Stephen Hawking - passed away
- Thread starter pplpilot
- Start date
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twentysix by twentyfive
Clinging on tightly
- Location
- Over the Hill
Great scientist and scientific communicator.
Beebo
Firm and Fruity
- Location
- Hexleybeef
I spent the morning listening to various professors talking about crazy physics stuff on the radio this morning.
Apparently if an astronaut was entering a black hole, their perception of time would speed up so fast that before they crossed the event horizon they would witness the conclusion of the universe, whilst observers on earth would stay in their time and never even see the astronaut enter the black hole.
The other thing they explained was to do with the speed of light. Nothing is faster than light, so if you had two cars moving away from each other both traveling at the speed of light, and a passenger shined a torch at the other car, they would see the light from the torch even though they were traveling away from each other at what would appear to be twice the speed of light. This is because nothing can travel fast than light so space and time would have to change to accommodate this.
I don’t understand it, but it sounded very impressive.
Apparently if an astronaut was entering a black hole, their perception of time would speed up so fast that before they crossed the event horizon they would witness the conclusion of the universe, whilst observers on earth would stay in their time and never even see the astronaut enter the black hole.
The other thing they explained was to do with the speed of light. Nothing is faster than light, so if you had two cars moving away from each other both traveling at the speed of light, and a passenger shined a torch at the other car, they would see the light from the torch even though they were traveling away from each other at what would appear to be twice the speed of light. This is because nothing can travel fast than light so space and time would have to change to accommodate this.
I don’t understand it, but it sounded very impressive.
The astronaut stuff is general relativity, which is the more complete description of space-time. Special relativity is a, believe it or not, a simple case. Both due mainly to Einstein, who didn’t get a Nobel Prize for either (from memory, his NP was for the explanation of the photoelectric effect). I did a third year course in General Relativity, which was truly a head feck and the fiercest maths I’ve ever had to contemplate.
Hawkins was a major player in attempting to understand the thermodynamics of black holes, which is where I check out.
winjim
Smash the cistern
[QUOTE 5181832, member: 43827"]H-A-W-K-I-N-S
"..so clever it makes me angry..........but not half as clever as he thinks he is". jefmcg[/QUOTE]
"..so clever it makes me angry..........but not half as clever as he thinks he is". jefmcg[/QUOTE]
You see?
Lullabelle
Banana
- Location
- Midlands UK
Seevio
Guru
- Location
- South Glos
I was disappointed with Prof Hawkins when he abandoned his roots and started talking with an American accent.
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
winjim
Smash the cistern
[QUOTE 5182715, member: 43827"]OK. I get the point!
But I wish people would give him the respect of at least spelling his name correctly in a thread about his death.[/QUOTE]
I think having Richard Dawkins as the other great celebrity scientist of his generation probably doesn't help.
But I wish people would give him the respect of at least spelling his name correctly in a thread about his death.[/QUOTE]
I think having Richard Dawkins as the other great celebrity scientist of his generation probably doesn't help.
Inertia
I feel like I could... TAKE ON THE WORLD!!
Inertia
I feel like I could... TAKE ON THE WORLD!!
Hemant Mehta has a selection of the "love" being dispensed by religionists:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...stephen-hawking-is-currently-burning-in-hell/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friend...stephen-hawking-is-currently-burning-in-hell/
