New Planet Discovered

[Escaep]

Actually. We could be traveling at warp speed at our present date in time if:

The Library of Alexandria hadnt been burned somewhere between 42 BC and 642 AD. Why? Because at the time the Library of Alexandria (LOA) housed all of the major technological knowledge. Some people believed that the basis of electricity and modern plumbing and other technological "breakthroughs" of time were housed there. So, after the library was burned, we lost all of that knowledge. So, that set us back about oh, 500 years in terms of technology.

So if you think about, it could have been Christopher Columbus setting foot on the moon instead of Armstrong.

Pretty amazing.

BTW, i got this all from my history book.

 

[Cheomesh]

Actually. We could be traveling at warp speed at our present date in time if:

The Library of Alexandria hadnt been burned somewhere between 42 BC and 642 AD. Why? Because at the time the Library of Alexandria (LOA) housed all of the major technological knowledge. Some people believed that the basis of electricity and modern plumbing and other technological "breakthroughs" of time were housed there. So, after the library was burned, we lost all of that knowledge. So, that set us back about oh, 500 years in terms of technology.

So if you think about, it could have been Christopher Columbus setting foot on the moon instead of Armstrong.

Pretty amazing.

BTW, i got this all from my history book.

As far as I'm aware, the LOA housed mostly literary works, with some stuff on Mathematics. We didn't magically 'forget' everything when it burned. We just didn't have a repository for it. People still knew things.

 

[Azner]

Again? *yawns*

Edit: Why does it say we only have eight planets in our solar system??

Pluto died.

No seriously. Pluto aint a planet no more bizn.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

As far as I'm aware, the LOA housed mostly literary works, with some stuff on Mathematics. We didn't magically 'forget' everything when it burned. We just didn't have a repository for it. People still knew things.

The Library at Alexandria pretty much housed the entire accumulated knowledge of human civilization at the time. It was like the historical equivalent of Snake entering the 666 code in Escape From LA. There was lots of scientific and mechanical theory in there. I saw a thing on the History Channel about it, and one thing that really stuck with me was that they had this steam powered thing that they basically treated as a toy, that used steam to spin around really fast. If that was perusable in a library, someone might have made the connection that hey, I can use this for an engine. Can you imagine how different things would be if steam engines took off hundreds of years ago?

The answer lies in the destructive nature of humans. Only a few of Homer's poems survived the destruction of his works by the Greek tyrant Peisistratus in Athens. Nothing survived the destruction of the Egyptian library in the Temple of Ptah in Memphis. Likewise, an estimated two hundred thousand volumes of priceless works disappeared with the destruction of the library of Pergamus in Asia Minor. When the Romans leveled the city of Carthage, they destroyed a library said to have contained more than five hundred thousand volumes.

Then came Julius Caesar, whose war against Egypt resulted in the loss of the great library at Alexandria, considered the greatest collection of books in antiquity. With the loss of the Serapeum and the Bruchion branches of that library, a total of some seven hundred thousand volumes of accumulated knowledge went up in flames. What little survived was destroyed by Christians in A.D. 391. European libraries also suffered under the Romans and later from zealous Christians. Between the sacking of Constantinople and the Catholic Inquisition, an inestimable number of ancient works were irretrievably lost. Collections in Asia fared little better, as Chinese emperor Tsin Shi Hwang-ti ordered wholesale book burning in 213 B.C.

"Because of these tragedies we have to depend on disconnected fragments, casual passages and meager accounts," lamented Australian author Andrew Tomas. "Our distant past is a vacuum filled at random with tablets, parchments, statues, paintings, and various artifacts. The history of science would appear totally different were the book collection of Alexandria intact today."

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

So only energy can travel at the speed of light? It it because mass with physical particals simply cannot handle that speed, or is it physically impossible? like comparing apples to oranges? Given if human civilization even lived long enough, there may be revisions to physical theories that were developed today, and decades ago. Scientifically, we are still a very young civilization with much to learn. Hell, we can't even cure the common cold yet, much less develope theories for inter-stellar space travel. Though these are two different fields of study, all principles are probably centered around physics.

Not to be picky, but we don't really need to cure the common cold. Its just irritating, but not deadly unless your a baby.

 

[[Matt]]

So only energy can travel at the speed of light?

There are particles without Mass. Photons are the obvious one but there are numerous other theoretical particles that physicists refer to as gluons. These include the higgs boson which is the theorised but never seen before particle supposedly responsible for gravity.

If you're interested in particle physics then have a look at the standard model for the basics
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Particle_chart.jpg

As has been previously mentioned before particles with mass cannot obtain the speed of light due to the fact that they need an infinite amount of energy to do so.

 

[Druckles]

It's just another one of God's illusions to test our faith.

But then so's death. Yeah, really nice God he is.