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naturalplastic
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30 Dec 2011, 11:21 am

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
A sugar-coated audio mask.


What is an "audio mask"?

And why would "sugar coating it" make it impossible?



techstepgenr8tion
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30 Dec 2011, 11:30 am

naturalplastic wrote:
techstepgenr8tion wrote:
A sugar-coated audio mask.


What is an "audio mask"?

And why would "sugar coating it" make it impossible?


Its when an audio wave, inverted, cancells out its own likeness. I guess I could have made it easier and said sugar-coated photons as that might have been more relatable.


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30 Dec 2011, 11:32 am

Self-extinguishing bison.


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visagrunt
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30 Dec 2011, 2:37 pm

snapcap wrote:
Maybe not in this universe, but could you envision a nitrogen atom whose properties are tinkered to where it could make that kind of bond where the compound could exist? Is that not possible?


First of all--that wasn't the question. The question was, "Can you think of something that has no possibility of existing." We are not talking about tinkering here, we are talking about fundamental changes to the characteristics of elementary particles. At that point, matter and energy no longer bear any relationship to reality. So while I can envision a nitrogen atom exist with no electrons in the first shell, such a nitrogen atom cannot exist.

I can take a ball and stick model and put five little green balls around a bigger white ball and call it a model of NCl5, but that does not change the fact that NCl5 cannot exist. The promotion of electrons from the first shell will always cost more energy than is recovered from the additional chlorine bonds, which means that those bonds will never form, no matter how much energy we introduce into the system--the electrons will always revert to the first shell, leaving two lonely Cl atoms with nowhere to bond.


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naturalplastic
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30 Dec 2011, 4:07 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
techstepgenr8tion wrote:
A sugar-coated audio mask.


What is an "audio mask"?

And why would "sugar coating it" make it impossible?


Its when an audio wave, inverted, cancells out its own likeness. I guess I could have made it easier and said sugar-coated photons as that might have been more relatable.


Not sure what "photons", sugar coated or otherwise, have to do with an audiomask.

But it sounds like you're talking about an optical equivalent of an audio mask that would generate inverted light waves to cancel out light in a way analgous to how an audiomask surpresses sound.

Which in essence would be a invisiblity cloak.

Sounds like an interesting idea.



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30 Dec 2011, 5:29 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Not sure what "photons", sugar coated or otherwise, have to do with an audiomask.

Absolutely NOTHING! :D

naturalplastic wrote:
But it sounds like you're talking about an optical equivalent of an audio mask that would generate inverted light waves to cancel out light in a way analgous to how an audiomask surpresses sound.

I'm talking about sugar-coating things that have no mass and don't take up space.


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30 Dec 2011, 9:48 pm

visagrunt wrote:
snapcap wrote:
Maybe not in this universe, but could you envision a nitrogen atom whose properties are tinkered to where it could make that kind of bond where the compound could exist? Is that not possible?


First of all--that wasn't the question. The question was, "Can you think of something that has no possibility of existing." We are not talking about tinkering here, we are talking about fundamental changes to the characteristics of elementary particles. At that point, matter and energy no longer bear any relationship to reality. So while I can envision a nitrogen atom exist with no electrons in the first shell, such a nitrogen atom cannot exist.

I can take a ball and stick model and put five little green balls around a bigger white ball and call it a model of NCl5, but that does not change the fact that NCl5 cannot exist. The promotion of electrons from the first shell will always cost more energy than is recovered from the additional chlorine bonds, which means that those bonds will never form, no matter how much energy we introduce into the system--the electrons will always revert to the first shell, leaving two lonely Cl atoms with nowhere to bond.


What if you took that nitrogen and stepped out of this universe into another that is governed by a different set of fundamental laws? Could you find the universe that would allow NCl5? I bet it's more possible than you think.



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01 Jan 2012, 1:19 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
A perpetual motion machine.


If you hold that the universe has no beginning or end, it's basically a perpetual motion machine.

No rest for the wicked!


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01 Jan 2012, 1:24 pm

snapcap wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
A perpetual motion machine.


If you hold that the universe has no beginning or end, it's basically a perpetual motion machine.

No rest for the wicked!


that however is far from the general understanding of science today.


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01 Jan 2012, 1:28 pm

Oodain wrote:
snapcap wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
A perpetual motion machine.


If you hold that the universe has no beginning or end, it's basically a perpetual motion machine.

No rest for the wicked!


that however is far from the general understanding of science today.


So, according to you, it's not possible to think of science to be wrong?


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01 Jan 2012, 1:34 pm

Me having lavish success. This includes owning one city, not having to pay bills, and traveling to the closest other earth in under five minutes.



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01 Jan 2012, 1:41 pm

An anti-gravity positive adam eight ball.



Oodain
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01 Jan 2012, 1:43 pm

snapcap wrote:
Oodain wrote:
snapcap wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
A perpetual motion machine.


If you hold that the universe has no beginning or end, it's basically a perpetual motion machine.

No rest for the wicked!


that however is far from the general understanding of science today.


So, according to you, it's not possible to think of science to be wrong?


easily,
it ahppens all the time but the way it happens is usually not by going directly against what was first thought but to go in a slightly different direction.

then comes the probabilities of how different competing theories measure out,
in effect i think there is a very good chance that there is an actual "beggining of what we would call our universe"
right now we are barred from observing it directly by the cosmic microwave background but every single indication of today says something changed


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01 Jan 2012, 1:50 pm

Oodain wrote:
snapcap wrote:
Oodain wrote:
snapcap wrote:
naturalplastic wrote:
A perpetual motion machine.


If you hold that the universe has no beginning or end, it's basically a perpetual motion machine.

No rest for the wicked!


that however is far from the general understanding of science today.


So, according to you, it's not possible to think of science to be wrong?


easily,
it ahppens all the time but the way it happens is usually not by going directly against what was first thought but to go in a slightly different direction.

then comes the probabilities of how different competing theories measure out,
in effect i think there is a very good chance that there is an actual "beggining of what we would call our universe"
right now we are barred from observing it directly by the cosmic microwave background but every single indication of today says something changed


Is it possible that something came from nothing?


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01 Jan 2012, 5:16 pm

Is not 'nothing' basically a concept that doesn't refer to anything acually existing?

'Something' seems to be a concept that refers to an actually existing thing.

'Nothing' is a necessary concept for the 'something' concept to mean anything. 'Something' is a necessary concept for 'nothing' to mean anything.

However, 'nothing' does not refer to anything actually existing. It is only necessary conceptually in order to think about the fact that 'something' does exist.

Can the 'thinking problem' of the beginning of the universe be disolved in this way?



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01 Jan 2012, 6:11 pm

Octomom