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First Images of Black Holes!

Started by Unbeliever, April 10, 2019, 04:09:24 PM

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Cavebear

Quote from: Baruch on April 18, 2019, 10:40:57 AM
Like army ants?

Nope, staggering and tripping all the way choosing only what makes sense.
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

Unbeliever

God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Cavebear

Quote from: Unbeliever on April 18, 2019, 01:24:53 PM
More like Langston's ant.

I have enough ants in the house.  But I do watch them (before acting as a deity and stomping them).  They are relatively random when not following a scent trail left by others.  They do find food.

If I did that in a grocery store, I would end up with broccoli twinkies covered in maple syrup hot pepper sauce...

Hurray for taste buds! And I recognize the cultural assumptions in that (perfectly good calories there).
Atheist born, atheist bred.  And when I die, atheist dead!

trdsf

Quote from: Unbeliever on April 18, 2019, 01:24:53 PM
More like Langston's ant.
I have never heard of these before.  I will have to find me a generator to play with.  Cellular automata are endlessly fascinating.  :)
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Unbeliever

I've got a good Langton's Ant app on my phone, it's really amazing how very simple rules can lead to very complex behavior and structures. Howard Bloom, in The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates, says that the universe has been iterating simple rules for billions of years, which have resulted in the complex structures we see and are made of.

In fact, that's where I got the quote in my sig.

God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

The complex things from simple rules is very interesting, and leads to a "god of the gaps" once again.  But there is always one more gap beyond the present closure.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever

I don't see how it leads to a "god of the gaps" - can you clarify that?
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

#22
Quote from: Unbeliever on April 19, 2019, 03:51:01 PM
I don't see how it leads to a "god of the gaps" - can you clarify that?

A mathematical limit/approximation ... 3.14, 3.141, 3.1415, 3.14159 etc ... there is a limiting series of rational numbers, but you don't get Pi itself, that takes an infinite long decimal number.  The difference between any rational number (as approximation) and its related algebraic (square root of two) or transcendental number (Pi) is always non-zero.  Limits of course are also used in Calculus.

There is the argument, in atheism, of the "god of the gaps" ... that as naturalism is clarified and quantified, that we get closer and closer to the "truth".  But in both cases, in a practical sense we can never arrive.  Physics isn't limited to rational numbers.  Not even limited to real numbers (see complex numbers).  We accept on faith (if you are a lay person) that the final elimination of the "god of the gaps" is achievable after infinite effort.  This happens all the time with hard math, even with real numbers (one dimensional).  Many infinite series used in say classical physics, let alone quantum physics, don't converge nicely.  Pi doesn't converge easily, but there are numerical formulas what are even worse.

Anyway, this really isn't about theology.  In math, sometimes a real limit can be proven, but we don't have a means of calculating it (non-constructive proof), and sometimes we do have a means of calculating it (constructive proof).  Pi falls into the later category.  As a practical matter, having Pi to seven digits is sufficient for every engineering problem.  Last month using computers, Pi is calculated to 9 trillion digits.  For some nasty numbers (called normals) it is very hard to calculate even the first digit.
Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.

Unbeliever



QuoteThe image of M87's supermassive black hole released by the Event Horizon Telescope on April 10th 2019 is not just a pretty picture. Here I run down 5 reasons why we care about this result and what more it can help us understand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28PEgYQ1O0Q
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Baruch

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-sun/black-hole-sun.html

Size comparison, if the Sun were compressed to black hole size, it would be less than 6 km across, which is less distance than many people drive to go shopping.

Ha’át’íísh baa naniná?
Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.