Sixty Symbols: Dark Matter

Dark Matter - What is this mysterious substance, Where is it, Who Discovered it and How. And some chocolate pie is thrown in as well.
GeeSussFreeKsays...

arg, hard for me that watch this. I think it is more accurate to say that there is 95% of the theory of gravity that doesn't work right now, rather than to say gravity is perfect and this undetectable (it isn't exothermic or endothermic, nor does it reflect light or any electromagnetic radiation, and works like gravity in reverse(it has a repelling force not a binding force yet it binds itself and only repels normal matter) matter and energy (which o, is nearly all the known matter and energy in the universe). Or perhaps dark matter and energy are just ghosts, whooooooooo WHOOOOOOOOOO!!

In all seriousness, it "could" exist. But this is really one of those cases similar to retrograde motion of the planets. If one holds without question that earth is the center of rotation of the universe you have to create retrograde motion out of necessity. Same goes for here, if you assume that the little we know about space, energy, matter and time are so accurate that they are beyond question then you do "need" this invisible, unknowable thing called dark matter...either that or one of our more fundamental understandings are flawed. What say you guys, I am alone on this?

reiwansays...

Yes.

I all seriousness though, Its pretty safe to say we have a pretty good idea of how a lot of things work in physics, astronomy, cosmolgy, etc... (and a lot we dont.) However dark energy / matter is still is a theory. An explanation of something we haven't observed directly but something indirectly that we don't understand (like the orbit of stars in a galaxy) and it is a possible explanation of what we are seeing. Its not uncommon for science to put forth a theory or hypothesis of something that is proven in mathematics before its actually discovered or observed. Black holes being the most well known case of this. It was first proposed in 1783 by Henry Cavendish that there are stars so massive that light could not escape. This is different then what we know what black holes are today, but the concept is the same.

Also, its highly unlikely that a fundamental understanding of something is flawed because these standard models work very well with everything else. Its quite possible that the reason this stuff isnt visible is because it exists in a higher dimension than the 4 that we perceive. Something that gets into string theory.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

I am alone on this?

GeeSussFreeKsays...

There is a distinctly large difference between black holes and dark matter as they refer to being mathematical before observed. The idea of black holes arose out of the logical extrapolation of his pure concept. IE, this is what small "a" looks like, this is what medium "a" looks like, this is what large "a" looks like, therefor, this is what infinite "a" would look like.

Dark matter isn't like that at all. Dark matter is since this is what "a" looks like, and "a" does not sufficiently explain what is happening, we have to invent "b" to so that "a" still holds for all other cases where "a" does act as a sufficient explanation. This should be highly suspect.

I am actually surprised you bring up the standard model. As it stands, the standard model does not have anything to say about gravitation, at all. And the classical model has nothing to say about particles. It is PRECISELY these discrepancy (perhaps divergence is a better word) that makes me think it is in inability to explain the fundamental relationships of the most basic of things rather than some unknowable spaghetti monster known as dark matter.

reiwansays...

I was not referring to THE standard model. I said "its highly unlikely that a fundamental understanding of something is flawed because these standard models work very well with everything else." As in - What we understand of our models of general relativity, quantum mechanics, and so on. Through simulations and mathematics Dark Matter explains the phenomenons that we're observing, that cant be explained by what we currently directly understand of the world around us. The second part of all of this is to find it, or come up with another theory that explains this phenomenon. This all falls under the disciplines contained in Theoretical Physics.

Simply saying that it doesnt exist because your current understanding doesnt work in explaining everything is a bit close minded. There's a lot of things we dont understand, and science tries to explain it the best we can, with what we know. And when youre working in the cutting edge of theoretical physics, its trial and error.

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