----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Seeberger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 11:15 PM Subject: Re: Physics question
> Dan Minette wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Robert Seeberger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <brin-l@mccmedia.com> > > Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 8:55 PM > > Subject: Re: Physics question > > > > > >> Kevin Street wrote: > >>> The Fool wrote: > >>>> But what if the apparatus is cooled to very close to absolute 0? > >>>> Like some kind of bose-einstein condensate? > >>> > >>> I suspect that the theoretical lower limit of cooling would still > >>> fall short of the kind of stillness needed to get an interesting > >>> displacement in space. But I don't know, maybe the math would say > >>> different. > >> > >> My take on that question is that at the temperatures needed to > >> cause > >> such a displacement, the theoretical space probe would lose > >> structural and operational integrity. > >> > >> At very cold temps some kinds of molecular bonds become very weak > >> and > >> if the displacement transmission is in any way turbulentthe craft > >> just might disintegrate. > > > > Good try, but that's not it. > > But is my point accurate? Wouldn't the more complex materials be > degraded at absolute zero? (To unworkability?) I don't think so. Some material becomes brittle, but others perform better. Remember, superconductors, until the last decade or so, had to be close to absolute zero to work. Absolute zero doesn't have to affect molecular bonding, because that is just atomic physics. > > You were right about there being no > > absolute space....it's just that even if the Fool properly referred > > to uncertainty in the momentum instead of absolute zero momentum, > > there would still be quite a few problems. Even at absolute zero, > > the wave function that describes the entire spacecraft has a > > delta-momentum as well as a delta-x. Dan M. > > And for an object to have absolute zero momentum in a relativistic > universe the entire universe and every object in it would also have to > have absolute zero momentum. Zero delta momentum isn't absolute zero momentum. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
