Concepts or ideas you just can't get your head around?

[xeny]

Mark_S1000RR_2010 said:

Grip. Specifically motorcycle tyres and grip. I simply cannot get my head around how that small contact patch stops you from sliding off as soon as you go round a corner.

Many years ago, I had a door to door religion sales person ask me if I believed in anything. The immediate answer of "The grip and adhesion of a hot Michelin Hi-Sport radial motorcycle tyre" which I think I'd just read in Performance Bikes was very effective at getting them to give up.

[andyxxx]

Upinflames said:

There are 2.3 million cut stones, weighing up to 70 tons each. It was built in 20 years which is the official line.

That's a stone placed with perfect precision every 4 minutes for 20 years.

I'd say that's a bit of an ask.

The official line is nonsense imo
They have no idea how it was built
They don’t even know the tools used (copper chisels – give me a break)

[Boom78]

andyxxx said:

Upinflames said:

There are 2.3 million cut stones, weighing up to 70 tons each. It was built in 20 years which is the official line.

That's a stone placed with perfect precision every 4 minutes for 20 years.

I'd say that's a bit of an ask.

The official line is nonsense imo
They have no idea how it was built
They don’t even know the tools used (copper chisels – give me a break)

I’ve never understood the myths and awe about the pyramids. Eg impossible to build, didn’t have the tech, stones weigh too much to be moved, perfect design.. it was aliens! etc.

There was a great documentary on BBC a while ago that basically explained the pyramids of Giza were the last in a very long line of pyramid attempts spanning many thousands of years. The first ones were small, cubed and pretty rubbish and through trial and error they learned how to build them. Having hundreds of thousands of slaves helped too! Impressive but achievable. There’s no mystery, no aliens, no time travellers. Some learned techniques, lots of gold, lots of whips, lots of people will do it.

[andyxxx]

Boom78 said:

andyxxx said:

Upinflames said:

There are 2.3 million cut stones, weighing up to 70 tons each. It was built in 20 years which is the official line.

That's a stone placed with perfect precision every 4 minutes for 20 years.

I'd say that's a bit of an ask.

The official line is nonsense imo
They have no idea how it was built
They don’t even know the tools used (copper chisels – give me a break)

I’ve never understood the myths and awe about the pyramids. Eg impossible to build, didn’t have the tech, stones weigh too much to be moved, perfect design.. it was aliens! etc.

There was a great documentary on BBC a while ago that basically explained the pyramids of Giza were the last in a very long line of pyramid attempts spanning many thousands of years. The first ones were small, cubed and pretty rubbish and through trial and error they learned how to build them. Having hundreds of thousands of slaves helped too! Impressive but achievable. There’s no mystery, no aliens, no time travellers. Some learned techniques, lots of gold, lots of whips, lots of people will do it.

I agree with most of what you say - apart from [There’s no mystery]
There is plenty of unknown/mystery

[Boom78]

andyxxx said:

I agree with most of what you say - apart from [There’s no mystery]
There is plenty of unknown/mystery

What’s the mystery?

[LunarOne]

andyxxx said:

Upinflames said:

There are 2.3 million cut stones, weighing up to 70 tons each. It was built in 20 years which is the official line.

That's a stone placed with perfect precision every 4 minutes for 20 years.

I'd say that's a bit of an ask.

The official line is nonsense imo
They have no idea how it was built
They don’t even know the tools used (copper chisels – give me a break)

Has nobody here seen Stargate? That documentary explains all!

[andyxxx]

Boom78 said:

andyxxx said:

I agree with most of what you say - apart from [There’s no mystery]
There is plenty of unknown/mystery

What’s the mystery?

When they were built.
How they were physically built
The time frame of construction
The tools used for carving and shaping
The purpose of the buildings

[thegreenhell]

Boom78 said:

andyxxx said:

I agree with most of what you say - apart from [There’s no mystery]
There is plenty of unknown/mystery

What’s the mystery?

Even if we accept that we know how they were built, can you explain why they were built? They aren't tombs - they are completely unlike all confirmed pharaoh's tombs, and no evidence of burial has ever been found inside one. There is not a single hieroglyph inside any of the great pyramids, unlike all discovered tombs and other ancient temples and buildings, which are highly decorated, even the ones that have been robbed.

[Ken_Code]

STe_rsv4 said:

Space travel and time dilation due to extreme gravity.

I've spent too many nights in bed dozing of to YouTube videos such as Kurdigsadt etc.
I just cant get my head around it.

It’s interesting how simply this all feels when you’re a physicist to how non-physicists have to think of it.

Time dilation, once you’ve been through the maths feels no more strange than for example noting that travelling between two points in a straight line is longer than a wiggly line.

The calculations are (sort of) the same.

[boyse7en]

Abbott said:

TUS373 said:

Loads of things befuddle me.

Inflation .... someone puts their price up for their goods. The person buying it puts their prices up to afford it...and so on. Crackers really.

Car values. E.g a Lambo/Ferrari is metal, composites and glass. Because it has a big engine and a different shape to other cars...it costs the same as a house

Range Rovers/Land Rovers...how they sell any. They cost more and are less reliable, yet people pay money every month to pretend they own one.

TV programmes that come down the bell wire of a phone line.

I think you are mixing up Cost and Price in your point about Car Values. The Brand is what makes the difference in the selling price of a car. A stronger brand can get a higher selling price and bigger profit.

Not entirely. Back in the day a 1600cc Mondeo or Vectra was cheaper than the 2000cc version, despite the engines being identical apart from bore/stroke. Both engines need the same amount of machining, as a bigger piston is the same to make as a slightly smaller one, cutting the bores takes the same time whether big or small...
Never understood why a bigger engine was more expensive other than the "because we can"

[jdw100]

thegreenhell said:

SpudLink said:

SpudLink said:

There is no ‘edge’ that expands into unfilled space.

jdw100 said:

You can’t say that with full certainty.
have the observable universe which we can confirm, the causal universe where we can see some interaction (probably) with the observable universe.

Then the whole Universe…. We can predict what that might be, based upon our observable universe, but have no way of actually knowing/proving.

Then you have a predicted shape of the Universe. We might be on the inside of a spherical Universe - so yes there would be no edge. Or a toroid. However as we can not ‘see’ a curvature then the Universe must (according to this type model) be at least 500 times the size of the observable universe. That would just make it really rather large but not an infinite space.

In addition since the Universe may be ‘flat’ an edge is perfectly possible if we are just three dimensions inside a higher dimensional space.

It could go on for ever, you might come around to your location starting point or reach a hard stop/edge - we will probably never know.

I can’t say anything with certainty.

As I said earlier, we use maths to try to explain it, but the alternative models of the universe such as those you describe don’t made it easier to get my head around.

The light from stars, including all those most distant observable stars, is travelling in all directions, not just towards us. Therefore the universe must be expanding at the speed of light in all directions, otherwise the light would hit an edge of some kind. Or is it even faster than that, as there is internal expansion as well as the 'edge' expansion? We can never see the 'edge' of the universe, if it even has one, because it is moving away from us faster than the speed of light, so no light or other information from it can ever reach us.

If space-time is curved into a sphere, toroid, or any other continuous, edgeless shape, then at some point that light would reach us and be observable from another direction. However, if this curved universe is so vast that it appears locally flat, then it will take so long for that light to do a lap then nobody will be here to observe it when it eventually gets here.

Or it's all just a simulation.

It’s a simulation. Probably.

The Universe is expanding faster than light and we will never get very far.

Also you can set off in your FTL spaceship and keep travelling but all you can tell is that you haven’t come to the edge yet. You could travel forever and not be certain that the universe is infinite or not if you don’t hit ‘the edge’.

Worth remembering we are only 13.8bn years into the 100trn year possible life of the Universe.

I’m glad its all a simulation.

[STe_rsv4]

Ken_Code said:

STe_rsv4 said:

Space travel and time dilation due to extreme gravity.

I've spent too many nights in bed dozing of to YouTube videos such as Kurdigsadt etc.
I just cant get my head around it.

It’s interesting how simply this all feels when you’re a physicist to how non-physicists have to think of it.

Time dilation, once you’ve been through the maths feels no more strange than for example noting that travelling between two points in a straight line is longer than a wiggly line.

The calculations are (sort of) the same.

I suppose you're right.

Same as me explaining CNC code to my 4 year old. I just see X's and Z's. M8's etc.
Its like when Neo can finally see the matrix code

[ajprice]

Evolution stuff. A plant that looks like an animal, like this bee/orchid flower.



It would have taken many thousands/millions of years to get there, but how does a plant know what a bee looks like in the first place?

The same goes the other way around for stick insects and those bugs with wings like leaves, but at least they can see what they are imitating

[Boom78]

thegreenhell said:

Boom78 said:

andyxxx said:

I agree with most of what you say - apart from [There’s no mystery]
There is plenty of unknown/mystery

What’s the mystery?

Even if we accept that we know how they were built, can you explain why they were built? They aren't tombs - they are completely unlike all confirmed pharaoh's tombs, and no evidence of burial has ever been found inside one. There is not a single hieroglyph inside any of the great pyramids, unlike all discovered tombs and other ancient temples and buildings, which are highly decorated, even the ones that have been robbed.

We know how and when they were built. There’s hundreds of them scattered all over Egypt and Sudan. If we remove the romance, myth and ‘it was the aliens’ we’re left with very humble beginnings, eg the pyramid is a visual representation of mounds of existence being created from the earth. Eg birth of life etc. They were at first much smaller and simple. This symbolism caught on and snowballed for a few thousand years into what we see at Giza. Not to mention some ego being thrown in from various rulers to be bigger/better. Big capital projects. The later ones were smooth and caught the light, they wouldn’t be decorated as they were themselves the symbol.

[dundarach]

ajprice said:

Evolution stuff. A plant that looks like an animal, like this bee/orchid flower.



It would have taken many thousands/millions of years to get there, but how does a plant know what a bee looks like in the first place?

The same goes the other way around for stick insects and those bugs with wings like leaves, but at least they can see what they are imitating

Survival of the deformed!

A small abnormality in the plants growth results in that plant looking slightly more attractive to bees and therefore other bees go 'aye up, that's a bit of alright' and get right in there, ignoring the ugly plants.

Over time, more an more deformities develop and more and more bees knees get weakened.

The opposite is true of the stick insects, deformities, less eaten, more deformed ones survive.

It's comforting to think that everything is here due to deformities!

[Ken_Code]

ajprice said:

Evolution stuff. A plant that looks like an animal, like this bee/orchid flower.



It would have taken many thousands/millions of years to get there, but how does a plant know what a bee looks like in the first place?

The same goes the other way around for stick insects and those bugs with wings like leaves, but at least they can see what they are imitating

It doesn’t know. Evolution is down to some individuals being better at passing on their genes than others, and in this case that means that plants that looked more “bee-like” than others had more offspring.

[Ken_Code]

Boom78 said:

We know how and when they were built. There’s hundreds of them scattered all over Egypt and Sudan. If we remove the romance, myth and ‘it was the aliens’ we’re left with very humble beginnings, eg the pyramid is a visual representation of mounds of existence being created from the earth. Eg birth of life etc. They were at first much smaller and simple. This symbolism caught on and snowballed for a few thousand years into what we see at Giza. Not to mention some ego being thrown in from various rulers to be bigger/better. Big capital projects. The later ones were smooth and caught the light, they wouldn’t be decorated as they were themselves the symbol.

Yes, the progression in design and technique ought to Scot’s the whole “mystery” thing. The Great Pyramid didn’t just appear in a society with no history of pyramid making.

[andyxxx]

Boom78 said:

We know how and when they were built.

No we don't.

I have seen numerous suggestions how they were built and loads of utter twaddle about the copper tools used to build them.
I do not believe it was built in 20 years using slave labour and primitive tools – but that certainly does not mean I think there is an alien connection! (though that is little less fanciful than the timespan and tools I have mentioned)

[STe_rsv4]

Life / conception / genetics

How do we grow into such a complex, intelligent creature from being only an egg / sperm?!
amazes me that this is possible.

Octopus - how in the feck can a creature conceal itself using adaptive camouflage as soon as it comes into contact with that object?

[Ken_Code]

andyxxx said:

No we don't.

I have seen numerous suggestions how they were built and loads of utter twaddle about the copper tools used to build them.
I do not believe it was built in 20 years using slave labour and primitive tools – but that certainly does not mean I think there is an alien connection! (though that is little less fanciful than the timespan and tools I have mentioned)

Given that archaeologists don’t believe it was built using slave labour either what point are you making here?