The Paradox Thread, as promised

(sincere apologies for the bad emoticons and worse pun)



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Metaphors be with you!

The paradox being that we currently have no paradoxes?

Paradoxs. Paradoxi. Para... whatever!

Better not jump out of planes then.

No, wait...

I have two keys if it helps.



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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Really? Swap you a C for an A# or F

Got one already thank you.

I was thinking of two quays, or, a pair o' docks.

So is space real?



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Certainly. What there is of it.



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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

For a given value of 'space'

'Space' comes in Lots. As in 'a lot of space', 'not a lot of space'.

Nononononono.

Is space an entity that exists in it's own right, like me or you, or is it merely a geometric abstraction between various objects.



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

This could get complicated. All I'm going to say is that it's as real as we are.



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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

That reminds me of an interesting thought experiment (I am not completely sure, but I think it is by Newton):

Take a bucket of water and suspend it from a rope. Now, revolve it around the axis of the rope. I f you are quick enough, the water will rise to the brim of the bucket, and leave an indentaition in the middle.

Now, imagine the opposite case. The bucket is hanging absolutely still, but the whole universe is revolving around it. Would the water rise? As long as there are masses around, their gravitational pull will have an identical effect. But what if there were no masses around? What if the bucket, the rope and the water were the only objects in the universe?

Newtons answer was: Whether it rises or not would be a way to discern if its frame of reference is standing still in relation to absolute space, or if it is revolving.

Modern physics says: If there were no masses, there would be no space for the bucket to revolve in. Space is spanned by the masses which are distributed in it (even if they are looked at as waveforms, in which case their wavelength would span the space).

Another thing to consider is this:

What is between atoms or subatomic particles?



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

"...it's as real as we are."

Which begs the question...

If anyone finds some space, i could do with some. Just send it to my book shelves. I think it does exist, but has a half-life in the region of a few seconds, on a good day.

Rob



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That statement is either so deep it would take a lifetime to fully comprehend every particle of its meaning, or it is a load of absolute tosh. Which is it, I wonder?
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

"What is between atoms and subatomic particles", Martin? I think that's their business and not something we should poke our noses into.

Why not? If there is nothing then they should touch. If there is something, is it space or what?

Kitten: I was carefully not saying anything. I have no objective evidence that any one of you exist in anything other than a computer. (A mad (very mad) AI perhaps.) The only one I am more sure of is Zhark, but that's only because he sent Postie to me.



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

QED.



_ _ _ _ _

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

I am inclined to believe you guys exist. If only because no computer can come up with some of the stuff I've seen here....



__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Oh, Splat exists. I've seen her. Not sure if I do though.



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Some days I see the point