What's The Strangest Thing In The Universe?

Joeseph

Rickey Holtsclaw


I've done my best and failed , I cannot top that .....

MayCaesar

Black holes are uncannily weird. They are literally like holes in space which swallow anything that comes sufficiently close. What is weirder, the largest of these things are to thank for us having galaxies which have star systems which have planets on which we can live. Without the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, the whole thing would fall apart, and rather than having a vibrant solar system full of all the cool elements and minerals, we would just have a tiny blob of matter in the middle of the void with nothing interesting happening there.

What is weirder still is, our Universe itself could be a giant black hole. At present the predominant theory is that it is "flat", in the sense that its event horizon is infinitely far away - but this is subject to revision when more precise measurements are made. Then we would be living in a black hole full of black holes... themselves possibly full of black holes. Yikes.

Factfinder

@MayCaesar

What I find really weird is we can detect and observe the known observable universe but we have in no way found "the edge". Combine that with what you said and physicists like Glenn Borchardt and others have hypothesized, it gets really strange. The strangest aspect being it could be possible for an infinite universe to exist.

Joeseph

@MayCaesar

That is truly weird what amazes me is how scientists discover these things.

Joeseph

@Factfinder

That's fascinating I wonder will we ever know these  things for fact and can we ever truly know or are our minds not capable of comprehending beyond a certain point?

Factfinder

@Joeseph

I don't think we have the tools to understand them now so no 'we' will never know. Humanity of the future might if something doesn't end our species before we attain the ability to comprehend the universe. But it's fun to speculate though. 

Fredsnephew

Argument Topic: Hey Jules

@JulesKorngold

Rickey jokes aside.

The existence of matter is strange.

And I'm sure that there are plenty more like Rickey out there.

It's just that Rickey is our one.

We should cherish his contributions to the forum.

JulesKorngold

Argument Topic: True

@Fredsnephew
Imagine Rickey's behavior when Trump loses the election.  It will be priceless!

Fredsnephew

Argument Topic: Hey Jules

@JulesKorngold

Hopefully the American people are savvy enough, to not choose Trump.

MayCaesar

Factfinder said:

@MayCaesar

What I find really weird is we can detect and observe the known observable universe but we have in no way found "the edge". Combine that with what you said and physicists like Glenn Borchardt and others have hypothesized, it gets really strange. The strangest aspect being it could be possible for an infinite universe to exist.

There are some cool calculations that can be made using mathematical apparatus way beyond my knowledge, and their result is quite staggering: the edge of the observable Universe is different from the distance implied by the age of the Universe. The age of the Universe is a bit over 13 billion years, so one could expect that beyond 13 billion light years away nothing can be seen - yet we can actually see roughly 3.5 times as far. While an object 45 billion light years away from us moves away from us faster than light does, because the space expands at different speeds at different distances from us, the light can still reach us.

It is somewhat similar to that weird problem where an ant starts out a meter away from us on an elastic string and starts moving towards us at the speed of 1 mm per second, while the string expands at 1 m per second - and the ant is guaranteed to eventually reach us, despite initially moving away from us very rapidly and seeming to only get further and further away from us over time. Expanding space is bizarre!

Joeseph said:

@MayCaesar

That is truly weird what amazes me is how scientists discover these things.

With black holes it was especially weird as their existence followed from the theory way before the first black hole was observed. It is not uncommon in physics to have theoretical predictions that have nothing to do with reality and are just a math aberration - for instance, tachyons that move faster than the speed of light almost certainly do not exist despite satisfying equations of quantum field theory. This particular prediction though turned out to be correct.

It is truly astounding how something as abstract as math can sometimes result in real discoveries in the Universe. It is almost as weird as if Harry Potter books predicted existence of magic in reality and it was later confirmed to be accurate.

Joeseph

@MayCaesar

With black holes it was especially weird as their existence followed from the theory way before the first black hole was observed. It is not uncommon in physics to have theoretical predictions that have nothing to do with reality and are just a math aberration - for instance, tachyons that move faster than the speed of light almost certainly do not exist despite satisfying equations of quantum field theory. This particular prediction though turned out to be correct.

That is truly astounding , what I love about pure  math is it's objectively true and as a language it's I think perfect and fits the definition of a language.

It is truly astounding how something as abstract as math can sometimes result in real discoveries in the Universe. It is almost as weird as if Harry Potter books predicted existence of magic in reality and it was later confirmed to be accurate.

It really is and I would say that mathematicians have that moment of pure joy where they shake their heads in wonder.

I have three favourite math related books which were wonderful reads ...

1: The man who Knew infinity about the great Ramanjun by Robert Kanigel 

2: Fermats last Theorem by Simon Singh 

3: The man who loved only numbers by Paul Hoffman  about the incredibly strange but fascinating Paul Erdos a truly strange individual by any standard 

All wonderful reads , you probably have read them but they demonstrate the wonders of mathematics and the great thinkers who make these breathtaking discoveries.

Factfinder

MayCaesar said:

Factfinder said:

@MayCaesar

What I find really weird is we can detect and observe the known observable universe but we have in no way found "the edge". Combine that with what you said and physicists like Glenn Borchardt and others have hypothesized, it gets really strange. The strangest aspect being it could be possible for an infinite universe to exist.

There are some cool calculations that can be made using mathematical apparatus way beyond my knowledge, and their result is quite staggering: the edge of the observable Universe is different from the distance implied by the age of the Universe. The age of the Universe is a bit over 13 billion years, so one could expect that beyond 13 billion light years away nothing can be seen - yet we can actually see roughly 3.5 times as far. While an object 45 billion light years away from us moves away from us faster than light does, because the space expands at different speeds at different distances from us, the light can still reach us.

It is somewhat similar to that weird problem where an ant starts out a meter away from us on an elastic string and starts moving towards us at the speed of 1 mm per second, while the string expands at 1 m per second - and the ant is guaranteed to eventually reach us, despite initially moving away from us very rapidly and seeming to only get further and further away from us over time. Expanding space is bizarre!

Joeseph said:

@MayCaesar

That is truly weird what amazes me is how scientists discover these things.

With black holes it was especially weird as their existence followed from the theory way before the first black hole was observed. It is not uncommon in physics to have theoretical predictions that have nothing to do with reality and are just a math aberration - for instance, tachyons that move faster than the speed of light almost certainly do not exist despite satisfying equations of quantum field theory. This particular prediction though turned out to be correct.

It is truly astounding how something as abstract as math can sometimes result in real discoveries in the Universe. It is almost as weird as if Harry Potter books predicted existence of magic in reality and it was later confirmed to be accurate.

@MayCaesar

That is really strange and ominous to think about. I was listening to a Brian Cox talk on u tube the other day and he was talking about how the universe will overall keep it's accelerating expansion rate indefinitely. Not only will it expand but keep on doing it at an ever increasing faster pace. To the point matter becomes so sparse that the gravitational forces in the universe will stop holding matter together and it will all disperse. Just imagine the largest black holes (which some have theorized could lead to the creation of new universes), just unraveling do to a LACK of gravity! Not ever completely dissolving into non existence but nothing like the energy and matter we observe today. And then he said time and space will continue to expand on and on but as something totally foreign to our understanding of the universe today. Theoretically of course and he added some speculation as to some other possibilities being researched with the  'cosmic inflation' model.  But man just listening to that point got my mind working overtime. LOL 

Jules1

Probably civilization and humanity, I mean, in JUST 200,000 years, humanity is able to connect billions on a single site. 

Fredsnephew

Argument Topic: Hey.

@Factfinder

Yep, the d-reamy Mr Cox  sure does spin a merry hypnotic tale.

Though the current Universe might collapse just as it expanded and eventually re-initiate.

Maybe the survival of intellectual GOD particles are essential to the process.

Maybe, universes have infinite potential.

Maybe.

Maybe.

Damn, but what about the beginning.

Best ask a computer to work that one out.