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Photons exciting particles are not winds. I hate these metaphors. Like the Solar Wind. It can misguide very smart people. I was sitting on a plane next to a f
by netman21 9y ago
Photons exciting particles are not winds. I hate these metaphors. Like the Solar Wind. It can misguide very smart people. I was sitting on a plane next to a former deputy director of NASA. After retiring he became a professor in Ann Arbor, where I received my aerospace engineering degree. I asked him to explain how the solar winds accelerate away from the sun. He proceeded to explain it was just like the throat of a rocket engine. I was so shocked I stopped talking to him. At a density of 3 "atoms" per cubic centimeter the solar winds are closer to vacuum than the very best vacuum achievable in a laboratory, by a factor of 30! There is no fluid dynamics that works when particles cannot interact with each other. Navier-Stokes works on real fluids, not on vacuum. So call me when The Atlantic has an article titled Intergalactic Currents That Built The Milky Way.