Sunday, October 23, 2005

Relativity for the relatively stupid



Great website from the University of New South Wales - excellent intro to relativity that doesn't require too much brain power to comprehend. What i don't get is why the speed of light has to be constant in the first place...? (although i understand it is actually slowing down as the universe gets older- aren't we all). I have been mystified by the "constants of nature" since high school physics... what if G, E etc were different? Would we be here to blog about it? The anthropic principle seems to me a bit of a cop out!
comments anyone?

2 comments:

  1. Does anybody comment on your blog that isn't selling something?... ;)

    The constants might be tuned the way that they are for good reason since the "near-flatness" of the universe represents the most energy-efficient configuration possible for evenly dissipating enrgy.

    In other words, if the second law of thermodynamics points the arrow of time, then the anthropic principle maximizes time.

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  2. All we can go off of is our experience.

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Whaddaya think?