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Ste Hawking 50p


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10 hours ago, PansPurse said:

It's the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. Basically it reconciles the existence of black holes with the second law of thermodynamics

Well done! Full marks! You’ve got the whole point of the coin because Stephen Hawking like any other scientist would like to be remembered for his contribution to science. I think it’s a great coin!

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8 hours ago, PansPurse said:

OK, so, this is going to be a simplified version (theoretical physics was never my specialism, I was more an astrophysics kinda gal.

Basically black holes tend to screw with the normal laws of physics. In particular the second law of thermodynamics.

Most of us learned in school that energy can't really be created or destroyed, only transferred. That's the essence of thermodynamics. But it can also be expressed in terms of entropy (entropy is kinda screwy but basically can be thought of as the amount of disorder in the universe) so you can't really create or destroy entropy, only transfer it (crude example, I can neatly line up some rocks, but it takes energy to do that, so the universe hasn't become overall more or less ordered).

Anyway, black holes really screw with this because it's basically a hole. Whatever falls into it is basically "lost" which is bad because it messes with the thermodynamic laws that say that the amount of order in a closed system is constant.

Bekenstein theorised that the only way to explain this contradiction would be if the back holes themselves had some entropy (ie they're not just holes but have some level of order/disorder to them). Hawking's contribution to this was to theorise that black holes actually spit out radiation (Hawking radiation). The formula expresses these quantities mathematically (i.e. the entropy of the black hole is balanced by the radiation it emits).

It's a bit abstract but it's important because it means that black holes aren't actually breaking the laws of thermodynamics. Which is good because frankly physicists have enough other things to clarify around the fringes of the current standard models, so having this bit make sense is really helpful.

You’ve got the whole point of the coin which is to get past a guy in a wheelchair and honour a great scientist’s contribution to science. Stephen Hawking would have given you full marks for your brilliant summary of his contribution to science. Well done! I think it’s a great coin!

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Lovely video of his daughter and son visiting the Royal Mint and a first video look of the coin, box and the designer and where her inspiration came from

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vfBXTzfCZrw

 

This one is different to everything else bar Beatrix Potter possibly as Stephen Hawking is truly known worldwide and is a modern icon rather than a historical one.

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I thought entropy always tended to increase (nothing to do with creation or destruction of  course) and could only remain constant in ideal systems like a carnot engine?

 

I don't think much of the coin either.  I'm sure they could have made it look a bit better with an accretion disc or jets.  Maybe even some more texture in the rings or making them spiral in so the look more artistic?

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1 minute ago, Murph said:

I thought entropy always tended to increase (nothing to do with creation or destruction of  course) and could only remain constant in ideal systems like a carnot engine?

Yes you're right (first law is preservation, second law is essentially that you can't have perfect transfer). Entropy can/is constant in completely closed systems, and basically the universe is a closed system :)

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33 minutes ago, Oldun said:

7:50am the notice went up that they were sold out on the site so you, hopefully, just squeezed in through.

I’ll be down the list. No idea how you get on any quicker than that, maybe it comes down to connection speed 

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There's also a topic on the Stephen Hawking 50p coin release in the Gold section of the forum. It's been going since about mid February and has many more posts (if anyone who hasn't seen it yet is interested). I see from some of the names here that people have been dipping between both topics.

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5 minutes ago, GoodAsGold said:

There's also a topic on the Stephen Hawking 50p coin release in the Gold section of the forum. It's been going since about mid February and has many more posts (if anyone who hasn't seen it yet is interested). I see from some of the names here that people have been dipping between both topics.

There is indeed!

Though it's gone a bit off-topic, some absolute loon is now whinging about the money we give Nigeria for its 'space program' :wacko::

 

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On 11/03/2019 at 17:04, terakris said:

I think they could have done a better job. I'll get one, if i dont like it ill send it back.

I can't believe I'm reading this after your coin feedback in your post under the Gold category Stephen Hawking topic. Famous last words (well not LAST words thankfully) but so ironic that you ARE having to send your coin back.

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Just now, GoodAsGold said:

I can't believe I'm reading this after your coin feedback in your post under the Gold category Stephen Hawking topic. Famous last words (well not LAST words thankfully) but so ironic that you ARE having to send your coin back.

Yeah hahaha.

It was quite a nice coin in hand, i still think they could have done a much better design on it but we are all critics. But the quality was just too low, and im not the only one it seems that had a low quality item sent out.

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2 minutes ago, terakris said:

Yeah hahaha.

It was quite a nice coin in hand, i still think they could have done a much better design on it but we are all critics. But the quality was just too low, and im not the only one it seems that had a low quality item sent out.

Not seen a good example yet of the gold :wacko:

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20 minutes ago, kimchi said:

Not seen a good example yet of the gold :wacko:

I should say that is only four or five coins. But they have all had the same problems to the naked eye. It must be a hard coin to mint.

This is where the Coin Connection come into their own - they QC the coins themselves. Given the quality I've seen so far from the Mint, if they have been happy to sell them then that £100 premium for a chance of a perfect coin (as it should be) is looking rather reasonable now imvho.

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53 minutes ago, kimchi said:

There is indeed!

Though it's gone a bit off-topic, some absolute loon is now whinging about the money we give Nigeria for its 'space program' :wacko::

 

Oh you are a wag @kimchi - I've just discovered who that absolute loon is. Hats off to you Sir.

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