It might be suprising for a small object to have a moon, but as other posters have pointed out, it does happen.
The reason astronomers thought there would be a moon, was it's rotation rate is quite slow. The best mechanism for doing this is to have a moon that uses tidal effects to slow the rotation of Sedna. This is happening on earth, and has happened to our moon.
True, hitting keys's isn't making music, but one of the difficulties in learning to make music, is the complexity of replicating the music other people have written down. Most people can deal with the complexity of a keyboard, if there were an easy way to use that complexity to make music, I think there would be a lot more competent musicians out there.
I would like to point out that pounds is not an appropriate unit of measure here. We know what it means, but pounds is a unit of force of gravity. The fact that an object experiences the same gravity anywhere on earth (essentially) causes us to often use pounds as a unit of mass, which it is not. Properly, this large diamond should be some number of kilograms, or the imperial equivalent. Or to make the numbers more understandable, measure it in Earth masses.
calculations show the diamond to be 2.27x10^30 kg the sun is about 1.99x10^30 kg for comparison
Clothes is bad? I hate clothes shopping, if I get them from chistmas I don't have to go out and buy them! Plus it's an easy non-geek thing to get (assuming buyer has SOME sense your style).
It's probably worth noting to this that it is possible for a human can last, without lasting effects, about 40 days with only water. I'm not sure how this would be affected by serious excesice, and the fact that gatorade does have more nutrients that pure water.
I agree, you don't have to write your own songs. I mentioned that the Monkees didn't write their own songs because it is another example of how that group was put together, not for musical ability, but for marketability. I mentioned the Monkees to point out that pop music hasn't so much degraded to pure marketing, it has always been about marketing. But the fact that I actually know about the Monkees means that the music they performed must have had some quality, or it wouldn't have lasted the 40 years for me to hear about it.
I say almost all the modern musicians are promoted based on how they look.
Pop music has always been based on marketing, and it's nothing new. Remember, or ever heard of the Monkees? A band that was put together for how they look, had music written for them etc. Most music made in this style will not last. I don't think there are many people who still care about the Backstreet Boys, or Spice Girls. Bands that are based on marketing are usually just flashes in the pan. There are bands that work on musical talent. Doors, later Beatles, Beethoven, Miles Davis, and from what I hear, Radiohead are some examples. These bands will stand (or have stood) the test of time and still be known and listened to far into the future.
It is possible to use technology in the making of music. Hendrix did it, Radiohead does it. But to get technology to make the music for you, has so far been unable to do anything but make Pop music.
The speed of light 'c' is quite safe, I wouldn't worry about that just yet. I've taken an introductory (4th year) quantum computing course, and one thing the profs kept mentioning was possible algorithms (based on quantum teleportation) to communicate faster than c, and how all these algorithms failed. There are certain effects in quantum mechanics that seem faster than c, but there is no way to transmit information faster than c.
There is definately information transmited when a person moves from one place to the other. Quantum teleportation is the closest we know of for travel faster than c, but even then, it is a quantum effect, that allows a particle to be replicated exactly at a distant location, so there is no time when particles move faster than c.
From the article: The Air Force Research Laboratory, Space Vehicles Directorate is soliciting information and follow-up discussions to support research and development of concepts for rapid-prototyping of space systems based on a kind of space "LEGO_TM". These "LEGOS", also referred to as "protosats", would be a (hopefully small) family of building blocks, from which any complex structure could be built, in this case the skeletal structures of spacecraft. The protosats could, for example, be panels that contain automatic mechanisms for engaging connections when two panels are placed together. The panels could contain wiring resources, computing blocks, etc. that when put together form a superset.
Exactly right, that way we know what could use improvment. Electric lights are better than gas lights are better than candles. And now we get a clearer idea of what needs to be done to improve electric lights.
Of course I wasn't going to do surgery with it. I was thinking take the Keck telescope (10 m diameter), aim it at the sun, attach fiber optic cable at the focus, cut down a forest (being a gentle example of what to do:)
A quick google search reveals high power lasers of 100 W another quick search shows: ~250 W/m^2 as solar power reaching earth's surface. A circle of diameter 10 m, 78.5 m^2. Giving almost 20,000 watts. hehehe. Assume you loose half of that in mechanics, it's still 10,000 watts!
let's do some rough calculations. 35 km, and 14 min travel time. that's 0.233... hours, giving an average horizantal velocity of 150 km/h. Suppose his speed was, on average 200 km/h (CNN) this gives a vertical velocity of 132.3 km/h. Someone else said terminal velocity for a person is about 200 km/h, with a wing on your back, could it be 132 km/h?
Remember this is average. I would guess his speed varied a lot during his flight as pressure changed. So my random guess based on this, and that fact I've never trusted CNN is that 220 mph is correct for a max speed.
You know how scientists have lots of trouble producing even tiny amounts of anti-matter. Where better to get copious amounts of the stuff? Could be used for such things as alternative energy source, or removing planets to make way for hyperspace bypasses.
This could be an interesting effect for a sci-fi. Assume the universe is large enough to hold pockets of matter and anti-matter, then the regions between these pockets may be highly active areas of near empty space where matter and anti-matter collide and release lots of energy. Like a sort of second cosmic microwave background, though it probably wouldn't be microwaves.
Could be fun designing a starship to cross this boudry.
It would be an interesting, and random conincidence. One mole, is the number of carbon 12 atoms needed to make exaclty 12 grams of carbon 12. (Something in there is defined by that relation, I'm not sure if it's the mole exactly.) Seeing as the gram is an entirely arbitrary unit of mass, this number is entirely arbitrary. I know, I know, that's the boring answer.
If the universe contains an Avogadro's number of stars then the universe has exactly 1 Ug (universe gram) of mass. Where the universe atomic mass unit is one star; 10^33 or 10^34 grams as we know them.:P
as someone else pointed out, gravity is not FTL. However, quantum teleportation is. The only problem, is that in order to send information over this medium, some non-FTL communication is required.
Basically, the effect of quantum teleportation can be observed instantaneously, but in order to decode the effect into useful information, some more information must be transmitted via non-teleportation means.
This means, there are non-local (FTL) effects, but information is not one of them.
I agree entierly, and I think that is the best thing these authors have to offer to people coming up with new technology. Probably most of the ideas in sci-fi will never be implemented, but of the ones that do, we have some people that have though long and hard about how that new technology will affect and be used by people.
It's true, 90 light years is quite a distance for us to travel or communicate. But, compared to the rest of the galaxy, or universe, 90 light years is quite close. If life is to be discovered within, say, 200 years it will likely be at that sort of range.
True, there may eventually be laws that allow for faster than light travel (wormhole anyone?) But the Wright borthers had birds as examples that flight was possible. We don't have any physical evidence of super-luminal travel being possible.
I agree, milk the SUV SOBs for all they're worth. But this idea with the eBay thing is to find out what to charge on an eventual toll road. And finding 20 people willing to pay $1000 for the sticker doesn't mean that's what it should cost.
Bascially they need a larger sample size than is likely possible with eBay auctions.
Unless of course they have worked out some way to find out what most peole will pay based on what the crazy rich will pay.
chears to that! I love hiking, get out of the human created city and see trees in their natural environment. I also love canoeing, like kyaking it's a great way to actually see the nature on a lake or river, instead of scarring it away with some big motor.
"To me those physics theories seem more bizzare and unlikely than the possibility that with a zillion starsystems that there be many other beings far more advanced than us." That idea most scientists accept.
Believing that these aliens have landed here is a completely different issue. It suggests that aliens have found a way to efficiently travel through space, decided to land on earth, and dispite the obvious vast supperiority in technology (they did get to earth after all), we manage to see them.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason astronomers thought there would be a moon, was it's rotation rate is quite slow. The best mechanism for doing this is to have a moon that uses tidal effects to slow the rotation of Sedna. This is happening on earth, and has happened to our moon.
True, hitting keys's isn't making music, but one of the difficulties in learning to make music, is the complexity of replicating the music other people have written down. Most people can deal with the complexity of a keyboard, if there were an easy way to use that complexity to make music, I think there would be a lot more competent musicians out there.
calculations show the diamond to be 2.27x10^30 kg the sun is about 1.99x10^30 kg for comparison
Clothes is bad? I hate clothes shopping, if I get them from chistmas I don't have to go out and buy them! Plus it's an easy non-geek thing to get (assuming buyer has SOME sense your style).
It's probably worth noting to this that it is possible for a human can last, without lasting effects, about 40 days with only water. I'm not sure how this would be affected by serious excesice, and the fact that gatorade does have more nutrients that pure water.
I agree, you don't have to write your own songs. I mentioned that the Monkees didn't write their own songs because it is another example of how that group was put together, not for musical ability, but for marketability. I mentioned the Monkees to point out that pop music hasn't so much degraded to pure marketing, it has always been about marketing. But the fact that I actually know about the Monkees means that the music they performed must have had some quality, or it wouldn't have lasted the 40 years for me to hear about it.
Pop music has always been based on marketing, and it's nothing new. Remember, or ever heard of the Monkees? A band that was put together for how they look, had music written for them etc. Most music made in this style will not last. I don't think there are many people who still care about the Backstreet Boys, or Spice Girls. Bands that are based on marketing are usually just flashes in the pan. There are bands that work on musical talent. Doors, later Beatles, Beethoven, Miles Davis, and from what I hear, Radiohead are some examples. These bands will stand (or have stood) the test of time and still be known and listened to far into the future.
It is possible to use technology in the making of music. Hendrix did it, Radiohead does it. But to get technology to make the music for you, has so far been unable to do anything but make Pop music.
There is definately information transmited when a person moves from one place to the other. Quantum teleportation is the closest we know of for travel faster than c, but even then, it is a quantum effect, that allows a particle to be replicated exactly at a distant location, so there is no time when particles move faster than c.
RTA!
Exactly right, that way we know what could use improvment. Electric lights are better than gas lights are better than candles. And now we get a clearer idea of what needs to be done to improve electric lights.
A quick google search reveals high power lasers of 100 W another quick search shows: ~250 W/m^2 as solar power reaching earth's surface. A circle of diameter 10 m, 78.5 m^2. Giving almost 20,000 watts. hehehe. Assume you loose half of that in mechanics, it's still 10,000 watts!
Remember this is average. I would guess his speed varied a lot during his flight as pressure changed. So my random guess based on this, and that fact I've never trusted CNN is that 220 mph is correct for a max speed.
You know how scientists have lots of trouble producing even tiny amounts of anti-matter. Where better to get copious amounts of the stuff? Could be used for such things as alternative energy source, or removing planets to make way for hyperspace bypasses.
Normal gravity is about 9.8 m/s^2, 1 mGal = 1 x 10^-3 cm/s^2 = 1 x 10^-5 m/s^2. 60 mGal = 6 x 10^-4 m/s^2 = 0.0006 m/s^2
so the measurment range, (assuming 9.8 is perfectly accurate) is 9.8006 to 9.7994 m/s^2.
Could be fun designing a starship to cross this boudry.
If the universe contains an Avogadro's number of stars then the universe has exactly 1 Ug (universe gram) of mass. Where the universe atomic mass unit is one star; 10^33 or 10^34 grams as we know them. :P
Basically, the effect of quantum teleportation can be observed instantaneously, but in order to decode the effect into useful information, some more information must be transmitted via non-teleportation means.
This means, there are non-local (FTL) effects, but information is not one of them.
I agree entierly, and I think that is the best thing these authors have to offer to people coming up with new technology. Probably most of the ideas in sci-fi will never be implemented, but of the ones that do, we have some people that have though long and hard about how that new technology will affect and be used by people.
It's true, 90 light years is quite a distance for us to travel or communicate. But, compared to the rest of the galaxy, or universe, 90 light years is quite close. If life is to be discovered within, say, 200 years it will likely be at that sort of range.
True, there may eventually be laws that allow for faster than light travel (wormhole anyone?) But the Wright borthers had birds as examples that flight was possible. We don't have any physical evidence of super-luminal travel being possible.
Bascially they need a larger sample size than is likely possible with eBay auctions.
Unless of course they have worked out some way to find out what most peole will pay based on what the crazy rich will pay.
chears to that! I love hiking, get out of the human created city and see trees in their natural environment. I also love canoeing, like kyaking it's a great way to actually see the nature on a lake or river, instead of scarring it away with some big motor.
Bill?
I really don't know, but if I had to guess: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism (sp?) They all come from the same background, at least theologically.
Believing that these aliens have landed here is a completely different issue. It suggests that aliens have found a way to efficiently travel through space, decided to land on earth, and dispite the obvious vast supperiority in technology (they did get to earth after all), we manage to see them.