What is mass? An apple has it. Put one on a supermarket scale: Earth’s gravity guarantees you pay in precise proportion. In 1684 Isaac Newton does the math for mass and gravity. In 1915 Albert Einstein cleans it up. But a deep problem remains untouched: Up close and personal, neither Isaac nor Albert nor anyone […]
Science Seen
Physicist and Time One author Colin Gillespie helps you understand your world.Could the Universe Have Only Two Dimensions?
It’s strange but true: Physics is now studying the universe as if it is a two-dimensional hologram. How did this come to be? And what does it mean? The 3D/2D duality is known as the holographic principle. Two decades ago American theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind described it this way: ‘In a certain sense the world […]
How Does Teleporting Happen?
Teleporting may be an everyday event throughout the universe. Physicists experimentally demonstrated it some time ago. Recently they set a new distance record: six kilometers. Sounds like progress. Problem is that nobody knows: How does it work? ‘Beam us up, Scotty’ are the magic words that Star Trek fans know make it happen. In Captain […]
What’s Wrong with Relativity?
There is no absolute frame of reference. It’s called the Principle of Relativity. Problem is: The principle is wrong. How so? Let’s take a closer look at what it is. Italian physicist Galileo Galilei had an idea. He said an experiment that’s done inside a smoothly moving ship can’t tell you that it’s moving. In […]
The Window into Planck-Scale Physics
He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom. – J.R.R. Tolkien How can we possibly develop Planck-scale physics? Since 1899 we’ve known that Planck scale is incredibly tiny. We need to go there; it’s where the real action is. New theories (such as string theory) tap […]
Physics Says There’s No Free Will Is Physics Right?
The concept of free will presents a problem. Physics is all about the rules of causation. Once there are rules there is no room for free will. This seems incontrovertible. But we will see that it is wrong. The argument for lack of free will persuades many physicists. Albert Einstein was a big fan of […]
What’s In a Metric? More Than You Might Think
For more than a hundred years a metric has been seen as a good thing. Turns out it’s not; indeed it’s definitely bad. First, what’s a metric? That gets complicated; it’s an assumed property of space. It’s like a ruler science uses to make measurements of many kinds, like lengths of lines (both straight and […]
The DNA of the Universe
The universe burst into existence some 13,799,000,000 years ago. Why did it become this universe? Why does it have quarks and electrons; and elements including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen; and gravity to grow galaxies; and planets orbiting vast numbers of stars; and all of the ingredients that lead to life? Doing this required many […]
Taking Lessons from the Universe
Arithmetic is fundamental to science; but we tend to take it for granted. Few realize its foundations are shaky. Now there are exciting ways to firm them up. We are sold a knowledge pyramid like this: Sciences rest on a foundation of physics; physics on math; math on arithmetic. And arithmetic on logic— but, actually, […]