Christmas quiz esp. for astronomers

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Danny M2Z on 16/12/2017 07:12:29:

I would like to know however, why could he not deliver the kids bikes readily assembled?

* Danny M *

Because he has a social commitment to encourage adult/child communication and co-operation on Christmas morning? 😀

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Assembling bikes after having consumed the amount of sherries he has on his rounds he probably isn't capable, have you ever tried to assemble anything when you are pissed, I have enough trouble when sober.

Dave W

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

There is a trick used by Santa – he doesn't deliver everything at the same time. He uses the international date line system which divides the globe (unevenly) so he has a stripe to do every hour. If you look at the Globe you can see which times he has his snap, as there are very few visits to do in some of the Pacific stripes, for instance.

And anyway, the idea that we are travelling through space (or space-time if you insist) is a nonsense, as there is nothing in space so we cannot be said to be travelling through it. All we can say is that we are moving in relation to other objects – stars mainly – but as we can never see the stars as they are now, but only after the light has finally arrived, we cannot be sure about this, either. This is called the uncertainty principle, and it explains why you can never get 100% marks in an exam.

Cheers, Tim

[Martin DowingParticipant @martindowing58466]

Posted by Bob Lamb on 15/12/2017 08:50:20:

I have three simple questions related to the universe which have been bothering me recently and I would love some of the astronomers amongst you to help me please.

1. If the universe is expanding – what is it expanding into?

2.If it all started with a Big Bang – who lit the fuse?

3. How does Rudolph manage to pull Santa's sleigh through the skies so fast at Christmas when, as far as I know, reindeer don't have wings?

I know it is a bit early but Happy Christmas.

Bob

re. 1. Space itself is expanding. There is nothing "outside" of Universe into which it could expand. Lets forget about "Multiverse" explanations relying on so called branes etc. These are unprovable fantasies of current lot of theoretical physicists. They do not have anything more useful to do.

re. 2. God.

re 3. It is related to fungus known as Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric. Laps of Lapland (Norway), from where story of Santa with reindears came, are using this halucinogenic mushroom to gain access to mystic world as per their believes. Reindeers like to consume this mushroom too, maybe for the same reason peoples do. Sensations under influence includes illusions of flying. Active ingreadients of fly agaric are muscimol and ibotenic acid. It also contains toxic and not hallucinogenic muscarine, so large overdoses are best to be avoided.

Martin

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

There isn't 'nothing' in space! Very little, it is true, relatively few atoms, lots of massless photons, millions of neutrinos etc., but not nothing.

Geoff

[Martin DowingParticipant @martindowing58466]

@Geoff Theasby,

There is much more – stars, Galaxies etc but we are not talking about objects in space, small or big.

Nevertheless physical space devoid of matter and radiation is sttill not empty. It has positive internal energy to satisfy Heisenberg principle.

It is possibly false vacuum, not really a good news.

Martin

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Martin Dowing on 16/12/2017 17:50:54:

Lets forget about "Multiverse" explanations relying on so called branes etc.

… but please let's not dispense with branes entirely. The bit I rather liked was that two branes got close, "touched" and a bunch of energy was suddenly transferred from one to the other. The rest is history.

[Martin DowingParticipant @martindowing58466]

I am barking on branes because current models involving them are not open to experimental verification. So they are not falsifiable and therefore not scientific. And should these branes "clap" again, we are most likely fell like if something had struck us with speed of c, hence we would cease to exist without realising what have happened.

But they could exist, who knows?

Martin

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

Ah, yes, Martin, but even if considering the stars, planets & galaxies in our concept of 'empty' space, do not forget that even the atoms of so-called 'solid matter' are mostly empty space…

Geoff

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

Ah, yes, Martin, but even if considering the stars, planets & galaxies in our concept of 'empty' space, do not forget that even the atoms of so-called 'solid matter' are mostly empty space…

Geoff

[Mike E.Participant @mikee-85511]

Posted by Bob Lamb on 15/12/2017 08:50:20:

 

I have three simple questions related to the universe which have been bothering me recently and I would love some of the astronomers amongst you to help me please.

1. If the universe is expanding – what is it expanding into?

2.If it all started with a Big Bang – who lit the fuse?

3. How does Rudolph manage to pull Santa's sleigh through the skies so fast at Christmas when, as far as I know, reindeer don't have wings?

I know it is a bit early but Happy Christmas.

Bob

 

1.) Expanding into obesity.

2.) Someone who broke wind at the wrong moment.

3.) Running on dark matter.

 

Prove me wrong.

Edited By Mike E. on 16/12/2017 20:45:30

[Martin DowingParticipant @martindowing58466]

Posted by Geoff Theasby on 16/12/2017 20:03:20:

Ah, yes, Martin, but even if considering the stars, planets & galaxies in our concept of 'empty' space, do not forget that even the atoms of so-called 'solid matter' are mostly empty space…

Geoff

 

We can follow this path and find that matter is illusion and space is basically empty and all what we know as matter is product of interaction of force fields.

So lets take as an example stellar collapse. At the point of collapse to neutron star our Sun would have size maybe 20km and star about three times its mass would end up with size 10km (this is property of so called degenerate matter – heavier object would be smaller).

Then we cross a line and get collapse to BH or similar object. God only knows what is inside, but there are reasonable suspicions that something known as Planck Star rather than true singularity would be inside – object of density of 10^95kg*m-3.

If you collapsed entire observable Universe (about 10^50kg) to Planck density, it would be approximately of size of bacterial cell. That is all "real" stuff what is around. All features which we observe are just force fields.

Martin

Edited By Martin Dowing on 16/12/2017 21:04:23

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Geoff Theasby on 16/12/2017 20:03:20:

Ah, yes, Martin, but even if considering the stars, planets & galaxies in our concept of 'empty' space, do not forget that even the atoms of so-called 'solid matter' are mostly empty space…

Geoff

Nature abhors a vacuum – and fills it with duplicate posts ….

Neil

[Geoff TheasbyParticipant @geofftheasby]

Yes, Neil. That's what C.Northcote Parkinson said.

Geoff

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

Posted by Bob Lamb on 15/12/2017 08:50:20:

I have three simple questions related to the universe which have been bothering me recently and I would love some of the astronomers amongst you to help me please.

1. If the universe is expanding – what is it expanding into?

2.If it all started with a Big Bang – who lit the fuse?

3. How does Rudolph manage to pull Santa's sleigh through the skies so fast at Christmas when, as far as I know, reindeer don't have wings?

I know it is a bit early but Happy Christmas.

Bob

1. If there's nothing else out there then there's plenty of room

2. A God, obviously!

3. A rocket motor and Belief! 😀

[Adrian GilesParticipant @adriangiles39248]

Posted by Danny M2Z on 16/12/2017 07:12:29:

Santa moves by quantum mechanics, thus the probability is that he is everywhere and nowhere at any given time.

Nah, just rolling down a bumpy hillside in a hippy hat !

Happy Christmas

Adrian

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Adrian Giles on 17/12/2017 23:15:42:

Posted by Danny M2Z on 16/12/2017 07:12:29:

Santa moves by quantum mechanics, thus the probability is that he is everywhere and nowhere at any given time.

Nah, just rolling down a bumpy hillside in a hippy hat !

Happy Christmas

Adrian

Sayin' everything is groovy when his tyres are flat…

But then, he has no need of tyres.

Bah, humbug…

[Danny M2ZParticipant @dannym2z]

Could this be Santa caught in action? **LINK**

* Danny M *

[Bob LambParticipant @boblamb44747]

Thanks for all the comments. The main thing I have learnt is that questions about the universe are totally beyond me let alone the answers!

My conclusions:

1. I will accept Neil’s word that the Universe isn’t expanding into anything. (I don't know why but I trust Neil)

2. I accept there was no fuse to light for the Big Bang. Apparently it was just an unsafe early model “Arthur Dent “ tea making machine which exploded – he didn’t get the recall notice from the store in time and just look at the unintended consequences.

3. However, the question about Santa does still intrigue me. Aside from how he manages to travel the entire world in one night, make a shopping list for the many billion people he visits and then actually have time to go shopping I simply don’t understand. The one thing I hope I know is that he MIGHT have visited Arc Euro recently and, if so, Ketan may have a clue. I suspect though that Ketan may claim commercial confidentiality as he probably wouldn’t want to upset one of his really good customers!

So it’s back to the infinite probability drive as the only understandable way of solving this little problem. Happy Christmas – Bob

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