Australian High Court Hears Some Weird Science

mosch writes "In an extraordinarily unusual case, the Australian High Court listened to TJ Rout's arguments that he can make light travel faster than c, due to the properties of division and multiplication by zero. The transcript makes for excellent reading. Next up, the Supreme Court hears the testimony of Time Cube."

Comments

Let's all laugh

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone laugh at the man who is obsessed with multiplying and dividing by zero. Everyone laugh at the poor man who obviously has a mental illness. The Australian justices no doubt wanted to laugh as well, but because they are stuffy old men they couldn't. Let's all laugh at them too.

And while we're at it, let's all laugh at the prick who thinks the spectacle of a madman is funny.

Re:Let's all laugh

[Gord.ca]

I don't think it's that bad.

First, he sounds more deluded than mentally ill. There is a difference. If he's ill that would contribute to the delusion, but I couldn't diagnose from the website.

Also, if he is ill, so what? I remember a time when I thought of stopping telling insane jokes from respect for the mentally ill. Then I was diagnosed as one, and I've been telling more insanity jokes ever since. Sulking about it doesn't help anything. At least laughing marginally increases the happiness of the world. Getting him help would be the best, but I don't see a way to do that, do you?

If all he's good for is to be laughed at, then we must laugh at him or reduce him to uselessness.

Re:Let's all laugh

[mosch]

My goal wasn't simply to have everybody laugh at the guy, though he does make excellent joke fodder. The fact of the matter is that this man somehow managed to get Australia's highest court to hear a case where the plaintiff's goal was to legislate science.

This hearing was, in my mind, as assinine as if the fellow who runs TimeCube managed to get a hearing with the Supreme Court, to try to legislate that there are 4 simultaneous days within each 24 hour earth rotation. How does this happen? Why does it happen? What would happen if the guy had been sane?

It seemed to me to be a real-life version of the urban legend pi === 3 law, except with the judicial branch being abused.

Re:Let's all laugh

[RealErmine]

Everyone laugh at the man who is obsessed with multiplying and dividing by zero. Everyone laugh at the poor man who obviously has a mental illness. The Australian justices no doubt wanted to laugh as well, but because they are stuffy old men they couldn't. Let's all laugh at them too.

I felt that the justices did a good job of not laughing at this man who obviously has some severe issues dealing with the meaning of reality. The fact that they did not laugh and let Mr. Rout continue with his case shows that they were impartial in their dealing with a person who is mentally ill. The Justice's responses were concisely and consistently aimed to allow Mr. Rout to present his legal case, which he continually failed to do.

While I read through the transcript, though in all it is humorous from a detatched point of view, I was mostly amazed at the depth of Mr. Rout's belief that all of scientific progress and 5000+ years of mathematics were wrong just because he could not seem to fathom the idea that the number zero could stand for nothing. It was possible that he was so afraid of the notion that nothing could be quantified that he could no longer function in reality.

Obviously, from the dialogue, Mr. Rout is an educated man, but try to think of the effect that his educated speculations had on his mind. That's the point where things get scary.

He has a case...

[Hard_Code]

Australian Bill of Rights

Article IXIX:

1. And the law is their set of dividing and multiplying by zero. As long as they maintain their incorrect dividing and multiplying by zero, then they enable me to cause things to cease to exist, and that is why I have the power to do so.

Coauthor: Yahoo Serious

I have to say, he has a pretty solid case. I cannot believe that Australia is denying this man's right to divide and multiply by zero because obviously he has shown time and the speed of light equal one another, such you alter one, you alter the other, and this in turn enables the altering of the speed of light within Einstein's relativity. I mean, that is fundamental to splitting the Beer Atom!

Re:Interesting, x/0 = infinity...

[j.e.hahn]

It's not a question of x/0 maybe being undefined. It *IS* undefined. A common exercise in undergrad math course is to have 2 functions f(x) and g(x) where g(0)=0 and then show that depending on how you choose f and g the limit of f(x)/g(x) as x tends to 0 can take on ANY value you desire.

Division by zero is completely meaningless. Yes there are cases where division by zero creates a removable singularity, and for continuity's sake you can define a new curve/sequence/function/whatever with the convenient value. But that doesn't make the division meaningful...

Oh well. At least he isn't trying to state a value for log(0) -- there's an essential singularity at that point. (The riemann surface for log is very cool...)

kaaskoekies

[chewy]

" KIRBY J: It makes statements concerning the former Chief Justice and said that he is off with the late Mr Skase in Majorca in Spain, which is simply not the case. "

a counter-attack with lawyer-humor? :)

I once thought I spoke fluent english...

[mivok]

but this article is giving me severe doubts.

It's all a conspiracy!

[fm6]

The nice thing about conspiracy theories: they make it unnecessary for you to acknowledge any criticism of your beliefs. Can't patent your perpetual motion machine? It's a conspiracy of physicists. Can't get a permit to operate a chemical factory in a residential neighborhood? It's a conspiracy of environmentalists! Can't play your stereo loud as you would like? It's a conspiracy of classical music fanatics!

My favorite satire of this attitude is Ed Subitsky's satire of Velikoskyism, "Worlds In Collusion". (Printed in the National Lampoon a long time ago. Don't know where else it's available.) Among other assertions, Subitsky asserts that refrigerators don't really need electricity -- it's all a conspiracy to make you pay your utility bill. If you look in the secret compartment, you'll find the real source of the coolness: ice cubes!

Nobody's laughing

[fm6]

Why is it so obvious that Rout is mentally ill? Lots of people have silly theories. I've seen "proofs" that Pi is a rational number, that humans are all descended from Martians, that the international monetary system is a conspiracy of Jews, freemasons, Catholics, and the British Royal family... Perfectly "normal" people believe this crap. Hell, more than one popular TV show celebrates it! And some well meaning fools waste a lot of time trying to debunk silly theories. Which is a lost cause -- this stuff comes from a need to believe, and need to feel important. Very basic human desires, and not symptoms of mental illness!

not an urban legend... sadly

[boarder]

The pi == 3 law is not an urban legend. It was an actual bill introduced into the Indiana House. The text of the bill is here, a site dedicated to the debunking of rumours.

Also on that site is a bill about public erections being illegal.

nice.

Rout's website

[isn't my name]

A Google search turned up Rout's web site which includes The White Feather Letter mentioned in the High Court transcript, as well as many other interesting items. Though, I could not find any conplete explanation of his theories.

There was this interesting piece:

25th Jan 1994: I have proven, the 1st law of thermodynamics being, Newton's Law of conservation of energy is wrong. Using the famous Hubble red shift of 1929, that revealed light from distant galaxies was stretched into the red on a light spectrum, proving the universe was expanding. Proof:

What they all have failed to perceive in 65 yrs of brain blindness is that energy is contained in the wavelength of light and the expanding universe is stretching the wavelength, so straightening it, and in straightening it is causing energy to cease to exist. The expanding universe is converting energy into nothing. This confirms my statements in the past that NOTHING is of a higher and different state of energy.

Re:Rout's website

[SuperBanana]

This is far more telling:
"A Dr Hall from the Nuclear Physics Faculty ANU, around 1994, wrote a very nasty letter to me warning me I'd be ostracized by the the Science Establishment if I didn't change my attitude. He meant I had to be subservient, pay homage and grovel to my intellectual and scientific inferiors. People like me are no good at all at being a follower of any religion."

The answer to that one is "no, you shouldn't go calling the head of the Australian Royal Academy of Science a 'bitch' after she warns you that she considers your communications with her threatening."

Like most people who claim to have 'disproven' various laws of physics, they don't understand, or misapply, other laws. He presents zero physical evidence, except a tangle of his own theories and "proofs', none of which can be found. The incredibly poor grammar only helps to confuse the reader- someone get the boy a book on proper grammar and punctuation and tell him to come back in a year. While he's at it, he can publish all these proofs, and give exact references to where his work has been stolen(ie, where has it shown up, please.)

Regardless, if he's threatening/harassing members of the scientific community, then there should be legal action against him, and as part of that, he should be psychologically evaluated.