Spyke

Gravity is the weakest fundamental force, yes. At least, at relatively close distances. The advantage gravity has is that it never quite goes away, no matter how far you are.

172
midwest.social

Can you imagine being those antelope being hunted by early human ancestors -

"Ok, bob, we just bolted at 40mph for a minute or so, they're not going to find us again."

"Clarice, you said that the last 8 times and they still showed up! They're unnatural! They just keep following and following us! Alex smashed his shin that last run, and I don't know how many more times I can run myself! We're doomed Clarice! Doomed!"

23

They cannot be bargained with. They cannot be reasoned with. They don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.

11
roorooreply
feddit.org

about to make ourselves go away though.

12

Exactly. Raise your hand. Great, you overcame gravity for a second. Keep your hand raised for a minute. 10 minutes. An hour. Fuck, gravity doesn't stop. It's exactly like us.

11
DreamButtreply
lemmy.world

I mean yeah but also you reverse that square enough and it's effectively zero

31
Captain Janewayreply
lemmy.world

Is that actually true? I'm not an expert but I thought all forces extend our into infinity. I thought we just allowed them to go to 0 at a certain radius for the sake of making the math manageable.

18
nxnreply
biglemmowski.win

Not the person you replied to, and not really an expert either, but I can tell you that the W and Z bosons (force carriers for the weak force) are very short lived and can only travel through space so far before they decay. This effectively puts a cap on the distance of weak interactions.

32
midwest.social

Strong force is the same.

I don't know if it's shorter than the weak force, but you gotta be in an atom's nucleus to experience it

Edit: i just realized I may have confused people - strong force has a limited distance, not that it's because they decay.

Edit 2: If i ever got a PhD or master's even in Physics, id probably write a book on how "The Universe Demands Laziness." Because pretty much everything in physics ends up with a system taking shortcuts to save a little bit of energy.

10
Veritoreply

I don't know if it's shorter than the weak force, but you gotta be in an atom's nucleus to experience it

That's what she said.

5

If i ever got a PhD or masterโ€™s even in Physics, id probably write a book on how โ€œThe Universe Demands Laziness.โ€ Because pretty much everything in physics ends up with a system taking shortcuts to save a little bit of energy.

This is how I teach both physics and chemistry. Electrons are lazy - theyโ€™re going to chill in the lowest energy level they can. They fill in sub shells like people getting on a bus - you arenโ€™t going to sit next to someone else unless you have to, youโ€™re going to sit probably as close to the front (nucleus) as you can.

5
sepireply
piefed.social

The strong force also gets stronger with distance

4

Except the energy required to increase the distance between the particles is enough that it ends up creating more particles and the distance never gets any more distancier?

3
nxnreply
biglemmowski.win

So this is where my inexperience kicks in, but I don't understand how the strong force can function in the same way considering that gluons are massless.

The W and Z bosons having mass prevents them from being able to travel at the speed of light, and therefore they experience time and can only travel some limited distance before decaying into fermions.

But since gluons do not have mass, they, like photons, do not experience time -- and so how could they have a half life?

In my mental model of the strong force I assumed that they simply were created and destroyed in an exchange between quarks -- much like how photons get absorbed/emitted by electrons. But this alone does not cause a limit on the distance of strong interactions, so I assumed that mechanically any limit on the strong force's distance must function differently.

3

Gluons do not have a half life?

Remember that they DO make an exchange - Gluons have color charge - red, green and blue. QCD is the magical realm of color charge.

The hardest part for quantum anything is grasping the "probability aspect" means spontaneous things can happen. In the case of QCD, as you put energy into separating quarks it becomes infinitely more likely to pull particles out of the vacuum than to separate them.

QCD is involved in fusion in a similar way - two protons will oppose each other with infinitely more force the closer they get because their charges are repulsive. The faster two protons are flung at eachother, the probability of the quarks binding increases.

2
Viper_NZreply
lemmy.nz

Nah, at some point the simulation we live in is going to round down to save computing power.

4

Is that simulation in the room with us ri

WARNING: Unexpected false vacuum decay.
Reverting current state.
3,245,333,345,728,345,876 recoveries until reboot.

us right now? Hurrr durr

WARNING: Unexpected false vacuum decay.
Reverting current state.
3,245,333,345,728,345,875 recoveries until reboot.
7

Electromagnetic doesn't go away either. It's that damn negavite charge neutralizing the stuff.

9

Dipoles are, effectively, not --- so if you have a charged bit and another opposite charged bit, while an inverse relationship might exist between either one, the net effect is that it drops off much faster.

The thing with gravity is it tends to go one way, unlike, say, charge.

4

Gravityโ€™s so powerful, itโ€™s letting you win this round just to remind you whoโ€™s really in charge when you drop your phone

98
exasperationreply
lemm.ee

Gravity ain't shit. It's not the falling that kills you, it's the impact at the bottom. Which are electromagnetic forces.

64

Well the electromagnetic forces in your bones are no match for the accumulated energy of a few seconds of gravity.

19
Korhaka
sopuli.xyz

Yeah, go ahead, how long can you keep it up? The earth can wait longer than you.

62
Owlreply
mander.xyz

Just lost faith in my muscles

8

There goes all our bragging about humanity's physical superpower being endurance.

2
vane
lemmy.world

Now keep this hand raised for an hour. Who's the bitch now ?

43
Comment105reply
lemm.ee

If it takes your an hour to wear me down, you're weak. No matter how inexhaustible your power is.

17
wischireply
programming.dev

But there is a difference between making a claim about not drinking water and literally holding your hand up in a way you can't fake.

2
vanereply
lemmy.world

Yeah he was obviously sleeping for 50 years and holding his hand up. I can believe that.

2

Look at his arm. Unless all the videos of that guy are fake (even during a time where making a convincing video fakes was really hard). That arm is not going down even if he wanted.

1
Droechaireply

Does gravity do work or is it just reactive? If it doesn't do work, doesn't it match endurance exactly to you?

1
Zuriz
sh.itjust.works

Weak you say?... See those merging black holes? Proceeds to casually dissapear 3 solar masses in less than a second... Yeah.

41
blind3rdeyereply
lemm.ee

But that will never happen, because electromagnetic forces haven't learned the power of friendship and co-operation. Gravity always works together, but the other fickle fundamental forces just can't decide if they are pushing or pulling or whatever.

22
hOrni
lemmy.world

I just overcame the gravitational pull of the entire planet with my dick.

37

If your dick overcomes the gravitational pull of the entire planet for more than four hours, seek medical attention

33
sh.itjust.works

You didnโ€™t overcome it, you spend some energy that the earth will eventually get back.

Unless you leave earth, gravity will eventually win.

30

Canโ€™t even win then. Gravity isnโ€™t just on earth. Itโ€™s a universal force.

6
sepireply
piefed.social

Nobody trips, falls, and detonates a nuke.

8

People try to hide obvious mistakes they make. Nobody is going to go on a stage and scream "I ACCIDENTALLY DETONATED A NUKE"

3

Clearly the tripwires in your basement aren't hooked up to traps nearly as fun as they could be.

1
lemmy.world

If you're hot enough and place a mirror below you blackbody radiation should do a pretty good job at preventing that. If you're not that hot you might need extra patience and without the mirror it might not be too effective.

Now that I think about it this might be considered as parts of oneself leaving earth though.

2
lemmy.world

This unlocked a song that has been buried in my mind for YEARS:

Now some of you may think that gravity is strong Cuz when you fall Off your bicycle It don't take long Until you hit the earth And you say, "Dang that hurt!"

But if you think the force Is powerful You're wrong

You see, gravity It's weaker than weak!

And the reason why Is something many Scientists seek

They think about dimensions We live in just three But maybe there are others That are too small to see

It's into these dimensions that gravity extends Which makes it seem weaker here on our end

And these dimensions are rolled up, curled so tight That they don't affect you in your day-to-day life

But if you were as tiny as a graviton You could enter these dimensions and go wandering on And they'd find you...

LHCb sees where the antimatter's gone, ALICE looks at collisions of lead ions

24
mmddmmreply
lemm.ee

Oh, a song from the time superstrings were still cool?

10
lemmy.world

A brave little theory, and actually quite coherent for a system of five or seven dimensions โ€” if only we lived in one.

5
mmddmmreply

Yes, it's the obvious extension from what we have now, and quite coherent for explaining some universe that isn't the one we live in.

It just shouldn't have monopolized theoretical physics for a generation. It's really hard to imagine something different, but this is even more reason to celebrate the people trying that, not to shun then and focus on what you already have.

1
Naz
sh.itjust.works

And now jump in the air and escape the gravitational pull.

12 kilometers straight up.

  1. 150 km.

Gravity not so weak now, huh?

18

It's still weak, just like humans are still slow.

At least compared to other animals.

But like gravity, we just keep going. And going. And going.

And when the animals we hunted collapsed from exhaustion, we just kept coming. And then took it all the way back we came.

Just like gravity.

We can try to keep going until we just can't anymore, but gravity will just grab us and haul us back.

Compared to the other forces, gravity is a weak ass bitch.

5
Comtiefreply

Also not so weak if you find yourself at a height in the air.

1

And still it is powerful enough to completely close off parts of the universe from the rest. Truly fascinating.

17
Reddfugee42reply
lemmy.world

In a system where gravity is pulling on your hand, which is stronger, the force of the earth pulling in your hand, or the force of your hand pulling on the Earth?

Answer: it's a trick question. In such a system, both sides feel the force equally

3
lemmy.dbzer0.com

if we're talking gravity physics, the earth, by basically every possible kilogram of mass imaginable to the human mind. But this goes without saying, because you stick to the earth, the earth doesn't stick to you, so.

Of course technically, the force is applied to both objects, but considering the scale mismatch, one of these things is not like the other.

-1

No you're both drawn to the local center of gravity which is on a direct line between both bodies' centers of mass and is proportionally closer to the object of higher mass.

That's not really relevant in collided objects per se, but it means you and the earth both pull each other equally to a point that happens to be located ever so slightly away from the center of the earth. Well you would if there weren't a ton of other gravitational influences including the non uniform shape and density of the earth that make you basically rounding error in terms of gravitational force. But you do impact it

2

Yeah but ainโ€™t no motherfucker gonna soon be jumping over onto the moon with pure human leg power. Still gotta detonate a slowly exploding bomb under our asses to leave this rock-covered ball bearing.

10

True, howeverโ€ฆ as you press into this planet, this planet presses into you.

9
lemmy.world

As a kid I used to dream that I could levitate by sort of straining my muscles upward and lifting myself away from the ground. It would be pretty cool to do that IRL.

7
meyotchreply
slrpnk.net

Funny, I had a similar series of dreams as a kid like that. I just sort of learned to โ€˜walk upwardsโ€™ and levitate.

3

Years before the books were written! I am an old :(

But still, Iโ€™m sure itโ€™s like riding a bicycle and I have these water balloonsโ€ฆ

2
Phlimyreply

Mine was that if I curled up into a ball I would float like a helium balloon lol.

2

I used to contemplate jumping in the air, then quickly using my foot to spring upward off of my other leg/foot, and repeating that until I've reached a desired elevation.

2

Overcome? The hand is clearly still under the effect of gravity as it is not flowing into the space. It just decelerates a tiny bit.

6

Nope. Gravity goes both ways. Actually it's the curve of space time pushing you toward another mass. And you can only overcome because your mass is puny next to the earth.

5

Isn't it the other way around? Mass bends spacetime and gravity is the result?

7

Magnetic force is hilariously weak. Go ahead and raise your hand. You literally just over came the magnetic pull of the ENTIRE EARTH.

3
lemmy.world

I think this is a reprehensible attitude towards gravy.

"Make gravy your bitch"; didn't you ever enjoy a lovely meal with the savory sauce of gravy over biscuits or perhaps a meat of your choice?

Terribly disrespectful!

2
Mohamedreply
lemmy.ca

Not gravy. Op was talkng about gravy tea.

4