Wtf is dark matter. There’s something out there that makes gravity not work the way we expect on a very large scale, and “dark matter” is a theoretical substance that makes the math work out properly. But the fact that such a huge portion of the galaxy’s mass is this hypothetical, undetectable thing makes it seem very hand wavy. The last experiment to try to detect dark matter that I’m aware of concluded with “we successfully didn’t detect anything” 😞 having to deal with dark matter feels like trying to study atoms before the discovery of the neutron. I hope we figure this out in my lifetime.
Dark matter might not even exist, all we know is that gravity-based predictions break down after a certain point. Dark matter is the just the most popular proposed solution where you essentially just add extra undetectable mass until it works. The distant second is Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) or some variation of it, which is where you try to tweak the theories to fit observations instead. It has the same problem as dark matter where we keep coming up with better experiments which always fail to find anything.
There’s a similar problem at the opposite end of the scale spectrum too; quantum mechanics doesn’t play nice with our current understanding of gravity leading to the search for the “theory of everything”. This is why I personally lean towards the idea that it’s our theories that are wrong and not an undetectable mass, but this isn’t my field so my opinion isn’t worth much (especially since a majority actually working in the field lean towards dark matter as far as I can tell).
So in other words, the big equation of gravity gives us a formula on one side, and the solution + x on the other, and we have to solve for x (dark matter) but we don’t know how to do it yet
I think I was listening to the unexplainable podcast and they were suggesting that gravity may work differently at smaller scale. Like the nooks and crannies may have different dimensional properties at the atomic or subatomic level. I dunno if I explained that right but it definitely got me curious. Like, we observe gravity as it effects large quantities of mass so, like temperature, it’s really just an average of all the different factors at play.
And dark energy for that [dark] matter ;)
We know something is out there; galaxies are rotating far too quickly for our understanding of gravity to be correct. This is based on the observable matter.
For the galaxies to be rotating at the speeds we observe, we need approx 5 times the matter we see. So it is not like we have missed 10 - 20% of the matter that interacts with electromagnetic radiation, we would have had to have missed an extra 500%
As someone else pointed out, MOND is the next most promising candidate, but it has major issues even explaining what we see. Which is why it hasn’t received widespread acceptance.
I don’t have an answer; I have a few ideas. It maybe that something MOND adjacent is the answer; i.e. on the largest scales spacetime “relaxes” more when there is nothing pulling on it. So near galaxies and clusters spacetime is under more stress, this stress could equate to spacetime curving more on galaxy sized scales. But on the small scales we work on the extra stress will be almost invisible.
But as for us figuring out what “dark” matter is in your lifetime, unless you are already in your 80’s; I think there is a very good chance. The only thing we know for sure about dark matter, is that it interacts with gravity (spacetime). We are building some pretty epic gravitational wave detectors, bringing the detection threshold lower.
In the depth of pandemic lockdown, after my roommate moved out to return closer to family, I was in my house alone for a month straight. One day I hear the tea kettle whistling on the stove.
It was the middle of summer, I hadn’t made tea in weeks. Maybe I bumped the stove control? But there shouldn’t have been any water in the kettle. And I hadn’t been in my kitchen for over an hour and it wouldn’t have taken that long for the water to boil had I put it on and just forgotten about it somehow. I keep my doors locked.
Idk, the only thing I can think of is the isolation really got to me that day, I put the kettle on and completely forgot I had done it five minutes later.
Carbon monoxide? really that seems concerning
It was zak bagans.
Was there any water actually in it or did you not check?
Maybe tinnitus or tv?
It was about half full of water and it was boiling.
So if there was nobody else there you must have done that and just blepped or been on autopilot. It happens lol
What kind of stove? Could you have bumped the knob and the kettle had water leftover from last time?
Where did the matter/energy for Big Bang come from? On that note, what is outside the border of the universe?
And then where did they matter and energy come from for that universe. It’s turtles all the way down…
Did you have a stroke while writing that?
Not a fan of Terry Pratchett I take it?
Doubt he even understands the beginnings of boot theory economics.
I proclaim you Grand WIZZARD And pray the wind always be at your back, and the luggage at your heels, but not too close to your heels.
This question actually doesn’t make sense, it’s kind of a paradox in the same way the question of what happened before the Big bang is also strange in the sense that the universe and reality didn’t exist in a form with causality in effect.
So asking a “before” question in reference to “before” time even started is paradoxical in and of itself. Since “before” wasn’t even a concept in existence.
Which is why scientists don’t really worry about anything “before” the Big bang.
Outside: there is a theory of other universes outside . Which would explain the increasing rate of expansion in place of dark energy
The Universe is expanding, rapidly from the big bang still. At some point, it will slow down, and then stop. Then begins a catastrophic cycle of collapse with massive black holes coalescing into one universe eating black hole that compresses every bit of matter into a single point of almost infinite density. At this point the black hole destabilizes, and all of the stored energy is released in one colossal explosion. A Big Bang of sorts.
The Universe is an Ouroboros.
There’s no proof the universe will end in a Big Crunch. Apparently there’s some measure of the universe where if it’s less than 1, we’ll get a Big Crunch, and if it’s greater than 1, we’ll get a Big Rip where everything just falls apart. I may have those backwards, but the important thing is when it’s exactly 1, it implies a universe that continues forever, getting colder and colder. And as best as science can determine for our universe, the value is precisely that.
But here’s another, well, dimension to that: There’s a popular but unprovable conjecture that our universe is the inside of a black hole that exists in a higher-level universe. In our universe, black holes boil away due to Hawking radiation, a process that can take trillions of years for very large black holes.
Once the black hole we’re inside of stops consuming matter in the level above, that spells a very slow but alternative end to our universe. One day it will simply cease to exist.
“This the way the world ends: Not with a bang, but a whimper.” – T.S.Eliot.
That is interesting but I reject the alternate theories of the Big Rip and the Silent Extinction because they are scary and I don’t like them.
I’ve become a fan of the “We’re already in a black hole” theory. The Schwarzschild radius for the mass of the known universe is larger than the radius thereof.
It’s probably not correct but I do like it.
Sometimes I think our universe is just an explosion in a big ass combustion engine.
So everytime I drive a car I create and destroy countless universes just to get some nuggets. Worth it.
Somehow I find the Big Crunch more comforting than Big Rip…
At some point, it will slow down, and then stop
All of the current scientific evidence disagrees with this. 1) There is a velocity such that you can go faster than gravity will be able to slow you down: escape velocity. So, it’s possible even without any new, weird physics. 2) The hubble constant shows that the universe isn’t slowing down, but the opposite: it’s accelerating. Physics doesn’t know why (see Dark Energy). It’s physically measurable that things farther away are accelerating even faster scaling with distance.
I’m a big bang denier. I have zero evidence. I believe everything has always been, will always be, and goes on forever in every direction. I think anything we do to try to explain is just to protect our brains from being incapable of fathoming that everything is infinite.
The Daytlov Pass incident. A lot of it could be explained as hysteria brought on by either cold or just fear after being in an avalanche; but how the hell did some of the victims have radiation burns?
Likewise, the Khamar-Daban incident
You’re Wrong About podcast has an episode about this with Blair Braverman guesting, that I think posits a decent theory. Blair also appears on episodes about the Andes plane crash and the diphtheria serum run, both of which are well worth a listen.
I’m still pissed they haven’t done a season of “The Terror” about this.
Apparently, there was the Kyshtym disaster in the area 2 years beforehand, so that may explain the radiation.
Wikipedia says that a new research concluded that an avalanche is the culprit
Whether or not George Mallory summitted Everest.
Mallory was a great climber. People who knew him think he had the ability. Another member of his expedition saw Mallory and his partner, Andrew Irvine, close to the summit, but not close enough to be certain whether or not they made it.
Neither man returned from the mountain. Mallory’s body was later found, many decades after he died. but Irvine was never seen again, dead or alive.
There are various other bits of circumstantial evidence, but the fact is we’ll simply never know for sure. I like to think they made it.
How does the Universe expand? Isn’t the Universe the container space of all that which exists, where does it expand to?
Why is there even an edge? I’m already mortal, why does my spacetime need hard limits too?? It’s just cosmic baloney man.
There is no edge. Just the farthest back in time we can see because of how long light takes to reach us. It’s constantly expanding not because it doesn’t exist but because we can see more of the light.
I suspect we don’t know as much as we think we do about the way the universe works. Once we figure out the missing info, it will unlock a lot more than just the forces at play.
What caused the Bronze age collapse? Who were the Sea People?
Its all fun and games until the sea peoples arrive. Ruining all our parties with their looting, hogging all the tin so we can’t make bronze. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Or Crab People
Tunguska Event:
What’s the mystery with this one? It’s a very interesting event, but isn’t it generally pretty well understood?
Generally considered a meteor air burst, but there’s no crater and no evidence so it’s still very mysterious.
Oh ok, thanks. Didn’t realise that, will need to read up on it.
I’ve read interesting conspiracy, that Tunguska incident overlaps exactly with Nicola Tesla’s attempts to wireless transfer of energy. Was an interesting idea and read, even though very unlikely to be based on real event.
Why aren’t the basic laws of mathematics clean round numbers? Why are pi and e irrational? What secret is hidden down in the depths of these numbers?
It seems to me that the concept the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the radius is a finite value. It’s cool that it turns out to be an irrational number for us but I think that’s more a statement of how we handle math than some mystical thing.
So, it would be “fixed” if we based or math around these numbers? Like, a new numeral system where 3 = pi?
Isn’t nature lazy? Like everything is in search of equilibrium and once its optimized, saul goodman
There a infinitely more irrational numbers than rational numbers, so if one were to search for a special number like π or e, they are more likely to find them to be irrational than rational. It would be instance coincidence if those numbers would be something nice and even. And since almost everything in math is derived from either π or e and you can’t simply divide or multiply away irrationality (except with another irrational number) this irrationality tends to stick around. We essentialy have a π centric number system inside the decimal system, that’s why π gets its own symbol. No mathematician ever writes out π as a 3.1415…, so for all that matters the symbol π is nice and even.
what the hell are these for?
My theory is that they were just decorative tchotchkes that were popular at one point in history. We have crap like this today and it would all probably baffle archeologists of the future as to what their purpose was. Like… Imagine in 1000 years someone digs up a near perfectly preserved Furby or an oddly shaped paper weight.
Or fidget spinners.
The coin-verifying hypothesis seems compelling
I collect ancient coins and this explanation doesn’t fly for me. There’s a certain amount of “artisanal-ness” in the production of ancient coins - which were all handmade. Like, I’m looking at a tray of coins right now and there’s no way a simple go/no-go tool would be helpful. Also, for this purpose a simple handheld counterweight balance would be more accurate and portable. The existence of these simple balances, along with reference weights for various denominations, is well documented.
Moreover - if you’re an ancient merchant, what is more important? The weight of the silver or the ability for it to pass for a denarius issued by Rome? Particularly for international trade, it seems to have been the former. Bankers’ cuts and countermarks are commonly seen on coins, and seem to have been an early form of foreign exchange. (eg - I’m travelling from Athens to Ephesus with a stock of my local currency. If I pass it to a local banker in Ephesus, they can evaluate it, determine the local exchange in terms of silver, and give it a locally recognized countermark to assure their own merchants that they’re getting the equivalent local value).
That being now off my chest, I’ve got no great answers for the dodecahedrons. I strongly suspect that it was a nifty thing that metal workers made as a master’s thesis.
Why not just make that out of a flat piece of metal, or even a plank of wood though? Why bother with the very complicated 3D shape that took a lot more work to make?
Are all the sides equal on this dodecahedron? Maybe its for multiple coin types?
The holes through the holes are usually different sizes but I don’t think any two examples are exactly alike. And you could have a board with several holes drilled in it to test multiple coin types.
Also, did the Roman empire issue 12 different sizes of coin?
They are just from the Roman equivalent of Hobby Lobby or the like. Just “quirky” home decor that was popular at the time. If they had the internet you would find these on ebay, etsy, facebook, pinterest… nothing to see here
I saw a video on YouTube showing how to use them for knitting gloves, you can still buy plastic versions
is there contemporary evidence of knit gloves?
My pet theory for these is that they’re like a test of skill for metalworkers, and that they would be put on display as proof of their capabilities. They were often found in safes with coins, which I think supports this theory. You wouldn’t want some rival metalworkers stealing your skills display and making it so nobody trusts them anymore.
A rubix cube type of thing? It just seems like the skeleton of something, like it had other wooden parts that latched onto the knobs and rotated somehow.
where do socks go in the dryer?
Caught up one of the rotating convex thingies or someone takes it with the rest of theirs when you leave them behind in mentioned
If you take the dryer apart you would likely find all the socks inside it.
The voynich manuscript. It’s so wild and interesting, a complete mystery too
Not completely mysterious, but still largely so. The usual zodiacal constellations are listed, and the names therein have allegedly been decoded as resembling a Turkic language.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t a hoax, only that someone with knowledge of a Turkic language helped create those pages in particular.
Even if it is eventually exposed as a hoax - that is, not as old as claimed or from a different or untrustworthy source - that works make the book no less of an impressive accomplishment and global mind fuck! 🤯 Whatever it really is, it’s a win.
The fact that there is something in there with credibility makes it further a mystery to me.
What are things? What is energy? What is my soul? Where did it come from? Is it even in this spacetime, or is the body an avatar and I’m connecting into to it via some process? How was my soul created? Why do I experience rather than my body function solely as a biochemical robot? Where does my soul go when my body dies? Is there an end to eternity? If so, what happens or doesn’t happen? If not, how does change continue? What does my soul do until then? I understand life. I don’t understand experience.
One time I heard an assumption that every single electron is the same electron in different places and times. I asked a physicist what they thought of that idea. He thought for a moment and responded, “Would it even matter?” Sometimes I imagine that we are all the same person in different bodies living different lives. Every normal person, every genius, philanthropist, every monster, every slave, every billionaire, every dead fetus, every person I’ve dated, my parents,…we’re all the same person living in a different body going through every single experience of life. When I do that, everything seems so simple.
So would it even matter? Yes, because what if individuality is false? What if we’re all one thing, but the current structure of life doesn’t allow us to experience it as such so we incorrectly think that each individual medium of perception is completely independent? Giving everything to others would be selfish. Working as a team for the benefit of everyone would be the ultimate selfish move. We could stop all competition, treat each other with utmost compassion, and maximize our limited time in each body. But alas, the selfish versions of us are too underdeveloped in that dimension to let that happen just yet. I wonder what it would take for each of us to reach the understanding that we’re all the same soul.
I have a friend like you whom I love to send into the chasm that is his own mind. The physicist has the attitude needed to deal with these thoughts - does it even matter? Ultimately, until we know our existence is false, we might as well keep on appreciating what we experience, right?
How does my soul remember everything back as if I never went to sleep. You do it every day but losing and regaining consciousness in that very practical way is already pretty mind-blowing to me.
Soul creation and experience being so analog is because our brainputers are in some ways very analog, and adaptive. And your biorobotmachine is also very analog, so that kind of clicks for me :)
In ‘i am a strange loop’ Douglas Hofstadter makes a good point how the recursion ability of your brain might lead to the emergence of a soul. And that in a very mom reductionist and comforting manner. Great book.
Furthermore a good shower thought I’ve had was not us all being the same person, but reincarnation being true, but also for inanimate objects. So that most inhabit just atoms of matter, for millions of years and that inhabiting a live creature is very rare, even rarer a sentient creature. That puts a different perspective on being, I find.
Nice! Regarding that shower thought, have you seen Everything Everywhere All at Once?
Haven’t seen it, will put it on the to watch list, ty!
Get ready!! In my opinion, it’s one of the best movies ever made.
Why do you assume we even have a soul? There is no evidence to show that we do have one, but we have tons of evidence to show that we are just our brains, and if the brain is damaged, that can change our personalities to wild degrees.
There is zero reason to believe or even think we are all the same person.
There is some short story about all people being one being living every human life that ever will be and that when they are done they will be born as a God or some other elevated being.
There is some short story about all people being one being living every human life that ever will be and that when they are done they will be born as a God or some other elevated being.
The Egg by Andy Weir.
Not exactly the prompt but I used to be hung up on The Boy in the Box mystery but I’m happy to report his identity has been found. His name was Joseph Augustus Zarelli.
I’m kinda partial to the fine-structure constant
Fine-Structure Constant (1/137): This dimensionless constant, approximately equal to 1/137, is crucial in quantum mechanics and electromagnetism. It characterizes the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles.
It’s weird because the number ends up in places that should be thoroughly unrelated yet that’s one hell of it coincidence.
