WEBVTT - Listener Questions 51 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:10.840 Hey, Daniel, have you been watching the latest Marvel movies 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:11.559 and TV shows? 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:13.920 Hmmm, I hope you're not going to ask me about 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:15.040 the physics of it. Oh. 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.920 I wasn't going to ask you about time travel and Loki. Mm. 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.640 But now you're not well. 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:22.440 Here in your reaction. I think I have to travel 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:25.400 back in time now and maybe think of another question. 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:27.840 See, that's the problem. If you had done that, we'd 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:29.320 never be having this conversation. 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.320 Oh well, maybe it depends on which branch of the 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:33.320 timeline we're on. 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.879 No, my god, there are no branches too timelines. Oh 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:38.120 my gosh. 0:00:38.360 --> 0:00:40.640 Or maybe I did go back in time and this 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.040 is a better outcome than the one that I originally 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:47.480 pitched to you. This might be the best timeline where 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:48.040 that could be. 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.000 Then I'm disappointed in the multiverse. 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:52.839 Maybe you just don't know how much worse it could be. 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:55.560 If this is the best it gets, then it must 0:00:55.600 --> 0:01:00.000 get pretty bad. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.360 It's like you maybe need to switch to the DC universe. 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:17.680 Hi. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:20.320 I'm Jorge Made, cartoonist and the author of Oliver's Great 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:21.080 Big Universe. 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.120 Hi I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist and a professor 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.600 at UC Irvine and I can mostly read science fiction 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:29.560 without being grumpy mostly. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.880 What percentage would you say is your grumpiness level when 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:34.240 you're reading science fiction. 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:37.360 There is a spot on the wall across the bedroom 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.080 where the books usually land when I throw them in frustration. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.280 I'll just say that there's a dent there, more like. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.160 A mark, but yeah, there's a physical impression left. 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:49.880 Have you actually thrown a book? 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:50.520 Oh many? 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.000 Yes, no way. Wow, that's a strong reaction. 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:56.919 It's just so disappointing when they set you up for something, 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.360 they have some interesting ideas, and then they can't even 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.240 be consistent, or they just write stuff that doesn't make sense. 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.920 It's just frustrating because it makes me think about what 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:05.880 it could have been. 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.600 Oh man, But you're not angry at the physics, because 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.799 I imagine the physics is all made up in science 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.880 fiction to some degree. You're more frustrated with the storytelling 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:17.560 or the logic of the story. 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.960 Well, it's all tied together, right, of course, the physics 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.840 is made up. It's science fiction. After all. They can 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:25.560 have fictional science, but it's still science. They got to 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.000 stick to it. If they're going to tell a story, 0:02:27.000 --> 0:02:29.520 they got to follow the rules. Otherwise, if there are 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.359 no rules. It's hardly an interesting story. 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:34.640 Now, after you throw the book, do you go and 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.480 pick it up and finish it anyways or do you 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:38.520 leave it there on the pile? 0:02:38.639 --> 0:02:40.320 It depends on what's on the top of the two 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:40.919 read pile. 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.680 I suppose you're not like a complete is like some 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:46.520 people when they start a book, they have to finish it. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.280 Oh no, I don't finish most books. 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:51.480 Oh interesting. Have you ever thrown a podcast at the wall? 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.800 No, I've never thrown podcasts at the wall. I've just 0:02:58.919 --> 0:02:59.639 paused them. 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:02.320 Although it does feel like this podcast is just us 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.000 throwing things in the wall to see what sticks. 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:08.040 No, this is us trying to explain physics to everybody 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:08.880 out there listening. 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.760 Well anyways, Welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.880 the Universe, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.040 Where we do our best not to frustrate you into 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:21.240 throwing your phone or computer or car across the wall, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.320 whatever device you're using to listen to us. We want 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:25.760 to take you on a tour of everything that we 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.280 understand in the universe and everything that we don't. We 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.079 want to explain to you our vision of how the 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.640 universe works from the tiniest little, itty bitty bits, all 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.600 the way up to the biggest monster black holes. We 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.040 think the universe does make sense, can be made sense of, 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.400 and we want desperately to explain all of it to you. 0:03:42.640 --> 0:03:45.240 That's right. The universe we live in is not science fiction. 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:50.000 It is science period science reality, and so we all 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.160 have questions about how it works while we're here and 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:55.320 what happens when you throw a bunch of books at 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:55.600 a wall. 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.160 Science reality. I like how you just renamed the whole 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:03.720 nonfiction job. It's a better name, though. 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.040 Yeah, science reality. There you go. Well, they have like 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:08.920 reality TV, why not have reality science? 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:14.240 Yeah? I don't want to be lumped in with reality TV. Actually, hey, 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:17.200 the problem with nonfiction is you're defining it by what 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:19.159 it isn't instead of what it is. Right. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:21.479 Oh yeah, yeah, nobody wants to be a non anything. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:24.120 I don't not want to be that. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.000 You don't want to be a nonconformist. Science trail blazing, 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.640 that's your job, basically. How about reality trail blazing. 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:35.800 Exploring the dense underbrush of reality, hacking our way through 0:04:35.839 --> 0:04:36.880 the jungles of truth. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.560 Yeah, that could be a nice show, like on Netflix, 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:41.880 like Big science where you put a bunch of physicists 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.640 in one house with a large particle collider and you 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.719 see what happens every week They have to vote a 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:47.760 physicists off. 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:50.360 Or maybe they have to vote a physicist into the collider. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.440 Oh my goodness. That is both good and horrifying. 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:58.560 Probably good TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:03.520 It's like squid games exactly, h squid physics games, science game, 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.719 science games. Yeah, there you go, particle games. 0:05:07.080 --> 0:05:09.719 But science isn't just a game. It's a serious effort 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.320 to understand the universe, and that's what we try to 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.880 do in our jobs. We try to do on this podcast, 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.000 and we also encourage you to do because you can 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.000 also pick up a machete and help us hack through 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:23.080 the jungles of truth to understand the universe just by 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.240 thinking like a physicist, which means just being curious and 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.000 not settling for not understanding. There's too many knots there, huh. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:34.960 I should define it in terms of positives demanding sufficient explanations. 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.640 And when you don't understand something about the universe, we 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.320 want you to write into us share your question because 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.200 probably somebody else out there has the same thought. 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:46.559 I don't know if that was better. I'm a little 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:47.600 nonplussed about it. 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:49.680 I'm pretty plussed. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:52.760 Well, let's plus it, let's plus it some more. 0:05:52.960 --> 0:05:55.040 I might even be multiplied it. But I don't want 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:55.920 to divide us over it. 0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.800 But yeah, science is a game, and it all starts 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:03.000 with questions. The whole journey of sign starts with looking 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.160 at the world around as I'm wondering, why is it 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.320 like that? How does it work? And what would happen 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:09.159 if I throw this at the wall. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.320 So you can either throw that thing at the wall, 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.279 or you can just write to us with your question 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:15.599 and we'll do our best to answer it. We answer 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:17.880 every question we get from listeners. Just write to us 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.640 to questions at Danielandjorge dot com. And some of the 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.680 questions we think other people might want to hear the 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:26.400 answers to, and so we select them to answer on 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:27.200 the podcast. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:35.520 So today on the podcast, we'll be tackling listener questions 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:39.599 number fifty one, Oh boy, listener questions in that over 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:40.120 middle eight. 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.400 That's right, we're rounding up to one hundred now it's 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:46.520 fifty plus. We're going to get senior citizen discounts pretty soon, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.440 starting dinner at three pm that's right. 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.839 Yeah, yeah, the discounts oh man, does that mean we 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.320 have to give shorter answers. 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.040 I'm not going to offend our senior listeners by suggesting 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.400 that they can't comprehend long complex answers. 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:05.520 No, I'm just saying, you know, your appetite goes down 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:06.200 as you age. 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.440 Oh, I see smaller meals. I don't know what I'm saying, 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:12.560 more top us, maybe more top us. 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.480 Yeah, there you go, more variety, because let's face it, 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:17.840 the time is running out for those of us. 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.200 Over fifty, unless you live near the vicinity of a 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.360 black hole, in which case time is slowing down for 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.880 others but not for you. Yeah, but relatively for you. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:27.640 You see everybody else living really fast. 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.040 Well, let's try to get through these questions as fast 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:30.800 as we can then. 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:32.640 And the first one is actually about time. Yeah. 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.000 Yeah, we have some awesome questions here today about the 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:40.440 speed of light near a black hole, about quantum entanglement, 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:46.000 and also about possible time travel. Pretty awesome questions from people, Daniel. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:47.920 Do these questions make you smile when you get them? 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.040 All the questions make me smile. I love that ding 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.440 when I get a question in the listener inbox and 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:54.280 lets me take a break from whatever else I'm doing 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:55.400 and think about physics. 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.080 But way you were thinking about physics before, So your 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:00.000 break from physics is to think about physics. 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.000 Mostly I was thinking about spreadsheets and email every job spreadsheets, email. 0:08:05.520 --> 0:08:09.800 And grants and grand proposals, budgets. Oh I see. So 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:11.600 then do you actually get to think about physics? 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:13.360 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:15.800 What if your grand students send you a question about physics, 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:20.960 is that the flatter or the former situation? No comment 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.480 depends on the student. Actually is it an involved spreadsheet 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:26.760 or a budget question? 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.000 Depends Maybe their question is, hey, are you funding me 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.360 next quarter? Or their question is like, how do we 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.120 do anomally detection in this space of multiple tracks? You know, 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:35.720 depends on and they're asking. 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:37.520 I see, and one of those is good and the 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:41.079 other one is bad. Is that they're different, they're different different. 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:41.600 I see. 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:42.000 You are. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.360 All right? Well, we have some awesome questions here to 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.760 the answer. Let's just jump right in. Our first question 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:50.920 comes from Nathan from Seattle. 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:55.160 Hey, Danieline Horay, my name is Nathan Ramon from Seattle, Washington, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.920 and I have a question for y'all. I was watching 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.920 ant Man last week, and it occurred to me that 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:06.040 they are so small in that movie, right, that the 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.120 speed of light might actually act a little bit differently. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.880 They're so small at that point that if the universe 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.880 is still reacting, like still has the speed of light 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:19.400 at the same rate, which it might not necessarily. They 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.400 do talk a lot about how they're outside of space and. 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.839 Time, but if it has that same speed limit, if 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.920 you're so much smaller, it would make it feel to 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:33.720 me like White was going way way faster. Sorry from 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.000 my ramblem, let me know if you need clarification on that, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:37.960 and thanks for all you guys. Do I love your podcast? 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.760 All right? Awesome question from Nathan, a Marvel fan. It 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:44.800 seems well he didn't say whether he liked those movies. 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:46.400 He just as he watched them and he had a 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:47.920 small opinion about at Man. 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:51.360 Well, the cool thing is he was watching it and 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.280 he was thinking about the physics of it, like, does 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:55.160 this make sense? How would this work? What would it 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:58.439 actually be like to be that small? Would the experience 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:01.480 of it be based on the phil principles of the universe? 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:03.760 Have we done an episode on the physics of the 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.240 Marvel movies? I feel like we talk about them all 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:08.679 the time, but have we done like a whole dedicated 0:10:08.679 --> 0:10:09.320 episode to it. 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:11.760 M Is there any physics of the Marvel movies or is. 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:14.480 It always it's science fiction? 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.080 Daniel, It's fiction, for sure. 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.360 But the an Men movies are pretty good. The first 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.960 one was really good, the second one was maybe not 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:23.640 as good, and the there one was not as good, 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.800 but overall it's sort of a charming character. 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:27.760 Yeah. And I saw the first one. I enjoyed it. 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:29.840 And the visit to the quantum Realm I thought was 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.480 visually very creative. I thought the way they displayed it 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.000 was very cool, very different from your standard depictions. So 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:37.360 it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it. 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.520 Did I tell you I know the guy who came 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:41.079 up with the term the quantum realm? 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:42.200 Oh wow? 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.160 Yeah, my friend Spiris mcglaucus. He's a physicist and he 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.600 consulted for Marvel, and one day he was giving them 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:49.440 a little spiel in the conference room and he's like, 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.960 things are very different in the quantum realm, and they're like, 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:54.679 we like that, that's in the script. 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:55.720 Oh quantum reil. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:59.440 Yeah, he kind of has mixed feelings about what they've 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.480 done with the ter and the whole idea of quantum physics. 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.600 But it's pretty cool that he had that contribution. 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.319 The lesson is be careful what you say around writers. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.080 That's right. Yes, we cannot be trusted with the innermost 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.720 secrets or emotions or physics. But yeah, Nathan has an 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.480 interesting question. His question is does the speed of light 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:22.960 seem faster if you're smaller? So, if you were small, 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.160 I guess at the level of ant man, does it 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:27.680 mean that you see light move faster for you? 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:29.800 Yeah? I think this is a really interesting question because 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.040 it makes us think about the speed of light and 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:35.440 the impact on physics, sort of the big and the small, 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:37.880 and the way that I think about the speed of light, 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.760 I think the way most physicists do, is that it's 0:11:40.760 --> 0:11:43.560 like a ratio between space and time. It's like a 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.800 conversion between meters and seconds. Like meters is a measurement 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.880 of distance, seconds is the measurement of time. And the 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:54.199 fact that the universe has this number, this maximum speed 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.800 tells you a relationship between space and time and tells 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.400 you how to convert a huge distance into a time, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.560 and we're often doing that. Like the phrase a light 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.920 year tells you how far light will go in a year. 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:08.720 It sounds kind of like a unit of time, but 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.559 it's actually distance. You've taken time, you're multiplied by the 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:13.200 speed of light, and you've gotten a distance. 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.720 It's like a measurement that you get by dividing distance 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.240 divided by time. But does it really tie those two 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.080 concepts together, like at a fundamental you know, physics level, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:25.920 because like, you know, you can talk about the speed 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.600 of whorehet down the track that, like my speed is 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:31.760 a speed that you can measure and compute, but it 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:35.320 doesn't really tell you anything except how out of shape 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:36.640 I am. 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.440 Yeah, Also, the speed of foregete probably changes as a 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.000 function of time in the universe. 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:44.400 And how much chocolate you have, yeah, how many bananas 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:44.839 of eaten? 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.200 But the speed of light really does play a deep 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.080 role in physics, and it really serves that purpose of 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:54.000 converting between space and time. You know, we often talk 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.640 about like space time being a four dimensional object with 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.680 the original three dimensions of space and this worth dimension 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:03.000 of time. But there's a subtle thing there we don't 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.240 often talk about, which is that when we include times 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.360 fourth dimension, we usually multiply it by the speed of light. 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:14.000 So the four dimensions are actually like xyz and then ct, 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:17.360 not just time because we want to convert it to 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:18.640 effectively a distance. 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.679 Right, Well, you do have to keep the units consistent. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:23.880 But like, for example, if we had a different speed 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:27.120 of light in our universe, you know, things would be different. 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.400 The physics of the universe would be different, but would 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:32.600 space itself and would time itself be different. 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.360 They would be the same, but their relationship would be different. 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.319 That's what the speed of light is. It's a ratio 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:42.720 a relationship between these two different kinds of measurements. Yeah, fundamentally, 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:44.839 it really is telling you how these two things relate. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.920 H all right, Well, to answer Nathan's questions, let's say 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.120 I shrink down. Let's say I'm at man or the 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:56.679 wasp and I shrink down. Is the speed of lighting? 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.160 It seemed faster for me? Like if I measure the 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.400 speed of light, that's scale isn't going to seem faster. 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.160 Or like if I shine a flashlight will do somehow 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.760 the flash light seem quicker or brighter or something. 0:14:08.880 --> 0:14:10.240 Yeah, the speed of light is going to be the 0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.679 same because it's the same ratio between distances and times. Right, 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:15.520 So you measure the speed of light. Using a tiny 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.520 little experiment or a huge experiment, you're going to get 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:20.880 the same answer. But if you think of the speed 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:24.600 of light as a ratio between distance and time, what 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:27.240 it means is that everything seems faster when you're small. 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:32.080 Like basically, shorter distances mean shorter times. Things that are 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.280 smaller can happen faster than things that are bigger. 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:38.400 So like, for example, if you not just shrink me, 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.160 but I use shrink the whole Earth, then for example, 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.160 light can go around the Earth many more times per second. 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:46.600 Yeah, exactly. Or if let's say you build a machine 0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.480 like a computer or even a mechanical device to do something, 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.880 if it's smaller, it can finish faster than if it's huge. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.440 The bigger it is, the longer it'll take to finish, 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:00.160 because there's this maximum speed limit. And that's why, like 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:02.280 the speed of light seems really really fast to us 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.760 here on Earth, is this crazy high number. It's basically 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.479 irrelevant to our experience. It's because things that are almost instantaneous. 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.880 But imagine if you are a brain made of like stars, 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.400 you're like a galaxy size brain, it would take like 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:16.479 one hundred thousand years to even have a thought. 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:19.920 But then your thinking would be slower, so your cognition 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:23.440 or your perception of time would be slower. So I 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:27.240 think maybe Nathan's question I wonder is whether time will 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.680 seem to be going faster or maybe it will seem 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:32.440 to be the same, right, Because like, if I'm the 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.320 size of a galaxy, my thoughts are going to be 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.320 super slow. And so even though any effect I'm in 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.280 the sea is going to be super slow because with 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.120 the distances, my thoughts are going to be slow. And 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:46.960 so therefore the experience of being that person is going 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.040 to be the same as our experience here on Earth. 0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:51.520 Yeah. I think there's a few things there to disentangle, 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:53.960 but basically you're right. Number one, if you measure the 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:55.480 speed of light, you're going to get the same number. 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.320 It doesn't matter if you're a galaxy brain or an 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.440 ant brain, right, as long as you do it correctly, 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:02.480 you're going to get this same number. Number two, things 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.120 do seem to happen faster when you're smaller because you're 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.800 just not as limited by this speed of light. Things 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.680 have shorter distances to cross in order to accomplish some 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.720 thinking or some task or whatever. Number three, Finally, we 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:17.160 don't really know what it would be like to experience 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.240 that what it seemed like time goes faster. We don't 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:22.960 understand our experience of time or why we seem to 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:25.840 experience it at you know, one second per second. So 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:27.120 I don't know what it would be like to be 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.520 a galaxy brain. They might have the same kind of 0:16:29.880 --> 0:16:31.640 subjective experience we do. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.320 Yeah, Or like thinking about the shrinking case, like if 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.440 I shrink down to enman size, now my brain is smaller, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.400 Like the distances between my neurons are smaller, and so 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:44.360 maybe my thinking will be sort of like hypercharge. Yeah, 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:46.280 like I'll have a million of thoughts in the same 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:47.960 amount of time that it used to take me to 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.760 have one thought, and so I'll be sort of super 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:55.160 bored looking at the bigger world, but looking at the 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.160 small world, maybe it'll just seem like the same regular 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.720 because things are moving faster. But I'm also like having 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.600 a bazillion more cycles in my brain than I did before. 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.040 Yeah, exactly, So we don't know what the experience would 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.880 be like. This is an interesting wrinkle of evolutionary biology. 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:13.320 There also which is wondering, like could humans be smarter? 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.080 You can imagine being smarter by having like a bigger 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:18.520 brain more neurons, but then it's harder to get that 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:22.080 brain through the birth canal. You could also imagine getting 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.520 smarter by having more neurons by making the neurons smaller. 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:27.560 But I was reading a paper that said that if 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.160 neurons got any smaller, they would be noisier, like more 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:34.639 randomness and fuzz so it might not actually add computing power, 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:37.320 So we might be at like the sweet spot of 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.520 like the densest neuronal systems. 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:42.520 Well, the other thing to consider is that neurons work 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:50.120 by bioelectricity, right, biochemistry, not necessarily by like transmitting electrons. Right. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:55.120 It all depends on sort of reactions and electric fields 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:57.800 and like molecules moving in and out of the little 0:17:57.800 --> 0:17:58.520 cell walls. 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.000 Yeah, exactly, if you could actually shrink all that stuff, 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.520 it would happen faster. Of course, you know, the physics 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:06.639 wouldn't work if you shrink all that stuff because all 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.560 the numbers would change. So the fundamental physics of ant 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.200 Man is silly because you know, if he's shrunk down 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.360 the size of an electron, then how big are his electrons? Right? 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.119 Right, So basically we get into the fuzzy area of 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:22.560 like perception and the subjective experience. But generally speaking, I 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:24.200 think from a physics point of view, if you were 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.399 down to the size of ant man, the light would 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:29.480 sort of seem to travel faster, right, Like it would 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.040 go one body length in a much shorter amount of 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.200 time than it would go at our size. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.399 Yeah, your body would be shorter, so light would go 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.000 across you faster, and I think a lot of things 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.320 would happen faster. I don't know how he can say 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.840 what it would be like though, to experience it. 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:47.560