Answer to skunk's question

[Ixion]

Of course it's a "metric" scale!

One degree on the Kelvin scale is exactly the same as one degree on the Celsius scale. The only difference is that 0 degrees Celsius is the mean freezing point of water at sea level, whereas 0 degrees Kelvin is an extrapolation to "absolute zero", currently estimated as -273.15 Celsius.

I'm with Mr Hitcher. Doesn't matter what scale you use. Use celsius, my "normal" is 22 . Today is 0, that's 22 degrees of "cold". Tomorrow will be "twice as cold" , 44 deg. of cold , ie -22 Celsius.

Use Kelvin, "normal" is approx 293. Today is 273 , tomorrow will be 253 . You're just changing the zero point.

[Skunk]

All very interesting...

[speedpro]

since the speed of light has already been mentioned - what happens in a spaceship going REALLY fast like 99.999999% of the speed of light when a torch in the spaceship is shone forward but still within the spaceship? Does the light go forward or just sort of ooze out or collect round the lightbulb? Is it a relative thing? And what would happen if it was shone out the forward porthole? If it was shone backward would it just sort of fall out of the torch and lay there?

[N4CR]

The speed of light limitation is some crackpot stuff made up to stop people questioning physicists about light

Nikolai Tesla in some heavily obscured 1900's experiment ... (wonder why it was obscured) sent radio waves around the world.. calculated at 3.6 times the speed of light.

Amazing how we never hear about that one. Everyone called him a crackpot and now they are starting to use some of his theories for experiments.

[Ixion]

The speed of light limitation is some crackpot stuff made up to stop people questioning physicists about light

Nikolai Tesla in some heavily obscured 1900's experiment ... (wonder why it was obscured) sent radio waves around the world.. calculated at 3.6 times the speed of light.

Amazing how we never hear about that one. Everyone called him a crackpot and now they are starting to use some of his theories for experiments.

Actually the speed of light isn't a limitation. The idea that "you can't go faster than the speed of light" is not contained anywhere within Mr Einstein's work. It was just that assuming the speed of light to be a constant made the mathematics easier. Otherwise it appeared to become impossibly complicated. Then they discovered quantum, and it became impossibly complicated anyway. Need to use a few more dimensions.

[WINJA]

since the speed of light has already been mentioned - what happens in a spaceship going REALLY fast like 99.999999% of the speed of light when a torch in the spaceship is shone forward but still within the spaceship? Does the light go forward or just sort of ooze out or collect round the lightbulb? Is it a relative thing? And what would happen if it was shone out the forward porthole? If it was shone backward would it just sort of fall out of the torch and lay there?

ID SAY IT WOULD BE LIKE LAUNCHING A MISSILE FROM A JETFIGHTER

[Big Dave]

since the speed of light has already been mentioned - what happens in a spaceship going REALLY fast like 99.999999% of the speed of light when a torch in the spaceship is shone forward but still within the spaceship? Does the light go forward or just sort of ooze out or collect round the lightbulb? Is it a relative thing? And what would happen if it was shone out the forward porthole? If it was shone backward would it just sort of fall out of the torch and lay there?

Supercoach Jack Gibson said Andrew Ettingshausen was so quick the he could 'Turn the light out and be in bed before it was dark.'

[Bartman10]

Of course it's a "metric" scale!

One degree on the Kelvin scale is exactly the same as one degree on the Celsius scale. The only difference is that 0 degrees Celsius is the mean freezing point of water at sea level, whereas 0 degrees Kelvin is an extrapolation to "absolute zero", currently estimated as -273.15 Celsius.

Metric scales have a pysical natural zero that you cannot go below, like speed, distance, mass, Kelvin, amps, volts and so on. The Celsius scale does not fit in this category, because you can go below zero. That makes multiplication by factors such as 0.5 etc meaningless and means that Celsius is not a metric scale.

Remeber that random molecular motion is the basis of temperature, and you can't have negative molecular motion. Thus the celsius scale is misleading.

Fahrenheit thought he'd found the natural zero on his scale, at -32 Celsius, but unfortunately he was mistaken.

I'm really glad my post has drawn so much attention to temperature and physics in general. Discussion around these important topics is all good.

The thermodynamic temperature scale is defined by what’s called the triple point of water, which is defined as 273.16 Kelvin or 0.01 Celsius. The freezing point of water at atmospheric pressure really doesn't have anything to do with the definition of thermodynamic temperature; it's just a convenient point.

The triple point is the point at which the gas, liquid and solid phases are in equilibrium.

If you consider the Kelvin scale it gives you a much better appreciation of the sensitivity of living systems, a 1.6% change in body temperature will kill you! If you took the Celsius scale it would be an 11.9% change. Do you want to come around and do a little experiment? I’ll increase the average molecular agitation in your body by 6% (good safety margin there) and that’ll settle the metric scale argument for good.

[Bartman10]

since the speed of light has already been mentioned - what happens in a spaceship going REALLY fast like 99.999999% of the speed of light when a torch in the spaceship is shone forward but still within the spaceship? Does the light go forward or just sort of ooze out or collect round the lightbulb? Is it a relative thing? And what would happen if it was shone out the forward porthole? If it was shone backward would it just sort of fall out of the torch and lay there?

Light moves at the same speed for all observers. That means that if you shine a torch out the window of your space ship the light will move away from you at the speed of light. We actually live in velocity space. Space and time are linked together. I can't visualise what things would look like at very high speed because I've never experienced the warping of space-time to such an extent that it is noticeable although it is actually happening all the time. If anyone has seen the warping of space time let me know, I'd be interested to see what it looks like.

[Drew]

Light moves at the same speed for all observers. That means that if you shine a torch out the window of your space ship the light will move away from you at the speed of light. We actually live in velocity space. Space and time are linked together. I can't visualise what things would look like at very high speed because I've never experienced the warping of space-time to such an extent that it is noticeable although it is actually happening all the time. If anyone has seen the warping of space time let me know, I'd be interested to see what it looks like.

Lets sort a couple things out, I'm pretty sure I remember enough sixth form physics, to know that light has mass. So light speed, just like the speed of sound, is always different. This whole space time stuff, is many generations out of our grasp yet, and should only be looked upon for interesting things, like WINJAs' poll, on weather or not it is gay, to go back in time and give yourself a handjob.

[SPman]

Thought I read somewhere that there are particles that travel faster than C, but cant go slower! C is a barrier like the berlin wall, that hasnt been demolished yet. You're on one side or the other and never the twain shall meet!

But then.....
who gives a Toss

[erik]

Metric scales have a pysical natural zero that you cannot go below, like speed, distance, mass, Kelvin, amps, volts and so on. The Celsius scale does not fit in this category, because you can go below zero. That makes multiplication by factors such as 0.5 etc meaningless and means that Celsius is not a metric scale.

Remeber that random molecular motion is the basis of temperature, and you can't have negative molecular motion. Thus the celsius scale is misleading.
...

What Ixion said made sense to me (and Hitcher, except he went 3 times as cold).
Something can only be cold relative to something else.
In this case, 0°C is cold relative to the normal ambient temperature (reference temperature), say 22°C.
Twice as cold would be equal to the reference temperature minus 2 times whatever the "cold" temperature was.
Eg: 22-2*22 = -22°C

If you thought 3°C was cold relative to 22°C, twice as cold would be:

22-2*(22-3)=-16°C

[Ocean]

The answer is -145.43°C