Alex Smart Wrote:
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> Hello Simon,
>
> You write: "the crime would be thinking you
> understand it because there is definitely no one
> who claims that."
>
> All this mind-bending Light, Quantum Physics,
> String Theory business puts me in mind of a
> Buddhist's observation about Zen:
> If you think you understand Zen, then you don't
> understand it.
>
Yes especially if you think "I am me"
>
> In the first of your recommended links (I've added
> them to my 'Favorites', btw),
They're more ones I've added to my list right now rather than personal recomendations. I've heard they are good though - I'm sure the Feynman one is a good read.
> I read: "... in 1994
> at the University of Cologne, Professor Günter
> Nimtz sent a recording of Mozart’s 40th Symphony
> through a physical barrier at four times the speed
> of light."
>
> Hmmm. Does this mean that the recording now plays
> backwards - at a 133.2 rpm?
>
Well no but this whole quantum tunneling faster than light is a bit contentious. Its a weird aspect of QM that particles pass through a barrier at the same "speed" no matter how think it is. But the trouble is that this barrier can only be very thing to get any signal through at present and its not as if anything can be sent any kind of distance fater than light, even assuming the actual information itself is travelling faster than light.
Maybe it is possible to have paradoxes like when you go back and kill your granny when she was young.
>
> BTW, according to one boffin working in that big
> tunnel thingy under Switzerland they are 'moving
> in the realms of Magic'.
>
Not sure what they're doing at CERN is that magic. Well they are trying to find the Higgs and if they do that will be like pulling the rabit out of the hat
But things like entanglement are pretty spooky.
>
> I think I'll stick with reading 'The DeVinci Code'
> and Dirk Pitt novels - it's better for my mental
> health...
>
Yes well I'm reading a good pointless novell right now and its definitely good for mental health - well apart from the battle scenes in this one which are pretty graphic. But the 'The DaVinci Code' and Dirk Pitt novels are more like torture than entertainment!
Simon