Quote: Tim Walker @ July 4 2009, 2:33 PM BSTI can do a theoretical space fact.
Light from our sun takes around 8 minutes to reach Earth.
Imagine if our sun suddenly just disappeared. Vanished without a trace.
Under Newtonian laws, the effect of removing the sun would be instantaneous on Earth, as the sun's gravtitational effect would be immediately removed. The Earth would shoot out of orbit into the depths of space.
However, under Einsteinonian physics, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Therefore, just as light "information" takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth, so too must gravity. Gravity "information" cannot travel faster than the speed of light. So if the sun suddenly vanished, the lack of gravitational effect would also not be felt for 8 minutes (before the Earth spun off into space).
Now, with the advent of quantum physics suggesting remote particles can transfer information (such as the spin of an electron) at vast distances faster than the speed of light, this means that the Eiseinonian version of what happens when the sun disappears may be wrong. But that's another story. It involves the ability to travel faster than the speed of light.
Wow. If Stephen Fry has an NVQ Level 1
You Tim, you.
Are a level 3...
Well, or anything that can be found on Google..
Quote: Matthew Stott @ July 4 2009, 4:03 PM BSTWalliams can be very funny, I find. I was sick of Little Britain by a couple of episodes into series two, but series one was great, as is some of the work he did before Little Britain.
Oh Matt, come on.
First class wanker.
(walliams)
Oh wait... 