Let me throw just one more monkey wrench into the theory of everything: 

If we all accept the Big Bang as a fact, then before all matter and radiation existed as a result of it, where did all the emptiness of the SPACE come from???   I think that question probably perplexed even guys like Einstein and Planck(?)

 

 

Edited August 27, 20223 yr by overspeed3

8 hours ago, sightseer said:

1) Is space expanding? yes or no

2) If (yes):  Is our galaxy getting bigger? (aka is all literal space getting 'bigger'?)

3) and also; if galaxies are moving away from us at faster and faster rates, wouldn't it be likely that galaxies we used to be able to see, we now can't?

4) and as a crazy question (yeah...) - how do we know that space is what is changing and not time?  maybe time = 0 at the Bing Bang and the frame keeps expanding (like maybe we're falling into a giant black hole or something 🤐)

More good questions; I really enjoy this thread 🙂

1) Yes

2) No, see the following video

 

3) Actually, we currently experience the opposite: the visible part of the universe is growing because, as time progresses, light from sources far away has more time to reach us. You are correct, though: if a galaxy is sufficiently far away from us, space will expand faster than light can travel through space, so we won't be able to see it. However, the distance for this to happen is far greater than the size of the visible universe.

Does this violate the principle that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light? No, since space-time itself is not subject to this limitation. This is the reason why a Star Trek type of warp drive is theoretically possible.

4) Time is changing all the time 🙂

More seriously, time is bent in space: the closer you are to a heavy object like a planet, the slower your watch will go. The speed of your clock will also depend on how fast you go, and both effects need to be taken into account for the GPS system to work properly. But what is important to know is that your clock is only going slower relative to a distant observer. You yourself won't notice that time is going slower, but a distant observer will see that (and you will see that the distant observer's clock is going faster). The most extreme case is a black hole: when you pass its event horizon, your clock will be infinitely slow as seen from the outside. In other words, a distant observer will never see you falling into the hole. However, from your own perspective, your clock keeps ticking. What changes is that, once you pass the horizon, you only have a small amount of time left until you reach the center of the black hole, where gravity will rip everything apart. Once you're inside, nothing whatsoever can change that fate.

On very large, cosmological, scales, space is essentially flat. That means that time is progressing at the same rate everywhere in space. But that's only true in average, on the scale of distances between galaxies or even galaxy clusters (i.e., hundreds of millions of light years). These are the distances that are studied in physical cosmology and the Big Bang. If you zoom in to a galaxy and get close to a planet ort a black hole, time will still be different. 

6 hours ago, FBW737 said:

Is the subject mater of Physics the objects of experience or things in themselves?

That is the most difficult question so far. Physics is more like a method, a way of approaching problems and trying to solve them. Those methods can be applied to virtually anything. There are physicists at universities who study biological systems, traffic jams, or optimize laser eye surgery, X-ray images and many other health care related devices. The 2021 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three physicists who, some 50 years ago, developed models that predicted climate change.

Cosmology and Relativity are actually only a tiny part of what physicists are doing. These topics require very advanced mathematical techniques, so most physicists actually do not understand it that well. Many cosmologists work in math departments rather than in a physics department. And given that there are no repeatable experiments possible in cosmology, a more precise classification for cosmology would be natural philosophy rather than physics. 

To answer to your question: the boundaries between physics and other fields are blurry. Most physicists deal with things, i.e., with matter and radiation, and what you can do with it. But in fields like cosmology, relativity, and quantum mechanics, physics also addresses very philosophical questions, such as that the act of observing an object will change the state of it. In these fields, the question of what we experience is as important as what happens to things.

5 hours ago, overspeed3 said:

Say we all accept the Big Bang as a fact, then just before all matter and radiation existed as a result of it, where did all the vast emptiness of SPACE come from???  

That is precisely the question that quantum gravity (the theory of everything) tries to answer. But as I wrote in another post above, quantum gravity is neither well tested not well understood, so we currently do not have a reliable answer to this question. If you trust quantum gravity (I don't), then the answer would be that the universe was created from a quantum fluctuation of space-time. But as I said, what that precisely means is not clear.

5 hours ago, overspeed3 said:

 

 

6 hours ago, overspeed3 said:

Let me throw just one more monkey wrench into the theory of everything: 

If we all accept the Big Bang as a fact, then before all matter and radiation existed as a result of it, where did all the emptiness of the SPACE come from???   I think that question probably perplexed even guys like Einstein and Planck(?)

There is no way to know if it, or anything else existed prior to that event. Conceptually, we of course find the notion of nothing existing difficult to comprehend, since it is outside the realm of our own concept of existence. But things can definitely not exist, for example, there is no priceless Monet painting existing in my attic at the moment, but although very unlikely, it's not technically or physically impossible that this state could change to one where such a painting did end up existing in my attic, if someone put such a thing up there for example. So the really difficult to comprehend bit of this concept, is what, or who if you want to get theological about it, is the agent which caused this event to occur, and if there was such an agent, what caused that agent or phenomenon to exist? And then, what caused the thing which caused that to exist, to itelf exist, and so on. We could go all day on that concept and it's the chief reason why religions end up getting invented of course.

This is why we'll probably never know the answer to the question, which might annoy or perplex us, but sometimes the correct and honest answer to the question is, we don't know, and quite possibly never will. A more important question than this however, is why, when you drop some toast, does it always land butter-side down?

Anyway, I'm off to listen to the sound of one hand clapping.

4 hours ago, Chock said:

Anyway, I'm off to listen to the sound of one hand clapping.

You can listen to it here:

 

Well the word Physics comes from the Greek meaning the "the nature of things". The earliest I've seen it is Aristotle. As in Aristotle's Physics. Its a long history. I'm not sure I'd use the term Natural Philosophy to describe cosmology though. I'd be more inclined to call it Astrophysics thus distinguishing it from Experimental physics, Theoretical Physics, Nuclear Physics, etc. The word Philosophy 'Means of Wisdom' also from the Greek. Philo = Love and Sophie = wisdom. Compounded for Philosophy. Science and philosophy (as an academic discipline) are related though. Like Physics, Philosophy is also subdivided into sub-disciplines, epistemology, Metaphysics, phenomenology, ethic, Philosophy of Science, etc. Philosophy of science I think is the most accessible and pertinent for anyone interested in pop physics lest they are beguiled. Carl Popper is a great place to start followed up by Thomas Kuhn. In this age of Trusting the Science a common refrain for me is that the history of science is the history of being wrong! I wouldn't say that readily about Physics though.

My thoughts for tonight.......I just heard the eerie recording of the noise that a black hole makes (glad I just checked my spelling of hole) and the fact that scientists say that space literally stinks.  My conclusion is that the Big Bang was a gigantic "deuce" 💩 that exploded all them years ago!

Mystery solved! 🤔

"Science" is simply a branch of philosophy.  There have been many philosophies of science over time, we have no basis for declaring one particular one "right".  But I like to take a utilitarian view, to the extent that "science" can produce results of value to me, then it is "correct".

 

scott s.

.

 

 

Okay, here's an interesting one which I thought I'd tell you all about which does sort of hint at there being more to life than we presently know or understand about life...

So, a week or so ago, my mum died, she was in hospital for a few days but deteriorated owing to some complications and that was it. Now, I had been visiting her three times a day prior to this, but on the morning she passed away, I had a call from the hospital telling me she was in a bad way and I'd better get there ASAP, so I drove there as quick as I could at about 1.45am, and got there fifteen minutes before my mum passed away, so I was able to spend some last moments with her. But here's the weird thing...

As noted, I had been visiting her numerous times each day in the run up to this, and across from her in the bed opposite on the ward, was another old lady, who apparently had dementia. As a result of her dementia, this lady (I think she was called Irene) would constantly ask for someone called Mary. Obviously it was not her fault, but much of the time when I was visiting my mum, this lady opposite would be constantly calling out 'Mary, Mary, Mary,', which was a bit irritating, but as I say it wasn't really her fault. On the night my mum died, when I got to the hospital, sure enough this lady was constantly saying 'Mary, Mary, Mary...' and I confess that I was a little bit annoyed by this when I was trying to have a moment with my mum who was very obviously not going to last much longer. But this is where it gets spooky...

So my mum finally passes away with me holding her hand and talking to her, telling her it's going to be okay and I love her very much etc, whilst trying to ignore the 'Mary, Mary, Mary...' coming from across the ward. When my mum finally went, I waited a minute or so and then asked a nurse to fetch a doctor to confirm my mum had passed away, which he did, and right after that I felt I needed to get away from the constant 'Mary, Mary, Mary...' coming from the lady in the bed opposite, so I went to the end of the ward and into the corridor. This was literally a couple of minutes after my mum had gone, and what happens?

The lady stopped saying 'Mary' repeatedly, and said my mum's name about ten times 'Margaret, Margaret, Margaret...', before going quiet. Now you have to understand that at no point in the preceding few days had this lady ever said anything other than 'Mary', but the moment my mum goes, she starts saying her name, and she didn't know my mum's name either because she really wasn't aware of much of her surroundings owing to the dementia, or at least that's what we'd think!

By the way, there were curtains drawn around her bed and one drawn my mum's bed too, so she had no idea what was going on with my mum. You've got to admit that's pretty strange, isn't it?

 

Edited August 31, 20223 yr by Chock

While I don't believe in spirits or ghosts I do believe in mental telepathy Chock.

My second oldest daughter, Tammy, lived with her motorcycle gang husband in Albuquerque.  While we were friendly and visited each other a couple of times mostly we were estranged.

One night my wife awakened me and said, "Tammy's outside.  I hear her calling, "Mom."

We got up and looked around and no cars were parked out front or in the drive and I told Betty she was probably dreaming.

A few days later we were notified that on that night Tammy died from a drug overdose.

On the night my grandfather died in Antwerp, Belgium, my Mom who was living with her sister in New York said she heard her father calling her name.  It was a few days after she heard her father call her name that they were notified of his death.

Forget the cosmos and the universe.  More goes on in our brains that we don't know about than goes on in the cosmos.  They are universes unto themselves and less understood.

Noel

 

 

yes, Chock, pretty strange.  When my grandmother died,  ... after my grandmother died but not long after, both my mom and dad claimed to have encountered a 'ghost' that they just knew was her.  They were both very comforted.

Theres a lot more to this life than meets the eye.

I'll add to some weird things i personally witnessed. A few years ago when my father in law was still alive. My father in law had been ill,not seriously at that point but enough to be in hospital. We got a call from the hospital one morning that we needed to get in because they thought that during the night he might of had a stroke . We arrived fairly quickly and sadly a stroke did look to be the case and he did not look good. Parrallised down one side and unable to speak at all.

He slept for a few hours  and then woke up and here is where it gets very spooky 

The nurse that was looking after him that morning was french and my father in law started talking to her in french!!!!! Now i should add he could not normally speak french. My wife and i initially thought he was just rambling, but the nurse looked at us and asked if he was a french speaker. We said no then the next spooky thing she said was this.

My father in law said there was his friend that had been killed during WW2 was standing at the bottom of the bed telling everything would be ok all in french.

Anyway he fell back asleep and we thought the end was coming, so we just sat with him held his hand and told him if he needed to go it was ok and we loved him.

About 3 hours later he woke again  and was able to move and speak normally,but no memory of the previous few hours

If i had not witnessed it i would never have believed it. He died about 18 months later never speaking or remembering french

 

My condolences Chock on the loss of your mum 

Edited August 31, 20223 yr by mazelda

This forum's new name "The Twilight Zone"!  😳

 

 

Probably half the forum regulars have had unexplained occurrences. Mine is boring but I never figured it out. As a boy, our one bathroom had no windows, it was pitch black if the electrical light switch was off. And the off position was the wall switch raised upward.

 I was in the bath tub and at the end of the cleansing washed my hair. The only way to remove the suds was to dunk my head. And when I withdrew my head after about 10 seconds, the room was pitch black. Spooked out wildly, I dried my feet and carefully reached out to test the switch. If it was fully down then it was 'on' which simply meant that a fuse had blown. But it was up! And fully all the way up, not in an intermediate position between up and down.

How does a switch levitate itself fully upward and therefore darken the room?

A boring experience compared to the others here. But it word not allowed me out to this day remembering opening my eyes to pitch blackness. 

 

I've never had anything like these experiences happen to me.  I can only relate what I was told by my mom and my wife.  I think some of us are more attuned to psychic phenomena than others.

Noel