Is space as big as the internet?

You couldn't create a simulation of the universe in a computer because there is physically not enough stuff in existence to store the data. In fact there is a theory that if you did try it, you might crash the universe because it could have finite information resources.

So yes, space is bigger.
 
Judgeneo said:
As far as I'm aware, you don't.

I'm only in the second year of my degree, but even a lot of the quantum this year is pretty much impossible to visualise, you just reduce it to maths and make predictions a lot of the time.
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Someone does though. Someone somewhere had the initial idea.
 
Milkybk said:
valentinofail.jpg
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but u can block the moon out with your hand that elephant is way bigger :confused:
 
Judgeneo said:
Someone somewhere, did some funky maths, and then tried to explain it. Thats what I think until I meet someone who can coherently explain it
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A cynic in second year?

In physics I imagine there are hundreds of people who are capable of doing the related maths and but only a few every generation who are capable of getting their head around the big ideas.
 
have we all forgotten about the ability to compress data?

lossless data compression can happily make files 1/4 of their original size with no loss in data. so, if we had some way of encoding 1's and 0's (or maybe more than just 1's and 0's) on the smallest sub atomic particle we might just be able to hold the information of the universe at one point in time.

however, if we did this, most of our universe would be the hard drive, which could make things interesting in an 'i divided by zero' kind of way
 
nydryl said:
A cynic in second year?

In physics I imagine there are hundreds of people who are capable of doing the related maths and but only a few every generation who are capable of getting their head around the big ideas.
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Doing the maths and working with it is getting your head around it. Being able to develop new mathematical ideas within the boundaries set is getting your head around it. It literally is impossible to visualise some of this stuff, that doesn't mean it isn't fully understood though.
 
nydryl said:
A cynic in second year?

In physics I imagine there are hundreds of people who are capable of doing the related maths and but only a few every generation who are capable of getting their head around the big ideas.
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Maybe. But you don't really have to understand the big idea in order to develop the theory. In one of my modules we studied 5 dimensional topological spaces, there was no way I could visualise them or understand what they meant or represented, but I could do the maths (just!) and complete some proofs. I've always thought that string theory and other abstract mathematical physics are like this
 
The Hitchhickers guide to the Galaxy; said:
Space," it says, "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space!
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Says it all really. ;)
 
Valentino said:
Doing the maths and working with it is getting your head around it. Being able to develop new mathematical ideas within the boundaries set is getting your head around it. It literally is impossible to visualise some of this stuff, that doesn't mean it isn't fully understood though.
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I understand that the understanding for most (all?) people comes from doing the maths. It's more where the ideas come from initially? I'm coming from a purely maths background and haven't touched physics since advanced higher. Is it the case that (as Judgeneo was saying) theories are pretty much shoehorned into whatever shape the maths says they ought to take?

Judgeneo said:
Maybe. But you don't really have to understand the big idea in order to develop the theory. In one of my modules we studied 5 dimensional topological spaces, there was no way I could visualise them or understand what they meant or represented, but I could do the maths (just!) and complete some proofs. I've always thought that string theory and other abstract mathematical physics are like this
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That's pretty tough going, always find things much easier if I can get some sort of visual idea of what's going on. Pretty glad I stuck to maths :p
 
nydryl, read Brian Greene's Elegant Universe. The latter part of the book will be of interest to you I imagine.
 
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