5 ms·

Seriously, this headline is the quantum equivalent of "super expensive catapult observe tallest free fall yet." Or verifying Galileo's free fall experiment wit

Seriously, this headline is the quantum equivalent of "super expensive catapult observe tallest free fall yet." Or verifying Galileo's free fall experiment with more and more items. It's nice that Newton's laws still hold, but do we really need to test it on the one millionth object?

dexwiz 2y ago
There are some effects that may show up only at very high energies. A large enough catapult and you would put something into orbit. Wouldn’t that be a novel outcome?
- pohuing 2y ago
  Or fast enough to break the sound barrier. I'd assume that's a new discovery when catapults were still relevant. Or heating of the projectile from drag...
  - andreareina 2y ago
    How about a supersonic trebuchet? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gdXOS-B0Bus https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gdXOS-B0Bus
- zeroonetwothree 2y ago
  Yes but clearly you couldn’t achieve that with normal catapult technology. You need some theory to be able to predict what energies are going to be significant.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
Valectar 2y ago
At high enough energies the laws of physics are actually different. Two of the four fundamental forces in physics, the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction, are actually a single force which only appears to be two separate forces at "low" energies/temperatures, with low being the pretty much all temperatures in the universe after the Big Bang. It is completely reasonable to test whether phenomenon that hold at low energies still hold at high energies, and that may be the only way you're going to find more fundamental physical laws. Especially when we know quantum theory is incomplete, since it is currently incompatible with general relativity.
JoshTriplett 2y ago
Right now, we have two sets of laws, one at very small scales and one at macro scales. We don't yet have a theory to unify the two. Any and all experiments give data that can help with those and many other questions.
wasabi991011 2y ago
You're not wrong but on the other hand, if you already have super expensive catapult that's been throwing things at the tallest heights for years, why not publish a short paper analyzing the data to show it matches freefall at those heights?

dexwiz 2y ago

There are some effects that may show up only at very high energies. A large enough catapult and you would put something into orbit. Wouldn’t that be a novel outcome?

pohuing 2y ago
Or fast enough to break the sound barrier. I'd assume that's a new discovery when catapults were still relevant. Or heating of the projectile from drag...
- andreareina 2y ago
  How about a supersonic trebuchet? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gdXOS-B0Bus https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gdXOS-B0Bus
zeroonetwothree 2y ago
Yes but clearly you couldn’t achieve that with normal catapult technology. You need some theory to be able to predict what energies are going to be significant.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

Valectar 2y ago

At high enough energies the laws of physics are actually different. Two of the four fundamental forces in physics, the electromagnetic force and the weak interaction, are actually a single force which only appears to be two separate forces at "low" energies/temperatures, with low being the pretty much all temperatures in the universe after the Big Bang. It is completely reasonable to test whether phenomenon that hold at low energies still hold at high energies, and that may be the only way you're going to find more fundamental physical laws. Especially when we know quantum theory is incomplete, since it is currently incompatible with general relativity.

JoshTriplett 2y ago

Right now, we have two sets of laws, one at very small scales and one at macro scales. We don't yet have a theory to unify the two. Any and all experiments give data that can help with those and many other questions.

wasabi991011 2y ago

You're not wrong but on the other hand, if you already have super expensive catapult that's been throwing things at the tallest heights for years, why not publish a short paper analyzing the data to show it matches freefall at those heights?