proper math.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Richard Bruns
There is a revised theory of gravity called MOND that gets rid of the need for excessive amounts of dark matter. I don´t know enough to debate its merits, though, and it is still just conjecture. But then again so is dark matter, since nobody has ever really proven it exists.

MOND is nice theory, unfortunately its wholly empirical - although that means its good in the sense it fits observation its bad in the sense it doesn't help us explain anything or make abstracted predictions. Also it still doesn't explain phenomenon at the superlarge scales (clusters of galaxies) which would still require the presence of dark matter.

[Az]

I have a question that bothered me for a very long time.

It is a well known fact that the energy of the stars comes from nuclear fusion. It is said that when the stars condensed, the internal heat was high enough to trigger the beginning of the nuclear fusion process.

The trigger of Hydrogen bombs is a Fission bomb, that generates such an enviroment.

It is presumed that stars such as Jupiter didn't reach the needed critical mass in order to trigger the fusion reaction.

What would happen if humans would launch a probe with a 20 Megatonn nuke onboard. The probe would slow down using shutes, and penetrate into Jupiter, and then go off.

Would a new star be created?

[Provost Harrison]

Ah, now Americium 241 in it's oxide form is used in smoke detectors. It is an alpha particle emitter and ionises air in a small ionisation chamber. A small voltage across the chamber can produce a current which is modified by the level of ionisation within the chamber. However if smoke particles enter the chamber, then they absorb the alpha radiation, and less ionisation of the air occurs, and the current falls. This is what smoke detectors work upon...

[Az]

Good one, Provost.

I struggled to remember the principle, when it was asked.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Azazel


I have a question that bothered me for a very long time.

It is a well known fact that the energy of the stars comes from nuclear fusion. It is said that when the stars condensed, the internal heat was high enough to trigger the beginning of the nuclear fusion process.

The trigger of Hydrogen bombs is a Fission bomb, that generates such an enviroment.

It is presumed that stars such as Jupiter didn't reach the needed critical mass in order to trigger the fusion reaction.

What would happen if humans would launch a probe with a 20 Megatonn nuke onboard. The probe would slow down using shutes, and penetrate into Jupiter, and then go off.

Would a new star be created?

At a guess, no. The activation energy required for H-H fusion is so high that any dissipation of energy would be a problem for a sustained reaction.

If it could become a star it would probably explode anyway. The outward forces would be cranked up by the extra radiative pressure but with no extra gravitational force to counter it.