"A voyage of 100,000 years"

[Willem]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
umm, Willem, Odin doesn't have a clue about what he is talking about

Jon Miller

Not to many people do when you start discussing quantum physics. I admit it leaves me largely baffled when I try to understand it.

[Jon Miller]

ack

I can't let this be

most particles have both rest energy (ie mass) and momentum (and thus energy greater than rest energy)

while it is true that the photon is a Boson, there are many more Bosons that do have rest energy

the main difference between fermions and bosons is what sort of statistics they follow, (fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein)

the out growth of this is the pauli exclusion principle, which says that any two fermions cannot be in the same state

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Odin


I'm 17 and I just stumped a Physics Major. Read A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkins to see what I'm talking about.

I am a grad student

my response was an indication of my confusion as to how you got the perception that bosons are particles of energy and fermions are particles of matter

Jon Miller

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Willem


Not to many people do when you start discussing quantum physics. I admit it leaves me largely baffled when I try to understand it.

it's not too bad

check out the lecture series I suggested

really the best way to go about is to do so slowly and from the base up, trying to jump in at the top will only igve oyu silly misconceptions

I presonally like my textbook by Townsend, but it would probably be ebst to see some modern/begining QM first

my QM classes actually have been my easier classes recently

Jon Miller

[Odin]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
ack

I can't let this be

most particles have both rest energy (ie mass) and momentum (and thus energy greater than rest energy)

while it is true that the photon is a Boson, there are many more Bosons that do have rest energy

the main difference between fermions and bosons is what sort of statistics they follow, (fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein)

the out growth of this is the pauli exclusion principle, which says that any two fermions cannot be in the same state

Jon Miller

MY BAD!!!

[Odin]

I think I'll stick to Biology, Physics has too much math for me.

[Jon Miller]

don't give up on physics

I know a number of people who like physics and dont' love math (even tohugh loving math does help)

Jon Miller

[cinch]

Jon:

photons are both particles and waves (There is duality there)

I read an article once that talked about how the 'scientific community' ended the photon debate by saying that:

"A photon behaves as a particle under certain circumstances."
"A photon behaves as a wave under certain circumstances."

I thought this was a fairly novel way to state things, rather than saying 'both' or 'neither'. It also carries a bit of a philosophical connotation, regarding duality and relativity and all that jazz.

What does this have to do with anything? I don't know, but for some reason it just came to my mind when I read that line.

[Lancer]

I could never figure out how matter is a state of energy.

It just doesn't seem to make sense.

[alva]

Am I the only one who finds it ironic to go into (deep)space using sails???
I do hope we don't encounter any aliens on that trip, hell, we'd be the laughing stock of the whole universe...

[Odin]

Originally posted by Lancer
I could never figure out how matter is a state of energy.

It just doesn't seem to make sense.

E=MC^2

[Odin]

Originally posted by alva
Am I the only one who finds it ironic to go into (deep)space using sails???
I do hope we don't encounter any aliens on that trip, hell, we'd be the laughing stock of the whole universe...

Nah, other civilizations will probably be using them too. They are a very efficent means of travel; a good ion drive wouldn't be too bad either, but the acceleration sucks.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
I think that someone did the calculations on this and determined that it wouldn't supply enough power.

All you need to do is to accelerate at 1g half the way and slow down at 1g the other half. The good thing is when the ship gets close to c time slows down.