An Idea

[Felix Schrodinger]

The human face is the most beautiful structure in the universe. The more symmetrical, the more it represents beauty and health.[/B]

Not enough fur for me

Felix

[Profpat]

Not enough fur for me

Felix

LOL Thats a good one Felix. glad to see you have a sense of humor.

Best to you,

Pat

P.S. I know this one lady you may be interested in.

[Drifter]

How do you like me now?

Not enough fur for me

Felix

[Profpat]

On second thought you may not like her. She's kind of catty.

[Drifter]

nevermind, i get it. DOM?

How do you like me now?

[Profpat]

It took me a second thought to get it also Drifter.

Now if there are any serious thoughts?

Best to both of you,

Pat

[Drifter]

How about a just-for-fun thought first?
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~cgseife/conway.html
[I'm kinda thinking with this about your grandchild growing-up around you Profpat]

It took me a second thought to get it also Drifter.

Now if there are any serious thoughts?

Best to both of you,

Pat

[Felix Schrodinger]

Maybe EM waves do require a medium to travel in. Article after article talks about the 'virtual bubbling sea' of 'potential' particles, that real particles pop in & out of. It's either there or not; Quantum loop theory speaks of a mesh of looped whatzits quantizing the minimum discrete elements of distance and time. Again, it's either there or not. From another viewpoint, all energetic moving phenomena from atomic explosions, comets (tails), and the big bang degrade as they progress. Heisenburg's principle demands it; They leave detrius behind. In the case of the big bang, I just feel that the detrius left behind we happen to call space-time. It's either there or not. If it's there, it's a medium. If it's a medium, it constrains the speed of light (EM).
Jeff

Hi Jeff

Only just read this so it's a bit late but here is my two penny'oth anyway.

The main reason that physics is in such a mess is it's general rejection of the aether which arose from the acceptance of Relativity and the Michelson Morley experiments. Certainly Einstein wanted to keep the aether concept and MM did not disprove it. They found the Earth did drift against a stable background but much less than had been predicted.

Physicists now fallover themselves backwards to avoid any mention of 'aeather' for fear of being declared mad by their peers and hence becoming unemployable. Instead they invent all sorts of terminology to use instead - hence 'fabric of space/spacetime', 'quantum foam' and 'background dependency' amongst many others. All of these can be summed up by accepting that we need some form of underlying structure otherwise none of our accepted theories make sense. The main planks (excuse the pun), General Relativity and the Standard Model, are much easier to explain, and link, if the background is understood.

My own thinking is based on the 'Gravitational Field' being that background and this is (almost) equivalent to the Higgs Field which is the localised GF. The GF permeates the whole of known existence and provides a constant background to everything we perceive in the physical world.

all the best
Felix

PS - we don't need the BB to underly any of this - it works with a steady state universe as well as a primordial (but unproven) explosion.

[Drifter]

ps Profpat,
The pictures you posted of your grandson were precious.
It would have been terrific if I'd have had a "Grumps" like this when I was growing up.
You are both very fortunate to have such an opportunity.
Best wishes Professor, for you as a mentor and your little protege`. I'm sure his wide eyed facination, with all the amazing things you reveal to him will be a wonderful thing to witness in the years to come. I'm sure both of you are destined to have a lot of fun together.

How about a just-for-fun thought first?
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~cgseife/conway.html
[I'm kinda thinking with this about your grandchild growing-up around you Profpat]

[Profpat]

Thanks Drifter, for both the kind words and the link.
I'll use the card trick on the little guy when he gets a bit older; the penny trick I'll use the next time I go to a party.

Here's an update;


Best to you my friend.