When i was a boy, i remember hearing children at school talking about Bloody Mary. They were talking about how she would appear to you if you chanted her name say 5 times. They told stories of people doing that at night before the lights were destroyed and she appeared in front of the mirror. I was terrified. I turned pale white. I was shaking. That sent chills down my spine. I felt dread even after i left school.
At night, i told my bro. what happened. I was surprised when he laughed and talked about how nonsensical that was. I think i said “but what if its true? They said it was!” He basically said “well let’s test it! Try repeating her name 5 times!” I started chanting her name as i trembled. My heart was pounding. Do you know what happened when i finished? Nothing! I was shocked at that realization. My mind went blank as my bro. said “see! Nothing happened!” The result of that test demolished my will to justify my feeling Bloody Mary was real.
This is the scientific mindset. Science helps and inspires you to learn more about the universe. Whether you’re excited or terrified of the unknown, science pushes you to explore it anyway. What if Bloody Mary actually appears the next time i perform the ritual and kills me? Well, at least i’ll know she’s real. Scientists will be able to study my corpse and gain more insights possibly.
You can’t always stop horrible diseases or death. You can’t stop the universe from ending. However, you have your curiosity and imagination. You have tools science gives you to conquer your terror of the unknown through understanding.
Here’s what science says about death. Hopefully, this will help you. I’ll give you experiments to do and math to solve so you know i’m not just inventing ideas.
We’re in a simulation - Quantum Mechanics has shown physical reality doesn’t exist when its not observed with experiments like the double-slit experiment. The fact the wave function collapses based on observation implies consciousness causes it.
In the double-slit experiment, a beam of light is aimed at a barrier with two vertical slits. The light passes through the slits and hits a back screen, making it possible to observe the light's trajectory. The experiment can be performed with one or both slits open, although it is the double-slit approach that delivers the most profound results.
When a slit is covered, a single line of light is displayed on the back screen, aligned with whichever slit is open. From these results, one could guess if both slits were open, the resulting pattern would show two lines of light, aligned with the slits.
What occurs in practice is the light shown on the back screen is separated into multiple lines of lightness and darkness that vary in degree. These results suggest light moves in waves rather than particles and those waves interfere with each other as they travel toward the back screen. The waves are not tangible waves. They’re waves of probabilities of where the particles could be found when not observed.
When the light passes through the two slits, it forms two new waves, one for each slit. The waves spread out and overlap with each other at multiple points, much like waves in a pond when two rocks are dropped into the water at the same time. At the points where the waves intersect, they interfere with each other, either boosting or diminishing their strength -- an effect known as superposition. The interference between the waves is generally categorized into two types:
Constructive interference. When the waves intersect at their peaks or troughs, the amplitude is boosted, resulting in a brighter section of light on the back screen.
Destructive interference. When the waves intersect and one wave is at its peak while the other at its trough, the waves cancel each other out, resulting in a darker section on the back screen.
The constructive and destructive interference that occurs between the two waves results in a series of light and dark segments on the back screen - an arrangement known as the interference pattern.
The behavior of particles changes when researchers shoot say electrons through the slits one at a time, leaving enough time between shots so the electrons can't interfere with each other. When they hit the back screen, they first appear to be spreading out randomly but as more electrons are projected, they start lining up in the same type of interference pattern seen in past experiments. Somehow the electrons are aware of each other in a way that exhibits wave-like behavior although they're fired through the front screen one at a time.
Scientists tried a different approach by adding a monitoring device that detects the number of electrons passing through each slit. During the experiment, the detector usually shows about half of the electrons go through the first slit while the other half go through the second slit.
What scientists also found is the pattern on the back panel looks more like what happens with grains of sand than with subatomic particles. Rather than the expected multi-line interference pattern, the back screen shows only two lines, which correspond directly to the slits. For some reason, the presence of the detector causes the electrons to behave more like particles than waves. If the scientists turn off the detector, the electrons once again behave like waves, spreading out on the back screen in an interference pattern.
The double-slit experiments show the ways in which the particles interfere with each other as electrons pass through the slits and spread out in waves. The experiments also show the wave-particle duality of subatomic material and the role that observance plays in particle behavior. When the electrons are observed, they behave like physical particles.
There’s a set probability you are both alive and dead at once without an obsever.
Consciousness is not a by-product of the brain. The brain doesn’t exist when not observed.
If you’re dead, what’s there to be worry about?
Here’s how to replicate the double-slit experiment.
DO NOT DIRECTLY LOOK INTO ANY LASER! Always handle lasers carefully! I'm not responsible for any injuries (ex. damaged eyes) due to wrong handling of your lasers.
You will need.
- a small sheet of paper
- sharp scissors
- a black marker
Take the marker and paint a small area black in the middle of the upper half. This is where you’ll cut 2 slits into the paper. The black paint will stop the laser from shining through the white paper.
Fold the paper horizontal at the half of the black area.
Now cut from the edge a perpendicular slit into the black area. Then try to cut as close as you can parallel to the first cut and rip out the piece of paper in between to create a narrow slit. Repeat the same about half a millimeter next to the first slit.
Unfold the paper and have a look at your double-slit. If it doesn't have a nice straight shape, start again with 1.
You can set up a detector which can be a fluorescent screen, a piece of card, a CCD camera, or practically anything. Set up the detector in different ways to see how it affects the results.
Here’s the equation to calculate the probability you’ll find a particle in a particular area.
The implication of this experiment is consciousness cannot be made or destroyed. Consciousness is eternal.
The laws of physics - The law of conservation of energy states energy cannot be created or destroyed. Energy can only transformed from one form to another. The total energy in an isolated system remains constant over time.
When you die, the body’s energy transforms and disperses as heat into the environment. Stored chemical energy is broken down and used by decomposers like bacteria, powering their life processes before also becoming heat or part of other organisms. The heat then helps the ecosystem thrive. Heat mingles with the Earth’s energy or may escape as infrared radiation into space.
The law of conservation of mass states matter cannot be created or destroyed.
Your energy and atoms will continue to be recycled by other ecosystems.
Try this experiment.
Take a piece of ice and place it in a flask. Properly close the flask and weigh it on a scale. Heat the flask gently to melt the ice into water and again weigh it.
You need a scale, a stopwatch, and a few things you can drop for this experiment.
Take the mass of each object and calculate the potential energy at a height of say 3m.
Conservation of Energy Formula
This formula states the total initial energy = The total final energy in an isolated system
KE_1 + PE_1 + OE_1 = KE_2 + PE_2 + OE_2 (initial Kinetic + Potential + Other Energy = final Kinetic + Potential + Other Energy).
kinetic energy is energy that comes from motion. It is determined by an object’s mass and velocity and is given by the equation KE = (1/2)mv 2.
Gravitational potential energy is determined by an object’s mass, gravitational field strength, and height above ground. It is given by the equation GPE = mgh.
Elastic potential energy is determined by the spring constant of an elastic object and the distance it has been stretched or compressed. It is given by the equation PE_{el}) is PE_{el} = \frac{1}{2}kx^2,
K is the spring constant (stiffness of the spring in N/m)
X is the displacement (how far the spring is stretched or compressed from its equilibrium in meters.)
Work is a measure of the effort needed from an external force to cause an action to happen. Its found with the equation W=Fd\cos\theta. The work put into a system is equal to the change in energy of that system.
Drop each object from the height you used above and time how long it takes each item to drop. Use this to find the average velocity of each object as it falls. Drop each item a few times to make sure you have a good average to decrease potential errors in the data.
Use the known mass and calculated average velocities to find the final kinetic energy for each object.
The calculations will give you the values of kinetic and potential energy.
Relativity - The Relativity of Simultaneity
The relativity of simultaneity states distant simultaneity whether two spatially separated events happen at the same time – is not absolute, but depends on the observer's reference frame.
Every moment including the present one, all moments of the past as well as future could be the present for someone else. In the block universe - the past, present, and future exist simultaneously. The past where you were born still exists in the present.
Albert Einstein believed in the afterlife. After his friend Michele Besso died in March 1955, Einstein wrote in a letter “Now he has again preceded me a little in parting from this strange world. This has no importance. For people like us who believe in physics, the separation between past, present and future has only the importance of an admittedly tenacious illusion.”
You’re already dead in a way so there’s no point in worrying.
Cosmic rays, ultra-high energy particles, originate from all over the Universe. Cosmic Ray's strike protons in the upper atmosphere and produce showers of new particles. The fast-moving charged particles also emit light due to Cherenkov radiation as they move faster than the speed of light in Earth's atmosphere. These produce secondary particles that can be detected here on Earth.
Most cosmic rays are made of protons, but move with a wide variety of speeds and energies. The higher-energy particles will collide with particles in the upper atmosphere, producing particles like protons, electrons, and photons but also unstable, short-lived particles like pions.
Do this experiment.
Start by getting a rectangular aquarium fish tank. Ensure it has good, solid seals around all the edges and will not leak.
Cut three large pieces of thick insulating foam of the same size: two with rectangular holes big enough for the fish tank to fit in and one that you leave solid for your "base.”
Cut a piece of galvanized steel sheet metal the same size as the insulating foam. Attach black card stock or matte black felt or spray paint it with matte black paint for the surface the size of the fish tank.
Put the metal plate between the two top layers of insulating foam. Add a two-sided layer of modeling clay for the tank to fit around. Add water or some of the alcohol solution into the groove so that when you put the tank on it, no air can get in or out.
Modify the fish tank by adding a layer of felt or sponge-like material to the tank's base. Secure it firmly. It will be upside-down. Once that's set, you're ready to put it all together.
Put some dry ice in the first two layers (solid base and hollow rectangle) of the insulating foam then put the metal plate (black side up) ontop of that, then the last layer of insulating foam. Put the water/alcohol in the clay groove, while simultaneously soaking/saturating the felt/sponge layer in the fishtank with the alcohol solution. Flip the fishtank over and put the edges in the metal grooves so you have an airtight seal all around with the alcohol vapor inside.
Turn off all the lights so it's in a dark room. Shine a bright flashlight (or projector) through the tank, place a warm, heavy object (like a folded towel, fresh out of the dryer) on the tank, and wait about 10 minutes.
You'll see the supersaturated alcohol vapor appear, and to the bottom of the tank, you'll start to see about one "trail" form in the tank each second: more or less depending on the size of your tank.
Muons are unstable particles: heavier cousins of the electron that are otherwise identical to them. However, because they're unstable, a muon can decay to an electron (also a neutrino and an antineutrino which are invisible) after a short amount of time: 2.2 microseconds on average.
Pions come in three varieties: positively charged, neutral, and negatively charged. When you make a neutral pion, it just decays in two photons on very short (~10-16 s) timescales. But charged pions live longer (for around 10-8 seconds) and when they decay, they primarily decay into muons, which are point particles like electrons but have 206 times the mass.
Muons are unstable but they're the longest-lived unstable fundamental particle as far as we know. Owing to their relatively small mass, they live for 2.2 microseconds, on average. If you wanted to know how far a muon could travel once made, you might think you’ll need to multiply its lifetime (2.2 microseconds) by the speed of light (300,000 km/s) which equals 660 meters.
The lowest mouns are still made some 30 km up. You might imagine the 2.2 microseconds is just an average and maybe the rare muons that live for 3 or 4 times that long will make it down. When you do the math, only 1-in-1050 muons would survive down to Earth. The reality is nearly 100% of the created muons arrive.
Muons experience time according to their own onboard clocks which will run slower the closer they move to the speed of light. Time dilates for them which means we will observe them living longer than 2.2 microseconds from our reference frame. The faster they move, the farther we'll see them travel.
From the muons’ reference frame, time passes normally so it will only live for 2.2 microseconds according to its own clocks. However, it will experience reality as though it hurtles to Earth's surface extremely close to the speed of light, causing lengths to contract in its direction of motion.
If a muon moves at 99.999% the speed of light, every 660 meters out of its reference frame will appear as though it's just 3 meters in length. A journey of 100 km down to the surface would appear to be a journey of 450 meters in the muon's reference frame, taking just 1.5 microseconds of time according to the muon's clock.
From our reference frame here on Earth, we see the muon travel 100 km in a timespan of about 4.5 milliseconds. This is because time is dilated for the muon and lengths are contracted for it. The muon sees itself as traveling 450 meters in 1.5 microseconds. Hence the muon can remain alive all the way down to its destination of Earth's surface.
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