Despite all his "Verbosity" and liberal "deposition" of clever sounding
logic, you will notice that our resident "expert" DID NOT really answer the
question, offer a useful opinion, or say anything of consequence.
Jojo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Abd ul-Rahman Lomax" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2012 11:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Dark Matter around the Sun
At 04:51 PM 8/21/2012, ChemE Stewart wrote:
<http://www.science20.com/news_articles/lots_dark_matter_near_sun_says_computer_model-92910>http://www.science20.com/news_articles/lots_dark_matter_near_sun_says_computer_model-92910
Waiting for Abd to confirm what this is or isn't...
Okay, I looked. I confirm that this is an article on Science 2.0,
containing speculative interpretation of a computer model. The model was
based on study of the motion of thousands of (stated in one paragraph) or
more than 400 (stated in another) orange K dwarf stars in the vicinity of
the Sun. From this, it appears to me that they inferred the total mass in
the vicinity of the sun. The article is incoherent, parts seem
unintelligible or self-contradictory. It's hard to find good help.
"Dark matter" is a name for "stuff we don't know about." The reearchers
are reportedly saying that they are "99% confident" that there is dark
matter near the sun, but then the text manages to confuse this totally.
Then the article explains that one of the coauthors of the study said, "If
dark matter is a fundamental particle, billions of these particles will
have passed through your body by the time your finish reading this
article."
What if I'm a speed reader? What if I'm not reading the article? What if
I'm so offended by "your finish reading" that I never finish, I pass away
in a fit of grammar frenzy? Ah, what if dark matter is really tiny so that
there are trillions and trillions of them. However, quoting the same
source, we are told:
"Knowing the local properties of dark matter is the key to revealing just
what kind of particle it consists of."
I couldn't have guessed that knowing the properties of a thing would help
reveal what it is.
It *really is hard* to find good help.
Next question?
