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theory of relativity,
quantum mechanics,
cosmos:
elementary pa...
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quantum g...
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probability and the heat of black holes.
our existence
one studies best during vacations.
the gravitational field is not diffused through space; the gravitational field is that space itself. This is the idea of the general theory of relativity. Newton’s “space,” through which things move, and the “gravitational field” are one and the same thing.
The sun bends space around itself, and Earth does not turn around it because of a mysterious force but because it is racing directly in a space that inclines, like a marble that rolls in a funnel. There are no mysterious forces generated at the center of the funnel; it is the curved nature of the walls that causes the marble to roll. Planets circle around the sun, and things fall, because space curves.
Einstein wrote an equation that says that R is equivalent to the energy of matter. That is to say: space curves where there is matter.
But it isn’t only space that curves; time does too.
If a person who has lived at sea level meets up with his twin who has lived in the mountains, he will find that his sibling is slightly older than he.
All of this is the result of an elementary intuition: that space and gravitational field are the same thing.
Genius hesitates.
each element corresponds to one solution of the main equation of quantum mechanics. The whole of chemistry emerges from a single equation.
In quantum mechanics no object has a definite position, except when colliding headlong with something else.
Or does it mean, as it seems to me, that we must accept the idea that reality is only interaction?
Quantum mechanics and experiments with particles have taught us that the world is a continuous, restless swarming of things, a continuous coming to light and disappearance of ephemeral entities. A set of vibrations, as in the switched-on hippie world of the 1960s. A world of happenings, not of things.
Where are these quanta of space? Nowhere. They are not in space because they are themselves the space. Space is created by the linking of these individual quanta of gravity. Once again, the world seems to be less about objects than about interactive relationships.
a black hole is a rebounding star seen in extreme slow motion.
The difference between past and future exists only when there is heat. The fundamental phenomenon that distinguishes the future from the past is the fact that heat passes from things that are hotter to things that are colder.
Boltzmann’s idea is subtle and brings into play the idea of probability. Heat does not move from hot things to cold things due to an absolute law: it does so only with a large degree of probability. The reason for this is that it is statistically more probable that a quickly moving atom of the hot substance collides with a cold one and leaves it a little of its energy, rather than vice versa.
the probabilistic nature of heat and temperature, that is to say, thermodynamics.
Time sits at the center of the tangle of problems raised by the intersection of gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics.
The heat of black holes is like the Rosetta stone of physics, written in a combination of three languages—quantum, gravitational, and thermodynamic—still awaiting decipherment in order to reveal the true nature of time.
Myths nourish science, and science nourishes myth.
