Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

Why would being infinite force there to be addition/subtraction of matter?

It would start out infinite in extent with a finite density and as it stretches, the density goes down.


The conductive tether cutting through the magnetic field of the earth is a handy battery.
But the energy is coming from your orbital speed, which you got using the main engines. Of course, that does make it conveniently easy to deorbit without needing onboard fuel. Excellent for old satellites to ditch themselves once their useful life is up.

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

If it is already infinite in extent, how can it be stretching or getting larger? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif Not trying to be a smartass, I just can't follow that line of thought.

Power is constantly being produced in our ionosphere by the collision of the solar wind with our magnetic field. I can see two major problems with tapping into it. First, and most obvious, is just how to do it efficiently. Second, how to keep it from being overloaded and destroyed by solar flares.

I can imagine a sat in orbit trailing a tether. As it orbits it is charging batteries. When the sat reaches a predetermined point in its orbit it beams the stored power to an Earth station as microwaves. Practicality and safety concerns aside, the main question has to be how much power could the thing produce? I have no clue. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

Energy is not being produced in the ionosphere. It just happens to be naturally converted into a convenient form up there. Much like Niagara falls is convenient for hydro plants and sunlight is convenient for plants.
Everything around here except nuclear power comes from the sun. Fission power comes from ancient supernovae.
And both those come from the hydrogen the universe had as far back as we can see.


Re: Stretching infinity
-----------------------
Say you've got a motel with an infinite number of rooms. On Tuesday it happens to be full up with an infinite number of guests, one per room. (This place is quite popular)

Five guys pull up to the front counter, and the owner says "no problem". He simply gets on the intercom and tells everybody to move five doors to the right. The people in room 1 move to room 6, and the people in room one million move to #1000006, and so on.
Now rooms 1 through 5 are empty, and the guys have a place to stay for the night.

Next, a very large frat shows up... they have an infinite number of members, each of which has a unique odd number on their shirt.
"No problem!" says the owner. He gets on the intercom again, and tells everybody to move to the room with double their current room number.
The person in room 1 moves to room 2, the person in room 2 moves to room 4, and the one in room one million moves to room two million. All the odd numbered rooms are now free and everybody still has their own room.
The frat boys then move into all the odd numbered rooms which match their jerseys.

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

Not quite true. Geothermal energy neither comes from the sun nor nuclear fission; it's generated by the decay of natural radioactive materials like potassium, thorium and uranium. Tidal forces also play a role.

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

That's still supernovae residue, with the same ultimate source.

There is a modest amount of heat available from the formation and gravitational compaction of failed-stars and large planets. But again, that was all there in the potential energy of the starting material.

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

That is true; I was just pointing out that it's neither directly from the sun, nor from nuclear fission. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Sorry, guess I've just been a little arguementative recently http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

Ever heard of orders of infinity? The set of counting numbers is an infinite set, and the set of real numbers is an infinite set, but while you can have a function that uniquely assigns every member of the counting number set to the real number set, you can't do it the other way around. The hotel clerks orders can't be followed - all rooms are full.

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

The frat guys have odd numbers, implying integers. Same as door numbers. There is no problem.
Now, if the frat had used points on a line instead of jersey numbers, then there would be a problem, but they didn't. Fractions would have been fine too.

The whole point of that was to demonstrate stretching an infinite amount of something.
All those people who were neighbours before the move, now have one frat guy between them and are two doors away from their old neighbour. And everybody does fit.

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

If I may jump in...

It doesn't matter whether the frat boys need odd numbered rooms or not; there are an infinite number of them. There are an infinite number of rooms and as long as there is at least 1 person in the hotel, there would not be enough rooms. There is no such thing as infinity + 1. Infinity is infinity. Period. You cannot add to infinity.

At least that's the way it was when I took Calculus and Engineering courses anyways...

Re: OT - Physics Question on Anti-Matter
 

There is no such thing as infinity +1 because infinity is not a number.

The hotel thing works;
Given that the people follow the owner's instructions in regards to changing rooms, there will never be a room conflict, and everybody will indeed fit.

The person in room 1 moves to room 2. There is nobody in room 2 because that person moved to room 4. Person 2 was able to move into room 4 because *that* person moved into room 8.
The person in room 3 moves to room 6. Person 6 moved to room 12, and 12 to 24.

Everybody leaves their room. And each person is given a unique new room number to move into. One person per room, and nobody left without a room. Therefore everybody fits.

Infinity is funny that way http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif
The set of positive, even integers (the original guests in their new rooms) is the same size as the set of all positive numbers (the original guests ... and also the original guests in new rooms plus the frat boys)