Word: dimensionless
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...quantum theory is...complicated: "In quantum field theory, nature has been reduced to energetic fields made out of dimensionless (and, seen from the perspective of the classical world, non-existent) particles that causelessly and randomly come into and out of existence. It is pretty much impossible for the non-mathematician to understand how such a description might relate to the physical world. Quantum field theory is so abstract and mathematical that we really have little choice but to accept that such a description works...
...piercing intellect and dangerously sardonic tongue. Moreover, he revels in a malaise that contrasts brilliantly with his position as swift-footed messenger of the gods. By the second act, however, all the character elements which Craig carefully built up in the first act collapse. What is left is a dimensionless thug who spends 90 percent of his time on stage reveling in his ability to beat up the defenseless Sosia. It’s a violence without much purpose and with even less humor. Even worse, it’s a violence against the audience, all of whom have...
Nader and Buchanan - each a throwback to '60s configurations, the one a countercultural enviro-saint and the other an old Nixon gunslinger, the two now, oddly, working the same side of the economic street - would bring authenticity, a depth and passion of thought, to what will otherwise be dimensionless debates, turning, as in the past, upon such fatuities as "I paid for this microphone!" and "Where's the beef...
...still a graduate student, Hawking became fascinated by black holes, the bizarre objects created during the death throes of large stars. Working with mathematician Roger Penrose and using Einstein's relativity equations, he developed new techniques proving mathematically that at the heart of black holes were singularities -- infinitely dense, dimensionless points with irresistible gravity. He went on to demonstrate that the entire universe could have sprung from a singularity and, in his 1966 Ph.D. thesis, wryly noted that "there is a singularity in our past...
Scientists years ago found compelling evidence that black holes exist, but they were uncomfortable with singularities, because all scientific laws break down at these points. Most physicists believed that in the real universe the object at the heart of a black hole would be small (but not dimensionless) and extremely dense (but not infinitely so). Enter Hawking. While still a graduate student, he and Mathematician Roger Penrose developed new techniques proving mathematically that if general relativity is correct down to the smallest scale, singularities must exist. Hawking went on to demonstrate -- again, if general relativity is correct -- that the entire...