Recent content by EskWIRED

[mentor's note: moved here from the Quantum Physics forum] Can anybody recommend a good bio of John Wheeler? I'd especially like to read one that tracks his thoughts and theories, rather than one focusing on his personal life. Any suggestions for non-biographical treatment of his work would...

Thanks. Does time dilation need to be taken into account when observing or making calculations concerning stars orbiting the black hole at the center of the Milky Way? Or are they far enough away at all times that time dilation can be ignored?

I'm under the impression that one sees clocks slow down when watching distant objects approaching strong sources of gravity, such black holes. And that objects in an elliptical orbit travel faster when they are near their attractor. I can't quite figure out how these two phenomenon work...

Thanks. Yes indeed, that is what I was failing to realize.

Now I'm maybe even more confused. I'm under the impression that the Earth blocks out much of the night sky. So if you always see 1/2 of the night sky, then please tell me if this follows: If you are standing at the North Pole, and compare what you see with your friend at the equator, then...

All over the news we see the results of the recent detection of gravity waves from the early universe. Which got me wondering: The early universe was much more dense than at the present. It therefore seems that spacetime was much more curved than it is, on average, today. Is this...

Thanks guys. This sort of info is exactly what i was wondering about.

I was wondering about how much of the night sky one could see from various locations on the Earth. At anyone time, near sea level, how much is visible? My guess is that much less than half is visible, with the rest being blocked from view by the earth. Is that correct? How small a portion...

Which rules of logic are rejected by him?

Thanks for the link. Can you also point to a similar, but more recent article? I found it helpful to have lots of experiments discussed in the same context. For an armchair physicist, this type of collection clarifies and condenses months and years of piecemeal readings.

I hope that you don't actually believe that philosophy is "nothing more than a discussion on one's favorite color". Physics is rooted in logic, and logic is a major branch of philosophy. Indeed, discussions of one's personal preferences have little or nothing to do with philosophy.

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. I'm downloading now.

Where can I learn more about this difficulty in QM?

Klimatos that is exactly what I was wondering. Thanks. I find it amazing that so much mass can just float on air.

ISTM that large clouds hold a lot of water, and that water is fairly heavy. Which got me to wondering just how "heavy" all the water in a large thunderhead would be? I'm assuming that many, many tons of water are floating around up there, but how many?