The 11 Greatest Unanswered Questions of Physics
By shioan
@shioan (22)
Philippines
January 16, 2009 9:30pm CST
I've read an article before featuring the 11 greatest unanswered question of Physics by Eric Haseltine. So I'd like to share them with everyone and fire up some brain cells. Maybe you've got your own insights to each of them so why not enlighten us? Anyway, here they are:
1. What is dark matter?
2. What is dark energy?
3. How were the heavy elements from iron to uranium made?
4. Do neutrinos have mass?
5. Where do ultrahigh-energy particles come from?
6. Is a new theory of light and matter needed to explain what happens at very high energies and temperatures?
7. Are there new states of matter at ultrahigh temperatures and densities?
8. Are protons unstable?
9. What is gravity?
10. Are there additional dimensions?
11. How did the universe begin?
So, what do you think?
1 person likes this
5 responses
@mareem (147)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Great topic! One of your questions is are there additional dimensions, which brought to mind something I read a number of years ago. I don't remember the name of the book, but I always remember one of the theories that was proposed in it. The author proposed that not only are there multi-dimensions, but that these dimensions run parallel to each other and we cross them constantly. Every waking minute we make a decision. The majority of the decisions we make are not life changing decisions... we decide if we want to look up, go into another room, change our position, etc. Every time we make a decision, we cross into a new dimension. If our decision had been to do something other than what we did, we would have taken off into a different dimension.
@shioan (22)
• Philippines
19 Jan 09
exactly my thoughts! :) it's like there's an infinite number of combination of events available. because in reality we make decisions every split second, or split-split second, or split-split-split second, and the list goes on... well you know what I mean. we "unconsciously" decide. every move we make is considered a decision. and I'd like to call it a "microdecision". we decide to sit on a chair, we blink, roll our eyes, blink again, roll eyes, close them, then the chair suddenly collapses and we fall. if we decided not to sit on the chair, then obviously we will not fall off from it. but "alternatively" if we decided to sit anyway, we blink, roll our eyes, blink again, roll eyes, then we unconsciously jumped into a dimension where we kept our eyes open, there's a chance that chair will not collapse. of course there's also the possibility that it will with out eyes open. :) I hope it made sense.
btw, macrodecisions are those we make on purpose (like choosing between schools A and B) because we can somehow foresee the succeeding event already.
@mareem (147)
• United States
19 Jan 09
Not only did your comment make sense, but you stated it far more eloquently than I. I've always been fascinated by this theory. I guess that is why I've remembered it all the years. The implications are so deliciously mind boggling. You do have to be careful in contemplating it, though... if you're not, you'll end up second guessing every decision you make! *LOL*
@cobrateacher (8432)
• United States
19 Jan 09
Although I have no idea, just pondering these ideas is fascinating.
@Yori88 (1465)
• Philippines
17 Jan 09
Hehe I would just like to answer on one of those greatest unanswered questions because I could not take long time anymore to answer all because I feel sleepy now:
Number 9. What is gravity?
Gravity is a force pulling together all matter (which is anything you can physically touch). The more matter, the more gravity, so things that have a lot of matter such as planets and moons and stars pull more strongly.
Gravity is a force of attraction that exists between any two masses, any two bodies, any two particles. Gravity is not just the attraction between objects and the Earth. It is an attraction that exists between all objects, everywhere in the universe. Sir Isaac Newton (1642 -- 1727) discovered that a force is required to change the speed or direction of movement of an object. He also realized that the force called "gravity" must make an apple fall from a tree, or humans and animals live on the surface of our spinning planet without being flung off. Furthermore, he deduced that gravity forces exist between all objects.
@shioan (22)
• Philippines
19 Jan 09
interesting question, isn't it? we all know it's a force, spent several sleepless nights trying to solve a problem about it, we can define it mathematically, but what exactly pulls the things? that's why we could only refer to it as "the invisible force". the concept of gravitons has also been proposed but it's still in theory.
@mjoseph17 (2)
• United States
19 Jan 09
The question regarding new states of matter would depend mainly on whether or not more fundamental particles exist. All currently known states of matter describe all the behaviors of particles at all experimentally attainable energies and densities. A denser fluid seems impossible, unless all theories regarding the energy and mass of the electron are incorrect. If particles smaller than quarks are discovered, then that can open the door to the possibility of higher-energy plasmas, but the current theories support the four known states.
