RE: Atheists and Agnostics risk infinite loss for no gain
October 4, 2013 at 6:33 am
(This post was last modified: October 4, 2013 at 6:35 am by SavedByGraceThruFaith.)
(October 3, 2013 at 9:29 pm)Beta Ray Bill Wrote:(October 3, 2013 at 5:19 pm)SavedByGraceThruFaith Wrote: But why would we not be getting radio waves?
Most civilizations would be emitting them for at least 100 years.
This should answer Grace's question (assuming she takes the time to read this.)
"While it’s interesting to imagine how far our radio signals have traveled into space, it’s extremely unlikely that an alien will be able to catch the latest episode of ‘I Love Lucy’. This is thanks to the inverse square law. In Layman’s term, it’s a form of signal degradation.
As radio signals leave earth, they propagate out in a wave form. Just like dropping a stone in a lake, the waves diffuse or “spread out” over distance thanks to the exponentially larger area they must encompass. The area can be calculated by multiplying length times width which is why we measure it in square units – square centimeters, square miles, etc. This means that the further away from the source, the more square units of area a signal has to ‘illuminate’.inverse square law
Another way to think of it, is that the strength of a radio signal will be only 1/4 as great once you are twice the distance from the source. At ten times the distance, the strength of the signal would only be one hundredth as great.
Because of this inverse square law, all of our radio signals become indistinguishable from background noise at around a few light-years from earth. For a civilization only a couple hundred light-years away, trying to listen to our broadcasts would be like trying to detect the small ripple from a pebble dropped in the pacific ocean off the coast of California – from Japan."
So there you go, Grace, why we'll never hear a radio signal from space.
Do a little research before you ask a question, please.
I know of the inverse square law. that is why I only had the radio waves going out 600 light years.
You do know that scientists are searching space for such signals. If they could not be detected why are they searching?
(October 3, 2013 at 9:27 pm)TheBeardedDude Wrote: Life on Earth demonstrates that life in the universe is possible. Given that we have explored roughly 0% of it and have observed about 0% of it, it is fair to say we don't know if life does or doesn't exist elsewhere, but we know it's possible. Thus, the only logical conclusion is to look.
Life on Earth does not prove life anywhere else. God created life on Earth.
But some in this forum have posted that probability of life is 100%. Surely it should be in range.
