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Fundamental Constant Possibly Inconsistent

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the those-wacky-constants dept.

dylanduck writes "Cosmologists have begun thinking that yet another fundamental constant of nature is, er, not constant. The constant in question is the ratio of a proton's mass to that of an electron. It governs the strong nuclear force but there's no explanation for why that ratio should be constant. If true it would provide support for string theory, which predicts extra spatial dimensions." From the article: "Researchers at the Free University in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the European Southern Observatory in Chile discovered the variation in mu. They did it by comparing the spectrum of molecular hydrogen gas in the laboratory to what it was in quasars 12 billion light years away. The spectrum depends on the relative masses of protons and electrons in the molecule."

7 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Thus proving once and for all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...that God is a woman.

  2. Apparently, the meaning of "constant" by Snarfangel · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...isn't constant, either. Perhaps we can rename them "fundamental variables."

    --
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    1. Re:Apparently, the meaning of "constant" by roystgnr · · Score: 5, Funny

      Urgh... that will mess up optimization.

      Well, that's what God gets for using C++. You think you've got a well-designed system, then you realize that to make your next set of changes work you're going to have to throw in a bunch of const_casts or mutables.

      You can tell He's new to object oriented programming, too - he's got this whole overeager class hierarchy of tau derived from muon derived from electron, top derived from charm derived from up, and on and on, but then when it's finally time to put together the universe He gets sick of the whole thing and builds all His matter from the base classes!

  3. Re:Does this mean by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And yet you have no idea where the clitoris is.

  4. So there's this atom .... by i_want_you_to_throw_ · · Score: 5, Funny

    and says ....
    "I think I have lost an electron!"

    Another atom asks..
    "Are you sure?"

    The atom says
    "I'm positive!"

    I'll be here all week, enjoy the veal.....

    1. Re:So there's this atom .... by Geoffreyerffoeg · · Score: 5, Funny

      So a bar walks into a man...oh wait, wrong frame of reference.

    2. Re:So there's this atom .... by rsadelle · · Score: 5, Funny

      A neutron walks into a bar, orders a beer, and asks, "How much?"

      The bartender says, "For you, no charge."