New Physics? Fundamental Cosmic Constant Now Seems Shifty

This is a good example of why science is so fucking crazy now...they have begun to claim that CONSTANTS vary...

Here we go again.

Constants.. in flux.

It is fucking CRAZY! Instead of changing some 'laws', or rewriting some of the science, they do stuff like claim...changing constants.

Are they for real!? Come on!

lol, some of the stupidity is near unbelievable.

The whole idea that a constant ... changes.. kinda makes it.. not a constant wouldn't ya think lmao

isnt that fitting withe the theory of mr Wilcok? it just sounded alike. the ripples coming from a source- which is sending out the perfect ripples of vibration through the perfect parts of the infinite space- causing life and evolution at certain intervals... a new ripple hits- new evolving process..... thats what many think 2012 is.

It shows how difficult it is for these guys to let go of something.

I'm a bit pissed right now - what does this mean in simple English?

Thanks.

Buddha was right---"There is no place to stand"...lol...even in physics

LMFAO

The problem here is that they are trying to twist facts to suit theories.. not theories to suit facts.

Nailed.

Fine tuning was supposed to be inevitable, according to multiverse theory.

probly the medium it is traveling thru, like light slows down in water

They are talking about the alpha constant, or the fine-structure constant.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]
In physics, the fine-structure constant (usually denoted α, the Greek letter alpha) is a fundamental physical constant, namely the coupling constant characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction. The numerical value of α is the same in all systems of units, because α is a dimensionless quantity...

...Physicists have pondered for many years whether the fine structure constant is in fact constant, i.e., whether or not its value differs by location and over time. Specifically, a varying α has been proposed as a way of solving problems in cosmology and astrophysics...

...The anthropic principle is a controversial explanation of why the fine-structure constant takes on the value it does: stable matter, and therefore life and intelligent beings, could not exist if its value were much different.

Yes. Yes, it would. If this turns out to be true, they might rename it: 'the fine structure parameter', perhaps.

Then again, they might not. What's in a name, after all? 'Atom' means 'indivisible', which must come as news to every nuclear physicist in the world. Ohm's law applies to Ohmic resistors; you'll not find one in any laboratory, and neither will you find the Ideal Gas that the Ideal Gas Law describes. And was it Benjamin Franklin who established as a standard that the direction of electric current flow ran from positive to negative - before the discovery of the electron proved it was the other way round?

Red shift will turn out to be wrong, the universe will shrink, you'll see.

Seems there are no constants

So, scientist thought that it was crazy odds that the alpha constant just happened to be what it is across the entire universe, because the constant is PERFECT for life to exist.

If alpha [the fine structure constant] were bigger than it really is, we should not be able to distinguish matter from ether [the vacuum, nothingness], and our task to disentangle the natural laws would be hopelessly difficult. The fact however that alpha has just its value 1/137 is certainly no chance but itself a law of nature. It is clear that the explanation of this number must be the central problem of natural philosophy.
—Max Born


So, now they are finding out that it is NOT a constant throughout the universe.

Point taken, but what's in a name is important when putting it to mathematical concepts...in math, a constant doesn't change in value. That's pretty damn important of a word in mathematical formulas.

I would of thought that you would find that throughout the universe everything is not a constant.

When it is understood that the universe is an open-system, it will nullify ALL constants.

The sooner this is recognized, the faster science can advance again.

Infinities. There's the path to madness.

That's a hard concept to swallow for the academia...

Leaves behind a bitter taste as well.

Sure. So what we're really finding out here is that something we thought was constant really wasn't. We may have to rethink some of those formulas as a result.

Remember why we thought the fine structure constant was constant - why we gave it that name in the first place, and wrote it down as such in the theory. People did a lot of experiments to measure it, and they always came out the same, and they did astronomical studies to see how objects far away in space worked, and they worked as if the fine structure constant was the same there too. So you've got this number that never seems to vary: well, you call it a constant. Makes the theory a lot simpler. Makes the mathematics easier to work with.

Now if these guys are right, apparently in the most distant reaches of the Universe, there's a very small difference in this value. That means it's not a constant - so we'll have to work out a new theory where it's the 'fine structure parameter' or something like that. The mathematics will probably be fiendish.

And meanwhile here on earth, for all practical purposes, we'll still call it the 'fine structure constant' - because nothing we ever actually build using the theory of electromagnetism ever goes anywhere that it will encounter any significant difference.

interesting.... so by IT changing, we would either have a forced evolution or be wiped from existence? if thats the case.. that makes sense... *ponders*...

This is why alpha (fine structure) is a fundamental constant.


According to the theory of the renormalization group, the value of the fine structure constant (the strength of the electromagnetic interaction) grows logarithmically as the energy scale is increased. The observed value of α is associated with the energy scale of the electron mass; the electron is a lower bound for this energy scale because it (and the positron) is the lightest charged object whose quantum loops can contribute to the running. Therefore 1/137.036 is the value of the fine structure constant at zero energy. Moreover, as the energy scale increases, the strength of the electromagnetic interaction approaches that of the other two fundamental interactions, a fact important for grand unification theories. If quantum electrodynamics were an exact theory, the fine structure constant would actually diverge at an energy known as the Landau pole. This fact makes quantum electrodynamics inconsistent beyond the perturbative expansions.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Dude, you post the most consistently interesting articles.
Thanks again!

Yeah, and the reason it is important in finding out whether it is truly a constant or not, is because it is a FUNDAMENTAL componant. All formulas or concepts that use the value of ALPHA are affected if it is found out NOT to be a constant.

:coolone5: