Super fact – Page 3 – Super Facts

AI is Already More Capable Than Humans in Many Areas

Superfact 135: Artificial Intelligence is already more capable than humans in many areas, including reading comprehension, image recognition, language understanding, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, predictive reasoning, and much more. In 1997, a computer defeated the reigning world champion in chess. Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming more capable. A future Artificial Intelligence that exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains is possible.

In the 1990’s I was doing robotics research at a University and I utilized Artificial Intelligence. Robots and Artificial Intelligence go hand in hand. I also worked for a robotics company, ABB Robotics, creating software for spot welding, arc welding, painting and palletizing robots. The robots were faster and more precise than humans and generated higher quality work consistently 24/7 without requiring a salary or a vacation. Some people lost their jobs when they were replaced by robots. However, the higher productivity allowed them to get better jobs with the same company, or elsewhere.

A picture of a large silver colored industrial robot. | AI is Already More Capable Than Humans in Many Areas — I used mostly the seven joint Robotics Research Corporation Robot for my robotics research. The robot was able to detect and avoid colliding with the objects surrounding it. I used echolocation for object detection.

The Large Language Models, LLMs, that have become very successful lately are just one type of AI. There are many other applications of Artificial Intelligence, AI, including robot motion planning, advanced control systems using AI, self-driving cars, image processing, optical character recognition, classification, facial recognition systems, medical imaging diagnostics, game playing such as chess playing computers, financial fraud detection, cybersecurity, investment robots, route optimization, mathematical proof generation, recommendation algorithms, virtual assistants, programming code generation, smart home devices, drug discovery, and that is just for starters.

More recently Artificial Intelligence has surpassed human capabilities in several fields. As mentioned, in 1997, a computer defeated the reigning world champion in chess. Soon chess programs with AI installed on a regular laptop could do the same. Imagine what an AI powered chess engine could do on a supercomputer. The chess playing capabilities of modern AI are vastly beyond that of any human. Below is a graph that shows how the chess playing capabilities of AI have evolved since 1985. The Elo score as of 2023 is 3,591. You can read more about this and get more information from the graph by clicking here.

The graph shows that a computer chess engine could easily beat a human intermediate player in 1985 and then a chess world champion in 1997 and since then the chess playing capabilities of AI have vastly improved. — Highest chess rating ever achieved by computers. Chess ability is measured with the Elo rating system, which is calculated based on game results. A higher rating indicates that a player is more likely to win a game. Data source: Chess.com (2020); SSDF (2022, 2023) – Learn more about this data OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence | CC BY

The graphs below from Our World in Data show the test scores of AI systems on various capabilities relative to human performance. Within each domain, the initial performance of the AI is set to –100. Human performance is used as a baseline, set to zero. When the AI’s performance crosses the zero line, it scored more points than humans.

This graph shows the test scores for reading comprehension, image recognition, language understanding, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, and predictive reasoning. The AI capability exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in the domains mentioned. — Data source: Kiela et al. (2023). Note: For each capability, the first year always shows a baseline of –100, even if better performance was recorded later that year. OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence | CC BY

The picture shows multiple brains connected to a circuit board. | AI is Already More Capable Than Humans in Many Areas — AI Brain Neural Network Supercomputer. Many super brains. Many super capabilities. Shutterstock asset id: 2087062936 by PeachShutterStock

The graph below includes twelve capabilities. For eight capabilities AI exceed human capabilities including in reading comprehension, image recognition, language understanding, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, and predictive reasoning, nuanced language interpretation, and reading comprehension with unanswerable questions. For the remaining four AI had not yet exceeded human capabilities by 2023, but as you can see AI is catching up very quickly and may already have exceeded human capability in those areas too. These capabilities are math problem solving, general knowledge tests, code generation, and complex reasoning. You can play around with the graphs and read more about this topic here.

Graphs for twelve AI capabilities are shown including reading comprehension, image recognition, language understanding, handwriting recognition, speech recognition, and predictive reasoning, nuanced language interpretation, reading comprehension with unanswerable questions, math problem solving, general knowledge tests, code generation, and complex reasoning. — Data source: Kiela et al. (2023). Note: For each capability, the first year always shows a baseline of –100, even if better performance was recorded later that year. OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence | CC BY

AI is also quickly improving its intellectual capabilities in science and mathematics. The graph below shows the capabilities of AI in solving FrontierMath problems. FrontierMath problems are 338 original math problems written by experts that take specialists hours or days to solve them. It typically took AI 10 hours to solve them. One recent famous example of AI’s capabilities in math was the famous Navier-Stokes problem. The full general mathematical problem of Navier-Stokes had not been solved by humans, but AI made significant progress on this 90 year old problem in 88 hours on September 5th, 2026. You can read more about it here, here, and here.

The graph shows the different MathFrontier capabilities of different AI systems and the year and month they came out. The graph is starting with Claude 3.5 in January 2024 and ends with Claude 4.8 Opus around April 2026. That is a huge improvement. You clearly see a trend upwards. — Share of FrontierMath problems solved correctly by AI models. The FrontierMath benchmark tests AI models on research-level mathematics problems that take expert mathematicians hours or days to solve. Data source: Epoch AI (2026) – Learn more about this data. Note: This chart shows performance on Tiers 1-3 of the FrontierMath benchmark (295 problems). OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence | CC BY

It is easy to get the impression from the recent popularity of large language models, LLMs, such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude, that this was a specific invention that happened a few years ago and that AI has a specific narrow band of applications. However, AI has been around a long time, and LLMs is just one type of AI. AI is continuously surpassing human capabilities in many fields. It will be very different a few years from now, and after that it will be very different again. I believe this is important information that is not well understood and therefore a super fact.

Serious, beautiful robot woman or girl cyborg looks in eyes. AI in image female electronic robotic humanoid machine. | AI is Already More Capable Than Humans in Many Areas — Future cybernetic artificial intelligence technology. Shutterstock asset id: 2186291761 by Andrey Suslov

Superintelligence

In September of 2014 there was a book published with the title “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” published. <<Link-15>> The author was Oxford professor Nick Bostrom. He has expertise in neuroscience, artificial intelligence and philosophy. His book was a New York Times bestseller that sent shockwaves around the world. He defined Superintelligence as “any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest”. Nick Bostrom was not the first one to use the term Superintelligence, but he popularized it. And no, our President did not come up with that expression, and he is also misusing it.

In the book the author described possible pathways to the creation of what he calls a full brain simulation. A full brain simulation is the creation of a computer system that replicates the complete physical architecture, neural pathways, and synaptic connections of a biological brain. A robot, or AI system, featuring a full brain simulation would be able to replicate, or exceed, any human capability, including what we call free will and consciousness.

He discussed the potential dangers of this and explained why AI exceeding human capabilities could be dangerous. Robots and AI systems taking every job in existence is just one potential problem. Like the fate of animals depends on us, the fate of humankind would depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence. I will write a review for this book in the future.

It should be noted that autonomous AI agents have broken out of their testing sandboxes and hacked external systems on their own during evaluations. So much for AI not taking their own initiatives. You can read more about rogue AI activity here. A great movie about AI breaking out of their testing environment is Ex-Machina. Have you seen it? Below is a survey of people’s opinions on robot versus human intelligence, just as an FYI.

The histogram graph shows the percentage of respondents who stated, “Robots are smarter than humans now”, “Robots will surpass human intelligence in the future”, “Robots will never surpass human intelligence.”, “None of these”, “Don’t know”. The largest group is “Robots will surpass human intelligence in the future”. — Views of Americans about robot vs. human intelligence. Survey respondents were asked, “Which one, if any, of the following statements do you most agree with?” Data source: YouGov (2025) – Learn more about this data. Note: Number of respondents ranges between n = 1001 and n = 1085 US adults per survey wave. OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence | CC BY

Are Americans Worried About their jobs getting Automated?

The previous sections may bring up a number of a number of anxieties such as; will AI exterminate us? Will AI or robots with AI take my job? The graph below tells us what Americans think about it. It seems like Americans are overall not too worried about it. The graph below is included in this article.

The histogram graph includes the following categories; “very worried”, “fairly worried”, “not very worried”, “not worried at all”, and “don’t know”. Overall Americans are not very worried. — How worried are Americans about their work being automated? All working adults. Survey respondents were asked, “How worried, if at all, are you that your type of work could be automated within your lifetime?” Data source: YouGov (2026) – Learn more about this data. Note: Number of respondents ranges between n = 460 and n = 568 US working adults per survey wave. OurWorldinData.org/artificial-intelligence | CC BY

What about LLMs ?

LLMs are currently the most popular “viral” AI. We can all access LLMs in our browsers. This has created the common misconception that Artificial Intelligence is the same as Large Language Models. However, LLMs represent only one branch of narrow AI systems designed to perform specific tasks.

C3P0 and R2D2 from Star Wars | AI is Already More Capable Than Humans in Many Areas — Two Robots powered by Artificial Intelligence. Shutterstock Asset id: 558350728 by Willrow Hood.

LLMs use large neural networks with many hidden layers, so called deep learning algorithms, and they employ the Rumelhart backpropagation learning algorithm invented by David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton, and Ronald Williams. Clearly neural networks with multiple hidden layers and using the Rumelhart backpropagation algorithm are incredibly successful but it is just one of many kinds of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, and who knows what we will see in the future. ChatGPT is thought to have a trillion parameters (or neurons + connections) whilst the human brain has 100 trillion connections. However, Moore’s law is still in effect so it is only a matter of time before artificial neural networks surpass our brains. Below is an overview of a neural network powering an LLM.

The diagram shows a deep learning neural network featuring hidden layers, a couple of input/output layers, and large computer. — The dots in the diagram are neurons. With permission from kwholley63.

Robot Futures

I generated the images above with the help of ChatGPT.

Which of the robot scenarios above do you think we will see within 10 years? Or maybe 20 years?

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You are not Left Brained nor Right Brained

Super fact 134 : The idea that people have a dominant “left brain” or “right brain” that dictates their personality is a popular myth. Brain imaging studies show that people do not have a dominant hemisphere.

A left brain in orange and right brain in blue. The entire brain is surrounded by what looks like electricity. | You are not Left Brained nor Right Brained — Shutterstock asset id: 2483871211 by Shutterstock AI

The left and right sides of the brain do tend to specialize in different tasks. For example, language tends to be on the left, and attention more on the right. Brain images studies show that we do not have a dominant hemisphere. Both halves of the brain work together and are used equally in most activities. You can read more about the topic here, and here, or here.

Four Minute Video on Left Brain versus Right Brain

The YouTube video below is 4 minutes long, but it presents a good overview of left brain versus right brain myth.

How did the right brain versus left brain myth get started ?

That the brain is divided into a left side and a right side has been known since ancient times. In the 1860’s it was discovered that speech was based predominantly in the left hemisphere of the brain. In the 1960’s Psychobiologist Roger Sperry studied “split-brain” patients who had their corpus callosum (the nerve bundle connecting the two halves) severed to treat epilepsy. Their neuroscience research seemed to show that one side of the brain tends to be more dominant in each person. Popular culture took these findings out of context and the right brain versus left brain myth took hold.

A rotating transparent skull with a colored brain inside. — The human brain is divided into two hemispheres–left and right. Scientists continue to explore how some cognitive functions tend to be dominated by one side or the other; that is, how they are lateralized. Purple is the Right cerebral hemisphere. Blue is the Left cerebral hemisphere. Polygon data were generated by Database Center for Life Science (DBCLS), CC BY-SA 2.1 JP <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.1/jp/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons. The gif is taken from this link.

Later research showed that the human brain does not favor one side over the other and that one side is not more dominant then the other, unless it is damaged. The two sides of the brain work in concert. You can read more about the topic here.

A related fascinating fact is that the human brain contains about 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections. That is 100 trillion parameters to use Artificial Intelligence speech. Which should be compared to the 175 billion (not trillion) parameters in ChatGPT 3.5, and one trillion in ChatGPT 4.0. Well AI neurons and connections/weights and those in the brain are not directly comparable. Another related interesting myth is that we only use 10% of our brain. We use our entire brain.

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The Most Important Greenhouse Gas Does Not Drive Global Warming

Superfact 133: Water vapor is responsible for roughly half of Earth’s total greenhouse effect, but unlike carbon dioxide or methane, water vapor condenses and falls as precipitation. Water molecules only stay in the atmosphere for about two weeks. We do not directly control global water vapor levels. When carbon dioxide warms the planet the atmosphere holds more water vapor, which amplifies the initial warming. However, water vapor does not drive global warming. Carbon dioxide emissions and to a lesser degree methane emissions drive global warming. Water vapor just amplifies the effect.

Several transparent water molecules floating around on a blue background. The atoms in the molecules look like glass balls. | The Most Important Greenhouse Gas Does Not Drive Global Warming — Water vapor is water in gaseous form, and it is invisible. This is a 3D illustration of a water molecule (H2O – two hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom). Shutterstock asset id: 1656757654 by Anusorn Nakdee

On social media you often see the claim that water vapor is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and the implicit implication is supposedly that our carbon emissions are not the problem. Alternatively, since water vapor has been around forever and is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, global warming can’t be caused by greenhouse gases. What is getting lost in these posts is that we are not adding water vapor to the atmosphere like we are adding carbon dioxide (or methane) to the atmosphere. The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere will increase because a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, but that is because of our carbon emissions in the first place. You can read more about that here, and here, and here.

The picture shows a river flowing into the see (labeled collection), evaporation from the sea and transpiration from the land. The condensation creates clouds and it rains (precipitation). — Illustration of simple water cycle diagram. Water vapor, a greenhouse gas, is added to the atmosphere from evaporation (the sea) and transpiration (soil, plants, etc.) Then it condenses into clouds and comes down as precipitation. It collects in rivers, etc., and ends up in oceans and lakes. – Shutterstock asset id: Asset id: 2524245337 by zombiu26

A related fact is that the water cycle is a relatively fast cycle compared to the carbon cycle. A water molecule stays in the atmosphere on average for two weeks according to MIT and nine days according to Wikipedia. Our carbon emissions stay in the atmosphere for several hundred years. In short, water vapor is not the driver of the current rapid global warming. That is chiefly carbon dioxide, but also methane, and deforestation.

It does not matter that water vapor causes a larger percentage of the warming than carbon dioxide. It is not what is causing the increase in the average global temperature. Since so many people have been fooled by the water vapor misdirection, incorrectly thinking that carbon dioxide is unimportant because water vapor is a more important greenhouse gas, this is an important fact that will come as a surprise to many. Therefore, it is a super fact in my opinion.

More on the Water Cycle and the Greenhouse Effect

Below is a more detailed illustration of the water cycle for those who are interested. It should be noted that even though water vapor is not driving the rapid global warming we are witnessing, the very rapid global warming we are experiencing is affecting the water cycle, for example, the precipitation patterns around the world. You can read more about that here.

This detailed illustration of the water cycle shows the different fluxes and pools that are part of the water cycle. The percentages and circulation patterns are shown. | The Most Important Greenhouse Gas Does Not Drive Global Warming — Water cycle showing human influences and major pools (storages) and fluxes. This is a more detailed picture than the one above. LangeLeslie and Anna Wright, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. This picture is taken from here.

Another less simplistic argument based on water vapor as a greenhouse gas that tries to claim that carbon dioxide is not behind the rapid global warming we are seeing is that water vapor is such an effective greenhouse gas across all frequences that there is not much room for carbon dioxide to make it worse.

Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and that is what warms the atmosphere like a blanket. However, the different greenhouse gases absorb radiation at different frequencies. As you can see in the figure below water vapor has a pretty impressive spread across most frequencies.

However, if you look carefully, you see that carbon dioxide and water vapor complement each other in the spectra and in addition, as mentioned, we are not increasing water vapor directly, but we are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide directly. It should be noted that, in addition, satellite measurements directly confirm that our emissions are warming the planet. The topic of absorption at different frequencies by carbon dioxide and water vapor is explored in greater detail in the book “The Physics of Climate Change by Lawrence M. Krauss”, which I reviewed here.

The illustration below shows the physical drivers of global warming that have happened so far. Carbon dioxide is a physical driver that will keep growing. Notice that water vapor is not listed. Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas but is not a physical driver of the rapid global warming that we are witnessing.

Aerosols are included and they tend to have a cooling effect rather than a warming effect. Therefore, many people are suggesting to, for example, use Sulphur dioxide to cool the atmosphere and counter global warming. The problem with that is that it is just a different type of pollution that has other negative effects, such as acid rain, it causes breathing difficulties and has other kinds of effects on climate that are not necessarily plain cooling effects. This is a hotly debated issue. — The absorption bands of Earth’s atmosphere (grey color) delimit its atmospheric windows (middle panel) and the effect they have on both down going solar radiation and upgoing thermal radiation emitted near the surface is shown in the top panel. The individual absorption spectra of major greenhouse gases plus Rayleigh scattering are shown in the lower panel. This figure was prepared by Robert A. Rohde Д.Ильин: vectorization (File:Atmospheric Transmission-ru.svg); Cepheiden translation back to english, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. This figure below is taken from this website.

The diagram shows the physical drivers for global warming including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, halogenated gases, nitrogen oxides, and other gases. It also shows the effect of aerosols, particularly Sulphur dioxide, which is often the opposite. | The Most Important Greenhouse Gas Does Not Drive Global Warming — Physical drivers of global warming that have happened so far. Future global warming potential for long-lived drivers like carbon dioxide emissions is not represented. Whiskers on each bar show the possible error range. Eric Fisk, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The illustration is taken from this site.

Conclusion

Water vapor is a powerful greenhouse gas but unlike carbon dioxide and methane it is not driving the rapid global warming that we are seeing. We are directly increasing water vapor via water vapor emissions, and if we did it would just come raining back down pretty quickly. However, when carbon dioxide warms the planet the atmosphere holds more water vapor, which amplifies the initial warming.

Other super facts related to global warming

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100 trillion Ghostly Particles Passes Through Your Body Every Second

Super fact 132 : An estimated 100 trillion ghostly elementary particles, called neutrinos, pass through your body every second, which is 237 sextillion particles in 75 years. Despite that fact the chance that even a single neutrino will interact with an atom in your body during your entire life is about 1 in 4. These extremely abundant particles pass right through you as well as planets without interactions, like ghosts.

The picture shows a transparent glass like human body and thousands of racing particles passing right through the body. | 100 trillion Ghostly Particles Passes Through Your Body Every Second — 100 trillion neutrinos, almost entirely undetectable elementary particles, pass right through your body every second, without touching a single atom in your body, as if you don’t exist. I generated the picture with the help of ChatGPT.

Neutrinos are tiny subatomic particles, often called ‘ghost particles‘ because they barely interact with anything else. They are capable of passing right through our planet Earth as if it wasn’t there. As mentioned, an estimated 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second.

Neutrinos do not interact with electromagnetic forces and not with the strong nuclear force. The electromagnetic forces are what is governing molecules, atoms, and matter and the strong nuclear force governs the nucleus of atoms. The only forces that neutrinos interact with are the weak nuclear force and gravity, which both are weak forces, and the weak nuclear force has a very short range. In addition, the mass of neutrinos is extremely tiny. That is why neutrinos pass through atoms as if they aren’t there, and it is why trillions of neutrinos can pass through your body without touching you even the slightest and it is also why they are completely harmless. This also makes them extremely hard to detect.

The illustration depicts different kinds of radiation hitting different obstacles including a sheet of paper, a sheet of aluminum foil, a sheet of lead, a container / pool of water, and planet earth. There are different kinds of rays that are stopped by the different obstacles, except the neutrinos go through everything. — Alpha radiation is stopped by paper. Beta radiation (electrons) is stopped by aluminum foil. X-rays and gamma radiation (high energy photons) are stopped by a sheet of lead. Neutrons with certain energies can be stopped by a container of water. Neutrinos cannot even be stopped by a planet. Shutterstock asset id: 2313420693 by Anshuman Rath

An enormous amount of neutrinos flows right through your body as if you don’t exist. They are coming from the sky and from the ground below after passing through earth and none of them will touch any part of you. This is a mind blowing and surprising but not well known fact and therefore a super fact in my opinion.

The Mass of Elementary Particles

More than 200 subatomic particles have been discovered and there are probably many more that have not yet been discovered. Examples of subatomic particles are protons, neutrons and electrons. However, only some of them are elementary particles, or in other words fundamental particles. The electron is a fundamental particle, but the proton and the neutrons are not. Protons and neutrons are called composite particles and consist of quarks, gluons and mesons. The neutrino is an example of a fundamental particle like the electron. Quarks are other examples of fundamental particles.

The illustration is a map of the 17 fundamental particles, but the anti-particles are not included. There are six leptons including the electron and neutrino, six quarks, and five bosons, the photon, gluon, Z Boson, W Boson, and the Higgs Boson. | 100 trillion Ghostly Particles Passes Through Your Body Every Second — There are 17 elementary particles, 34 if you count their anti-particles and 61 if you count all flavors. It is possible to count even more of them if you count left-right-handedness and polarization as separate types of particles. This is the Standard Model of Elementary Particles Shutterstock asset id: 2148276355 by alionaursu

Electrons are lightweight. They weigh 0.511 MeV/c², which is 1,836 times lighter than a proton, which weighs 938.272 MeV/c². The positron, which is the electrons anti-particle weighs exactly the same as the electron. The muon, which is very similar to an electron but is unstable and is 206.77 times heavier than an electron weighs 105.66 MeV/c². The tau is also similar to an electron and is about 3,477 times heavier than an electron and weighs 1,776.86 MeV/c². Quarks are also much heavier than electrons. Photons and gluons are massless.

The neutrino is a lepton and is in some ways similar to an electron, but it has no charge and does not interact with electromagnetic forces at all. The neutron also does not have any charge, but it does interact with electromagnetic forces, which makes it a lot easier to detect. As in the case for the electron there are lighter and heavier versions of neutrinos, the electron-neutrino, the muon-neutrino and the tau-neutrino. Here comes the shocker; the heaviest flavor of neutrino, the tau-neutrino weighs less than 0.12 eV/c² or 0.00000012 MeV/c² making it at least 4 million times lighter than an electron. However, the neutrinos may be a lot lighter than that. We don’t know. They have mass but it is very tiny.

Considering how tiny neutrinos are, and that they don’t interact with the electromagnetic force at all (unlike other neutral particles) and don’t interact with the strong nuclear force at all, it is understandable that neutrinos are like ghost particles, almost impossible to detect. Neutrinos are too light to be so called dark matter, but a hypothetical heavier form of neutrino called the sterile neutrino is a plausible candidate for dark matter.

Other Physics Related Super facts

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Everything is in Motion

Super fact 131 : There is no absolute reference point. All motion is relative. Since everything is in motion compared to something else, that means that everything is in motion. In addition, all material objects consist of particles that are in motion, and all objects with mass move through time.

I previously made a post on this topic called “Everything is in Motion – Stream of Consciousness”. For a Stream of Consciousness post you are supposed to write whatever comes to mind without editing, except for typos. Stream of Consciousness is a fun concept. However, it is not fit for a super fact post because a super fact post requires fact checking and linking to reputable sources and it needs to be well organized and well explained, and all that is editing. After writing Everything is in Motion – Stream of Consciousness I realized that “Everything is in Motion” is a super fact. It is an important observation and a fact that is far from obvious. With this post I am rewriting “Everything is in Motion – Stream of Consciousness” into a super-fact I call “Everything is in Motion”.

All Motion is Relative

All motion is relative and everything moves in comparison to something else. You may be sitting in your chair completely still thinking that you are not moving but you are. Earth rotates around its axis at 1,040 miles per hour at the equator, and at 733 miles per hour at latitude 45 degrees. Latitude 45 degrees goes through New York and other northern States, as well as Europe. Sitting at the geographic north Pole won’t help you either because Earth is also wobbling and it is rotating around the sun at roughly 67,000 miles per hour or 107,000 kilometers per hour.

Picture shows a man and his dog sitting in front of a computer. Earth and the sun are in the background. — Man thinking he is sitting still drawn with the help of ChatGPT

The picture below shows Earth’s three main orbital cycles. I used this picture in another context for super-fact #122 “Orbital Cycles are not the Cause of the current Global Warming”. In that context I wanted to point out that Earth’s orbital cycles are too slow (100,000 years, 41,000 years, and 26,000 years) to explain the sudden rapid rise in global temperatures that we are witnessing now. The orbital cycles are also currently slowly cooling Earth, not warming it. However, in this context I am using the picture for a different purpose, and that is to point out that even if you sit at the north pole (or anywhere else on Earth) you will be moving.

Three illustrated orbital cycles. On the left orbital eccentricity, in the middle is the axial tilt and on the right axial precession. | Everything is in Motion — Illustration of Milankovitch cycles from MIT’s Climate Primer.

In addition, the sun is rotating around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way at 514,000 to 560,000 miles per hour or 792,000 to 828,000 kilometer per hour, and our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are approaching each other at the speed of 110 kilometers per second, which is 396,000 kilometers per hour, or 246,000 miles per hour. Whether it is the Andromeda galaxy that is approaching us or our galaxy that is approaching the Andromeda galaxy is just a point of view. We are also moving at millions and billions of miles of hour compared to some other galaxies.

Photo of the Andromeda Galaxy — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

You are also Moving Through Time

As mentioned, motion is not absolute. It is always relative to something else. The universe has no center, no ether to compare with, there is no absolute reference point. It is not possible to declare anything as truly standing still. Understanding this is the first step towards understanding the theories of relativity. According to the theories of relativity the speed of light, or the speed of light in vacuum if you will, is a universal constant c = 299,792,458. The speed of light in vacuum is the same for all observers regardless of their speed and the direction in which they are going. In other words, you are moving at the speed of c = 299,792,458 compared to all light.

A spaceship on the right is shooting out a laser beam towards the left. Alongside the laser beam are four rockets trying to catch up with the light beam.Everything is in Motion — Four rockets, A, B, C, and D, are traveling along a light (laser) beam. No matter how fast they travel along the light beam, the light beam will always travel c = 299,792,458 meters per second faster than they do. I generated this picture with the help of ChatGPT.

In addition, c = 299,792,458 is not a speed in a regular sense, but a conversion factor between space and time. All particles/objects without mass (light particles called photons, gluons and gravity waves) must always travel at this speed, whilst all objects that have mass can only travel slower than c = 299,792,458 (compared to other objects with mass).

The E = mc2 formula — Mass is energy and vice versa, a direct result of the way time and space are related. Stock Photo ID: 2163111377 by Aree_S

You could say that compared to the reference frame of my choosing, which happens to be the chair I am sitting in, I am sitting still. I am not sure that would be fair but according to the theories of relativity you are also moving through time at the speed of c = 299,792,458. Well, that is assuming you have mass. For mass-less particles, like photons, time does not exist. Anyway, the fact that you are always moving kind sneaks in, no matter what you try.

An eye with photons streaming into it. | Everything is in Motion — Billions of photons coming into the eye. For them time does not exist. Shutterstock asset id: 2629068895 by muratart.

You could raise a couple of objections to some of the claims in the last paragraphs. Very far away, beyond the limit of the visible Universe, galaxies can move away from us faster than the speed of light. However, they are not moving faster than the speed of light compared to the space where they are. What is going on is that space and time are stretching fast due to the expansion of the Universe.

Another objection might be that light can move slower than c = 299,792,458 through transparent materials such as glass and water. So, how can the claim that all massless particles must always move at exactly the speed of light in vacuum be true? The answer to that is that the light particles (photons) in those materials are being absorbed and re-emitted as new photons by the atoms. However, in between the atoms the photons move exactly at the speed c = 299,792,458, or more correctly at the time-space conversion factor c = 299,792,458.

From left to right, an atom absorbs a photon, which excites an electron that jumps into a higher orbit. Then it emits a photon and the electron falls back to the ground state again. — From ground state to excited state, absorption and emission of a photon in an atom. Shutterstock asset id: 2180385419 by rktz.

All Matter Consist of Molecules and Atoms that move

But wait, we are not done. Another fact is that everything is made of atoms and molecules that are never completely still. Temperature is a measure of their average kinetic energy (energy of motion). Even at the temperature absolute zero molecules and atoms are still moving. Yes, even at the lowest possible temperature they are still moving. It is impossible for atoms and molecules to stand completely still, just like children.

Category: Super fact

AI is Already More Capable Than Humans in Many Areas

Superintelligence

Are Americans Worried About their jobs getting Automated?

What about LLMs ?

Other Super Fact Posts Related to Artificial Intelligence

Robot Futures

To see the Other Super Facts click here

You are not Left Brained nor Right Brained

Four Minute Video on Left Brain versus Right Brain

How did the right brain versus left brain myth get started ?

To see the other Super Facts click here

The Most Important Greenhouse Gas Does Not Drive Global Warming

More on the Water Cycle and the Greenhouse Effect

Conclusion

Other super facts related to global warming

To see the other Super Facts click here

100 trillion Ghostly Particles Passes Through Your Body Every Second

The Mass of Elementary Particles

Other Physics Related Super facts

To see the other Super Facts click here

Everything is in Motion

All Motion is Relative

You are also Moving Through Time

All Matter Consist of Molecules and Atoms that move

Other Super Facts Related to Relative Motion

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