| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| KevinLesko |
Posted - 03/14/2004 : 5:13:22 PM
Because I'm having a Wreslemania XX party today! Yeah thats right! Grown men drinking and watching wresting... good times! |
| 26 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| dan p. |
Posted - 03/20/2004 : 1:20:51 PM
well the balrog in the movie seemed to be around 20 feet tall, so that makes sense, i guess. it had wings, which irked the living bejesus out of me. |
| James M. |
Posted - 03/20/2004 : 12:58:53 PM
i think it was some playing card...like a game that went along the lines of magic or something ..so the balrog was one of the characters..and it sorta has their stats and it said it was like 20 feet...(authors note...i do NOT play either of these games..i simply found the card!)
James |
| dan p. |
Posted - 03/19/2004 : 9:28:06 PM
really. tolkien told his readers they were around 12 feet tall, so that settles that, seeing as he made them up. the passage in the chapter regarding the appearence of the balrog isn't as precise has the descriptions in his letters. but "twice man height" would imply somewhere between 10 and 12 feet. wherever you read 20 feet is pretty wrong. the passage it tells us that it was man shape, but greater, and that terror went before it. it also says something about wings, but i believe that's metaphorical. the balrogs were masters of shadow, so it could very well be his shadow stretched out to his sides like two vast wings. i don't know. i wasn't there at the time. they made him huge in the movie so people who haven't read the books and don't know much about balrogs would be able to understand that it was an enemy that really only gandalf could handle. and he barely could. |
| James M. |
Posted - 03/19/2004 : 12:27:30 AM
quote:
Originally posted by dan p.
quote:
Originally posted by Oozle
quote:
Originally posted by dan p.
i held a lengthy debate on what would have probably happened if a balrog had gotten hold of the ring.
Balrogs are pretty big, don't ya think it would have to fit to be used? Or would it be more the posession is 9/10ths type of thing? I would think Sauron would have a hell of a time ever getting ahold of it. I actually don't think a balrog would have the intelligence to do much harm with it anyway. Those originally entrusted with the rings were all human types and therefore corruptable, balrogs do not have a good side. It would probably end up lost in the depths of Moria
actually, the balrog is the same race as sauron, saruman and gandalf. they're all maia, which is a divine race, not unlike archangels. the balrog and sauron used to be in service of the same master. if anything, the balrog is more capable of wielding the ring than any man or elf. my question would be whether the balrog would consider sauron master or not. i think that he would, because sauron was second in command to morgoth in the first age, and the balrog was part of at least a large squadron balrogs, and was most likely under sauron's command, espcially when morgoth was captured for the first time, and again when he went to corrupt the first men. during these times the war was left in sauron's hands. should the balrog get a hold of it and somehow master it, which is unlikely, sauron and the balrog would be more or less equal. the same could be said of gandalf. the ring itself is another story, we are told balrogs are twice the height of man, which would suggest 11 or 12 feet tall. they were demonic, certainly but not in any way bestial. i doubt that had horns and definately had no wings. my impression is that the balrog is humanoid, so the ring would find a way to fit. one intersting question is would the balrog's fire be enough to melt the ring?
i saw something that said the balrog was about 20 feet or so..and in the movie he looks like hes 30 feet tall..was he special or they just wanted to make him look bigger? |
| TurnItToLove |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 7:40:00 PM
quote:
Originally posted by KevinLesko
Because I'm having a Wreslemania XX party today! Yeah thats right! Grown men drinking and watching wresting... good times!
i had a wrestlmania party!!! and by party i mean me, mom, dad, and my friend dave....wrestlemania kinda sucked by the way....yay i'm a nerd too!! |
| dan p. |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 2:51:58 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Oozle
quote:
Originally posted by dan p.
i held a lengthy debate on what would have probably happened if a balrog had gotten hold of the ring.
Balrogs are pretty big, don't ya think it would have to fit to be used? Or would it be more the posession is 9/10ths type of thing? I would think Sauron would have a hell of a time ever getting ahold of it. I actually don't think a balrog would have the intelligence to do much harm with it anyway. Those originally entrusted with the rings were all human types and therefore corruptable, balrogs do not have a good side. It would probably end up lost in the depths of Moria
actually, the balrog is the same race as sauron, saruman and gandalf. they're all maia, which is a divine race, not unlike archangels. the balrog and sauron used to be in service of the same master. if anything, the balrog is more capable of wielding the ring than any man or elf. my question would be whether the balrog would consider sauron master or not. i think that he would, because sauron was second in command to morgoth in the first age, and the balrog was part of at least a large squadron balrogs, and was most likely under sauron's command, espcially when morgoth was captured for the first time, and again when he went to corrupt the first men. during these times the war was left in sauron's hands. should the balrog get a hold of it and somehow master it, which is unlikely, sauron and the balrog would be more or less equal. the same could be said of gandalf. the ring itself is another story, we are told balrogs are twice the height of man, which would suggest 11 or 12 feet tall. they were demonic, certainly but not in any way bestial. i doubt that had horns and definately had no wings. my impression is that the balrog is humanoid, so the ring would find a way to fit. one intersting question is would the balrog's fire be enough to melt the ring? |
| James M. |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 2:16:53 PM
well i wont make myself out to know much about LOTR but as far as it fitting i think the ring adapts it self to whom its entrusted...so ..if he got it..it would probably just get bigger and that big fucker would put it on...and that would have been funny seeing that thing talk to it "..my...preciouss..." |
| Oozle |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 10:29:17 AM
quote:
Originally posted by dan p.
i held a lengthy debate on what would have probably happened if a balrog had gotten hold of the ring.
Balrogs are pretty big, don't ya think it would have to fit to be used? Or would it be more the posession is 9/10ths type of thing? I would think Sauron would have a hell of a time ever getting ahold of it. I actually don't think a balrog would have the intelligence to do much harm with it anyway. Those originally entrusted with the rings were all human types and therefore corruptable, balrogs do not have a good side. It would probably end up lost in the depths of Moria.... Hmmmmm... Guess I just outed myself! OK, I am a nerd, have read the trilogy many times, have three seperate sets, and even have it on CD and have listened to it once or twice a year since I got it. I even have a dragon tattoo on my leg named Galadriel. I am totally enchanted with the whole story. LOL |
| tericee |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 04:09:37 AM
I love Logan's Run. I have the DVD. |
| pcbTIM |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 03:04:53 AM
Interesting article......but I think that's actually considered quantum physics...not engineering. My girlfriend is taking quantum and I actually recognized some things in there like bosons and fermions. Haha......yeah, I'm a nerd because I read it once, understood it.....and found it interesting.
Oh and by the way James....I saw that huge Pyramid thing on the Discovery channel too. Ridiculous. It looked too much like that movie.....crap....what was it? The one where there were no old people. Logan's Run! That's it. Ok. Good.
And if you really want to see my nerdiness come out....just ask me to post one of my lab reports....man oh man. Five pages of pure boredom. And what's worse is I understand it too. |
| Saint Jude |
Posted - 03/18/2004 : 12:53:48 AM
I had a discussion about who would win in a fight, the balrog and john McClane.
W/o a doubt it was McClane, as long as he had a fire hose. |
| dan p. |
Posted - 03/17/2004 : 11:44:42 PM
i held a lengthy debate on what would have probably happened if a balrog had gotten hold of the ring. |
| prsmartin |
Posted - 03/17/2004 : 2:53:38 PM
This one time at band camp... |
| Oozle |
Posted - 03/17/2004 : 1:12:08 PM
quote:
Originally posted by James M.
(blank stare).......i like magnets
I am pretty fond of shiny things..... |
| tericee |
Posted - 03/17/2004 : 02:31:55 AM
A couple of other good math/geek books are Longitude and Fermat's Last Theorem. If you want to rent a geeky movie, go for Pi. It's totally weird. |
| James M. |
Posted - 03/17/2004 : 12:34:57 AM
(blank stare).......i like magnets |
| Zachmozach |
Posted - 03/16/2004 : 11:30:07 PM
terice I read that like 4 times before I think I grasped anything but it sounds way interesting and I'm checking out the site now. My brain has been on overload lately as I have been reading this book on phi. It's called the golden ratio by mario livio (?not sure about the last name spelling). So I guess I'm becoming a math nerd now. I just find it fascinating now though. This is real great though, as it's just one more thing to make my head hurt from thinking so dang much. Oh well I guess it's good for me. |
| PJK |
Posted - 03/16/2004 : 8:13:18 PM
OK Teri, I tried to follow all of that, I really did, but my brain just couldn't take it!  Give me biology, microbiology, parasitology, anatomy or physiology, now that I can understand. LOL
(no surprise I didn't go into engineering!) |
| tericee |
Posted - 03/16/2004 : 1:17:45 PM
Here are the basics of string theory, supersymmetry, and superstring theory... The explanation involves guitars so I thought it would work well here on the BOARD.
Think of a guitar string that has been tuned by stretching the string under tension across the guitar. Depending on how the string is plucked and how much tension is in the string, different musical notes will be created by the string. These musical notes could be said to be excitation modes of that guitar string under tension.
In a similar manner, in string theory, the elementary particles we observe in particle accelerators could be thought of as the "musical notes" or excitation modes of elementary strings.
In string theory, as in guitar playing, the string must be stretched under tension in order to become excited. However, the strings in string theory are floating in spacetime, they aren't tied down to a guitar. Nonetheless, they have tension. The string tension in string theory is denoted by the quantity 1/(2 p a'), where a' is pronounced "alpha prime"and is equal to the square of the string length scale.
If string theory is to be a theory of quantum gravity, then the average size of a string should be somewhere near the length scale of quantum gravity, called the Planck length, which is about 10-33 centimeters, or about a millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a centimeter. Unfortunately, this means that strings are way too small to see by current or expected particle physics technology (or financing!!) and so string theorists must devise more clever methods to test the theory than just looking for little strings in particle experiments.
String theories are classified according to whether or not the strings are required to be closed loops, and whether or not the particle spectrum includes fermions. In order to include fermions in string theory, there must be a special kind of symmetry called supersymmetry, which means for every boson (particle that transmits a force) there is a corresponding fermion (particle that makes up matter). So supersymmetry relates the particles that transmit forces to the particles that make up matter.
Supersymmetric partners to to currently known particles have not been observed in particle experiments, but theorists believe this is because supersymmetric particles are too massive to be detected at current accelerators. Particle accelerators could be on the verge of finding evidence for high energy supersymmetry in the next decade. Evidence for supersymmetry at high energy would be compelling evidence that string theory was a good mathematical model for Nature at the smallest distance scales.
So What's the Difference Between "String Theory" and "Superstring Theory?"
There are several ways theorists can build string theories. Start with the elementary ingredient: a wiggling tiny string. Next decide: should it be an open string or a closed string? Then ask: will I settle for only bosons ( particles that transmit forces) or will I ask for fermions, too (particles that make up matter)? (Remember that in string theory, a particle is like a note played on the string.)
If the answer to the last question is "Bosons only, please!" then one gets bosonic string theory. If the answer is "No, I demand that matter exist!" then we wind up needing supersymmetry, which means an equal matching between bosons (particles that transmit forces) and fermions (particles that make up matter). A supersymmetric string theory is called a superstring theory. There are five kinds of superstring theories...
If you want to read more, check out www.superstringtheory.com (yes, really) |
| Saint Jude |
Posted - 03/16/2004 : 12:25:15 AM
i know of string theory, is it the same as the Super Duper string theory? |
| James M. |
Posted - 03/15/2004 : 11:58:44 PM
whats the super string theory? |
| Miss Sorrel |
Posted - 03/15/2004 : 10:17:46 PM
I love Mythbusters! Those guys and their topics are totally legit, and mighty interesting. It's like forensic science, but funny as all hell... because you normally don't see people playing with the evidence with forensics... at least it isn't cool when they do.
And as for all this nerd talk and activity, this is my most recent endevor. Somehow in one of my classes I found myself leading a conversation about the Super String Theory, and after a few minutes of excited babble, I realized that my fellow classmates were either staring at me with that "wtf" face or asleep... I could almost hear the crickets in the background. And my professor wasn't the slightest bit amused by my tangent (of course she probably had never heard of it before)... I felt like a HUGE geek.
|
| KevinLesko |
Posted - 03/15/2004 : 3:30:16 PM
Nice, Patrick, I think you have me beat. Speaking of the Discovery channel, do you watch Mythbusters? I think that may be one of my favorite shows right now. Those two guys Jamie and Adam are great because they are legit geniuses, but they also act like two little kids who just like to blow things up. |
| James M. |
Posted - 03/14/2004 : 11:19:57 PM
i was watching the discovery channel and saw this epsisode where they were talking about making this HUGE fucking pyradmid city in japan..goddamn it was big..i think like 4 or 5 times bigger than the ones in giza...it was pretty bad ass..anyone else catch it?... |
| PJK |
Posted - 03/14/2004 : 7:49:49 PM
HAHAHAHA You guys are too much! |
| pcbTIM |
Posted - 03/14/2004 : 6:05:11 PM
I think I can top that.
I just had a 30 minute conversation with my friend on IM about drag forces on a sphere because of the lab report we have to write.
The same friend and I were watching some car building show on Discovery channel, and got excited when they told us that they used Al 6061-T6 for the steering wheel.....then got into an argument about which was stronger....the T6 temper or the T8 temper of aluminum.
I got lots more. Bring it! |
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