katz%uci-750a@sri-unix.UUCP (04/11/84)
From: Martin D. Katz <katz@uci-750a> At the end of the 19th century, Michaelson (one of the most prominent physicists of his time) said (I paraphrase from memory): Advances in physics will come in the sixth decimal place. Thus meaning that all is known and the rest of physics will be just further experiments to improve accuracy. By this time, Michaelson and Morely had done an experiment which was to be one of the keys to showing that Newtonian mechanics would not properly describe light, and thus helped lead to Special Relativity. Since the Michaelson's statement, we have had several revolutions in physics (of varying importance) including: Special and General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Quarks, etc. Unexplained deviations from theory, and contortions in theory, such as those at the end of the last century, currently plague physics. It is not clear whether a new revolution is needed, but statements which assert that only the first microsecond hold surprises remind me about Michaelson's assertion.
REM%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (04/13/84)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM @ MIT-MC> I'm not saying that in Physics the only remaining revelations are in the 6th decimal place. Indeed we haven't yet unified the three forces (there were four a few years go but we unified two of them) but expect to unify two of them within the next few decades (some say gravity will be unified with the rest, but I believe gravity is geometry not force and is intrinically different from the 3-->2-->1 force(s)). What I meant by what I said is that (1) the only major change in the Big Bang throey of cosmology is in the first three minutes and the final unbang or pancake or heat-death or whatever (we don't know yet), and (2) new Physics and study of the first three minutes are related. The new Physics may allow a totally new type of engineering (matter-antimatter drive, or high-density memory, or ??) once we can catalyze the conversion of the three unified forces WITHOUT needing high energy states. That would not be in the 6th decimal point in practice (engineering/technology), but it could easily be in the 6th decimal place insofar as it affects the 20 billion years after the first 3 minutes, i.e. Big Bang is unchanged, merely refined, except for first 3 minutes. <All clarification of my opinion>
kcarroll@utzoo.UUCP (Kieran A. Carroll) (05/11/84)
* The New Physice (according to a recent Scientific American article) indicate that magnetic monopoles, should they exist (the theories predict that they should, but in minute numbers) would be able to catalyze the decay of protons, attended with a rather vast release of energy. If we could find and capture a few monopoles, they'd make a greatpower source, better even than fusion promises to be. -Kieran A. Carroll ...decvax!utzoo!kcarroll
matt@oddjob.UChicago.UUCP (Matt Crawford) (05/13/84)
Yes, monopoles would catalyze baryon decay, giving about 100 times the efficiency of fusion, but to get a usable rate of interaction you would need to compress your fuel to the density of a white dwarf or thereabouts! Keep thinking though. If we don't solve the energy problem pretty soon we will have to go back to brushing our teeth by hand. :^} ___________________________________________________ Matt ARPA: crawford@anl-mcs.arpa Crawford UUCP: ihnp4!oddjob!matt