Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe - Questions From The Zeitgeist (ft The Daily Zeitgeist hosts)

Episode Date: April 16, 2019

Jack and Miles, hosts of The Daily Zeitgeist, ask Daniel and Jorge their most pressing questions about the universe; Why is the sky blue? Whats a quantum machine gun? How do planets form? Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System

On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why are TSA rules so confusing? You got a hood of you. I'm take it off. I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called No Such Thing, where we get to the bottom of questions like that. Why are you screaming at me?

I can't expect what to do. Now, if the rule was the same, Same. Go off on me. I deserve it. You know, lock him up. Listen to No Such Thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. No such thing. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious.

In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Nielbornet and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not a norm is to a lot. allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do, the things that you were meant to do. Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Jorge. And I'm Daniel. Welcome to our podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of IHeart Radio. In which we take the entire universe, slice it up in the little pieces, and explain every single one to you one at a time.

We answer all of your deep and amazing questions about this incredible universe. And we try to make sure that you come away understanding something so you can sound smart at the next cocktail party you go to with a bunch of physicists. Today we have a special episode. We're going to be once again answering listener questions. But not your normal listeners. Not your everyday listeners. That's right. There's a twist today.

Today we have special listener guests. Today we have the host of the podcast, The Daily Zite Guys. Miles and Jack here. And we're going to be asking their questions about the universe, about planets, about quantum machine guns. That's right. Usually these guys are talking about the daily events of what's going on in the world and what you should care about. But they also think deeply about the universe. So they are here to talk to us about deep questions about the universe.

Very deeply. record scratch it's us wow you just hopped in this is jack was that okay oh sorry and this is miles this is what this is my voice much nicer

so welcome jack and miles thank you thanks for having us guys yeah so tell us a little bit about your podcast and where can people find you know it's like it's like a woke morning show you know I mean you wake up we'll give you the best news we have a it's jack and I and a comedian and we just run down the top stories

I have a background in politics so I'll, you know, talk like I know what I'm talking about. And then Jack does the funny stuff. So every other morning show is a sleeping morning? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very problem. Yeah, weird things are being said.

Wide awake. That is the only excuse for being on. Triple espresso morning show. Yeah, but I started the website Cracked.com, and I've been doing this for the past year and a half with Miles. Wow. It's a good time. Yeah.

Pretty cool. So do you guys cover science topics as well when you talk about the day? We do. If there's something like, I think that's important to humanity or funny. Right. So we'll talk about like, you know, that biomass, like insect biomass just decreasing at an alarming rate. But we don't typically get into super-headed stuff because like if it's like gravitational waves territory, I'm like, uh... Right. There are waves, bro.

As long as Miles can see it, he believes it exists. Exactly. So I don't believe in germs. Or dinosaurs. So do you believe in Scientology? Because I can see that building from here. You know I believe it. You're talking to an OT6 operating feet in level 6 right now. I believe it exists.

Oh, yeah. You're going to have to explain the universe of Scientology to me someday. Oh, yeah. Do you have a moment? Because I'm feeling clear, actually. Yeah, great, great. I mean, I feel like, I guess Zeno does have a lot to offer us, but I think this may be for another show.

Yeah, yeah. That's a different universe. Exactly, right. But there are aliens involved, right? Aren't there aliens in Scientology? Yes, don't be patronizing. Speaking of aliens. There are many aliens, but in many different volcanoes.

We talked about a moo-a-moa, right? Oh, yeah, we did. Because I think, and that Navy footage where they said they found, like, an unidentified. Yeah, that flying object. Unidentified flying tic-tac. Did you all see that? My interest in aliens is never patronizing. It's totally 100% sincere.

Oh, great. Do you? That sounded so sarcastic. So, yeah, I'm guessing you don't believe. My claims about not being sarcastic are 100% sincere. Okay, got it. But what do you think? Did you see that video of that tick-tac thing?

What did you, what do you think that was? I think it's something crazy we don't understand. Oh, so it is something. It's something. That was something, go. It's definitely not nothing. I figure it's just something, like a technology we're not familiar with? Yeah, it could be.

It doesn't have to be like extraterrestrial. Right. It would be weird or not understood, right? You're talking about the, oh, Muammu? No, the Navy pilot, like the, like, fighter pilot footage of how they saw that thing just, like, rotating and then, like, inexplicably, like, accelerating in different directions. That's weird stuff. Yeah, and the Pentagon released it, like, at the airingon released it, like, at the air. at the end of last year, or the year before.

That wasn't just special effects. No, the Pentagon was like, all right, we'll declassify this video if you guys want to see it. Yeah. Wow. Pentagon is crowdsourcing its intelligence. They need it, I guess. Twitter, do your thing. Tom DeLong from Blink 1282, help us figure this out.

They're like, this is why we invented the internet. Right. To outsource our intelligence. Exactly. Yeah, to capture the intelligence of the genius of the crowds. Cool. Well, you guys talk about the daily culture and the daily zeitgeist of the humanity on a daily basis. And I imagine sometimes you must have questions about the universe, about space, about the role that humans and our cultures have in it.

And so today you guys have three questions. We're going to try to run through them in the episode today. And they're about planet formation and quantum machines and guns. Machines guns. And machine guns. Yeah. I wasn't sure if it was a quantum machine gun or a quantum machine gun. quantum machine gun.

Right. It's a gun that shoots understanding of quantum mechanics into your brains. Oh, I would love that. Shoots. Yeah, that would be awesome. Yeah, I think I have a more simple questions and then Jack is the one

about quantum leap or whatever. Quantum leap. Yeah, let's talk about the show. What's your favorite episode? What is Scott Bakula and alien after all? Yes. Almost definitely. All right. So where should we start?

Oh, let's just let's go nice and easy. Yeah. Wooten Klan. I get most of my scientific questions from the Jizzah, and there's a song called Fourth Chamber that asks the question, why is the sky blue, why is water wet? The second question doesn't make any sense to me,

but the first one, I have always been curious. Why is the sky blue? I love that question. Why is water wet? Actually, it's like a really interesting deeper. It's philosophical, yeah. The jizzas is just too much for my brain to hold. You know that song, Particle Man?

Yes. Particle Man. Yeah. When he's underwomen. Does he get wet or does the water get him instead? Deep stuff. Yeah. Mind love that. I guess like as a child, I'm just curious, is the version that I understand the sky to be blue true, which is like, because the ocean?

Is that it? Almost. It's kind of like a wet, wet and water situation, right? This ocean is blue sort of because the sky is blue, isn't it? Daniel, I'm not the scientist. Oh. So, short answer is the sky is blue, but not because the ocean is blue. But you're not alone in that thought.

I walked around campus at UC Irvine yesterday and I asked a bunch of people, why is the sky blue? Is that how scientists figure things out? We crowd source, man. Walk around Irvine. His internet was down. You got a second? Come here, come here, come here. The professor?

Three out of four people, I mean, I asked more than four people, but three forces of them said, because of the ocean. That's, I think, the misinformation we're given, like, when your parents are like, yeah, good, because the ocean. Yeah, exactly. I go play with some matches. So what was your thinking, that the ocean is blue, and so somehow that's making the sky blue? No, I don't know. And it's just like, it's just something I never really bothered to think through that,

because half the time when I look at the ocean, I'm like, that ain't blue. That's like, great. The ocean is blue. Also, if you're in the desert, like a thousand miles of sand dunes around you, the sky is still blue. Exactly. Is it like a jealousy thing? Like, this guy was like, ooh, I like that color. Right.

I'll put on my blue. They're always fighting. So drop some science. All right. So why is this guy blue? Well, to answer the question, why is anything, any color? You have to think for a moment about what that means to have color, right? And I think there's a basic misperception.

Like, you know, light has lots of colors in it, right? And if something is painted blue, for example, that doesn't mean that it absorbs blue light. It's not like sucking in the blueness and is blue. It's reflecting blue light. Right. So if something like this Kleenex blocks in front of me is blue, it means that the paint on it reflects blue light. And it's absorbing all the other. colors. Yeah, it sucks in all the other colors. That's why black things get really hot and white

things don't, right? Because they're bouncing all the light back. And I know this, because the interior of my 99 prelude was jet black and in the hot LA heat, I would burn myself on the inside of the car. And that's why jet eyes and whatever on tattooing, we're all white to reflect the sunlight. Yeah. There you go. All right. So the sky must be blue because it's reflecting blue light, right? And in fact, that's true. The atmosphere, when the light comes from the sun, Light from the sun is mostly white. It's a big mix of colors. Actually, it's a tiny big green, but it's mostly white.

If you look at the sun in space, it would be white. Don't look at the sun, though, directly. Don't look at the sun directly. When astronauts are out there, do they have to avert their eyes? Or do they have, like, sunglasses? A sun visor? I don't know. That's a great question.

I imagine that NASA sends them up there with sunglasses. That's a very good point. Because a blinded astronaut would be a bad situation. Or the astronauts are just smart enough to not look. look at the sun? And that's how they got to be an astronaut? The sun's big. I feel it got to be hard. And this is why you didn't get into NASA. Yeah. That's right. You just kept going every day. Yeah, how long until I get to look at the sun from space? Is that why you have an eye patch right now? Is that it clear? Yeah, yeah. Okay. No, that was from the apatch. That was from the eclipse.

Right. Don't use those binoculars. All right. So we got white light hitting the atmosphere, right? And when when the light hits the atmosphere, you've got the different colors, and the blue light is the one that wiggles the most. It's got the highest energy, and so, you know, light is a wave, and it wiggles. So the red light wiggles really slowly, and the blue light wiggles really fast. And the blue light bounces off the atmosphere more than the red light does. Like little particles in the atmosphere, when the blue light hits them, they get bounced. Gotcha. It's kind of like, it's a scattering, right? It doesn't, like, bounce off back into space. It's sort of like hits the atmosphere, and then

it makes basically glows, right? It makes the atmosphere glow blue? Is that kind of the idea? Yeah, I think of it more like it gets reflected. So you're looking up at the sky, you're not looking at the sun, right? Why is there light coming from that part at all? It's because it got reflected. So light from the sun hit that part of the atmosphere and then comes to your eyes.

What part of that light hits your eyes? The part that got reflected, which is the blue light. Just like if you're looking at a blue wall, it's not glowing, right? It doesn't produce light. It's only reflecting light. It's reflecting the blue light only, right? atmosphere is the same way. So the atmosphere reflects the blue light, which is why it looks blue.

So why does it only reflect the blue and not the other colors? Yeah, because the blue light wiggles more, and the atmosphere is made of these little tiny particles. And the little tiny particles are better at reflecting things that wiggle more because the wiggles are shorter. And so imagine, for example, you're like walking across a field filled with rocks, right? If the rocks are really, really big, then you're going to get bounced around. It's going to be a big obstacle.

The rocks are really, really tiny. Like you're walking across the beach, you don't even really notice. Right. So the blue light sees, like, really big rocks because it wiggles more. It's tiny. And so it gets bounced off of them. The red light just, like, skips over them, like, walking over the sandy beach. Surface over the atmosphere.

Yeah, exactly. So red light mostly goes straight through air while blue light gets bounced, which is why you see the blue light in your eyes when you're looking up at the sky. So it's about the size of the atoms up in the atmosphere? It's not like a quantum. electron level kind of thing? No, it's basically about the relative sizes of the wiggles of the light

and the atmosphere. But bigger stuff reflects all light, which is why most powders are white, right? Because the particles of the powder are pretty big so they reflect everything. But atmospheric particles are much, much smaller than the powder you might have in your 93 prelude, for example.

Sugar and salt. Right, the powder sugar in the back seat of your old car. Yeah, exactly. And so that's why the sky the blue, right? Because it reflects blue light. It also explains why, for example, sunsets are not blue. Wait, how does that explain it?

It's the same atmosphere, right? I understand it, but explain it to these things. We were all riding along to seem smart. I mean, I know too. I'm just trying to see if you know, Daniel. So, yeah, why is the sky pink during the sunset? So if you look at the atmosphere, you're seeing a reflected light. If you look directly the sun,

don't do that. But if you were to, you'd be seeing light directly from the sun. where all the blue is removed, right, because the blue light that comes to you directly from the sun gets bounced away. So you're seeing the redder or the yellower side of the spectrum, right? So the blue is removed to send somewhere else

and you see the yellows, the reds, the oranges. That's why the sun looks yellow in the sky, right? The sun isn't yellow, it's white. Right. But it looks yellow in the sky. Through the filter of the atmosphere. Exactly. Okay.

So it's sunset, you're looking through a lot more atmosphere, because the sun is low in the sky, so it doesn't just come through a little bit of atmosphere. it skims along through a lot of atmosphere. So it gets like yellower. So yellow, it looks orange and red and darker and darker. Oh, so as like a sphere versus just hitting it straight on because it's like that, you're getting this curvature,

this slice that gets way more atmosphere. So more and more blue light gets filtered out, and then you get just the red light left. But the whole sky turns pink, or at least half of the sky turns pink. Yeah, that's mostly because of smog. That's because we live in L.A. If the sky was perfectly clear, right, then a sunset would look more yellow and mostly just around the sun.

But then that light, that yellowy red light, whatever, bounces off of particles in the atmosphere or smog or whatever, and clouds. And that's what gives you a beautiful sunset. But the color comes from all the blue getting filtered out by the atmosphere. Does being closer to the equator affect the beauty of the sunset? I don't know. Because I think of like tropical places that have amazing suns, there really isn't that much pollution where there's, I feel like the smog is influencing the color of the sunset. So I'm curious of that.

You're probably just in a better mood if you're in the vacation. You're like, oh, my God, that's the best sunset ever. And the locals are like, what? Cocktails make the sunset better. That's a physical effect for sure. You know, it could also be the haze. Like water vapor will do that also. Oh, got you.

There's probably more water vapor. At the equation, as it's called. Wow, you've embarrassed yourself. At the equator. Let's talk quantum machine guns. Wow. I'm used to hosting a podcast, but first, let's take a quick break. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport.

The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, at 6.33 p.m. Everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal, glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay.

Terrorism. Law and order, criminal justice system is back. In season two, we're turning our focus. to a threat that hides in plain sight that's harder to predict and even harder to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Attention passengers. The pilot is having an emergency and we

need someone, anyone, to land Think you could do it? It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic control. And they're saying like, okay, pull this, until this. Pull that, turn this. It's just, I can do it my eyes close. I'm Manny. I'm Noah.

This is Devon. And on our new show, no such thing. We get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize. recognize that they lack expertise. And then, as we try the whole thing out for real. Wait, what?

Oh, that's the run right. I'm looking at this thing. See? Listen to no such thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Our IHeart Radio Music Festival, presented by Capital One, is coming back to Las Vegas. Vegas. September 19th and 20th.

On your feet. Streaming live only on Hulu. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian Adams, Ed Shearer, Fade. Chlorilla, Jelly Roll, John Fogarty, Lil Wayne, L.L. CoolJ, Mariah Carey, Maroon 5, Sammy Hagar, Tate McCraig, The Offsprin, Tim McGraw. Tickets are on sale now at AXS.com. Get your tickets today. AXS.com. All right, moving on. Jack, what is your question today? My question is, I would love to hear from how your brain works in explaining the quantum machine gun theory. Because it's hard for me to get my simple brain.

Yes, Jack tried, when we were talking about this, he tried to explain it, and I actually just walked away. Because I did not understand this single thing he was trying to say. I have a question about your question, why are you so fascinated by quantum machine guns? Are you looking to build one? Is somebody threatening me with one? Are you thinking about purchasing one on eBay and you want to know if it's real? Or what's the situation? I mean, it's a very, so I was a philosophy major.

And it's like a very philosophical, I don't know, like it's where physics. You can't say I was a philosophy major. It's an eternal thing, isn't it? I became a philosophy major. That's a philosophical question. It's a lot of question in itself. And it's like it gets into, you know, multiverse and all those different things, which it would seem to me would affect just the entire metaphysical reality of the world.

So that's why it interests me. If it is real and not just a thought experiment, it would seem to be like an existence shaping thing, I guess. All right, well, we can explain what it is. Yeah, what is he talking about? What is a quantum machine gun? Quantum machine gun is like a variation on the Schrodinger's cat experiment. I know that from Silicon Valley.

Okay. Awesome. Hollywood is entertaining and educated. Awesome. So the idea there is put something like a particle that's decaying. We don't know how long it's going to take to decay. Put it in a box. And then when the particle decays, it kills the cat somehow, releases poison or something.

And then you can ask the question, is the cat dead? or is the cat alive. It's inside the box so you can't see it, right? It's determined by what that quantum random particle does. And so the idea is you put the particle in the box and you don't know

whether or not it has decayed, which has consequences for the cat. And so because you don't know, then you say things like it's both dead and alive because there's a probability to be both. Okay, so that's the shortinger's cat, right? Because the particle is both doing

both things at the same time. And so if the cat's life depends on the particle, then the cat's must be also dead and alive at the same time. That's right. And that's actually the heart of the question, which the machine gun example probes also, is what's going on with quantum mechanics?

Like if a particle can do A or B, and has probability to do A or B, is it both A and B before you've looked, or has it chosen one, or has a universe split into one universe where the particle has done A and one universe where the particle has done B? That seems like this is like explanation, obviously.

Right. Let's just create a whole new universe. So Max Tagmark took this to the next level and he said, let's not put cats at risk. Let's put ourselves at risk. Hey. So he said, let's build a machine gun where the machine gun fires based on what a particle does. So a particle can be spin up or spin down with equal probability. It's like a coin flip, right? And every time you press the trigger on the machine gun, it asks the particle, are you spin up or you spin down. If it spin up, it shoots. If it spin down, it doesn't.

It's like the particles in charge of the safety switch of the gun. You pull it, you pull the trigger, but the particle, if it's doing one thing, it will let you shoot. If it's doing the other thing, it won't let you shoot. Yeah, it's a little like Russian roulette, right? Russian roulette, you know, put three bullets in a six-chamber gun or whatever. You spin it, you have a 50% chance of dying, right? The problem with Russian roulette is it's determined. Once you put them in there and you spin it, it's either going to be a bullet or an empty chamber.

It's fixed, right? With a quantum machine gun, it's supposed to be truly random. Like, the universe is really random. So when you press the button, Max Tegmart says the universe splits into two. One where it shoots a bullet and one where it doesn't shoot a bullet. And that's the crazy thing, is imagining like the universe splitting into two universes. So the thought experimented is like you go into Schrodinger's box. Yes, you are the cat.

You take out the cat, you put yourself in, and you see what happens. Yeah, but it's more than that. He says, now build the gun, point it yourself, and keep pressing the button. What will you hear? and his point is you will only hear click click click click click you will never hear

the gun go off which you would think would be a one in a billion probability right because if you're multiplying 50% by 50% it gets more and more unlikely that you are not going to

hear the gun go off but is why does it have to be life or death though can it just be a light and then I can't be sad or happy It would make you sad or happy. No, we've got to make it relevant, man.

Yeah, that's true, I guess. So, right. Well, it doesn't also have to do with, I mean, if it was just a light, it wouldn't, you wouldn't cease to exist, right? And the idea is that in, there are 99 other, like if it's a one and a thousand thing, there are 99 other branches of reality and probability where you did die. Right. But because you're, you only exist because you are, your experience, then you are only in the one branch where it didn't go off, essentially.

That's right. There's always one version of the universe in which it doesn't go off. No matter how many times you click, you click a million times, there's some probability for it to never kill you. And there's somebody who pressed it a million times and had that experience. There's some version of the universe in which that happened. And that guy's the only one who's still awake. And he says, you know, you only ever hear clicks. I think you hear a bunch of clicks

and then eventually you hear a boom, right? And that's the last thing you hear. But there's some version of you that can do as many clicks as you want, right? They seem, they both Schrodinger's cat and quantum machine gun theory seem like really good ways for you to make physicists

who believe in the multiverse realize that they don't actually believe in the multiverse because you're like, oh, okay, you believe that, then here, do this thing, and if you truly believe in it, then you'll never die, right? And I think that was what Schroederger's cat was originally designed to, like, illustrate the absurdity of quantum theory. Like, how can a cat be alive and dead? Right.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Do you think, is that true? Did Max Starkmar come up with this example to, like, you know, kind of put physicists on the spot? I think he probably came up with his example to sell his book. Which I think went pretty well for him. Which sold and didn't sell at the same time. In some universe, it's a bestseller. Another universe is a warehouse full of it.

But you're the philosopher. Tell me, do you think there's another universe out there where you did something else this morning, a different kind of cereal? I think it's as good as anything I've come up with on my end or anything I've read. Is that a high bar or a low bar? Not very good.

Yeah, very low bar. No, I think it's just a really interesting way to think about things. I don't think you necessarily want to think about it If it's, think about it that way, if it's going to make you behave recklessly, if you're going to be like, I'm invincible, like driving down the highway with your eyes close. Exactly. Well, basically, right?

That's the conclusion of the experiment is that if you're still hearing the click, you must be in the one universe, however improbable, where it just happens. It's like running back and forth across the freeway, right? Some version of you survives that for an hour. Sure. Some version survives it for a day. Some version gets splat immediately. Right.

Yeah, but you are only... Don't do any of these things, by the way. We're killing all our listeners. Because, I mean, the reason that they design it where the gun goes off based on a quantum coin flip is because that's really the only truly, like, random thing. So, I mean, you're still on a chain of probability where something is or isn't going to happen unless your existence is being determined by a quantum coin flip. Right, which still blows my mind.

I understand quantum mechanics as well as I'm ever going to, but I still don't understand how something can be truly random. There has to be some mechanism in the universe that's producing random numbers. There's like some philosophical data. What does it mean to be truly random and not truly random? What's the difference? Well, truly random means not predictable, right? Not repeatable.

It doesn't depend on anything. Well, it can depend on something. It can be influenced by it, but you have a distribution where the random draw is not repeatable. It's not determined by the initial. conditions, right? It's not like a clock. It's a true magical box. Not magical. It's physics, man. But it seems like magic. It's magic. Quantum physics is indistinguishable for magic sometimes. I mean, that's quite what you're saying. Like, if we have to define magic. I mean, like, violating the loss of physics is impossible. That would be like door to the rinks magic. But if you were to call that

quantum nugget there that can give you anything at any given time, you might use the word magic, Quiddity? I think you might use the word magic, yeah. The experts call it physics, Jorge. Yeah, I think there's a... Welcome to my show. It's physics we understand and physics we don't yet understand. Right.

You can call that magic if you like, or you can call it, you know, science fiction or whatever. Wait, so what's the other form of randomness? Because you said truly random. There's really only truly random, correct? And then there's pseudo-random. Like, your computer can generate random numbers. Those are not actually random. Like, you ask your computer.

give me a series of random numbers, it'll give you the same series every time. So it's not really random. Right. Or it's going through an algorithm that someone's created. Yeah, it's an algorithm for choosing things which, you know, spread the numbers out basically, but it's not actually random. You ask the same computer, the same question,

it'll give you the same string of random numbers, right? Or even throwing a die is not truly random, right? Because you can sort of trace the result back to something you did way back. That's right. Like whether you decided to put a rabbit flip? in your pocket or not. Yeah, exactly. Magic.

Physics. Or did the sign of the cross before you're over. You skipped your Scientology meeting or not. I don't skip, Daniel. Don't get me in hot water. I don't skip for the record.

It's going to get downgraded. No, you're right. It's not random. It's chaotic. It's difficult to predict, so it's a good proxy for randomness, but it is totally determined by how you roll the dye.

You roll the die the same way every time, you're going to get exactly the same answer. That's impossible to do, which is why it's a good proxy for randomness. But yeah, quantum mechanics is the only true randomness in the universe that we know of.

Right. And it seems random because we just can't explain it yet. Right. Although there are experiments they've done that basically prove that it's random. That it's completely random. That it's completely random, yeah. There are these crazy experiments that are really subtle. It's about Bell's inequality.

There's correlations between particles where they prove that it can't be determined by the initial conditions. It has to be actually random, which is pretty mind-blowing. So did we answer your question, Jack? Did we... Yeah, that was really... That actually was a much better explanation. I don't know.

It's so interesting, like, multiverse theory just in general. So, like, to even think that there are other questions delving into that is just, like, another, splitting my brain in nine directions again. Well, I think the multiverse is bonkers. I mean, that's not a scientific point of view. It's a philosophical point. Wait, so you can say bonkers and crazy, but you can't say magic. Oh, no, magic's not allowed, no, but bonkers.

They're going to bleep that word. And I don't mean bonkers in a negative way. Like, the universe is bonkers. I mean, like, the crazy stuff we talk about on our show, like, you know. How do you wrap your head around it? Huge spinning stars and black holes and all that stuff is bonkers, even if it's real, right? Yeah. But the multiverse is like extra bonkers because imagining, like, extra universe is being created, all this stuff.

I just don't, I can't, I don't know where to put that in my head. A version where you are on our show, Jack and Miles explained the universe. That's right. I really want to hear that show, actually. It would be a very different kind of universe. Well, you do have a whole episode about the multiverse and a whole episode about quantum... Randomness.

Magic. Non-magic randomness. Non-bunkers. Quantum bonkers. I've never heard of a game called Physics, The Gathering. That sounds like the least fun game in the... Right. There's nothing on all the cards.

It's like, whoa. How do I know I'm winning? All right. So let's get to your last question. about planets. But first, let's take our last break of the episode. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys.

Then, at 6.33 p.m., everything changed. There's been a bombing at the T.W. a terminal. Apparently, the explosion actually impelled metal glass. The injured were being loaded into ambulances, just a chaotic, chaotic scene.

In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, and it was here to stay. Terrorism. Law and order, criminal justice system is back. In season two, we're turning our focus to a threat that hides in plain sight.

That's harder to predict and even harder. to stop. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine that you're on an airplane and all of a sudden you hear this. Attention passengers. The pilot is having an emergency and we need someone, anyone, to land this plane. Think you could do it?

It turns out that nearly 50% of men think that they could land the plane with the help of air traffic control. And they're saying like, okay, pull this, do this, pull that, turn this. It's just, I can do my eyes close. I'm Manny. I'm Noah. This is Devin.

And on our new show, no such thing. We get to the bottom of questions like these. Join us as we talk to the leading expert on overconfidence. Those who lack expertise lack the expertise they need to recognize that they lack expertise. And then, as we try the whole thing out, real. Wait, what?

Oh, that's the run right. I'm looking at this thing. Listen to no such thing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I had this like overwhelming sensation that I had to call it right then. And I just hit call. I said, you know, hey, I'm Jacob Schick. I'm the CEO of One Tribe Foundation and I just wanted to call on and let her know there's a lot of people battling some of the very same things you're battling. And there is help out there. The Good Stuff podcast Season 2 takes a deep look into One Tribe Foundation, a non-profit fighting suicide in the veteran community.

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so join host Jacob and Ashley Schick as they bring you to the front lines of One Tribe's mission. I was married to a combat army veteran, and he actually took his own life to suicide. One Tribe saved my life twice. There's a lot of love that flows through this place, and it's sincere. Now it's a personal mission. I wouldn't have to go to any more funerals, you know. I got blown up on a React mission. I ended up having amputation below the knee of my right leg and a traumatic brain injury

because I landed on my head. Welcome to Season 2 of The Good Stuff. Listen to the Good Stuff podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, Miles, you have one last question for us. Yes. And it's epic in scale. It's planetary and scale. It's planetary.

Yes. It's gigantic. It's probably the best question you've ever been asked out of it. Yeah. Yeah, this is some real magic stuff I'm going to hit you with.

At miles of gray. Hold on. I got to do some stretches here. Yeah. Stretch your brain. Okay. Flexible. Yeah.

That was incredible. You just put his leg behind his head. I'm hanging from the ceiling. You wish this was a TV show. Oh, I do. You know, I love space. And I like the solar system. crowds, you like...

Yeah, I love space. I'm still on my space, actually. I don't use Facebook. Anything to do the space. Even on my keyboard, a gigantic space bar. It overtakes the rest of the keys. But, you know, just planetary formation is just another, not necessarily philosophical thing because that's a physical phenomenon.

I'm just curious because once I started reading about the Juno probe that's going around Jupiter, there were some people I spoke with who worked at JPL, who were sort of saying, like, Jupiter has a lot of secrets or will give us a better understanding of planetary formation in this solar system. And I'm sort of like, well, why can we look at like Earth or whatever? So I'm just sort of like, that got me thinking, like, wow, it's interesting to think. They say if we look at planetary formation as like a cookbook,

we're only seeing the finished product, right, of everything being cooked or baked or whatever the end thing is. But with understanding Jupiter, we'll begin to understand the recipe. Because they want to make their own solar system? Yeah, or whatever. But it's interesting to even think, you know, because we live on this physical Earth, what, you know, what went down, really? Was it magic? And you said you were at JPL when you got interested in the world?

Yeah, yeah, because at the time, I just knew that this was like a very novel, like just a very important experiment. This probe was going out. And it was like months before the first sets of data were going to be sent back. And everyone was just so like, this is, man, like we really, this is. the thing. Like Jupiter really is going to help us understand so much, so many other things like weather and all these other things. So it was just so interesting to me that there was this planet out there that if we can study a bit more like it's going to, it could potentially help us understand many other things that we experience. So that's what I'm like, okay, yeah,

I guess planetary formation is, is a lot more in depth than merely saying, hey, we're here on Earth, you know, some stuff started swirling around each other, got dense and then boom. Yeah. That basically answers a question. Oh, great. Well, it's really great meeting. Boom. Boom is the answer. And density, swirling, boom. Boom.

Plan it. You've got to plan it. Here's the recipe. Yeah, I think that's a really interesting question. I think it touches on something which is like deep in everybody, which is we want to understand our history. Sure. What went down, right? How did this come about?

And is this unusual? Like, are there other solar systems out there that have Earths or is it all Jupiters? Is there a solar system out there that's just like all uranium? Venus, for example, or all Saturns or something. Yeah, so it's pretty interesting stuff. And, you know, the planets, I think one of the interesting things about that is that the planets are formed about the same time as the star, right? The whole thing is basically like a big mix. You start with a big cloud of like gas and dust and other stuff that comes from, you know, other stars that blew up.

Right. So you go like rubble out there in space and then gravity gradually pulls it together. And most of the gas gets sucked towards the center. so you get this huge star in the middle, right? And then the leftover is just sort of swirling around it, right? Well, why does the gas come in first? Why does the gas come in first? It all sort of happens at once, but the gas is light,

and so it gets pulled in towards the center. Oh. Yeah. It rushes in faster, I guess, because it's gas. Well, I think it's equally distributed, but the gas gets sucked in towards the center faster than the rocks and stuff. So you end up with, like, a lot of gas at the center, which becomes a star. And then you get, like, you know, where the gas was pulled away,

you get rocks which turn into like rocky planets and then the outer part you have still have gas and ice and stuff left over which is why you get like big gas giants oh god yeah okay yeah so jupiter is like mostly hydrogen and water and that kind of stuff whereas earth is not it's mostly rock right but basically it's just gravity right

gravity it takes you know a long time but gravity sucks this stuff together you get a big star and the stuff that's orbiting around it gradually gathers together right so it bounces into each other and and you know gravity sticks them together and just sort of gradually pulls everything together. As you said, like, density, boom.

Boom. I guess the question is, why doesn't, why do we have planets at all? Why isn't, why isn't the solar system just a star? Why doesn't everything just get sucked into the middle? Or why aren't planets just asteroid belts? Yeah, okay, so there's two different answers there. Why do we have planets at all, right? Why doesn't everything just get sucked into like one black hole or one star?

Right, well, there's some things, keeping things from falling into the center, right? And that's just enough spinning, right? So the whole blob when it started was spinning already. And that spinning can't go away, right? It's angular momentum. It has to be conserved. You can't just stop spinning. It's not rubbing against anything to slow it down.

It's in space, so it just keeps on spinning. Somehow you made that sound inappropriate. I would have preferred frictionless environment. It was just weird that you were waggling your eyebrows. Oh, whoa, whoa. On zipping my shirt. This is weird, yeah. The sun does have a history of rubbing inappropriately against it.

things, yes. No, it's out there in space and there's nothing to slow down. There's no friction, nothing to grab onto it. So it's going to keep spinning forever. And so the stuff is moving and it ends up in orbit, right? It's like asking, why doesn't the moon fall to the earth? Because it's moving so fast that it doesn't fall. It keeps going around the earth instead of falling. Same way, the earth is, and the stuff

that made the Earth is not going to fall into the sun because it's moving fast enough. And it comes from that initial rotation. Oh, I see. So even though we get the sun, there's still stuff out there. of spinning around that doesn't want to fall into the sun. Yeah, exactly. It's moving too fast to fall into the center. Oh, so it's too

good to be the sun. That's right. And it's like, I want to do my own thing. It doesn't want to rub against the sun. But why does it form into planets? Like Jack said, some of it just stays this asteroid belt, like debris. But some of it forms into planets. Eventually, it'll all gather together. Like, you

fast forward the solar system a billion years or so, and you'll have a smaller number of bigger asteroids. Eventually, these things all come together. So that story about will be a planet? I don't know about one planet, but like we'll slowly coalesce. Really? In billions of years, we could have a new place of visit.

And the same way, rings turn into moons, right? Rings are not a stable situation for a planet. Oh, really? Gather together and turn it into moons, yeah. Like the Earth probably had rings for a while. After it got hit by some other pluritoplanet and created all this debris that surrounded it, which formed the moon, we probably had some awesome set of rings, which then gathered together into a moon. Right. So Saturn's on its way to having a moon.

Yeah, we don't know how old the rings of Saturn are, but we think they're not very old. I mean, they're millions of years. Sure, sure. But on the solar system timescale, they're pretty young. And so that stuff eventually is going to gather together and form larger objects, yeah. Wow. Okay. Wow. But also each planet got different stuff based on where it was in the solar system, right?

The closer stuff got the rocks that were left over, not much gas because they got sucked up by the sun. Stuff in the outside is, like, mostly gas. Like, if you look at what's inside. Jupiter, it's crazy, right? Yeah, yeah. Super compressed, like, metallic hydrogen. Right. It's... Metallic hydrogen. Yeah. That sounds like a color for a new iPhone or something.

Yeah. Right. We just call it silver, but... Sure, sure. But the marketing genius is over in Cupertina, right? I mean, you often hear Jupiter described as a gas giants, people think, oh, it's just a big ball of gas. Yeah, it's gas and then it's hydrogen, but it's not in gaseous state, right? Some of it's, like, solid. So you could land on Jupiter because it's like a It's metallic hydrogen, covered by like an ocean of liquid hydrogen and then gas on top of it. So it has an atmosphere, but there's an ocean of liquid hydrogen.

I mean, I wouldn't recommend going there without some like pretty nice equipment. Right. But yeah. Pretty good weather radiation. Yeah, but there's something solid there to land on. Well, I read that like these gas planets out there, they represent 99% of the mass of the solar system. So it's like most of the solar system. Except for the sun, yeah.

Yeah, except the sun are in these gas giants way out there. Yeah, exactly. Most of the mass in the solar system is the sun. That's like 99%. Then of that 1%, most of it's the gas giant planets, right? Because remember, the Earth is about one-tenth of the radius of Jupiter, which is about one-tenth the radius of the sun, right? Right, right, right.

Yeah, remember that. No, I just remember as a kid, they're like, I don't remember the number, but it's like so many Earths could fit in the sun. And I was like, yeah, right, Miss. Holton. I'm out of here. I don't need this. I'm in third grade.

I just feel like you always forget that. Volume goes by like the radius cube. So you could fit, it's only 10 times wider, but you could fit 1,000 Earths into Jupiter. Wow. And you could fit a thousand Jupiter's into the sun, right? So it's a million Earths.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, so that's the number of million. A million, yeah. Good to know. It's a cool million. A cool mill, exactly. Yeah, so you're right. Jupiter is huge, and most of the stuff that's not in the sun is in Jupiter.

Yeah. It gobbled up all this stuff. But we should be grateful, right? Actually, Jupiter being really big could have saved our lives. Oh. Because asteroids that would destroy Earth get sucked into Jupiter? Yeah, exactly. It's acting like a linebacker out there, like cleaning out the solar system, gathering all that stuff.

I don't know if you guys remember, but like 20 years ago or so, there was a huge comet that entered the solar system and then like slammed right into Jupiter. Oh, really? Yeah, Cometemaker-Levy was really awesome. It got broken up. Oh, Shoemaker-Levy. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah, it slammed to Jupiter in each piece that hit,

it got broken into like 20 pieces, made a huge fireball, like, bigger than the Earth. Oh, wow. So if that had hit us, it would have, like, caused a big wave. We would have had to... We'd probably be recording a very different podcast. We'd be recording it on Jupiter. So, yeah, shout out to Jupiter.

Thank you so much for everything we do. I didn't realize how much of a debt we owed to Jupiter. Yeah. Now have a new appreciation for it. Cool. So that's the answer to planet formation. It's just gravity and stuff just that doesn't want to fall into the sun out there. It starts to clump together. We get the leftovers and we get a beautiful earth with beautiful sunsets. Exactly. And some call that magic. All right. Well, thank you guys for joining us today.

And be sure for those of you listening to check out their podcast, The Daily Zeitgeist. Yeah, Monday through Friday. Monday through Friday. Do you want to give them the Twitters and the Facebook? Oh, yeah. You can find our show at Daily Zekegeist on Twitter, at the Daily Zekegeist on Instagram. I'm at Miles of Gray, G-R-A-Y, on Twitter and Instagram. And I am at Jack underscore O'Brien on Twitter.

Awesome. Well, thank you guys. And if you guys have any question out there, anyone listening has any questions. Send us an email at Feedback at Danielanhorpe.com. Send us your philosophy questions. Send us your physics questions. Send us your dating questions. We'll get physics answers to all of those.

But not your magic questions. There are no magic questions. Only magic answers. Yeah. All right. See you next time. Thanks for tuning in. If you still have a question after listening to all these explanations,

please drop us a line we'd love to hear from you. find us at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at Daniel and Jorge, that's one word, or email us at Feedback at Danielandhorpe.com. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of IHeartRadio. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then, everything changed.

There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged, terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order. criminal justice system on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts why are tsa rules so confusing you got a hood of you on take it all i'm manny i'm noah this is devon and we're best friends and journalists with a new podcast called no such thing where we get to the bottom of questions like that why are you screaming i can't expect what to do

now if the rule was the same go off on me i deserve it you know lock him up listen to no such thing on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. No such thing. I'm Dr. Joy Hardin-Bradford, host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I know how overwhelming it can feel if flying makes you anxious. In session 418 of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, Dr. Angela Neal-Barnett and I discuss flight anxiety. What is not a norm is to allow it to prevent you from doing the things that you want to do. the things that you were meant to do.

Listen to therapy for black girls on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast.