Alpha-Ori

How is the idea that gravitation is created by the Higgs field/boson and transmitted by the graviton even remotely consistent with the idea that gravitation is nothing more than a curvature in spacetime? How does an elementary particle (which like the gravitons might even be massless) accomplish the job to bend spacetime where spacetime is clearly something that you cannot simple hold on to and bend/squeeze/stretch?!

Is this one of the core questions of a TOE (theory of everything) and I cannot expect to get an answer on it because we are still ages away from having it figured out?

Gravitons are usually described as gauge particles of the gravitational force. The Higgs boson is described as a particle (the Higgs field as a field) that "lends mass" to objects. Are these two concepts actually concurrent theories or hypotheses? Or are they consistent with each other and just two ways of looking at the same thing? I find both ideas to be a fundamentally different approach and don't know how they fit together.

Suppose I have an earthworm of a particular length, say 10cm, on a plain surface like a table and I want to use a hammer to kill the worm. The hammer must be such that the cross section of the hammer covers the worm from end to end, no matter the shape of the worm (stretched, bent, kinked...). I am allowed to position the hammer any way I want. The conditions precisely are:

* The hammer (its cross section) is able to cover the worm fully, no matter how the worm is stretched, bent, kinked on a given plane surface.

* The cross section (area) of the hammer should be minimal so that the hammer can have minimal weight and manufacturing cost.

* I am allowed to position the hammer any way I want once I see the shape of the worm. While I strike, the worm is not moving.

I suspect the shape of the hammer is somewhat like an ellipse with a length of 10cm in one direction (to cover the case in which the worm is fully stretched) and somewhat narrower in the other direction. But how narrow can it be? And is it really an ellipse or something more elaborate? How do you approach a problem like this?

If I havent made the task clear, contact me for details andrehartmann (at) hotmail.com.

When a tower/chimney/etc is demolished, the explosives are often placed at the bottom of the tower, sometimes only at one side to control the direction in which it will fall. Almost always however the following can be observed: As the tower comes down, it first maintain its straight structure. But some time during the fall it breaky up into two or more pieces which will then continue falling as separate bodies.

I would like to know what is the scientific explanation behind that and how can one calculate beforehand how the tower is going to break up. I am aware that this may depend on certain factors such as the material that the tower is made of or even the wind. But I am interested in the basic phenomenon and how to get a calculatory handle on it, so simplifying assumptions can be made (homogenious material, no wind, ...)

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I am a hobby observational astronomer from Europe and I would like to go to the southern hemisphere with my telescope (8'' Photo Newton) for an observation, maybe for 6-8 weeks in 2012.

Is there anyone here who could host me during that time? I know nobody in the southern hemisphere, so I am exploring possibilties right now. Chile (Atacama), Namibia or Australian Outback would be perfect.

Of course I will pay for accomodation and other expenses. I just can't/don't want to afford a hotel for that time. And hotels are in light-polluted areas mostly anyway. So I'd rather stay with some local people where conditions are good and I can observe at my choice of time, and also socialise.

Thanks for getting in touch with me. email: andrehartmann (at) hotmail.com.

For a hike up Scafell Pike, transportation to and from Wasdale Head seems pretty poor. All I find is that there is a bus-taxi service running two journeys only on 3 days every week. What is a smart, common way to do this when I don't want to tie myself to a particular day, i.e. want to plan rather spontaneously? I do not have a car/license to drive myself. I will be based in Sellafield or Seascale the night before the ascent...

According to Einstein's relativity, time slows down for an object falling towards the event horizon of a black hole as it is views from outside the black hole. For the falling object itself, time continues to run at "normal" rate. So from the outsider's point of view no object ever falls into the black hole, the object seems to freeze near the event horizon. So if nothing ever crosses the event horizon (as seen from an outside frame of reference) how can we say that things beyond the event horizon (including the black hole itself) really exist? If would take an infinite amount of time to get there, from the outside frame of reference's point of view. Is this a material or philosophical question?