The caller in Dallas was an obvious troll since the answer is so easy.
Bill Baka
That's the scary part of it. I don't think he was a troll. He sounded like an older, rural-type of person. You want to get a laugh, try www.conservapedia.com They don't believe in gravity. That's a site put out there by the son of Phyllis Schlafly....evolution is a theory? so is gravity!
there by the son of Phyllis Schlafly....evolution is a theory? so is
gravity!
Pat in TX
You mean there are people more isolated than Paris Hilton, the dumb blond personified? The only way I could not believe in gravity was if time was running in reverse and things were really repelling each other. That would make the 'Big bang' the big ending. Chew on that bit of reverse logic and it could make sense. Bill Baka
Except that as you approach the speed of light your mass increases,
approaching infinity. But at least time will pass more slowly for you,
so it may seem like a leisurely ride to you, but an observer will not
even notice your presence (or is that the other way around... been a
while since I read _The_Elegant_Universe_
It may not be a brick wall. 60 years ago the sound barrier was thought
to be unbreakable, yet Chuck Yeager broke it.
I think we would need a fusion powered space ship to get that fast.
The speed of light may be breakable, but not in even our grandchildrens'
lifetime.
Bill Baka
Bill- 60 years ago aircraft designers were well aware that their was no physical limitation that prevented objects from traveling faster that the speed of sound. It was well known that rifle bullets and many type of artillery shells traveled at speeds well in excess of Mach 1. All that was needed to get an aircraft to travel faster the the speed of sound was to add enough horsepower (and get rid of the propellers).
The big problem was that it was believed that an aircraft would become uncontrollable as speeds approached Mach 1. Aircraft designers had strong anecdotal evidence that this was indeed the case. Many pilots had reported that they had trouble pulling out of high speed dives. It seemed that their control surfaces were not working at high very high speeds.
It turned out that there were were several ways to overcome these control problems and aircraft designers and test pilots later showed that so-called "sound barrier" was not a barrier at all.
Paul O.
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Paul D Oosterhout I work for SAIC (but I don't speak for SAIC)
