mathematics-

Space Travel - Science or Fiction?

There are those who deny Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and maintain the whole story was a government conspiracy. The idea that man could actually break away from our cradle of atmosphere and gravity was once fiction of the highest sort. Yet one dreamer made it a reality. What is there not to believe about space travel? Will there be a time when such a thing is feasible?

If interstellar travel requires traveling at light speed, the situation is not promising. The biggest hurdles against such travel are g-forces and time. G-forces are the force exerted on your body when undergoing high accelerations. Accelerating to the speed of light would have to be done gradually or the body would be torn apart. It would take about 2 months to get to just half the speed of light! This explains the need for inertial dampers-the cosmic shock absorbers created by the writers of Star Trek. Inertial dampers somehow cancel out the force responding to the accelerating force. While this solves the problem for script writers, there is no such tool in the real world of physics.

Which takes us to the problem of time in space travel. Theoretically, two things happen when objects travel at the speed of light. First, time becomes relative and "slows down" for the objects in motion. A ten year journey on a star craft would correspond to 25,000 earth years-making any communication impossible. In addition to this, objects get heavier the faster they travel. When approaching the speed of light they become infinitely heavy, which is why only massless objects, like waves, can travel at such speeds.

Hence, space travel at light speed or faster is probably not feasible; however, space travel could still become reality. Imagine you are a microscopic mite on a flat piece of paper. Your world would seem to be flat; and indeed, all experimentation on your immediate environment would lead you to that conclusion. If your world was flat, the fastest way to get from your position to a point at the other end of the page would be a straight line. However, if the page was to bend, and you could drill a hole through the page, you would find a shortcut. This is the idea behind wormholes. Unfortunately, geometric equations show wormholes to be impossibly unstable.

Before they could be used as viable bridges to new star systems or galaxies, one would have to find a way to keep them from pinching off the moment a speck of matter entered its throat. Still, wormholes are our greatest hope for space travel. While wormholes are still only hypothetical (there is no experimental evidence for them), they are great theoretical fun, and valid solutions of the Einstein equations. It's no wonder that they are a topic of interest among scientists and writers science fiction alike.

Francesca Black has always enjoyed Science Fiction and she manages the content at: Science Fiction Corner http://www.science-fiction-corner.com

posted by fdwvsmr55035 @ 12:52 PM 0 comments

Ask the Right Question to Achieve Your Goals

There is a word that can dramatically change your life. Everyone knows the word. Every one uses the word several times a day. It is a short word that packs a punch. Properly utilized, it will help you accomplish anything you decide to do. The word is only three letters, and it is usually the first word of the question. The word is how.

Close cousins of how - who, what, when, where and why are also important as Rudyard Kipling explains in his poem in the Just So Stories:

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

But you know the answers to the questions of who, what, when, where, and why. You know who you are and who you want to become. You know, or at least have an idea of what you want to do with your life. You know when you need to start. You know where you are and you know why you want to do it. But you may not know how.

In order to achieve your goals or to make changes in your life, you just need to know the answer to the question, "How?" You need to ask, "How can I improve my health?", "How can I start a new business?", or "How can I improve my relationship with my husband or wife?" You can achieve any goal that you write down if only you know how and if you take action on the answer to the question, "How can I do that?"

The answers to the "How" questions are usually simple. You just need to focus on asking the right "How" question. If the answer seems complicated, you have not clarified the question enough to get the right answer. There is one obstacle when using the word how to help you achieve your goals. You cannot answer only one "How" question. You have to be persistent and keep asking how questions until you get the answer you need. "How do I lose weight?" The answer is to eat fewer calories than you burn off. What a simple answer. Most of you already know that, but you may not be taking action on it because you stopped asking how before you got the answer that you needed to begin taking action. You should follow-up with the question, "How do I eat fewer calories?" Then ask "How do I eat fewer calories without being hungry?" The next question might be, "How do I prepare foods that are low calorie, filling, and great tasting?" Finally, ask, "How can I maintain this way of eating for the rest of my life so the weight never comes back?"

The point is to keep asking how questions until you find the answer that works for you. Two people may achieve the same goal using two completely different methods. You need to ask "How" until you find your method. The true power of the question "How" is that the answer has already been discovered by someone else or, at the very least, someone else has the information you need to help you discover the answer for yourself. Galileo said that the reason he accomplished so much in the fields of astronomy, physics and mathematics is because he "stood on the shoulders of giants." He used all of the knowledge that was discovered by those before him, and he kept asking "How?" Genius has been defined as the ability to make finer and finer distinctions. In other words, genius is the ability to find answers to more "How" questions.

You don't need to be a genius to accomplish your goals. You don't need to discover everything by yourself. You just need to keep asking the question, "How can I do that?" Then, you need to take the actions dictated by the answers. Ask the question "How", learn the answers, take persistent action and you will succeed.

You may republish and distribute this article as long as you include the following:

Dr. Doug Fullington is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician with a busy practice filled with wonderful patients. He is passionate about helping people learn how to Achieve Maximum Health. If you would like for Dr. Fullington to speak to your group or organization, you may contact him at http://www.DrDougFullington.com

posted by fdwvsmr55035 @ 12:51 AM 0 comments