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4 Movie Reviews

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Look, this is promoting the wrong ideas about black holes and science in general. When a scientist describes a black hole as a vacuum cleaner we are not being remotely literal. The same goes for drawing space time as a 2d sheet (neglecting one of the dimensions as it is impossible to draw in 4D). These are simply very rough and imprecise analogies that are possible for a layperson to visualize unlike the complicated mathematics underlying General Relativity.

The fact of the matter is that if I say that matter and energy bends space-time like a rubber sheet, this gives someone who does not have a PhD in physics or mathematics a much better idea of what is going on than if I say that in the area external to the matter source an observer co-moving with the black hole at infinity observes a space-time metric of diag(1-2M/r, (1-2M/r)^(-1), r^2, r^2*sin(theta)^2).

Simply put, nothing in this video is even remotely accurate and taking any of it at face value will make you less knowledgeable about science than someone who when asked, "what is at the centre of a black hole?" simply answers, "I don't know."

If you want to understand the world we live in, no amount of spirituality or internal contemplation is going to help. What you as an individual think/believe about a phenomenon does not matter an iota, and personal beliefs about these things are the domain of the uneducated and stoned philosophy undergrads. Reality is the only arbiter worth listening to.

As an aside, please realize that I am not a lay-person with an interest in physics quoting Hawking and Wikipedia. I am a PhD student in the field of numerical relativity where we endeavor to better understand black holes and gravity by running detailed simulations of mater and mater collapse to black holes. That said, even I am not an expert. I have years or research left before I am done my PhD and will be able to approach the level of a good university professor.

For a basic introduction to these ideas I would recommend:
High school education: Minute Physics, the universe in a nutshell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_o4aY7xkXg

University Calculus: Wikipedia and Google, Relativity: the special and the general theory by Albert Einstein.

Note that by reading these things will not make you an expert in General Relativity and gravity. If you actually want to understand general relativity, even at a basic level these are the courses you will need (yes, this stuff is this complicated):

first year courses:
calculus 1: differential calculus
calculus 2: integral calculus
physics 1: Forces and motion
physics 2: electrostatics and gravity
Linear Algebra 1

second year courses:
multivariate calculus
ordinary differential equations
intro to modern physics (special relativity and basic quantum theory)
classical mechanics 1
optics
Linear Algebra 2

third/fourth year courses:
electricity and magnetism 1
electricity and magnetism 2
classical mechanics 2
partial differential equations

After taking these courses or whatever the equivalents are, you will have the theoretical background for an introductory General Relativity course.

If you have any questions about General Relativity or science in general, feel free to PM me.

(nice animation and voice work though)

RiverJordan responds:

I agree with you about pretty much everything that you're saying. That was the whole point in this video - the part about the flatness was a joke, because we literally don't know how to describe what spacetime looks like, and 2D is the best we came up with... I'm inviting the inclusion of structure into those calculations, the torus in particular. It seems reasonable and very important for our evolving world :)

This is and always has been my favorite animation on Newgrounds. The animation and characterization is absolutely gorgeous (better even than the stuff by Adam Phillips), and the story fits perfectly with the music. I keep coming back every year or so just hoping that you might one day decide to continue the series :)

pretty good

I've seen you post on the bbs and you are often a self righteous ass, but don't let these jealous assholes (like the guy before me) get you down.

I for one usually enjoy your cartoons; even if the ideas get recycled a bit, but it is better then 99 percent of the stuff on the portal and each progressive episode usually brings something at least slightly new.

Don’t let these people get you down but please lighten up a bit and get your head out of your own ass.

funniest episode ever.

I am dead serious

Age 33

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