Question for those scientifically minded

[XZeroII]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
E = mc^2

m = mass --> that is where it all came from.

Where did the mass come from?



I have a really hard time believing that we know what happened down the to .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001th of a second (yea, I just held 0 for awhile). How does the scientific method work here? You are piling unverified theory on top of unverified theory on top of unverified theory to come up with a theory that is verified by the previous unverified theories. How can we prove any of this stuff? We can write equations all day, but it's not going to tell us the truth.

It would be better to say that scientists THINK they know what happened .00000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds after the big bang. And if anyone asks how sure those scientists are, the answer should be that they are simply making educated guesses.

That is exactly what they do say, although hypothesis with confirming evidence is a bit stronger than "educated guess".

I guess that I wish that the media would say this...

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
E = mc^2

m = mass --> that is where it all came from.

Where did the mass come from?



I have a really hard time believing that we know what happened down the to .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001th of a second (yea, I just held 0 for awhile). How does the scientific method work here? You are piling unverified theory on top of unverified theory on top of unverified theory to come up with a theory that is verified by the previous unverified theories. How can we prove any of this stuff? We can write equations all day, but it's not going to tell us the truth.

It would be better to say that scientists THINK they know what happened .00000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds after the big bang. And if anyone asks how sure those scientists are, the answer should be that they are simply making educated guesses.

That is exactly what they do say, although hypothesis with confirming evidence is a bit stronger than "educated guess".

I guess that I wish that the media would say this...

Why?

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
And if anyone asks how sure those scientists are, the answer should be that they are simply making educated guesses.

AKA "science". Any scientist worth his salt puts error bars on everything, giving you an idea of how accurate (or wild) a guess they're making. Of course, this is too complex a concept for the mainstream media to grasp...so they tend to announce all discoveries as if they're set in stone.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: XZeroII
And if anyone asks how sure those scientists are, the answer should be that they are simply making educated guesses.

AKA "science". Any scientist worth his salt puts error bars on everything, giving you an idea of how accurate (or wild) a guess they're making. Of course, this is too complex a concept for the mainstream media to grasp...so they tend to announce all discoveries as if they're set in stone.

The worst is when they treat correlation as causation, or statistically insignificant results as meaningful.

 

[tfcmasta97]

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Obviously, no matter how you view the universe as being created, there was a point where energy had to be created... Which, in physics, defies itself, but yeah. Big bang, God's creation - whatever you believe, it had to be made at one point or another. Just NOW we don't get any extra

i stand by my belief that the universe has existed for all time along with the energy in it....

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: tfcmasta97

Originally posted by: SociallyChallenged
Obviously, no matter how you view the universe as being created, there was a point where energy had to be created... Which, in physics, defies itself, but yeah. Big bang, God's creation - whatever you believe, it had to be made at one point or another. Just NOW we don't get any extra

i stand by my belief that the universe has existed for all time along with the energy in it....

Considering that time was just as warped as space in the big bang singularity, what you say may very well be close to the truth.

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: engineereeyore
So an instructor at my university is working on reusing energy in electronics. Such ideas include using the heat generated by a microprocessor and converting it back into power so as to make things more efficient and less power hungry.

What you're looking for is called "reversible computing." This is a theoretical way of creating a very energy efficient computer.

gues you can tell I didn't fully read your question

 

[freakflag]

Haven't you people realized yet that there is no such thing as "energy" in and of itself? There is only motion. The entire universe is in constant motion, and that motion in one state or another and the reaction it has to another form of motion is what we refer to as energy. It's all about harnessing the motion. That's the key. Do I have to tell you people everything?

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: freakflag
Haven't you people realized yet that there is no such thing as "energy" in and of itself? There is only motion. The entire universe is in constant motion, and that motion in one state or another and the reaction it has to another form of motion is what we refer to as energy. It's all about harnessing the motion. That's the key. Do I have to tell you people everything?

Yes, but does that effect the discussion of unviersal origins at all? I don't really think it does.

You also have to remember that matter IS energy. That makes your definition more complicated than you would have us simpletons believe

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: XZeroII

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
E = mc^2

m = mass --> that is where it all came from.

Where did the mass come from?



I have a really hard time believing that we know what happened down the to .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001th of a second (yea, I just held 0 for awhile). How does the scientific method work here? You are piling unverified theory on top of unverified theory on top of unverified theory to come up with a theory that is verified by the previous unverified theories. How can we prove any of this stuff? We can write equations all day, but it's not going to tell us the truth.

It would be better to say that scientists THINK they know what happened .00000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds after the big bang. And if anyone asks how sure those scientists are, the answer should be that they are simply making educated guesses.

Ah, now I understand what you were trying to figure out. It's not the conservation of mass and energy that you have difficulty understanding, it's the origins of the universe.

The scientific theories actually do have a lot of supporting evidence. There are no scientific theories out there that can not be verified somehow to within some degree of accuracy. The Big Bang theory comes from decades of research, and there are countless phenomena that are explained by the theory or that point to the theory being correct. It's impossible to know for sure if the Big Bang is what really happened because science does not work that way. You never know anything with 100% certainty.

In the end, no one knows anything. All of our knowledge is the cumulation of unproven theories that prove other unproven theories. However, these theories work to build wonders that would have been beyond imagination 1000 years ago. The theories that went toward building your computer, keyboard, and monitor are all unproven "educated guesses," FYI

About once a year for the last 40 years there is a new article with a title something along the lines of "Einstein has been proven wrong!" It comes out about once a year when some news reporter misinterprets some research and concludes that Einstein was not right, he was wrong! In actuality, science is never "right" and everything comes down to good approximations.

Scientists know that they can never be completely correct, and that's why science is endless. There will always be more searching for more evidence to try and better understand what is going on.