World's Biggest Question?

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Avatar of bomtrown

Most important question: how can I get better at chess?

Avatar of Bur_Oak
paul211 wrote:

The one problem I see is that it will take several light years for the moves to be transmitted.


Ack! A "light year" is a unit of distance. You can convert to miles or kilometers or parsecs or furlongs or .... Your sentence, therefore, could be rewritten, "The one problem I see is that it will take several trillion miles for the moves to be transmitted."

What?

The time unit you are looking for is just "years."

Avatar of ivandh

It will be light years before people use that term correctly in common speech.

Avatar of Bur_Oak
ivandh wrote:

It will be light years before people use that term correctly in common speech.


AAAAAaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggg!

(I'm going to hit someone or something in about sixty feet!)

Avatar of ivandh

I will be sure to keep at least 5 minutes between us then

Avatar of planeden
ivandh wrote:

I will be sure to keep at least 5 minutes between us then


brilliant. 

Avatar of bomtrown

A light year is the distance light travels in a year. Distance and speed are both part of the equation. AND then you can factor in the nature of light... last I heard a particle and a wave. Also consider the medium through which light would travel. There are media that can slow light down.

Avatar of Bur_Oak

A light year is the distance light travels in one year in a vacuum. That distance may be computed by knowing the length of a year (constant) and the speed of light in vacuum (constant). The units are (for example): miles/second and seconds. When multiplied, the seconds cancel, leaving only miles. Therefore, a light year is a unit of distance only, and is a constant.

Avatar of AMcHarg

The biggest question/s:

Stephen Hawking "...how the Universe was created, and why it exists at all."

Not exactly Chess related, but I suspect at a much bigger scale it might be! Cool  How do we know we aint all just pawns in a big genetic war between alien species?  If that's true then I want to be the a-pawn!

Smile

Avatar of MichaelCole

What is 9 times 6

(Hint. The answer is 42)

Avatar of CaptainBramble

Michael, you forgot to add that your question is in base13

Avatar of artfizz
paul211 wrote:

The biggest question is:

Is there another planet in the Universe where different or similar forms of evolved life play chess?

And if so, chess.com could set up a real World game against another planet in the Universe.

The one problem I see is that it will take several light years for the moves to be transmitted.

The advantage is that it will perpetuate the chess game for the next 5 billions years or so, which is the estimated life of our sun.


A slightly bigger question is: will vacation be allowed?

Avatar of ivandh
thomasb3000 wrote:

Michael, you forgot to add that your question is in base13


Ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Avatar of MrNimzoIndian

Is this the smallest question in chess ?

Avatar of kefka1337

What would happen if God played Chuck Norris?

 

Wait, we HAVE THE ANSWER!!

Avatar of Bur_Oak
paul211 wrote:


Your long post is filled with the occasional accuracy, several inaccuracies, and much that is entirely irrelevant.

"Physics here is required for a better understanding..."

Yes, it is. I majored in Physics and Astronomy for about three years, and I can tell your understanding of physics needs to be improved for you to be able to properly understand.

A "light year" (roughly 5,900,000,000,000 miles -- to avoid confusion between American and British meanings of words like "billion" or "trillion") is in effect a theoretical measurement. Since it does not depend on any particular photon travelling any actual place in any specific direction, the medium, gravitational fields, or potential interference with other photons ("cosmic showers [sic] etc..") is entirely irrelevant. The refractive index, whether of a particular medium or of a (theoretical) vacuum is irrelevant.

Gravity, by the way, does not slow light down. It may deflect the path and alter the wavelength, but it cannot change the value of "c." The change in c due to the "expansion of space" is theoretical, and to my knowledge, has not been proven. It makes some numbers work out on the blackboard whick implies truth, particularly when physics dangles too close to philosophy.

"We know that a light year is also expressed as a unit of time."

No, we don't. We know that mathematically time has absolutely nothing to do with it.

The unit is mile seconds/seconds. Since seconds/seconds is like multiplying by 1/1, ALL reference to time disappears, except in the unfortunate choice for the name of the unit.

"The correlation between the space time relation was established by Einstein with his famous simplified equation: E= mc2, energy is equal to the mass multiplied by the speed of light which travels not only a distance but as well over a time period."

Perhaps you are confusing Relativity with this equation. It has nothing to do with a "space time relation." It is an equivalence between matter (mass) and energy. (You may notice a vague similarity between Einstein's equation and that involving the relationship between mass and kinetic energy.) It therefore is as irrelevant to a specific unit of distance as are Maxwell's equations, Newtons Laws of Motion or Quantum Mechanics. They all exist, of course, and apply to something. They have nothing to do with one ill chosen Earth-centric unit of distance.

"Thus when a radio signal is transmitted thru space to a far planet to play a game of chess it will travel at close to the speed of light and the signal will be received at a time frame expressed not only in light years as a distance covered, but as well as in years, a time measurement, from the sending of the message."

Yours is a rather a confused and misleading sentence. The signal would travel AT the speed of light to a planet at a DISTANCE of x light years in a TIME of x years.

"Bottom line distance and speed and time are all correlated just need the understanding and right equations to work out the connection."

To borrow a phrase, hogwash. Other values may be expressed by relationships between distance and time -- speed being one of them -- but distance and time are unconnected values alone. It may be 1000 miles between your house and mine. Where does time enter into it?

(As a side note, I also ground, polished, and parabolized the objective mirrors for several 6" and 8" Newtonian reflectors, and spent many, many hours at the eyepiece of the telescopes when finished.}

Avatar of burnsielaxplayer
oinquarki wrote:

what is the meaning of strategically position.


Avatar of Bur_Oak

"Just will not agree with you as you have absolutely no convincng physics arguments or proof of what you are advancing."

It doesn't require argument or proof. It's a definition. "Light year" is a unit of distance, period. Learn it.

"Did you ever consider outside of physics and all of the theories that it takes time to travel a distance?"

Of course it takes time to travel a distance. Nowhere did I dispute that. But the time it takes your friend to walk from his house to yours is not a factor in the distance. A meter is a meter. A mile is a mile. A light year is a light year. Anything or anybody travelling that distance, or the time it takes to do so may be relevant to them or it, but it is entirely irrelevant to the distance. You are adding something else to the equation and claiming it fundamentally alters a constant. Ridiculous.

Avatar of ivandh

What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Avatar of ivandh

The invisible pimp?