Odd question.

QOTSA90

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

Tzetze

Irresistible force paradox

Wiki wrote:

The paradox should be understood as an exercise in logic, not as the postulation of a possible reality. According to modern scientific understanding, no force is completely irresistible, and there are no immovable objects and cannot be any, as even a minuscule force will cause a slight acceleration on an object of any mass. An immovable object would have to have an inertia that was infinite, and therefore infinite mass. Such an object would collapse under its own gravity and create a singularity. An unstoppable force would require infinite energy, which does not exist in a finite universe.

QOTSA90

Thankyou, but 'finite'? Im having trouble getting my head around that word.

Tzetze

According to the Big Bang model, the universe has finite size.

QOTSA90

*lost*

Tzetze

Well, I'm only a beginner in these matters, so I'm sure someone more qualified can explain it better, but my understanding is that at time t=0, the universe had 0 size. After this it began to inflate. So at any time t=X, it has a finite size.

It didn't suddenly have infinite size after t=0.

QOTSA90

Oooh yeah, but now we're gonna get into the whole "if the universe is expanding, then what is it expanding into?,"

ok we can leave it at that thanks

Fringe

The problem is that you say you have a force that can move anything. Then you say you have an object that resists any force. You've created a contradiction so the sentence just doesn't make sense.

QOTSA90

Hey dont tell me, tell Alfred

Stanford

Tzetze is correct, at t=0 the universe had infinite energy and zero mass (remember Einsteins E=Mc2 whereby energy and mass are interchangeable), at the time of the Big Bang (t=o) the infinite energy became unstable and exploded forming mass in the form of the planets/stars etc.

The concept of infinite energy and zero mass at t=0 is called a Singularity and it is commonly agreed amongst astrophysicists that we cannot comprehend exactly what a singularity is in practice since it is really a mathematical concept, sorry but this probably does'nt help!

wolfric

how do you make that out?
e=mc^2
e=?
m=0
c^2=k
e=(0)(k)
e=0
not infinity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irresistible_force_paradox

The paradox should be understood as an exercise in logic, not as the postulation of a possible reality. According to modern scientific understanding, no force is completely irresistible, and there are no immovable objects and cannot be any, as even a minuscule force will cause a slight acceleration on an object of any mass. An immovable object would have to have an inertia that was infinite, and therefore infinite mass. Such an object would collapse under its own gravity and create a singularity. An unstoppable force would require infinite energy, which does not exist in a finite universe.

ANSWER

The Iain Banks book Walking on Glass offers the solution that when the two meet, the unstoppable force stops, and the immovable object moves. This is simply Newton's second law of conservation of energy.

Tzetze

E=mc^2 is the shortened version of the equation.
Consider the massless photon. By your calculation, Wolfric, it should have 0 energy, but still manages to travel at light speed.

Professor_Fink

wolfric wrote: »

how do you make that out?
e=mc^2
e=?
m=0
c^2=k
e=(0)(k)
e=0
not infinity

The correct equation to use is E^2 = p^2 c^2 + m^2 c^4