wierd sciece questions

[Ms Littlefish]

There are a few different over the counter pain relievers available. Back and body pains would often be treated with an NSAID such as aspirin or ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen due to the inflammation of the injury. Headaches could probably be treated with either one though most OTCs for headache contain acetaminophen. 

Many additives can be used as well. Caffeine not only increases the absorption rate of the pain killer but it can help alleviate some of the muscle fatigue found with certain types of body pain. Diuretics are useful when the pain is accompanied by water retention (menstrual). Caffeine itself also is diuretic. So these medications usually help treat other symptoms associated with a specific type of pain. 

 

[captainproton]

Huh. And here I thought there was a little robot guy inside the pill like in that Osmosis Jones movie.

 

[Matseb2611]

Decided to post some of my own questions/topics for discussion. I'm probably opening a can of worms with some of these, but what the hell...

"Do you think free will exists or do you think it's an illusion and that everything happens via strict cause and effect chains akin to hard determinism?"

"If time travel was possible and you went back and changed the past, what would happen? Would the future be different? Would you create a new, divergent timeline? Or will the future remain the same and you going back was pre-determined all along?"

"Do you think it's actually possible to go backwards in time (and going faster than light for that matter) or is time travel only possible to the future?"

"How do you imagine a 4th dimension of space would look and how would it connect with the 3 dimensions we're already aware of?"

"Schrodinger's Cat. Is it dead or alive?"

Aaaaaaand go!

 

[hiddenone]

Schrodinger's cat is both alive and dead.  Obviously it's a zombie. 

 

[cabfe]

Decided to post some of my own questions/topics for discussion. I'm probably opening a can of worms with some of these, but what the hell...

"Do you think free will exists or do you think it's an illusion and that everything happens via strict cause and effect chains akin to hard determinism?"

It's a question debated for two millennia, do you have the time for a full lesson?

Anyway, one of my characters has this line:

You can't choose what life will bring to you, but you can choose how you'll face it.

"If time travel was possible and you went back and changed the past, what would happen? Would the future be different? Would you create a new, divergent timeline? Or will the future remain the same and you going back was pre-determined all along?"

I don't think time *travel* is possible at all, but I think there's still a trick that can be done, see below:

"Do you think it's actually possible to go backwards in time (and going faster than light for that matter) or is time travel only possible to the future?"

If you can be in a very far point in space faster than the light that originated from the Earth, you could, theoretically, see the past. But only see and cannot act.

So, how to go faster than light? Maybe by folding space. Since space and time are linked, if you can fold space, you mess with time as well and can seemingly be in another place in an instant.

"How do you imagine a 4th dimension of space would look and how would it connect with the 3 dimensions we're already aware of?"

It's said that time is the fourth dimension. So I guess it's not something that strange.

Yet, there is something I find fascinating about time.

We can measure it precisely, but are unable to define what it really is.

"Schrodinger's Cat. Is it dead or alive?"

Considering cats have seven, even nine lifes in some cultures, I'd bet on Alive

 

[Matseb2611]

I like that quote by one of your characters. We cannot change the events, but we can change our outlook on them. Though the more I live, the more I am convinced that free will is an illusion and that hard determinism is at work, that all the choices we make, are actually products of the existing factors that affect our decision making.

Yeah, folding space gets us somewhere faster, but isn't that essentially going through a wormhole rather than traveling very fast?

Ah yes, but I meant the 4th dimension of space (if there is one). According to a string theory, there are 11 dimensions of space and 1 dimension of time, but it's not proven. It's just something that fits with the quantum equations.

I personally like this representation of the 4th dimension of space:

Hehe. I guess the state of Schrodinger's Cat is the ultimate mystery that we must unravel.

Spoiler

 

[captainproton]

As far as Schroedinger's cat, my only answer is: why the hell would you do that to a poor cat?

 

[Ralpf]

Decided to post some of my own questions/topics for discussion. I'm probably opening a can of worms with some of these, but what the hell...

"Do you think it's actually possible to go backwards in time (and going faster than light for that matter) or is time travel only possible to the future?"

The only thing similar to time travel that I think is possible is relativistic flight (the faster you are going the slower time moves for you). So, hypothetically, if you get get very close to the speed of light you could get somewhere in a few years for you and maybe (again hypothetically) centuries has passed everywhere else, making it similar to time travel to the future. I don't know if there are any thoughts on how strong that affect actually is, but it is not Science Fiction, we have observed it in our space programs. If the affect isn't much at extreme speeds, well, going microseconds into the future isn't really that useful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

As for Schroedinger's cat, well the answer is clearly "yes". Though cabfe makes a good point on the amount of lives a cat has. lol

 

[Matseb2611]

@ Ralpf: Yeah, I am aware of time dilation. Time travel to the future seems well within the laws of physics. Curious about time travel to the past though.

@ Cpt Proton: Good point. Lol. I wouldn't.

 

[Galenmereth]

If you stand in a bus and throw a tennis ball up towards the ceiling, due to you and your body being in the reference frame of the moving body of the bus, the arc of the ball will be very close to 90 degrees. However, from the reference point of someone looking at this from the outside, the ball would, depending on the speed of the bus, be more and more angled. This is the basis of the concept of "time" affecting objects -- including ourselves -- differently depending on the reference frame.

Experiments on the theory of relativity based on reference frame have been done and found this to be correct. A good example is the Hafele-Keating experiment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafele%E2%80%93Keating_experiment

From the first paragraph of the linked article (also referenced in Ralpf's link): 

The Hafele–Keating experiment was a test of the theory of relativity. In October 1971, Joseph C. Hafele, a physicist, and Richard E. Keating, an astronomer, took four cesium-beam atomic clocks aboard commercial airliners. They flew twice around the world, first eastward, then westward, and compared the clocks against others that remained at the United States Naval Observatory. When reunited, the three sets of clocks were found to disagree with one another, and their differences were consistent with the predictions of special and general relativity. 

Time is extremely unlikely to be a linear phenomenon. In fact the above pretty much proves it to be entirely relative. If this means it would be possible to travel back in time is another matter entirely of course, but keep in mind that time is -- extremely simplified -- an observed phenomenon, by which human beings sense and record changes in their environment. While it doesn't make intuitive sense to be able to reverse changes to particles, this all depends on future discoveries about which particles exist in the universe, and if particles such as anti-particles (or antimatter / dark matter) actually exist or not. This in turn would affect theories about a multiverse or alternative realities, which in turn would entirely change our concept of "time" as it is.