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Top Ten Ways to ........

SpaceMagic said:
Ok, I know the site is called Live Science and I'm not a terrorist looking for ways to destroy the world... but don't you think they were a little too scientific. Jokingly ones like the sling Mars into Earth is light-hearted and funny, but some of the others... well.. perhaps you've got to be a scientist to find them funny...
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As a physicist, and I found the lightbulb one to be the most ridiculous. Its just because he doesn't know what he's talking about. It would violate conservation of energy, which is what the vacuum particle annihilations are all about. There is no Free Lunch.
 
jared_kipe said:
As a physicist, and I found the lightbulb one to be the most ridiculous. Its just because he doesn't know what he's talking about. It would violate conservation of energy, which is what the vacuum particle annihilations are all about. There is no Free Lunch.
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The whole idea of 0 point energy though is that what we think of as 0 is actually a whole bunch of energy. There have been attempts to measure it have shown that it does exist but there doesn't seem to be much of it.

The big problem with it is not conservation of energy, the problem is entropy. You have to expend a tremendous amount of effort to get an excruciatingly small amount of force.

Google the Casimir Effect for more information.

The Vacuum energy is how black holes evaporate and that might be the only way to make useful energy from it.
 
MongoTheGeek said:
The whole idea of 0 point energy though is that what we think of as 0 is actually a whole bunch of energy. There have been attempts to measure it have shown that it does exist but there doesn't seem to be much of it.

The big problem with it is not conservation of energy, the problem is entropy. You have to expend a tremendous amount of effort to get an excruciatingly small amount of force.

Google the Casimir Effect for more information.

The Vacuum energy is how black holes evaporate and that might be the only way to make useful energy from it.
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Exactly. The point is that the closer to 0 energy, the more of what we call zero point oscillation happens. In quantum mechanics conservation of energy in long periods of time is correct, but in a short time interval all kinds of wacky things can happen. A quantum fluctuation exists because virtual particles are created and annihilate quickly. For black hole evaporation, one of the pair is lost into the black hole.
 
Apple Hobo said:
I was hoping for interactive graphical simulations of each scenario. :)
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That would have been nice. Oh well, the explanations were sufficient enough for me to draw some great mental pictures of the possible doomsday events.
 
There's a TON of Hitchhiker's Guide references in there. Total existence failure, for example :D
 
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