Splitting Time from Space—New Quantum Theory

[n2doc]

Buzz about a quantum gravity theory that sends space and time back to their Newtonian roots
By Zeeya Merali

Was Newton right and Einstein wrong? It seems that unzipping the fabric of spacetime and harking back to 19th-century notions of time could lead to a theory of quantum gravity.

Physicists have struggled to marry quantum mechanics with gravity for decades. In contrast, the other forces of nature have obediently fallen into line. For instance, the electromagnetic force can be described quantum-mechanically by the motion of photons. Try and work out the gravitational force between two objects in terms of a quantum graviton, however, and you quickly run into trouble—the answer to every calculation is infinity. But now Petr Hořava, a physicist at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks he understands the problem. It’s all, he says, a matter of time.

More specifically, the problem is the way that time is tied up with space in Einstein’s theory of gravity: general relativity. Einstein famously overturned the Newtonian notion that time is absolute—steadily ticking away in the background. Instead he argued that time is another dimension, woven together with space to form a malleable fabric that is distorted by matter. The snag is that in quantum mechanics, time retains its Newtonian aloofness, providing the stage against which matter dances but never being affected by its presence. These two conceptions of time don’t gel.

more:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=splitting-time-from-space

[stopbush]

1. I know the answer: goddidit!!!!

[Graybeard]

2. Reminds me of Klaatu correcting the blackboard.

So here is Petr Horava erasing Einstein's blackboard and making it right. It gives me goosebumps that this may be a monumental breakthrough.

[Aragorn]

5. wasn't that

the robot's name?

[SutaUvaca]

6. Nope, that would be "Gort" nt

[Orrex]

12. Sure, in the movies.

But in the story, it was Gnut.

[glitch]

3. Wo. nt

[Lochloosa]

4. My head hurts...

[Itchinjim]

7. 42

[RagAss]

8. nah.....Time remains our creation.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Since you created it, you can alter it, right?

Back up a few minutes.

[RagAss]

11. The point was it's an illusion. The fourth dimension perceived by a three dimensional brain

[Festivito]

10. And thus the speed of light is relative to the gravitation surrounding it.

We measure time based on the time things take within an unseen world of gravitation that can, and will be proven as so, effect that motion that measures our time. It may seem constant. But, are we in a constant field of gravitons that make that reproducible.

Time will tell.

[Orrex]

13. What we need is a big blob of red matter

And a cast of hotties to serve as our bridge crew.

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. Do You Know What Time It Is?

This is a great video looking at time

From the BBC


Particle physicist Professor Brian Cox asks, ‘What time is it?’ It’s a simple question and it sounds like it has a simple answer. But do we really know what it is that we’re asking?

Brian visits the ancient Mayan pyramids in Mexico where the Maya built temples to time. He finds out that a day is never 24 hours and meets Earth’s very own Director of Time.

He journeys to the beginning of time, and goes beyond within the realms of string theory, and explores the very limit of time.

He discovers that we not only travel through time at the speed of light, but the experience we feel as the passing of time could be an illusion.


Full video here........ and ladies this guy is considered one of the sexiest men alive by either US or People.... I saw him on Colbert once.


http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/do-you-know-what-time-it-is/

[TheMadMonk]

15. I had half an epiphany on this a while back.

Rather than considering time as the 4th dimension, think about it as the zeroth. That gives us a "natural" discontinuity.

Where to take it from there? Buggered if I know.

[Prometheuspan]

16. time is quantum interactions

actually, time is whenever two quanta have an interaction.

without quanta to interact, there is no time.

time is just bazillions of clicks of quantum interactions.

It goes at the rate it does only because the quantum densities of virtual particles are as they are.