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Are the Constants of Physics Constant?
Scientific American ^ | 7 Mar, 2016 | Venkat Srinivasan

Posted on 03/09/2016 6:07:00 PM PST by MtnClimber

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To: grey_whiskers

The beauty of the “many universes” theory, as I understand it, is that you can’t observe any of the others (absent wormholes or some such unproven business), so if you want to invoke them you pretty much have to just accept them. Or in other words you have to have faith to avoid Faith.


41 posted on 03/09/2016 9:37:09 PM PST by Stosh
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To: AFreeBird
Which could mean, the the one true constant in the universe, is change.

There's the rub. If change is the one constant, wouldn't that be subject to change, too?

42 posted on 03/09/2016 9:38:23 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: MtnClimber
"It just is," he writes.

This partly explains the continues measurements of laser light bounced and returned from the Apollo laser reflector arrays, along with the two (one recently recovered thanks to the LRO lunar orbiter) Soviet French-built arrays and a fifth in orbit since 2009 attached to the LRO itself.

Before the recovery of the 'lost' Lunokhod array together with the deployment of the LRO, photon counts reflected back to Earth had reached a peak granularity in measuring the Earth-Moon distance down to within 3 mm, putting a fine enough point for most of us on a figure averaging 238,857 miles.

It's was hoped adding the lost array and the LRO array would improve on that figure, along with confirmation of the Moon's formally illusive "center," and it's moment of inertia. The finer point, so I've been informed by people way over my pay-grade, would add further certainty to, so-called "locality," adding much to our astonishment (as the author honestly hints) in discovering these "constants" are universal, not just a characteristic of the neighborhood.

For my own paygrade, it adds to my conclusion that says if all we received from the most recent aborted Moon program was the LRO, it has proved very worthwhile, and for many more less obscure achievements.

43 posted on 03/09/2016 10:07:53 PM PST by Prospero (Omnis caro fenum)
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Excellent analysis! Thank you. Everything you posted sounds exactly reasonable!


44 posted on 03/09/2016 10:41:28 PM PST by Mr Apple ( COULTER on Hillary defending child rapist Thomas Taylor www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkTqkLbL_4)
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To: ctdonath2

Thank you for your #28. Very interesting.


45 posted on 03/09/2016 10:44:27 PM PST by Mr Apple ( COULTER on Hillary defending child rapist Thomas Taylor www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkTqkLbL_4)
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To: MtnClimber

How can we get Hillary to take a ‘ride’ on the rocket ship you describe? lol


46 posted on 03/09/2016 10:46:37 PM PST by Mr Apple ( COULTER on Hillary defending child rapist Thomas Taylor www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkTqkLbL_4)
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To: NonValueAdded

lol


47 posted on 03/09/2016 10:47:03 PM PST by Mr Apple ( COULTER on Hillary defending child rapist Thomas Taylor www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdkTqkLbL_4)
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To: MtnClimber

The great paradox of Creation: The only constant is change.

Nature abhors consistency.


48 posted on 03/09/2016 11:11:34 PM PST by uglybiker (nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-BATMAN!)
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To: Smokin' Joe

Until you get to the First Cause or the Unmoved Mover.


49 posted on 03/09/2016 11:43:08 PM PST by HapaxLegamenon
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To: MtnClimber

Bookmark.


50 posted on 03/10/2016 3:52:41 AM PST by SunTzuWu
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To: MtnClimber

I am SO going to add that to my repertoire.


51 posted on 03/10/2016 4:03:54 AM PST by ctdonath2 (History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Ike)
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To: uglybiker

What evidence have you that universal constants aren’t?
If the speed of light changes, we’d have observed the effects by now.


52 posted on 03/10/2016 4:10:00 AM PST by ctdonath2 (History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. - Ike)
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To: ctdonath2
Speed of light may not be constant, physicists say
53 posted on 03/10/2016 5:47:54 AM PST by kosciusko51
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To: MtnClimber

The programmer’s lament - “Constants aren’t and Variables won’t”.


54 posted on 03/10/2016 8:23:43 AM PST by bruin66 (Time: Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.)
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To: 6SJ7; AdmSmith; AFPhys; Arkinsaw; allmost; aristotleman; autumnraine; bajabaja; ...

· String Theory Ping List ·
Silly String Ordinance
· Join · Bookmark · Topics · Google ·
· View or Post in 'blog · post a topic · subscribe ·


55 posted on 03/25/2016 1:51:07 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: Organic Panic

Pi changes in a large gravitational field ... because spacetime is warped.


56 posted on 03/25/2016 2:06:36 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Democrats bait then switch; their fishy voters buy it every time.)
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To: MHGinTN; Organic Panic

Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter in a flat Euclidean space. If the space is curved pi no longer satisfies the equation.


57 posted on 03/26/2016 5:02:36 AM PDT by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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