Black holes for kids

Ryan, Rochester, NY — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:27:50 GMT

Good article. It seems that Brian Greene is actually excited that we might have black holes at the LHC. Maybe it's not such a bad thing after all.

Black holes for kids

Brad Montgomery, Fallon, Nevada — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:00:26 GMT

Where do ufo's come from? What about ghosts? is it possible that once we discover that there are more than three dimensions, we will find a way to see into these dimensions, allowing us to see ghosts and ufo's. "The Trouble With Troy" is a story about a boy born with insight to other dimensions.

Black holes for kids

Ron Olney, Bremerton, WA — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:45:10 GMT

What happens to a ball if a traveler, moving at the speed of light, throws the ball in the direction of travel?

[ALAN ADDS: This is such a classic question that it's been answered already:]

http://www.abc.net.au/science/louts/speedlit.htm

[So then you ask, OK, suppose I'm traveling at 1 mph below the speed of light and throw a 100-mph fastball? What happens then? Well, first you should get someone to negotiate a major-league contract for you. But then you should consider that relativistic speeds are not additive in that way. They add up according to the special theory of relativity. To you, it would look as if the ball zipped ahead at 100 mph, but to an outside observer making measurements as you passed by, the ball would seem as if it were going only a tiny fraction faster than you, but still less than the speed of light. Now, if the ball were a clock ... Um, don't get me started...]

Black holes for kids

Larry Choate, Durant, Ok — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:27:07 GMT

Ryan, of course the LHC isn't a bad thing! anyway, I am totally excited about this book!! my 7 yr old loves space, but i am horrible at explaining it to him. I am one of those people who "get them bogged down in details that they don't need to know to get excited about the science." He helps me do galaxyzoo sometimes and really gets excited when we see a really good, clear picture of a galaxy. He will love this book.

Alan, is the book already available for purchase? If not, do you know when it will be?

[ALAN ADDS: Yes, the book came out this week and is available from your favorite online or brick-and-mortar bookstore.]

Black holes for kids

Larry Choate, Durant, Ok — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:40:28 GMT

Thanks Alan! I'm ordering a copy tonight!

Brad- (personal opinion, not trying to get something started here)UFO's come from our government and other governments arount the world. I, being a person of science who believes in the big bang and such, dont believe in an afterlife, and therefore don't believe in ghosts...never seen one anyway. Also, we can already see UFO's.

Black holes for kids

James Tankersley Jr, Middleton WI — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:19:48 GMT

I am also a fan of Physicist Brian Green, his talks on String Theory are outstanding.

Brian, I challenge you to explain why senior German Physics PHD Dr. Rainer Plaga's feasible safety mitigation procedures should be ignored by CERN, or why CERNs safety theories should be assumed to be more credible than Dr. Plaga's or Dr. Rössler's.

This is not about a dare devil endangering his own life, the down side of this possible miscalculation is the entire future of humanity. Arrogance is not coolish its foolish.

Founder of Endophysics and inventor of the Rössler Attractor, Dr. Otto Rössler accepts that String theory appears plausible, micro black hole creation appears plausible, but he also argues Hawking Radiation is not possible, exponential micro black hole growth is expected, and CERN's safety arguments are flawed (Neutron stars are protected by super fluidity).

Has Dr. Green studied Dr. Rossler's work?

Anther great thinker is former Nuclear Safety Officer Walter L. Wagner, a California math champion who discovered what might have been a magnetic monopole and first discovered fundamental flaws in CERN's safety arguments (Cosmic ray mBH travel through Earth a relativistic speeds, some head-on collider created mBH will be captured by Earth). He is far more knowledgeable of CERN safety issues than most physicist interviewed in the media, he wants definite assurance of safety. Refuted safety arguments do not provide proof of safety, he is very concerned and so am I.

I believe danger is as plausible as safety. This is my planet too. I want caution and I want proof of safety that I can have faith in. Convince me CERN should be allowed to minimize, slander and ignore the credible concerns of scientists that I find more credible and non-biased than CERN and who may reasonably be correct.

Founder and co-administrator,
LHCFacts.org

Black holes for kids

Matt, Cleveland, OH — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:49:52 GMT

I personally think this is a great thing! I don't have kids, but while in college (for engineering last year) worked with some elementary schools on a program called "Engineering is Elementary" that has really taken off. This program had about 4 different lesson plans that lasted a semester and was targeted at getting kids interested in engineering, science, and math. The one that seemed to work the best was the civil engineering kit that focused on bridge types, where they came from, and why different bridges are used. They also got to build these bridge types, had spelling words, and a story book that went with all of it.

Black holes for kids

Alan Boyle — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 06:11:08 GMT

James, I don't think Dr. Rossler is on the radar screen for most physicists ... though you may find that hard to believe from your perspective. ;-)

Dr. Plaga is also not that big of a figure on the theoretical stage, but he hasn't been ignored by CERN. As has been noted in other postings, Giddings and Mangano have put an answer to Plaga's paper on Arxiv (as of Aug. 29):

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0808/0808.4087v1.pdf

Giddings and Mangano say Plaga erred through "inconsistent application" of a formula for the Hawking temperature of a black hole, and also misquoted from their paper assessing the black hole risk for the LHC.

If the LHC follows the example of RHIC, there will be expressions of alarm until the LHC is well into operation and producing results. Then the alarms will give way to the news of discoveries. In any case, the startup next week will not involve any sort of proton collisions ... it's just a convenient time and milestone for celebrating the end of the construction phase.

Black holes for kids

Tim Rommes, Washington, UT — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:36:17 GMT

James,
How is a neutron star protected by super fluidity?

Also, I left questions in the “Report Rules Out Subatomic Doomsday” article from 6/20/08. My post on 9/1 refering back to your comment from 6/27. I know that's a ways back, but it took me a while to get to the point where I could pose the questions and then going back over old stuff at leisure.

Black holes for kids

Tim Rommes, Washington, UT — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:54:24 GMT

For something on subject. I think that's great. If science is cool it gets a lot more attention from the kids, they being the future scientists or drug addicts or whatever they may be. Point being that if the kids make the sciences pariah classes then the system doesn't produce a whole lot of scientists. What different worlds we end up with when the star quarterback coasts through PE or takes an active leadership role in physics.

Black holes for kids

Nicolas De Salo,Paris,France — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:20:35 GMT

Brian Greene Is actually a dead scientist. This is almost the only kind of things that he can do. He must someway to make a living.

Black holes for kids

chris fulks, louisville, KY — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:41:07 GMT

okay, I've actually thought of this as a cool little story.....stretching (pun intended) the phenomena of gravatational lensing, but. Say someone makes such a powerful telescope that they can look at infinite detail of the most distant planets, only to see a planet 250 million light years away that is in a possition exatlty like earth and in a state where basic life forms are just starting....then it turns out that through dark matter lensing he is looking at earth.
A 360 degree lensing that took 250 million light years.

Black holes for kids

fadda eart — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:56:13 GMT

I wanna be a pre-schooler...those postage sized artist impressions in the margins of encyclopediae gave me some pretty wild ideas...imagine what this could do...GOOD ON YA!
I almost forget how much fun it was to not know, and have everything be new and exciting.
Those pre-schoolers are Humanity's saving grace.
Give 'em everything ya got.
They're gonna need it, eh?
Voracious Learning Rules!

Black holes for kids

Kwame, Detroit, MI — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:02:34 GMT

I listened to Greene speak at Oakland University in Michigan a few years ago. He is an engaging speaker. I also liked the TV shows he did about multiple dimensions and string theory.

I think it is great to have books available to get kids interested in science.

Black holes for kids

Eric, Salinas, CA — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:35:15 GMT

It's good to see some good books on science being written for children, and adult evangelical christians. A real pity that so many keep themselves ignorant of all the great scientific progress made in the past 30 to 40 years. I enjoy the Science Channel and it's great science shows. I am so looking forward to seeing what's discovered at the LHC whe it gets up to full power. Say hello Higg's Boson. Keep up the great work Alan on keeping us up to speed on the latest greatest scientific news!

Black holes for kids

A., Chicago IL — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:36:38 GMT

What happens if they do discover extra dimensions?? What if a black hole, are we then sucked through? All space and time as we know cease.
Cool Science, what if we unleash something unworldy to our universe.

my simple mind....

Black holes for kids

Mark J. Dinkel, Salina, Kansas — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:47:25 GMT

Here, before what you call the beginning or the "Big Bang", a place some might name Eden or Shangri La if it were a material existence. A spiritual plane, to be sure, it's discovery came from teams of researchers exploring realms of consciousness across mammalian species in the scientific laboratories of the 27th century. DNA mapping allowed aspects of memory to be tapped and projected revealing a universal history embedded, like the survival instinct, deep into genetic programming of mammalians. Research was only in the conceptual stages for plant and other animal species. Much had been accomplished in particle accelerator labs and cosmic background observatories during the last 600 years. What was previously known as the multiworlds interpretation was now accepted scientific understanding . . . .

Black holes for kids

John Dick, Dillon, Colorado — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:41:20 GMT

Extra Dimensions Story Line:
Mom and Dad astronauts take unwilling kids on interstellar journey, in spacecraft that accellerates particles through center of craft for propulsion. Meanwhile, small cluster of stars pushed away from host galaxy by supernova is building up dark matter as gravitons from the stars get caught in curled up extra dimension shaped like mobius. Then rogue black hole rips apart one star, spewing out antimatter that destroys the rest of the matter in the system. Black hole radiates to nothing, leaving a graitational sink containing no ordinary matter, only dark matter (gravitons stuck in extra dimensions). Spacecraft gets stuck, held by dark matter gravity with no real matter to use for acceleration. Parents realize that the family was the only universe they needed, regret trip. Wake up kids who say, read Brian Greene, all we need to do to escape is... Parents and kids all decide to go home, and they live happily ever after, literally.

Black holes for kids

albert heaton — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:50:22 GMT

This science is evil!! How can you joke about armageddon and oblivion for all life on Earth. Humans have become unnatural freaks. They may well deserve extermination but all other life on Earth is innocent as are a few humans. None of this science will benefit anybody it will only bring more sadness, decay and death at minimum.

Black holes for kids

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:17:53 GMT

"What happens to a ball if a traveler, moving at the speed of light, throws the ball in the direction of travel?"

Traveling *at* the speed of light is an unattainable condition for anything whose rest mass is not equal to zero. You can only get as infinitesmally close as you have energy to propel the object. (See the LCH threads for more on that. Even though they'll carry more energy, the particle beams it will generate are actually moving only slightly closer to the speed of light than the beams of earlier machines. It's like climbing a hill that gets increasingly steep as you get higher, but never gets precisely vertical. You can't reach the peak.

Black holes for kids

chris fulks, louisville, ky — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:55:02 GMT

Okay, I thought of another one... (I've got 4 kids under 7y/o, I'm poor and need cool books). I've always been flummoxed by the "big bang" theory, with acceleration and all...an explosion never made sense. Instead, I like to think of the early universe acting like a "big rip". An external force ripping the universe into it's current state, this force being outside our observations...until we create a "rip" in our universe and can see the start of yet another universe(thinking about the LHC results). I always liked the image of a hand held galaxy, ala "Men in Black".

Black holes for kids

Andy La Plata, MD — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:52:54 GMT

Okay, here's my plot line. There are 10 spatial dimensions. And, they are kind of like quarks. By that, I mean each possible universe is made up of 2 or more of these dimensions. Ours is made up of 3. This prevents any physical exchange between them. However, some tired, hard working, ordinary guy tinkering in his garage does manage to contact one of these other dimensions using modulated gravity waves. Following that would be an exchange as they try to explain to each other how many dimensions their universe has.
(Elementary geometry of n-dimensions?) Maybe not too difficult for a precocious child if you kept it to 2 or 4 dimensions but then explained how it could be expanded beyond that.

Black holes for kids

pellem — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:31:51 GMT

this is bs its to long just tell me what i want to know