They’re physicists, they’d have just changed the numbers until they got the answer they wanted

Do you know what a 5 sigma significance means?

Do you know what a 5 sigma significance means?

You ‘processed’ your data really really well?

Edit: 😉

someone name me one thing, that has proven a good thing to mankind, that has come from space travel/exploration

Peaceful collaboration between many nations.

And the Uranus Experiment 1, 2 & 3

As a previous fully paid-up member of the Theoretical Physics clan, this discovery is remarkable from a detection perspective.

Essentially, Einstein postulated wave solutions to his general relativity equations, and that these would manifest in changes in space – stretching and contracting.

The magnitude of these changes are staggeringly small. LIGO are claiming to have detected a perturbation of one millionth of the diameter of a proton. A proton, not an atom. Think about that for the moment.

What they have done is detect two signals in two large detectors, separated in time by roughly distance divided by the speed of light.

Having seen a signal, they have postulated the massess that need to move to generate such perturbations, and these are mind-blowing – two black holes moving at a high fraction of the speed of light are needed. The model of this is compared with the (heavily processed) signals to show some correspondence.

Fundamental research is just that. It may have spin offs, but that is not the point. And who knows what those involved may subsequently go on to do. This Theoretical Physicist uses the skills he acquired to work on developing new cancer treatments.

BTW – I’m actually sceptical of the detection, and decided not to do my PhD in gravitational wave detection, and I don’t care too much for Star Wars. The subject of my PhD was in a Star Trek TNG episode though 🙂

Do you know what a 5 sigma significance means?

Yes, it’s where it takes 5 attempts to get the correct answer!

but the equipment and instrumentation used is real cutting edge technology, that will have practical use in other areas down the line.

Absolutely. This thing we’re happily arguing on wasn’t invented for this purpose. It was so scientists could share their data more efficiently, then someone had a ‘hang on!…..’ moment and here we are, 4 pages later.

Ton you need to watch The Big Bang Theory on the tellybox , Dr Sheldon Cooper will explain everything you need to know . 😀

These threads are depressing as either the OP is only scoring 2/10 in the troll index or that’s what they really think….
Perhaps the end result of some of this physics would be to disprove the existence of religion and therefore save all the cash then suck up.

It’s astounding to me that some people can display such clear hostility to the acquisition of knowledge

This is so true.
Part of the staggering wonder of the human mind is its individuality. I for one would not like every single one of us to be wired the same way, so I simply applaud the inquisitive free thinking minds, and accept the unimaginative dullards as an unfortunate mere quirk in the human condition.

Capitalism is a fantastic tool for strangling creativity. The concept of money has probably held back scientific progress by decades (which is astonishing when you consider the progress we have made in that time). The sooner ‘we’ get over ourselves and learn that there is much more to life than Audi’s and wrist watches, the sooner we will continue to evolve as a species.

Just the opposite. Capitalism doesn’t strangle creativity. Capitalism relies on it and provides the freedom and space people need to be creative.

People fear what they don’t understand so hostility to knowledge acquisition has been there all along. Best to ignore it and crack on. And institutions and governents are the worst offenders.

It’s another great slide away from ignorance, but if this thread is anything to go by, not stupidity 😉

Capitalism is a fantastic tool for strangling creativity.

What?
So the transistor was invented and developed into computers for what reason, other then make money?
The same for anything developed by a (capitalist) company.

It’s astounding to me that some people can display such clear hostility to the acquisition of knowledge

More fundamental than that, I think. How many people do you know who are proud of being terrible at maths? Yet they’d be mortifyingly embarrassed about not being able to, say, read or write.

How many people do you know who are proud of being terrible at maths? Yet they’d be mortifyingly embarrassed about not being able to, say, read or write.

Totally agree. Normally presenters on the Radio 4 Today program.

Re: “NHS To be fair, that was intended to do good, it was just **** up by incompetent planning and implementation.”

That £12 billion didn’t buy anything, yet the companies responsible got to keep the money. Computer Sciences Corporation even knew quite quickly it wouldn’t work but kept stringing it along for years
“The project is on a death march where almost as many defects are being introduced as are being fixed.”

Should be one of the biggest scandals of all time…..

Vanity projects & Politicians, I hate em all

That £12 billion didn’t buy anything, yet the companies responsible got to keep the money.

Many government IT projects are like this, just usually smaller scale. The problem is partially the companies, and partially the government itself. They STILL have no clue how to work with companies to get systems implemented. It’s a massive problem that needs addressing.

Computer Sciences Corporation

Ah, now they really are crooks. And I’m not exaggerating.

bikebouy – Member
I agree ton.
Seems like a whole industry constructed to play with theories on a chalk board.
Honestly can’t see why this is:
a) such a big deal
b) so important to humans
c) any benefit at all

Same thoughts I have going past Canary Wharf on the DLR.

Same thoughts I have going past Canary Wharf on the DLR.

+1

Same thoughts I have going past Canary Wharf on the DLR.

Do you have a pension?

I have a pension and it’s worth a lot less since those Canary Wharf “bankers” got their hands on the economy a few years back. I should probably have taken out a bet 40 years ago on the Higgs Boson and Gravitational Waves being detected in my lifetime.

watching your new topic fall away due to inactivity…….i wish it would.

that gravitational pull is not strong enough it seems. 😀

Do you have a pension?

I work for a quango, I need research into black holes so I’ve got enough room to park all the yachts I’ll be able to afford.

So all we’ve really come up with is “theres a bit of tech that’ll be useful”

Nice.

Kinda.

Still no real benefit yet..Maybe that’ll come later, maybe in 15 years time when another CERN or Monster Funder Project comes on stream to detect the sun doesn’t shine Yellow, it is actually Blue.

We came to this argument with some clear distinction between “we’ve found Gravity forms waves” and some of us asked “to what benefit to humans does that actually mean?”

And we haven’t come up with anything yet.

But we’re still bombing the shite out of Allepo…. but I guess the “tech” produced out of experiments like the Gravity Wave one aided the “tech” to produce bombs n shit, and landing them on targets within 20mm of the target.

But thats ok.

Some of the tech is being used in the right way then.

But, good argument none the less. Nice to have some opinions other than wheels sizes on STW.

So all we’ve really come up with is “theres a bit of tech that’ll be useful”

Nice.

Kinda.

Still no real benefit yet..Maybe that’ll come later, maybe in 15 years time when another CERN or Monster Funder Project comes on stream to detect the sun doesn’t shine Yellow, it is actually Blue.

We came to this argument with some clear distinction between “we’ve found Gravity forms waves” and some of us asked “to what benefit to humans does that actually mean?”

And we haven’t come up with anything yet.

But we’re still bombing the shite out of Allepo…. but I guess the “tech” produced out of experiments like the Gravity Wave one aided the “tech” to produce bombs n shit, and landing them on targets within 20mm of the target.

But thats ok.

Some of the tech is being used in the right way then.

But, good argument none the less. Nice to have some opinions other than wheels sizes on STW.

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or does it come naturally?

Some people are clearly beyond rational thought.

mikey74 – Member

Are you being deliberately obtuse, or does it come naturally?

Some people are clearly beyond rational thought.

Oh dear.

Are you going to resort to abuse?

Shame.

How is that abuse? It’s a genuine question in the light of your rigid retention of an opinion despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. You don’t really expect people to list every benefit science has ever brought to making do you? You’v been pointed in the right direction, now go read the stuff yourself.

It’s not abuse at all, it’s perfectly rational response to someone’s totally irrational dismissal of the desire to acquire knowledge.

No science. No tellybox. Simple enough,?

if everyone who has had a input into this thread, read what i said, instead of imagining what i said, i did not condem science or invention or physics.
just good old fashioned space exploration. something i dont see much point in.

Ton, you can stay here on your own then while we’re all off in our intergalactic, multidimensional time machines.

Deal?

😉

just good old fashioned space exploration. something i dont see much point in.

You won’t say that if a planet-killer comet is spotted heading this way.

There are lots of points to space exploration. There’s the useful engineering spinoffs. There’s the practical benefits like weather and surveying satellites, and GPS. There’s the scientific benefits of being able to do experiments in microgravity.

But even if none of that was true, it’d be worth every penny for this photograph:

We could have had that photograph ages ago, it is just that the cgi technology that Nasa has wasn’t quite good enough to generate a realistic image…

The thing we are all talking on was invented by defence scientists so that military communications could get through even in the case of a partially damaged network during a war scenario.

Cern just did a way of linking pages together.

There were and are other ways of sharing information over the internet.

just good old fashioned space exploration. something i dont see much point in.

Sorry, but that’s the point.

Many things we do don’t have a point.
What’s the point in listening to music?
What’s the point in reading a novel?
What’s the point in going for a bike ride?