Graybeard's Blog

Comparisons

• Why does Science differ from our common sense ?

Things we take for granted, or as acceptable common sense do not always bear close examination. For example we only taste four flavors:

• Sweet
• Sour
• Salt
• Bitter

These comprise the full range of everything we eat from a medium rare Eye Fillet to a glass of Chateau de Quem at $200.00 a glass. From a glass of Milk and a slice of Chocolate cake to a Campari and Soda. In fact anything you can imagine eating comes from a mixture of these four flavours. What makes everything seem so different? Its easy, temperature and texture ... combined with the 4 flavours account for the full variety of our palate

A piece of rich Chocolate and a Slice of Gorgonzola Cheese vary in flavour by only 40%. Thats right 60% of their flavours are identical. This seems incredible, but as soon as you are told they are both made from Milk it becomes much more believable.

• Science is important ... its about measurement

The following is a list of large numbers. Now we all have our own ideas on whats large and whats small. But how many of the following numbers can you actually comprehend. At first glance, from the smallest to the biggest most people would think they could comprehend them. Look at the second one, its a Billion or 1,000,000,000. We hear this number in the news all the time .. there are lots of billionaires. Would you like to be one? Yes ? Just do this. Get yourself a whole heap of Dollars and start dropping them into a large bucket, one every second, use a stopwatch. Don't stop for food, or sex, don't go to sleep, you must continue night and day. After 30 years or a billion seconds you too will be a billionaire. Where were you 30 years ago? Are you even 30 yet? A billion seconds is a long, long time.


If there are a billion seconds in 30 years then how many seconds would have passed since the Big Bang?. The Universe is billions of years old (between 13 and 16) that is a huge number of seconds. Would you like to guess? Pick a Number.

1. Million 10^6
2. Billion 10^9
3. Trillion 10^12
4. Quadrillion 10^15
   
   • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   • Despite what our commonsense tells us, numbers greater
   • than these first four are not really comprehensible to our
   • brain. Tests show that subjects cannot distinguish among
   • the following numbers in any comparative or meaningful
   • way. However Science can and does. And so can Maths.
   • ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5. Quintillion 10^18
6. Sextillion 10^21
7. Septillion 10^24
8. Octillion 10^27
9. Nonillion 10^30
10. Decillion 10^33
11. Undecillion 10^36
12. Duodecillion 10^39
13. Tredecillion 10^42
14. Quattuordecillion 10^45
15. Quindecillion 10^48
16. Sexdecillion 10^51
17. Septendecillion 10^54
18. Octodecillion 10^57
19. Novemdecillion 10^60
20. Vigintillion 10^63
21. Googol 10^100
22. Centillion 10^303
23. Googolplex (10^10)^100

The age of the Universe in seconds is number 5 on the list, a Quintillion seconds. Were you right ?

• Science is important, it prevents our perceptions from exaggeration.

10^-1 seconds is equal to an eye blink. 10^-23 seconds is the time it takes a photon to cross the nucleus. Our cosmic horizon or the only part of the Universe we will ever be allowed to observe is 10^28 centimeters.

Have you ever heard about String Theory or M-Theory. How long is this piece of string .... 10^-35 centimeters. Measured on a scale from the smallest thing to the biggest ... a string to the boundary of our known universe ... we fall in the greater half. We, at around 160cm to 200cm, bear a closer relation in size to the Universe than we do to a String. Of course, this is where each power of ten is an equal division on the scale

• Scientific measurements are more reliable than common sense.

Gravity is often described as a weak force. Gravity is the force that holds our world together, the sun and the stars are all dominated by Gravity. Gravity is at the heart of a black hole. How strong is Gravity compared to the electrical force ? As it turns out, not very strong at all. In fact the Electrical force is 10^41 times stronger than gravity. This is a mathametical value. Scientists need to know this. If the Unification of the four forces are to be achieved this value will play a big part in the equation.

But what does it mean to say that something is 10^41 times stronger than something else. As ordinary people we would like an explanation. There really isn't one. You will soon appreciate that any concept of such a number quickly becomes meaningless.

• An example of a meaningless concept

If we place an Electron and a Proton 0.1mm apart we can now calculate the gravitational attraction between them for that distance. Lets say that this calculation gives us a value of 'x'

We now calculate their electrical attraction at the same distance (0.1mm) as (x)10^41, that is, 10 to the power of 41 times greater than 'x'. We know that the electrical force and the gravitational force decrease as the distance between the objects increase.

The question is, for us to now have a concept of the difference between these two forces, how far apart will we have to place them in order to decrease their electrical attraction until it equals the gravitational attraction 'x'

Lets place our Electron aboard the Spaceship Voyager One and we will hold our Proton here on Earth.

In 1977 Voyager One was launched into space. It is now (2007) departing our solar system. It is travelling at an approx speed of 20 kilometres per second or 72,000 klm/hr. It has been travelling for 30 years. If it continues to travel towards the brightest star in our heavens, after 134,000 years it will reach it. This is Sirius, the Dog Star. We now measure the attraction of the electrical force between our proton and electron and we find that it is still many, many times stronger than gravity at 0.1mm. We will not find that it is equal until Voyager One travels a further six times the distance it has already come, 50 light years. Voyager One will have to travel another 804,000 Years before our electrical measurement equals our gravitational measurement at 0.1mm.

Concepts such as these are meaningless, remember we are discussing two particles so small that they are considered to have zero radius. There are countless billions and trillions in a cup of water. Computing there energy and forces is a job for mathematics and science ... Science is not something we can easily balance with our common sense.

All these figures have been compiled from reputable sources including, amongst others, A Treasury of Science, Leon Lederman's 'The God Particle', the Wikipedia.

This page is being continually edited, leave a comment if you can add to it, or if you notice something incorrect .... or just leave a comment ... Ta!
Graybeard