Learn how friction causes static electricity. Then, learn from renowned theoretical physicist Sean Carroll why understanding the Many Worlds Theory could be the best way for us to understand the universe. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how friction causes static electricity: https://curiosity.im/32T2CEy Publications and more from Sean Carroll: “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime” on Amazon — https://amazon.com “The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself” on Amazon — https://amazon.com “From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Follow @seanmcarroll on Twitter — https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll Sean Carroll’s website — https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/ Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast — https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/ Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn how friction causes static electricity. Then, learn from renowned theoretical physicist Sean Carroll why understanding the Many Worlds Theory could be the best way for us to understand the universe.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how friction causes static electricity: https://curiosity.im/32T2CEy
Publications and more from Sean Carroll:
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/many-worlds-theory-explains-the-universe-w-sean-carroll-and-what-causes-static-electricity
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn how friction causes static electricity. You’ll also learn from renowned theoretical physicist Sean Carroll why the Many Worlds Theory could be the best way for us to understand the universe.
CODY: Let’s understand some curiosity.
We Finally Know How Friction Causes Static Electricity — https://curiosity.im/32T2CEy (Republish) (from Thursday 10/10) (Cody)
Scientists have solved a mystery that’s more than 2,500 yeras old: they’ve figured out how friction causes static electricity! (Also known as triboelectricity). And this new knowledge could have implications for electrostatic applications, like harvesting energy and printing, and for avoiding potential dangers, like fires caused by sparks from static electricity. As reported by Futurity, Northwestern University researchers created a new model that shows that at the nanoscale, all materials have rough surfaces with countless tiny protrusions. When two materials rub against each other, those protrusions bend and deform. Those deformations give rise to voltages that ultimately cause static charging. The phenomenon is called the flexoelectric effect, which happens when the separation of charge in an insulator comes from deformations like bending. This work explains lots of experimental observations, like why we get a charge even when two pieces of the same material rub together. The findings also do a remarkably accurate job of predicting experimentally measured charges. The researchers say this is a great example of how fundamental research can give us new ways to understand everyday phenomena, and how research in one area can lead to unexpected advances in another. Kinda nice when different scientific disciplines rub off on each other.
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Sean Carroll 1 - Many Worlds Theory and why it works [5:11] (2 segments) (Ashley)
There are many versions of you that literally exist, according to an actual scientific idea called the Many Worlds Theory. And our guest today is here to tell you that this theory is more than just a far-out idea from science fiction — in fact, it makes MORE sense than a lot of other theories. Sean Carroll is a renowned theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, and one of the world’s most celebrated science writers. His newest book is called “SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime.” And in the book, he proposes a new way of approaching scientific theories that could settle some of the drama going on in the world of quantum physics research. We kicked off our conversation by asking: what’s that drama all about?
[CLIP 0:43]
[CONTINUOUS / NO WHOOSH - CUT INTO AUDIO] ASHLEY: That seems so strange to someone outside of physics that people wouldn’t want to dig into the details of how quantum physics actually works. Do you know what the reasons are for that?
[CLIP 0:49]
ASHLEY: The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is the reigning theory, and it was largely devised by Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in the mid-1920s. Here’s Sean with a quick overview of how it works — and why it doesn’t “work.”
[CLIP 1:53]
[CONTINUOUS / NO WHOOSH - CUT INTO AUDIO] ASHLEY: Okay; the many worlds theory sounds incredibly complicated. But you say in the book that it’s actually the simplest theory. Why is that?
[CLIP 1:06]
Sean told us that you don’t actually have to take those many worlds into account when you’re doing calculations… it’s just… sort of a natural result of the math that you’re doing. The theory is not ABOUT many worlds, the many worlds are just a prediction of the theory. And the laws of physics still apply to these many worlds and universes; it’s not like ANYTHING can happen in them. He said there’s no doubt this brings up all sorts of radical metaphysical questions about what it means to be a person and our identity through time, but that’s even more reason to spend time thinking about them. Again, Sean’s new book is called “SOMETHING DEEPLY HIDDEN: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime.” You can find a link to pick it up in today’s show notes, and tomorrow you can hear the second half of our conversation.
CODY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
ASHLEY: Today we learned that static electricity happens because microscopic protrusions in materials create voltage when they bend and deform. There’s the rub!
CODY: And that the Many Worlds Theory says there are lots of different versions of you — and that’s actually a more SIMPLE explanation of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.
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CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!