Gravity Waves

Moonliner · 01-15-2009, 11:58 AM

Ok, try and wrap your head around this one....

An experiment to detect gravity waves have been unable to do so because they keep picking up a noise they can't get rid of.

It turns out the problem might be that they have exceeded the resolution of the universe. Rather like zooming in too close to a photograph.

Wait you say, how can "The Universe" have a maximum resolution? It's not like it's an image right? Well it might just be one. A holographic image to be exact.

Quote:

For many months, the GEO600 team-members had been scratching their heads over inexplicable noise that is plaguing their giant detector. Then, out of the blue, a researcher approached them with an explanation. In fact, he had even predicted the noise before he knew they were detecting it. According to Craig Hogan, a physicist at the Fermilab particle physics lab in Batavia, Illinois, GEO600 has stumbled upon the fundamental limit of space-time - the point where space-time stops behaving like the smooth continuum Einstein described and instead dissolves into "grains", just as a newspaper photograph dissolves into dots as you zoom in. "It looks like GEO600 is being buffeted by the microscopic quantum convulsions of space-time," says Hogan.

Ghoulish Delight · 01-15-2009, 12:20 PM

I KNEW it.

Alex · 01-15-2009, 12:27 PM

We've known the resolution limit of the universe for decades (Planck length, Planck mass, and Planck time), the cool thing is that we may be living in a universe that is just a blown up image like if you took a 600x400 image and expanded it to 1800x1200.

If you want a good popularization of the holographic principal I can strongly recommend Leonard Susskind's book (one of two people, along with Gerard 't Hooft, that formulated it) The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics.

But yes, it is all mind blowing.

Capt Jack · 01-15-2009, 03:38 PM

I knew I shoulda took the blue pill

Cadaverous Pallor · 01-15-2009, 07:56 PM

Hell, you had me at "gravity waves". This is some awesome stuff.

€uroMeinke · 01-15-2009, 09:21 PM

so how many megapixels does my camera need to take a good picture of the universe?

Andrew · 01-15-2009, 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

so how many megapixels does my camera need to take a good picture of the universe?

All of them.

Morrigoon · 01-15-2009, 10:24 PM

Mind-blowingly awesome.

Ghoulish Delight · 01-15-2009, 10:29 PM

Whoa. Andrew just blew my mind.

bewitched · 01-16-2009, 12:05 AM

Very cool! And thanks for the book referrals, Alex.

01-15-2009, 12:20 PM	#2
Ghoulish Delight I Floop the Pig Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alternative Swankstyle Posts: 19,348	I KNEW it. __________________ 'He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.' -TJ
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01-15-2009, 12:27 PM	#3
Alex . Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 13,354	We've known the resolution limit of the universe for decades (Planck length, Planck mass, and Planck time), the cool thing is that we may be living in a universe that is just a blown up image like if you took a 600x400 image and expanded it to 1800x1200. If you want a good popularization of the holographic principal I can strongly recommend Leonard Susskind's book (one of two people, along with Gerard 't Hooft, that formulated it) The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. But yes, it is all mind blowing.
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01-15-2009, 03:38 PM	#4
Capt Jack check your head Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 4,174	I knew I shoulda took the blue pill __________________ a clear conscience is a sure sign of a fuzzy memory
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01-15-2009, 07:56 PM	#5
Cadaverous Pallor ohhhh baby Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Parental Bliss Posts: 12,364	Hell, you had me at "gravity waves". This is some awesome stuff.
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01-15-2009, 09:21 PM	#6
€uroMeinke L'Hédoniste Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: A.S.C.O.T. Posts: 8,671	so how many megapixels does my camera need to take a good picture of the universe? __________________ I would believe only in a God that knows how to Dance. Friedrich Nietzsche
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01-15-2009, 10:24 PM	#8
Morrigoon I throw stones at houses Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Location: Location Posts: 9,534	Mind-blowingly awesome. __________________ http://bash.org/?top "It is useless for sheep to pass a resolution in favor of vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion." -- William Randolph Inge
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01-15-2009, 10:29 PM	#9
Ghoulish Delight I Floop the Pig Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Alternative Swankstyle Posts: 19,348	Whoa. Andrew just blew my mind. __________________ 'He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.' -TJ
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01-16-2009, 12:05 AM	#10
bewitched 101% Yummy! Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: I know Kung Fu. Posts: 1,413	Very cool! And thanks for the book referrals, Alex. __________________ ~Whitney Wondering about the future of Ellington Woodard's punk@ss sh!t.
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