QVRedit

QVRedit t1_iwsgoic wrote

Reply to comment by Chimalez in Dark matter may be information itself by newsphilosophy

Consider a single electron — it has mass and charge and spin and location-ish, and momentum-ish. (Here ‘ish’ meaning that’s somewhat fuzzy)

An electron requires multiple bits of information to describe it.

Although in some senses all electrons are identical.

2

QVRedit t1_iwsc79l wrote

Reply to comment by s1ngular1ty2 in Dark matter may be information itself by newsphilosophy

The reason it’s been called ‘dark matter’ is because we can’t see it, but it has gravity, like matter does, hence ‘dark matter’.

The article suggests this might be information, based on an equivalency.

We generally here very little about the information content of the universe, but clearly it must exist somewhere, somehow.

2

QVRedit t1_isse23p wrote

Reply to comment by drnobodyhome in Surprise discovery of radio signals could help track space junk and limit global security risks by marketrent

Actually they use lasers and bounce a ‘light signal’ off of the moon to measure its distance - One of the Apollo missions left a ‘retro-ranging laser reflector’ on the surface of the moon - that is used to reflect the beam back.

The signal coming back is very much weaker than the one sent out - but it’s enough to measure the time delay - and so the distance, which is measured daily. That’s how we know that it varies.

The moon is moving 3.78 cms per year further away from the Earth - it’s due to tidal effects. The Moon is stealing energy from the Earths rotation, so accelerating it very slowly away from the Earth.

1