this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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Ghosts (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 months ago by lawrence to c/comicstrips
 
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[โ€“] ekZepp 120 points 4 months ago

Thank you for this daily dose of existential dread ๐Ÿ‘Œ

[โ€“] [email protected] 85 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Are they also unbound by momentum?

[โ€“] [email protected] 67 points 4 months ago

TIL that ghosts are pinned to the lumineferous aether.

[โ€“] Geek_King 39 points 4 months ago (3 children)

With the Earth's elliptical orbit, momentum would only get you so far in terms of sticking with the planet.

[โ€“] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

relative to the galactic central point, per Eric Idle, the earth would be 200k/125 miles away in a single second, or relative to everything in the universe / background radiation, it would be 23,000 miles (37,000 km) away in a single second.

Preserving momentum in different directions and you quickly double it

Assuming an even rate of death, that's just under 2 people dying per second currently, so you wouldn't even be able to see the people who died before or after you if you retained human senses as a ghost.

[โ€“] Bookmeat 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If this were true we could then actually use ghosts to determine the "true" universal reference frame, right?

[โ€“] blanketswithsmallpox 4 points 4 months ago
[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Even with a circular orbit, if you're unbound by gravity you'll follow a straight path while the Earth curves, resulting in it appearing to accelerate away from you.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago (3 children)
[โ€“] nexguy 17 points 4 months ago

The butthole is what really makes this comic

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Now we know what dark matter is

[โ€“] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Einstein would like to have a word with you

[โ€“] aeronmelon 15 points 4 months ago

several physicists are typingโ€ฆ

[โ€“] [email protected] 69 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (5 children)

We already had a discussion about how that doesn't make sense with this different comic: https://lemmy.ml/post/14518058

Different comic with the exact same premise from the above post

[โ€“] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Right, at the very least it would be a non overlapping spiral, as our sun orbits the galactic center

[โ€“] cannedtuna 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Whoโ€™s โ€œweโ€ tho? Itโ€™s like a 4 month old post.

Funny tho I wonder if the artist read that thread and got the idea for this comic or if itโ€™s just a case of like minds.

[โ€“] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

I wonder โ€ฆfrom the thred

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[โ€“] Etterra 25 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe ghosts are what dark matter is made out of.

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Cats know this.

[โ€“] roguetrick 23 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

This is incorrect. Ghosts do have mass, they just don't interact with the EM force and only through the gravity, the strong and the weak interaction (and a fifth interaction that we don't know about). That's right, all that dark matter and dark energy is actually ghosts.

[โ€“] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 8 points 4 months ago

This is the best explanation I've heard for dark matter that doesn't involve the assumption that our cosmological models are completely correct.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So you're telling me there are space ghosts, from coast to coast? ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

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[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago

Is the reference frame the CMB? You'd think you could just choose the reference frame at that point and move however you want, but arguing the physics of hypothetical metaphysical beings probably doesn't make much sense.

[โ€“] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

SpaceGhost(s)! Coast to (galactic) coast!

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[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Eehh objects in motion stay in motion? Does that apply to ghosts? So would the ghosts fly off in straight lines since no longer subjected to suns gravity ??

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Does newton's laws apply to massless objects?

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

What's stopping them?

(Pun very much intended)

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[โ€“] Droggelbecher 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The only things that aren't bound by gravity are massless. Massless things always have to be moving at the speed of light. So really the question is, what direction would the ghost shoot off to? Momentum would have to be preserved, so it'd be the opposite direction of where the corpse drops. Or maybe the corpse just move a teensy bit to the opposite direction of the ghost?

Note: this assumes Newtonian or at least semi classical physics. In general relativity, there is no such thing as being unbound by gravity.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (7 children)

By this line of thinking, dying in a mass tragedy might be the best thing that could happen to you. At least you wouldn't be in solitary confinement for eternity.

[โ€“] Lost_My_Mind 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but....imagine if I were in that mass tragedy with you. You're telling me you wouldn't rather be alone for eternity, than with me for eternity?

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[โ€“] Bookmeat 12 points 4 months ago

This actually explains a lot.

[โ€“] ytorf 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I have a memory of seeing this exact idea in another comic on here but canโ€™t find it! (Assuming it is a case of multiple discovery and not plagiarism)

[โ€“] NocturnalMorning 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That explains why there are no ghosts.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

No Earth ghosts, only... Space Ghosts...

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

Even the galaxy fucks off very quickly from you.

But now we know who inhabits all those spoopy voids.

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[โ€“] FlyingSquid 9 points 4 months ago (7 children)

I always thought that this would be a similar issue with time machines. Go back even 1 second and you're floating in the void.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Well, but general relativity teaches us that all coordinate systems (also constantly moving, but not accelerating ones) are equally relevant. This means that the one with earth as it's origin is as correct as one where with the center of the galaxy (or the sun ) as is every other. So the one where earth moves somehow through space is just as random as any other.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Relative to what? That makes no sense.

[โ€“] NoSpotOfGround 8 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Relative to the Cosmic Microwave Background. Seems to be the closest thing to an absolute reference frame.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Awesome idea for a Lovecraftian horror story. Maybe the ghosts leave a scent trail that attracts a ghost-eating planet-sized alien

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

That alien's name?

Pac-Man.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)
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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

But in which frame of reference? Our solar system is also moving, so is our galaxy, our universe is "expanding", and let's not even talk about the multiverse, that's overdone as it is.

[โ€“] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

That's the cool part about it! All we have to do is find a way to measure ghosts and we'll know what the correct universal frame of reference is!

[โ€“] proton_lynx 4 points 4 months ago

We move (with the Sun) around the Milky Way at about 792.000 km/h. At that speed, you wouldn't even see the earth getting away from you.

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