1

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / Quantum teleportation?

« on: 14/09/2009 05:51:35 »

Okay, so there's that theory going around about quantum teleportation; where you essentially destroy the person in one location, and recreate a perfect copy in another location. My question is: would the original person be "killed", and would no longer be perceiving things, or would the original's life continue as though they had been teleported? In essence: would your original self cease to exist?

2

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / What are tachyons?

« on: 06/04/2009 03:22:19 »

Can somebody explain tachyons to me? Wikipedia isn't exactly the best resource for things like this. I just don't understand how something can travel superluminally; isn't the speed of light supposed to be the maximum possible speed? I realize that tachyons are theoretical, I was just wondering if someone could explain it a bit to me.

[MOD EDIT - please phrase your post titles as questions, in line with our general forum policy. This helps people to find information more quickly and also results in posts receiving more responses more quickly. Thank you.]

3

Physiology & Medicine / Why am I getting an early-morning vomiting feeling?

« on: 01/03/2009 17:21:46 »

I'm 15, and male. When I wake up in the morning lately, I feel like vomiting (and I actually did once in the car). Generally I just sort of retch and think about something else, and it goes away within a few hours. It seems to subside a bit with food, but it's still present. It gets bad on inhalation (as in, when I'm waiting for the school bus and inhale the winter air, it makes me feel like throwing up).

Does anybody have any idea? This has been going on for maybe a few weeks.

I wouldn't've posted here, but I've had good experiences with this forum, and googling "medical forum" gives me forums on specific topics, not a place for topics like this.

4

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / What causes the Earth to have "seasons"?

« on: 23/02/2009 15:16:28 »

The Earth is very, very far from the Sun; and yet, the tilt of the Earth's axis somehow makes such a dramatic change in seasons, despite the incredibly low change in distance (in relation to the total distance). Why does that little change in distance make such a big difference?

5

Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology / What is the difference between force and energy?

« on: 21/02/2009 13:14:21 »

Simple question. I understand that force is (according to wikipedia) "anything that can cause mass to change its velocity", and that energy is "the amount of work that can be performed by a force". What's the difference? When something begins dropping down to the planet, is that force or energy? Is there gravitational energy up above the planet, or is it gravitational energy?

6

Physiology & Medicine / Sick with strange symptoms

« on: 17/11/2008 14:43:36 »

I have been sick for the past.. 4 days or so. My symptoms seem to vary, and notihng on the internet has encompassed all of my current symptoms.

On thursday, I had what seemed to be a migrane; headache, dizziness, feeling dehydrated (despite LARGE intake of water).

On friday, my symptoms changed more to that of a common flu (influenza): throbbing headache (pressure, not stabbing pain), tiredness, slight nausea, extreme changes from feeling quit cold (primarily in the day) to feeling intensely hot (mainly in the night).

Saturday, I had similar symptoms, less of a fever, and the headache was more contained to my eyes. I also gained a couch and a slight sore throat. In the evening, I noticed an outbreak of light red dots (not unlike the mottling skin gets with temperature changes) across my torso, the biggest were perhaps the size of the non-writing end of a pen. The dots are quite light, fairly close together, and cannot be felt.

Sunday brought the headache being localized completely to the top of my eyes, near the bone. I also began gagging and almost vomiting (although I have not vomited) My mother examined my symptoms on the internet and suspected it was either measles or roseola. I noticed when falling asleep that my eyes felt warm (not unpleasantly so, except when I noticed that eyes aren't supposed to feel warm). This led me to check the internet and find Cellulitis as a possible cause. The dots to not disappear when a glass is pressed against them.

Monday (today): the red dots are fairly close together and there a lot of them, spreading along my arms and I believe to my face. Other than that, no change.

I'm 15, Caucasian, quite thin (mainly due to my metabolism). Hereditarily, my father's side of the family has a history of psoriasis, and my mother's has moderate acne. Any help on what this is would be appreciated.

I may have also not noticed some symptoms (like I didn't noticed my headache had been slowly localizing until yesterday), so asking about other symptoms might not hurt.

7

Geek Speak / What are the differences between DVD formats?

« on: 20/05/2008 22:58:00 »

I'm sure this has been posted a lot before, but I've never had much luck reading answers to other people's questions.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE DVD TYPES?

I understand that double-side means you can record on each side, so it can store twice as much.
and I understand that dual-layer means you can record twice on one side

But what's the DVD+ and DVD-? I know different players play them, but why are they different sizes? What's the difference between these things?

HELP PLEASE!

Also, how do I find out what my DVD player can deal with? it says DVD+/- RW, which is pretty obvious, but how do I know what it can write, the speed, etc.?

_{<Mod edit - Subject altered to make it a question>}

8

Physiology & Medicine / Why did my girlfriend complain of feeling "not too good" after stimulation?

« on: 21/03/2008 15:58:51 »

Hello, I was with my girlfriend the other day, and stimulated her vagina, and she informed me a few days later that she  had felt "not too good for a while after" []. I was wondering if this has happened to anybody else (she didn't have an orgasm, so I don't think it relates to the "thunderclap headache during orgasm" threads). She's a virgin, and doesn't masturbate. My theory is that for the first time, maybe it was too much stimulation? Any theories would help. Oh and it doesn't happen for any stimulation the breasts, only the genital area.

Thanks []!

9

New Theories / How unbelievably selve-absorbed people are

« on: 29/02/2008 23:05:25 »

People like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking are revered by scientific communities, and whole lives are based on validating or continuing the things they have done, but these formulas, like E=MC squared, have some very odd flaws. First of all, the speed of light is not constant, light slows down (shown by black holes and how they can bend light towards them or make it change direction), but yet it is still used as a constant.. which speed of light do you use, who's to say which speed is 'natural'? Also, I find the idea that he seems to have almost arbitrarily used the speed of light laughable.

Sight is our most relied-upon sense. If you went deaf, you could find your way to work and live your life pretty well still. If you went blind, you'd have to make far more adjustments. Because of this, light is seen as a very important thing, which explains why it was involved in such formulas, and also why black holes are seen as so mysterious (because they nullify our ability to see them, which makes them amazing and interesting). Just because something nullifies one sense, that we could just as easily have not evolved with, does not mean it has the ability to bend space-time or rip time or manipulate these things otherwise. Why not E = M * speed of 1998 olympic gold medalist for 100 metre-dash? That's just as self-absorbed.

Also, how can space and time be intertwined so that manipulating one manipulates the other? I accept that time is another dimension, but if you shorten the width of something, do not its depth and height remain unchanged? Why should manipulating spacial amounts in any way mess with time?

Thanks, Teh Robot

P.S. Please try and make your answers as simple as possible without leaving out details.. I'm barely 15, so please keep that in mind when typing out an essay answer []