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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Singularity - By Bill DeSmedt

« on: 18/03/2008 19:56:53 »

When Hollywood finally sees the opportunity they are waisting, get an older actor, like Mr H Ford, to play Jon. Someone who can play the analyst well. Of all the Jack Ryans I liked his the best.

Now for marianna...I'm thinking Jolie, but that may be taking the stereotype too far. The two best tomb-raiders in another some-what-mystical adventure? But with the budget the suits should be throwing at this project, why not! Although if you do ge Jolie, you may have to revise your descrption of Marianna's curves  []

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Singularity - By Bill DeSmedt

« on: 17/03/2008 03:08:13 »

Hi Bill,

I have just listened to your book again now. Tell me you have sold rights to some big budget studio who will make an awesome movie out of this story!

Plus I have been thinking about that word antipode, although the "proper" pronunciation may be "an-tip-o-dee" when said this way it really does not alert the listener to the true meaning of the word, ie, opposite point. I think although grating to my british-trained ears, your pronunciation is a more accurate use of the word, especially in your book, where you are refering to point in an orbit rather than New Zealand and Australia.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Singularity - By Bill DeSmedt

« on: 14/02/2008 09:26:13 »

Thats great Bill,

boy this is embarrassing, and amazing at the same time. The real live author responding to my post (thats the amazing part, the emabarassing part is wondering if I quoted your book correctly in previous posts, it was an audiobook, not so easy to look up quotations)

I am very impressed with your research, it surely made the story what it is. Tell me, the suit Bonaventure was wearing when she went into Grishin's lab, the invisibilty one that isn't, is that technology real? or is it an extrapolation of current science?

After all that gushing over your story above, can I offer one nit-pick... take it from one who lives here, we call it the "An-tip-o-des" not "Anti-podes" Trust me, I live in NZ (British Colony, in the south pacific).

Does Duality contain the same kind of edge-of-your-seat application of strange science that singularity did? If so I may actually have to pay real money for a copy this time.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Singularity - By Bill DeSmedt

« on: 12/02/2008 22:27:38 »

the author emphasised this was a micro-black hole, very small mass as far as block holes go. That it was microscopic enough to mostly pass through the space between the atoms, but nonetheless it was slowly eating the earth, and as its orbit decayed and the got closer to the centre it would interact with more and more atoms by function of the density of the earth increasing as it gets deeper and of its speed decreasing. The installation at the bottom of the Marianna trench drilled a further kilometer into the crust to start trying to draw the singularity higher. The Tunguska event was in 1910 and the Russians started their project in the 90s, so the orbit was only 80 or so years old, I guess it was not too deep yet.

The Russians were initially the heroes of the story, saving the planet from certain annihilation. The world had only another 200 years until it was eaten alive. The window to stop it was very small, another few years and the singularity would have been too deep to influence its trajectory.

But then the time travel side of playing with a singularity minus its event horizon quickly turned the Russians into a force that must be stopped.

At the end of the day, the author only meant his book to be an entertaining read for someone with an interest in science, and he succeeded tremendously. If he has taken great poetic licence with the laws of physics, good on him .

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / how "fast" does force "travel"

« on: 12/02/2008 22:07:29 »

ahhh, ding! now it the gears in my head mesh and it makes sense. Thanks.

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Physiology & Medicine / Resting heart-rate

« on: 12/02/2008 21:48:54 »

I am a rather fat 33yr old male. (120kg but working on it, gentle excercise, lowered kJ intake, down 2.5kg on last month  [])

Does obesity effect heart-rate? I consistantly meaure my resting HR at 58-64 per minute, this morning 54! Am I doing it wrong (two finger tips on my wrist)? or do fat peoples hearts beat slower? I understood a slow HR was a sign of a fit person,I would certainly not call myself that. Could I have some other problem going on? Despite the obesity, I keep pretty good health, nothing worse than the common cold to complain about.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Singularity - By Bill DeSmedt

« on: 12/02/2008 20:47:10 »

I have just finished listening to a free podiobook called "singularity" by Bill deSmedt. Absolutely brilliant story, check it out over at podiobooks.com, and unless you want the story spoiled for you don't reed this post.

I have a some questions about the science in the book. It is of course entirely fictional story, but I want to get an idea how plausible it is.





The centre piece of the story is that the Tunguska (sp?) (northern Russia) event was not a meteorite but a microscopic black hole impacting, and then getting trapped in an orbit inside the earth, a slowly decaying orbit, until some Russians discover it and proceed to capture it.

How plausible is this idea? The author says the singularity has the approximately the mass of Mt Everest, in a point source, obviously, travelling a a few thousand of km/h. He uses a nuclear power plant on the floor of ocean and loads of electro magnets to first of all nudge the orbit of the singularity as it "apogees" (if a subterranean orbit can have an apogee) and then slow it down to rest. How feasible is it to slow an object the size of Mt Everest to rest from thousands of km/h? The "braking path" used was 10km long. once at rest the singularities own hawking radiation was used to produce steam to turn turbines to provide power for the magnets to hold it in place. I know nothing about hawking radiation, again is this feasible?

Much of the plot is centred around the crazy physics associated with singularities. Further on in the story the Russians lower the event horizon on the singularity and create a time machine of sorts, and here the author brings in some even more crazy quantum physics/philosophy about needing a consciousness to have reality... The story is very very well done, but I would love to hear an educated opinion on the science in the story.

There is much much more, room temperature superconductors, bad shrooms letting you see what the universe looks like when no one is looking, self-fulfilling prophecies of time travel, hazardous waste disposal using molten iron baths...


If someone much more learned than me has listened to/read Bills book I would love to hear your comments on the plausibility of it.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / how "fast" does force "travel"

« on: 12/02/2008 20:14:52 »

Why do we say force travels at the speed of sound in the material? It must be more than coincidence...

I think that most people who aren't scientists/engineers want to know the most fundamental explanation that science can currently give expressed in the simplest terms possible.   

.

Please enlighten a person who only got as far as 7th form (year 12) physics []

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / how "fast" does force "travel"

« on: 12/02/2008 09:18:50 »

It is quite easy to notice the delay in the transmission of force on the old fashioned railway signaling system where the movement of a lever pulled a long metal bar that in turn moved the signal up.
The force is of course propergated at the speed of sound in the medium.

Does this mean a supersonic aircraft or a high power bullet could reach the signal before it changed?

edit: oops, realised my own stupidity, the speed of sound in steel is of course much higher than in air.

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / how "fast" does force "travel"

« on: 12/02/2008 09:15:36 »

are we confusing the mass of the object reacting to the force with transmission of the force. I would imagine the long railway signal tie would resist movement due to its own mass, probably even causing some stretching or compressing of the member and this would retard the movement of the far end, but would it retard the effect of the force over the entire length of the member? For the member to stretch say, the near end must pull away from the far one, the mass at the far end of the tie must therefore be supplying equal and opposite reactions to the force at the near (at the first instant at least, until the entire member begins to move).

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / how "fast" does force "travel"

« on: 12/02/2008 00:23:03 »

rats, there is no getting around this speed of light thing is there. -

hey, here's a thought: could the value of c change and we not be able to detect it? I am guessing here, but c is a velocity, ie a ratio of distance and time, so if that ratio changed then time and distance must change, but seeing as these are the things we use to measure velocity, how would we know they had changed? or is there some strange mathematics that measures v (or c) not using distance and time?

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Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / How "fast" does force "travel"

« on: 11/02/2008 22:32:28 »

is the transmission of force instantaneous? if yes does this mean information travels faster than light?

if I have a long stick, say 10 light years long, OK so its a really long stick. If I push on the near end of the stick, how long until the force can be measured at the far end of the stick? does it take 10 years?