Hi Kevin_Aylward, Ignoramus1487 and Rich_Gris
I wrote:
No one knows the density of a proton, even its location is not well
known, it's more of a virtual field than a physical particle.
Kevin_Aylward replied:
This makes little sense to me.
"virtual" is associated with something that does not *physically* exist.
If it doesn't physically exist, it doesn't exist. End of story.
"Proton" is a name used for the set of measurements of an entity that
exits. Whether or not a proton is actually what we think of as a
particle is irrelevant. The entity that "proton" refers to exists, by
definition. That is, we can make physical measurements of it. The entity
has physical characteristics. We call that set of real, physical
measurements a "proton". A "proton" therefore physically exits. That's
what we mean by existence. It has measurable properties.
As Einstein once said,
I'd like to think the moon was still there even when I couldn't see it.
Einstein was good at precisely describing things
that couldn't be measured for decades yet to come.
For example, recent supernovae data has made
Einstein's so_called Greatest_Blunder, lambda, a.k.a. the Cosmological_Constant,
the leading theory of the cosmos... but much more data is still needed.
WikiPedia.ORG has this to say:
Adding a cosmological constant to the standard theory of cosmology
...has led to a model for cosmology known as the Lambda-CDM model.
This model is in very good agreement with
established cosmological observations.
__
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy
and:
In spite of its problems, the cosmological constant is in many respects
the most economical solution to the problem of cosmic acceleration.
One number successfully explains a multitude of observations.
Thus, the current standard model of cosmology, the Lambda-CDM model,
includes the cosmological constant as an essential feature.
__
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy#Cosmological_constant
Something is _Virtual_ if it exists only in essence, not in reality.
See:
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=virtual
For example, a map is a _Virtual_ territory,
it merely represents something that physically exists,
it's not the thing itself.
To put it mildly, protons are imprefectly understood,
that makes them _Very_ virtual, far from real.
What they might really be, e.g. how dense they might be,
is not known to anyone... except maybe the next Einstein.
Now playing: Cirque_Du_Soleil's _Nostalgie_.MP3
http://www.Cotse.NET/users/jeffrelf/_Nostalgie_.MP3
P.S. Could someone translate this song for me ?
Nostalgie is a French word, so I assume the lyrics are French.