HL2 science (for nerds)

UltraProAnti

UltraProAnti

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I didn't realise until I read this article -

http://prospectmagazine.co.uk/article_details.php.6701.html

- that a lot of the physics-related stuff the characters blather on about is taken from real physics:

In the older string picture, one had to "curl" or wrap up six of the ten original dimensions, leaving the four-dimensional universe of today. These unwanted dimensions were squeezed into a tiny ball (called a Calabi-Yau manifold) too small to be seen. But M-theory adds a new twist to this: some of these higher dimensions can be large, or even infinite, in size. Imagine two parallel sheets of paper. If an ant lived on each sheet, each would think that its sheet was the entire universe, unaware that there was another universe close by. In fact, the other universe would be invisible. Each ant would live out its life oblivious to the fact that another universe was only a few inches away. Similarly, our universe may be a membrane floating in 11-dimensional hyperspace, while we remain oblivious of the parallel universes hovering nearby.
Click to expand...

Remember Judith Mossman going on about something that sounded (to me anyway) like the "Kaladiyah Model"? I guess that's actually the "Calabi-Yau manifold" mentioned here, just badly pronounced. She also talks about Combine portals being "string-based", and "factoring in the dark energy equations", both of which are also mentioned in the article.

Now I'm even more impressed that someone made a kickass game out of the nerdiest of sciences. :E
 
I also remember breen talking about worlds stretched thin on the (mem)brane or something like that... String theory.
 
"Calabi-Yau" is pronounced correctly in the game, it's just you as a native English speaker (just guessing here) who reads thing phonetically, not literally :)

In any case, Calabi-Yau manifold is just as real as zero point energy.
 
Zero point energy isn't. They've actually been able to measure the force it exerts between two metal planes, VERY close together, with current running through them. That keeps the electrons from spawning between the plates, so there's less zero-point energy between them. (because zero-point energy is nothing more than random electrons spawning according to a statistical distribution) That creates a force not unlike the force that pushes planes up.

As things are, though, it's waaay too weak to push cars around so far. Or even a paper clip, lol.
 
reading that little qoute did nothing for me.. srry hun!
 
In my Theoretical particle physics, I'm learning about the Klein-Gordon equation. Coincidense?
 
Don't you think it's a bit obvious that they are actually based on real phyiscs?

And no, I don't understand what's going on in the quote :laugh:
 
By reading how surprised some folks here are, I can guess not many of you really studied physics at A-Level/College/other Higher Education. Except you guys who know what the extract is about.

A large amount of the theory behind the science in the HL series is plausable, or at least has some grounding in the real world.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Ive read up alot about M theory, and the Membrane created models that quantum science applies to them, it's interesting, but it sounds totally improvised to satisfy statistical logical descriptions of a universe where our laws of physics apparently dont even apply!, not to mention the complete ignorance of the dimension of perception/conciousness.. cool stuff, but M theory is more the accepting result of the desperate search to find a scientific unified theory.. In alot of peoples opinion M theory is a very materialistic mathmatical description of something that isnt material atall!, which is kind of obsurd.

but anyway, i didnt mean to ramble on like that, very interesting.. and if any scientist's are watching this thread.. sort M theory out it cant be right, creating more dimensions to satisfy mathmatical equations when our mathmatics only really applies to our laws of physics as there understood...? thats kind of like making it up as you go along :P
 
Hurray for vector cross products!

I got an 100 on my physics 1 test today...

sad part is, me and my roommate already wrote a computer simulation that will do everything we are covering in class for this trimester, with the exception of rotation because we don't know how to translate centripital force into a cartesian coordinate system.
and it is only with spheres.
 
When I heard dark energy and zero-point engergy mentioned in the game my head perked up. I find the ideas rather interesting. Some of this theoretical physics stuff is pretty cool. Don't quote me on this, but I heard that Dr. Tesla claimed that he had created a zero point energy field, but was not able to recreate the experiment properly.

I am really interested in pysics, but I am getting my ass kicked by it, I am just not good at algebra type math. :(
 
Tesla, also apparently found a way to transmit electricity as a wave, without wires. he apparently found out about scalar wave's way long ago, and somehow used them to achieve the effect.

our modern techniques of electric generation where exploited only because it was the first method he discovered, when he found other more efficient methods, when he discovered the presence of the ether (vaccum energy) it was too late, the crude methods of electric generation had aleady been established as big buisness and it would of threatened too many livelyhoods and economic stability if change occured, so he was ridiculed and supressed by those who where already into exploiting the populus, and its still going on today.

If Tesla had found out about the Ether and Zero point without disclosing the crude way of electric generation, and introduced other methods, the world would be a very different place today.

if your really interested in this, read up about the Biefield brown effect: Thomas Townsend Brown's Gravitor, its a real unexplicable natural effect, that we cant explain scientifically outside of vaccum theory.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/186-187.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/188-189.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/195_workingdiagram.jpg

and practical quantum theory on how to convert potential vaccum energy into electromagnetic waves, (usable electricity) which apparently , has already been accomplished.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/296-297.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/298-299.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/300-301.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/Clarky003/302-303.jpg
 
A lot of the stuff they said in the game sounded familier to me. I've never taken any real physics courses (Only in the 10th grade), but I watch the Science Channel a lot. Physics, this kind in perticular, has always interested me. Black holes, parallel dimensions, string theory, etc...

I don't plan to ever actually study it though. School has a way of sucking the fun out of everything interesting.
 
All I know is that when I saw the bad dude in The Incredibles yammering about zero-point energy my first thought was, somebody owes somebody royalty money. I'd figured that VALVe made that up, and I do have a science education.

So I s'pose the key to a gravity gun would be to stop any electrons whatsoever from spawning around your file cabinet or evil mutant trooper. Move the field and "low pressure" will push cabinet/evil trooper back to the center of the field. Cool.
 
technically, if you really have to get 'nerdy' about it, for a weapon like that to work youd have to distort the local gravitational field directionally, so it needs to project the distortion forwards using god knows what... a highly charged capacitor.. and elements that can distort the forward field to project it further outward.. if you consider the biefield brown effect, its like enveloping the object in a bubble that stops the interaction between force and mass (which is what gravity is), which is thought to be a potential gradient in the vaccum that causes the effect, if you can change that gradient using the electron as a gate, you could weaken the gradient (potential) , so the manifested effect of gravity on specific mass would decrease.

sounds ridiculous but its working quantum theory, the brilliance is, you can have a go still without knowing what the hell Gravity is, or the electron, just purely basing it on effects observed between them as we always have done.
 
Angry Lawyer said:
By reading how surprised some folks here are, I can guess not many of you really studied physics at A-Level/College/other Higher Education. Except you guys who know what the extract is about.

A large amount of the theory behind the science in the HL series is plausable, or at least has some grounding in the real world.

-Angry Lawyer
Click to expand...

So is the sciense in start trek.. but uhm ok you get my drift :D
 
gravity waves are cool...

so is the idea that you can make something out of nothing...
 
if your refering to zero point energy and the vaccum, then that 'nothing', is actually a 'something', its just we cant see it, so we think its nothing.

if anyones heard of electron spin, and virtual particles its quite obvious it cant be in perpetual motion without 'something' powering it, that something being the energy in the vaccum state.
 
WOW... the most frightening thing about most of this is that i actually understand it... and im in 10th grade... *sob* IM A NERD *sob*
 
OK, i'd like to talk about the Klein-Gordon equation.

It's a relativistic time dependent Schrodinger equation, for Quantum Mechanics.

But sounds like it is the Kleiner-Gordon Freeman equation, right?
 
After i read the prospect article i feel like we are all dead/doomed/wasted.

Whats the point of going to school if we all gonna die anyway?
 
Without wanting to piss on anyone’s cornflakes here, String Theory is considered by most of the physicists of the world to be a philosophy. Mainly because it’s based purely on maths derived from an unprovable assumption. The problem is that the guy who started it all came up with the idea of "strings" and then formed a theory around it; and on top of that there’s been a few possible derivations from those equations. The main differences being the "structure" of the strings (lines of energy infinitely long or loops of energy) and the number of dimensions that the universe needs for the equations to be correct.

Of course the people who stick to scientific dogma have been proved wrong in the past. Who knows what we will discover in the future. Just thought I should point this out in case you’re ever trapped in a lift with a physicist and decide to impress him with your knowledge about his field… or something.

Also, I’m no expert, but I believe that Zero Point Energy is completely unrelated to String Theory, but whether it is an undeniable fact I don’t know.

Also, teleportation is theoretically possible with our current understanding of the universe, through quantum entanglement.
 
technically, if you really have to get 'nerdy' about it, for a weapon like that to work youd have to distort the local gravitational field directionally, so it needs to project the distortion forwards using god knows what... a highly charged capacitor.. and elements that can distort the forward field to project it further outward.. if you consider the biefield brown effect, its like enveloping the object in a bubble that stops the interaction between force and mass (which is what gravity is), which is thought to be a potential gradient in the vaccum that causes the effect, if you can change that gradient using the electron as a gate, you could weaken the gradient (potential) , so the manifested effect of gravity on specific mass would decrease.
Click to expand...

If you want to get really nerdy about it, you'll realize that it's the Zero Point Energy Field Manipulator. Gravity gun is just a nickname. It doesn't actually use gravity. It just simulates it.
 
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