{"id":31582,"date":"2024-12-18T05:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T10:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=31582"},"modified":"2024-12-18T19:54:03","modified_gmt":"2024-12-19T00:54:03","slug":"i-cant-wait-to-get-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/18\/i-cant-wait-to-get-started\/","title":{"rendered":"I Can\u2019t Wait to Get Started!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading a chapter in a mathematical survey that I bought a long time ago (Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by A. D. Aleksandrov, A. N. Kolmogorov, M. A. Lavrent\u2019ev).\u00a0 It was a section in the non-Euclidean Geometry chapter called something like \u201cReal Space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author was trying to make the point that since gravity bends light and light rays were the closest thing to perfect straight lines that you could claim that parallel lines can intersect and triangles can have more or less than 180 degrees in real space.\u00a0 And to get away from the idea of straight lines in empty space (no matter present) he said that the concept of space only exists in the context of it containing matter.<\/p>\n

And I stopped to think whether that seemed to follow.\u00a0 I never usually question the meaning of empty.\u00a0 My basic visualization of reality is that the universe is the void of the Bible augmented by really small golf balls bouncing around in it.\u00a0 Empty space to me is wherever there aren\u2019t any golf balls at that moment.\u00a0 Now granted, I\u2019ve heard that particles are always appearing into and disappearing out of existence in the \u201cquantum vacuum.\u201d\u00a0 And I know that many physicists characterize the universe as just a bunch of \u201cfields\u201d of the various elementary particles; the electron field and the Higgs field, etc.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t understand why we can\u2019t imagine empty space.\u00a0 I mean I know that at any time a quark or a gluon or some other ephemeral exotic particle can show up anywhere but why is it so hard to say. \u201cRight now, right here is empty space because nothing is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ll have to read more deeply.\u00a0 After all, if the empty space between galaxies (and everything else) is always and ever more rapidly expanding as the universe itself inflates at an accelerating rate, it seems logical to me that there\u2019s more and more \u201cempty space\u201d everywhere.<\/p>\n

And so, I propose the following thought experiment:<\/p>\n

I posit that using the James Webb Space Telescope, we find a spot in the sky where there aren\u2019t even any really, really old galaxies hanging out.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing along that line of sight.\u00a0 I then take two flashlights (or \u201clasers\u201d if anyone insists) and using a protractor and some really straight two by fours I line them up parallel to each other in the direction of that cosmic empty spot and turn them on.\u00a0 Why wouldn\u2019t those two beams continue on to the end of the universe exactly the same distance apart? \u00a0Now, sure, a few photons here and there might be deflected by a some randomly situated gas molecules or by the odd quantum vacuum quark that appeared for a femtosecond along the line of sight but for the most part the laser beams should continue on forever and ever, amen.<\/p>\n

So, if that is the case.\u00a0 What\u2019s the problem with imagining empty space (mostly) with my two flashlight (or laser) beams going out and out and out forever?\u00a0 And forever parallel.\u00a0 After all there\u2019s nothing close enough to really bend those light beams.\u00a0 Now to prove this result there will need to be someone on the other end of the universe to do the measurement.\u00a0 This presents something of a problem.\u00a0 However, there may be a solution (well, a thought solution anyway).\u00a0 It\u2019s a well-known part of the Big Bang Theory that there should be equal amounts of matter and anti-matter in the universe.\u00a0 But here we are with basically none to be found.\u00a0 I theorize that at the end of the universe is the anti-matter we\u2019ve been looking for (just like those \u2018droids).\u00a0 Granting this, then there should be an anti-matter me at the end of the universe.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call him anti-photog.\u00a0 Now assuming he\u2019s extremely long-lived (which anti-matter life forms always are) and that he thinks precisely as I do, he\u2019ll be waiting for those two beams of light and he will measure the angle between the beams and find them to be parallel and thereby prove the Euclidean (or in his case anti-Euclidean nature of empty space.\u00a0 Then he can send a return beam back in our direction (somehow) and we will have the answer.\u00a0 Of course, the sun and probably the Milky Way Galaxy will have long ago been absorbed by the local super massive black hole and cosmic lichens will possibly be the only form of life remaining but that\u2019s how science works sometimes.\u00a0 You have to take the good with the bad.<\/p>\n

So, Lobachevsky, Gauss, Riemann and all you other \u201cnon-Euclidean\u201d geometricians (I\u2019m looking at you A. D. Aleksandrov, A. N. Kolmogorov and M. A. Lavrent\u2019ev!) shouldn\u2019t put too much stock in all this curved space hand-waving.\u00a0 Until the results of this wonderful research of mine are available, they should sit tight.\u00a0 Estimates for the return trip signal are still being calculated but I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t be too bad.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be starting my crowdfunding page to buy the lasers and the two by fours very soon.\u00a0 I\u2019ve still got my third-grade protractor somewhere around here so I don\u2019t need that.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to get started!<\/p>\n

Update:<\/p>\n

I asked an AI image generator to reproduce my thought experiment rig<\/p>\n

It came up with this!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This may take a while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reading a chapter in a mathematical survey that I bought a long time ago (Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by A. D.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[288,3366,1263,3545],"tags":[4399,4745,2743],"class_list":["post-31582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-life-in-dunwich","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-science","tag-astrophysics","tag-geometry","tag-mathematics"],"yoast_head":"\nI Can\u2019t Wait to Get Started! - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/18\/i-cant-wait-to-get-started\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Can\u2019t Wait to Get Started! - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was reading a chapter in a mathematical survey that I bought a long time ago (Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning by A. 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