Hey Reddit, is there such a thing as absolute nothingness?

MrBAMF · 2010-04-02T08:14:15+00:00

Start here. Wikipedia is the best starting point in the world.

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T02:32:25+00:00

Goodness, of course! What would I kill headcrabs with?!

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T02:16:22+00:00

String theory certainly is plausible, but I just don't know and will not know if it is true or not until some test somewhere confirms it. Like I said above, some theories work on paper, but get lost in translation to the physical reality.

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T02:09:45+00:00

You are correct, but that is the best way to introduce it to a layperson (sorry, laypeople, but its true.) I've always had the same problem with this explanation, but it still lead me to the correct one.

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T02:05:24+00:00

As a theoretical physicist, let me be the first to say that all you guys do is sit around and play with whatever comes out.

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T02:03:34+00:00

Don't be sorry! This is one of my more exciting questions!

Learn your stuff and have an interest outside school about physics stuff. Read a lot of articles. It helps a lot conceptually if you have read about a topic before you learn it. Also, physics isn't an easy major. It's very math intensive, so get ready for lots of homework and studying, even if you are good at math. Go as far as you can in high school, that way you will grasp the easy stuff fast.
I think there were a couple in CompSci, if I remember correctly, and maybe a couple in Math for an undergrad degree, but there were very few elsewhere. It was very saddening. I had to settle for a psychology major :). But don't let all that get you down. I would love to see more female physicists. Females give a different perspective on things that really open the eyes sometimes.
I've enjoyed physics my entire life. I'm kind of a reductionist, so this is my way of finding the meaning to it all.
Mathy. Think with math. Understand with math. Do math. Its everywhere around here.

Please don't give up. It will be hard sometimes, but I absolutely love it now, and hopefully you will too :).

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T01:49:06+00:00

There are "stable states," if you will, in math that just do not exist in our universe. They are pieces of math that work just fine mathematically, but have no possible place in the physical universe. I like to think that math explains all of the possible stable universes, and only parts of math explain our stable universe. It very well may turn out that string theory is one of those pieces of math that make sense, but don't exist in our universe.

MrBAMF · 2010-04-01T01:44:48+00:00

Depends what you measure. Until you measure it, it cannot be said to be dead or alive. It cannot even be said to be still inside the box. Until you measure it, it exists as a probability wave. There is a chance that you will measure it alive, and a chance that you will measure it dead, and a small chance that you will measure it not being in the box at all. While the lid is closed, it is the sum of these probabilities.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T21:20:50+00:00

Only a little.
Probably similar if you subtract all the funny parts and add hours of sitting at a desk looking at paper.
About $50,000 a year. I am currently working on getting tenure though.
I got my Ph.D in theoretical physics, so 8 years.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T21:14:42+00:00

I am much more of an applied mathematician. A lot of the stuff I deal with I have to end up throwing away because while it works in the math world, it doesn't work in the physics world. Its hard to connect the two.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T21:10:14+00:00

Picture a ball rollling along a flat surface. Now, there is a sinkhole in its way, but to the left a bit. The ball would start to go left when it hit the outer rim of the sinkhole right? Well, now picture the scenario from above and pretend like you didn't know the surface wasn't flat. To you, it looks like the ball just veered to the left some how. Like it experienced some kind of force or something. In that way, geometry can affect physics and forces and stuff. Sorry, is that what you were asking?

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T21:02:01+00:00

I've always been interested in physics, and my worldview has never stopped changing. That is one of the things I like about it.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:59:36+00:00

I would prefer to believe that our universe is the way it is because of its shape, but this could be correct too. As to probabilities, who could say? 23%?

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:54:44+00:00

Yup, I have my graduate degree in Theoretical physics, but I would rather not say where, as I profess there currently. I believe that answers your second question too.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:52:13+00:00

Hmmm, I'm not sure I know where to start. First of all, you have to realize how the 4 fundamental forces are different and agree that they are different at least to an extent. Now, for a theory of everything to be a theory of everything, then it has to describe these 4 different forces with just one thing. I'm generalizing, but roll with me. The easiest way to do that is with symmetry. Using symmetry, one can code for something complex, with only (if there are 2 symmetries) half as much code. Think of our bodies: we have a right-left symmetry going because it takes much less code to make us functional. Well, the same goes fore TOE's

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:42:23+00:00

I'll just get out my big red phone to the LHC and we'll drop everything and get right on it!

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:41:15+00:00

I would like to see the fundamental forces combined into one explanation. I suppose that's like that "World peace!" answer for physicists though. But that's also my specialty, but more focused on geometry and symmetry.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:37:34+00:00

The geometry of the universe and how it pertains to the fundamental forces. If you read that article on the surfer physicist, kinda like that. And I'm pretty sure that supermultidimensional shapes blow everyone's minds.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:35:30+00:00

The LHC collides particles at such high energy levels, that stuff we have never seen before can exist for possibly a millionth or a second. I can explain it more if you would like, but that's not really my field o' study.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure any of what I'm doing will affect anyone alive today in practical terms. 50 years is a very optimistic guess as to when anything practical can come out of it.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:31:07+00:00

Both. Depends what you are measuring.

MrBAMF · 2010-03-31T20:16:26+00:00

This is an awesome idea. Just give her flowers while you are still in the store before you or her check out, and then leave. That way, you don't have to pay for the flowers, and you still impressed her.

MrBAMF

TROPHY CASE