The Mysterious Matter: Dark Matter

According to the renowned astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, there appears to be an unknown substance in the universe that affects gravity--dark matter. Tyson claims that physicists have known about the mysterious matter since the 1930s, and they cannot decipher what this thing is. The word itself--dark matter--can be a misnomer because the thing might not even be matter. Tyson says that it should be named "Fred or some other word that has no meaning" (I paraphrase loosely and I'm sorry if your name is Fred) because scientists truly do not what that mysterious thing that alters gravity is. 

I don't know the specific equations that astrophysicists use; however, they do calculations--probably calculating galaxies and planets' movements in space--and they need an added substance to correctly map the universe's gravity. 

Clearly, scientists do not know what dark matter is, but that's the beauty of science; scientists can hypothesize what this substance is or where it comes from. The most intriguing theory--I think-- is the one that relates to String Theory. In String Theory, there is a possibility that there is something bigger than the universe which is known as the multiverse. The multiverse is pretty self-explanatory; it's a place where multiple universes exist and possibly collide. Tyson also argues that this is a valid possibility due to human history. In history, humans have made the false assumption that earth is the largest existing body; however, humans have begun realizing that there are other planets that are sporadically placed in the sky. Humans expanded the universe from earth to its counterparts, planets. It doesn't end there; humans discovered they lived in a galaxy--for sure that's the largest thing in universe, right?. Nope. They, then, discovered there are accompanying galaxies which humans now know this is the known universe. Therefore, there is a possibility that the universe is the limited view that humans see and that there is a larger place than the universe--the mulitverse. Now imagine all these multiple universes as individual bubbles. If these bubbles collide, they create an odd shape such as mickey mouse's head. This leads astrophysicists to hypothesize that the universe is colliding with another universe which causes there to be extra gravity. In String Theory, there is a chance that gravity--or gravitons--leaves from one universe and enters the other. This explains the dark matter issue, but that is not the most interesting part of the theory. If this theory is true, that means there exists another universe and makes humans ponder on how big is this place that humans live in. It truly will make any individual feel small--literally. 

Another question can be answered from this theory is "why is the universe accelerating?" According to Tyson, the universe is accelerating due to dark matter (the universe should be slowing down, but I'll talk about that in another blog post). The scary thing is that the neighboring, unknown universe can affect our universe, and we have no control over it.

The problem with this post is that there is no way that I can make you imagine how big our universe is or even how big our solar system is. It's truly unimaginable. My similes or imagery cannot possibly explain the idea of the multiverse's size. I wouldn't even know what I would be saying if I were able to apply a simile to effectively explain the size of this place. So next time when you look up at the moonlit sky, keep in mind you're seeing an infinitesimally small fraction of the universe, and even a smaller fraction of the multiverse--if it exists--however big those things are because I don't know.  

Einstein's Thought Experiment

This morning I woke up in my Buggati, and I was wondering what if my car's speedometer reached the speed of light, 3x10^8 m/s. If my Buggati (I don't really have a Buggati) reached that electromagnetic speed, my car would transform from a Buggati to a DeLorean. However Albert Einstein thought up this scenario with trains or rockets before I did with my fictitious Bugatti.

Einstein's thought experiment derived a time-altering equation by using simple mathematics--algebra and the Pythagorean Theorem.

In Special Relativity, the speed of light is an universal constant; however, in General Relativity, a more complicated topic, light can be altered or bent in space time by gravity. The speed of light is a misnomer because there are other things--gamma rays, radio waves, X-Rays, microwaves, and Gravitons (if they exist)--that have the identical speed. Instead of the speed of light it should be appropriately called the electromagnetic speed.

For time travel to be plausible, the speed of light has to remain constant in any reference frame. For example, there is a car that is traveling at 40 m/s and there is a truck traveling behind it at 39 m/s. The truck will perceive--in its reference frame--that the car is traveling at 1 m/s. However, if the car is traveling at the speed of light, 3x10^8 m/s, and the truck is traveling at 2.8x10^8 m/s, the truck will still perceive the car traveling at 3x10^8 m/s instead of 0.2x10^8 m/s. With that being said, the equation that was derived from the video proves that time travel to the future is possible--not to the past. By traveling at the speed of light, time is infinitely slowed down--basically stopping time. To acquire this speed, however, is completely impractical; it will take an enormous amount of energy to accelerate to the speed of light, and humans--more than likely--will not withstand that force (F=ma).

But that's no fun. Let's say that time travel is possible. With time travel comes interesting paradoxes like the Grandfather Paradox...

or Stephen Hawking's experiment.

Although time travel does not appear possible by the last two videos, keep in mind these videos prove that time travel into the past is impossible. So there is still a chance that time travel into the future is possible.

Breaking Mathematics

There are several dimensions in math--the 0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. dimensions. The most interesting one is the 0th dimension which is commonly referred to as a single point in space. A point has no dimension which means there is no measure. If you want to find the distance between two points, you will take the final point minus the initial point. For example, let's say that you want to find the distance between 6 and 2. All you have to do is this simple subtraction: 6-2 = 4. Now instead of finding the distance between two points, we want to find the distance of a single point. For example, we want to find the distance between 9 and 9. So all we have to do is 9-9 = 0. This is good that the definition of a point holds up to this example, but how does it hold up to the number line?

Between two points on a number line, there exists another point between the points. And this can go on towards infinity. So by definition there is an infinite amount of points that make up the number line. But we just proved that a point has no measure? So how does adding up infinite amount points make a measure? It's like adding zero an innumerable amount of times and miraculously appears a unit of measure.

The number line has a unique property. There is no way to determine what the next point is. For example, let's take the number four. The next number can be 4.01, but, actually, there is a number before 4.01 and that's 4.001. So in general, after each integer there is a number that has an infinite amount of zeros with the last number being 1 (i.e. 4.000000000...1). Therefore, between two points there is an infinite amount of points between those two points. Removing a single point from the number line will not affect any measure because there is no length removed, and there are an infinite amount of points that can take the missing point's place.

So drawing a point is impossible. By simply a dabbing a paper--ever so slightly--is still an exaggeration of what a point is. Also drawing graphs are impossible because they are composed of points.

This idea is part of number theory, and this topic almost broke math. Mathematicians ignored this idea and proceeded on doing math. This is a problem because all of mathematics is based on numbers and what they truly are. If this problem was not solved, all theorems, equations, and numbers, will be false. This naive notion of simply accepting the fact that numbers are numbers is horrible way to construct math.

Thanks for those who read my blogs. I want to shamelessly plug my YouTube channel that I recently created. It's just like this blog but in a video format. Here's the link: The Integration Youtube Channel. Hope you guys continue liking my blogs! Enjoy exploring math and science!

Infinite Sums are Weird

What if I told you that 1-1+1-1+1-1+... = 1/2, and I proved it?

So lets take an infinite series, S.

S = 1-1+1-1+1-1+1-1+...

Now lets factor out a negative one from the second term to infinity...

S = 1-(1-1+1-1+1-1+...)

The grouped values are identical to the original series, S. 

S = 1-S

Now with some help from algebra, we can solve for S.

S = 1-S

2S = 1

S = 1/2

Therefore,

1-1+1-1+1-1+... = 1/2

Who knew? Well actually this is categorized as mathematical hocus pocus because this breaks math. In order to use the basic properties of arithmetic (i.e. associative property, commutative property, etc.) the series has to converge. For a series to converge the sum of the infinite series has to add up to a finite number. In this case, we are unsure what the series converges to because it can add up to 0, 1, or 1/2--which is it? If you want to see a visual proof on YouTube check out this video.

Euler, a mathematical gangster, disobeyed the rules of mathematics and found even more surprising values for infinite sums. He concluded that 1+2+3+4+5+... = -1/12. Although this sounds nonsensical, this does apply to quantum physics. Physicists go by the rule that says nothing in the universe has an infinite measure, and these insane values surprisingly appear in their experiments. Although I don't know the details or the direct application to the field, I find it amazing that there is physical proof of nonsense existing. 

Physics generally follows this order: develop an equation and experiment with it (or vice verse). Excitingly, physicists found that math is wrong--in the quantum world--and experiments are correct. Usually, math is correct and the experiments are wrong. This is mind boggling because which one should we believe? 

In our lives, we know what's nonsense and what's correct. However, our field of view is limited from our frame of reference. A human experiences the universe on a human level. If we break out of this perspective and look from a planet's perspective our view changes dramatically. We'll see--as a planet--empty space and feel like we're floating amid nothingness. We'll see our counterparts: stars, asteroids, galaxies, planets, etc. Or instead of a planet's perspective, we look through a quantum perspective. We'll see particles whizzing by, we'll feel the electrical force, and we'll possibly see other dimensions (as theorized from String Theory). What if we take this a step further? What if there is a world smaller than the quantum world or a realm larger than the universe? Is this where all the mathematical hocus pocus is spawned? 

I'm an advocate for being open-minded. I like to accumulate many theories, ideas, and suggestions and determine which is correct and wrong (based on my opinion). This is not only limited to math and science, but also to real life situations. Teachers may provide life lessons in their classrooms and so do parents in their homes. People completely ignore the teacher and follow their parents advice because it's ethically correct--some may think. I believe that one should not completely ignore suggestions due to bias or alleged nonsense; instead one should take in both and generate a more appropriate conclusion. The same goes for math and science. Who knows? Maybe there are parallel universes, time travelers, different dimensions, green aliens, flying pigs, etc.