1956: Unification

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Unification

Title text: For a while, some physicists worked on a theory unifying the other forces with both the force of gravity and the film "Gravity," but even after Alfonso Cuarón was held in a deep underground chamber of water for 10^31 years he refused to sell his film to Disney.

Explanation

In physics, the fundamental interactions, also known as fundamental forces, are the interactions that do not appear to be reducible to more basic interactions. There are four fundamental interactions known to exist: the gravitational and electromagnetic interactions, which produce significant long-range forces whose effects can be seen directly in everyday life, and the strong and weak interactions, which produce forces at minuscule, subatomic distances and govern nuclear interactions. Some scientists speculate that a fifth force might exist, but, if so, it is not widely accepted nor proven.

This comic lists five physical forces (it split up electricity and magnetism), but also includes a number of other things (two countries and three businesses) that are known for "unifying" in a non-physics sense. East and West Germany united politically in 1990, more than forty years after being divided at the end of World War II. Entertainment company Disney has united in a business sense with a number of others over the years; the comic mentions animation studio Pixar and the Star Wars franchise. The comic states that this is the progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature, which is absurd, with the addition of Disney and Germany, neither of which is one of the fundamental forces.^{[citation needed]} Star Wars is, of course, all about The Force, but this has, for some reason, gone unnoticed by most physicists.

The title text jokes that some physicists tried to unify the force of gravity with the 2013 movie Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock. Of course, this is also absurd, but it turns out that this is just another jab by Randall at George Lucas for selling his rights to Star Wars to Disney. The jab comes when he makes it clear that the director of Gravity Alfonso Cuarón would refuse to sell the rights to his film to Disney, even if he was held in underground chamber of water for 10³¹ years.

This water chamber and incredible time span is a reference to Proton decay, which is being investigated by trying to detect the Cherenkov radiation that could occur from possible decay of protons in water. These measurements are being conducted in immense water tanks buried under mountains to protect them against similar signals that could result from cosmic radiation. The same type of tanks have been used to detect neutrinos.

The half life of protons is currently believed to be between 10³¹–10³⁶ years. This should be compared to the age of the universe at around 1.3×10¹⁰ years, which means that one second compared to the age of the universe is larger than the age of the universe compared to the smallest suggested half life of the proton (as used in the comic) by a factor of about 10,000, but even this time would not make Cuarón cave in...

Unifications

Item	Unifications
Electricity	Electricity and magnetism were historically considered separate forces. Observations through the 19th century indicated that the two were closely linked, however, and the work of James Clerk Maxwell finally established their common identity in 1873. Today, their unified explanation, electromagnetism, is considered one of the four fundamental interactions in physics.	The unification of electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force—known as the electroweak interaction—is the only currently-accepted unification of two fundamental forces. Two Nobel Prizes in Physics have been awarded for work on this unification, in 1979 and in 1999.
Magnetism
Weak force	→
Strong force	The strong nuclear force is similar to the electroweak forces, as they are all part of the model known as quantum field theory (QFT). There have been attempts to unify them to produce a so-called Grand Unified Theory. No model of their unification has yet been shown to be correct, and it remains a major unsolved problem in physics.
Gravity	Unlike the other three fundamental forces, gravity is not described by QFT, but by general relativity (GR). A so-called "Theory of Everything", describing both QFT and GR, could also unify gravity and the other forces. Such a unification is still strictly hypothetical, however.
East Germany	In 1945, after Nazi Germany's defeat in the Second World War, Germany was occupied by the Allied Forces. At first, it was expected that the whole country would be transitioned to a single post-war government, but political and ideological differences between the Soviet Union and the other allies (which developed into the Cold War) prevented this. The Soviet-controlled zone became the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, while the British, American and French zones of control merged to form the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany. With the fall of the Berlin Wall (a physical and symbolic representation of the division) in 1989, and the fall of the East German socialist government in the "Peaceful Revolution", German reunification again became an immediate possibility. By late 1990, the merger was achieved, with East Germany joining the federal structure already existing in West Germany. On 5th February 2018, just under two weeks before this comic appeared, the Berlin Wall had been "gone as long as it had stood"; that is, 28 years, two months, and 27 days.
West Germany
Disney	Pixar was originally a part of the computer division of Lucasfilm, but was spun off into a separate business in 1986. The studio had a positive partnership with Walt Disney Animation, which resulted in a deal for Pixar to produce animated feature films for Walt Disney Pictures. Though the partnership later became strained, Disney agreed to buy Pixar in 2006. Pixar films produced after this acquisition have been branded "Disney-Pixar" films.	The Star Wars franchise was perhaps the most successful and best-known property of Lucasfilm, the company founded by George Lucas in 1971. Discussion in 2011 of a distribution deal with Disney, around the time that Lucas was planning his retirement, turned into the outright purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012. Since then, Disney has extensively revamped and developed the Star Wars franchise, with three new films and a television series released by the date of this comic, and several more in the works.
Pixar
Star Wars	→

Transcript

[Ten rounded frames with text inside are shown in two rows. Below each frame there is a line going down and then this line either joins with one or two of the other frames lines or in two cases do not joins with any other. At the bottom of the panel the now five remaining lines turn towards the center of the bottom of the panel and ends in arrows that points towards three question marks. The first three frames' lines are unified, same goes for the next two, and the three after that. The lines of the last two are not joined with any other lines. The text in the transcript is given as it appears from left to right, disregarding if it is the top or bottom row, but this will alternate through the ten frames, starting with one up, then one down etc.]

[Group one, starting with up:]

Electricity

Magnetism

Weak force

[Group two starting with down:]

East Germany

West Germany

[Group three starting with down:]

Star Wars

Disney

Pixar

[Two single frames, the first is up:]

Strong force

Gravity

[All five arrows points to this:]

???

[Caption below the panel:]

Progress toward unifying the fundamental forces of nature

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Discussion

The 10^31 years in the title text is a clear reference to the proton decay, with the proton expected to have a half-life between 10^31 and 10^36 years. But so far no evidence for this decay has been found, which is incompatible with the results given by various unified theories. So Cuarón is preventing the unification of this comics' fundamental forces of nature like the proton is preventing GUTs. (Also, even the physics part has several layers of unification, the current one, GUTs, and TOEs) 141.101.99.113 11:23, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

I know this isn't the place for it.. but.. why not Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays? It is literally President's Day weekend. That's right, Jacky720 just signed this (talk | contribs) 22:00, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

Marvel?

Where is the unification of Marvel with Disney as well? I know, if you put in all the companies that Disney has merged with/bought over the years, it would take up way more room than the comic will allow. Nutster (talk) 14:50, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

I think Randall missed "The Force" and "Midi-chlorians"! Neurozero (talk) 17:07, 16 February 2018 (UTC)

We have a statutory holiday in British Columbia called Family Day; it is on the second Monday of February. Other provinces have a similar holiday, though some with different names, on the third Monday of February. Alberta, the province next to British Columbia calls theirs Family Day. My joke has been that they should split the different and have Family Day on Valentine's Day. Apparently, though, British Columba will be changing the observance of Family Day to the third Monday in February: another unification. 108.162.216.220 23:34, 17 February 2018 (UTC) Gene Wirchenko [email protected]

Which came first? The Proton or the Universe? These Are Not The Comments You Are Looking For (talk) 17:49, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

The Universe, but not by much. The first protons should have appeared somewhere in the first 10^-6 seconds. Nutster (talk) 06:04, 21 February 2018 (UTC)

I personally would be scared of a unification of the two Germanys and Strong Force 108.162.221.131 04:29, 30 May 2018 (UTC) (Anonymous)

Shouldn't this be an incomplete explanation? There are empty table cells. Nitpicking (talk) 00:40, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

As you're back with another point (below). ...no, there are no empty table cells (nor were there, as you wrote this). 172.70.86.148 12:53, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

Hmm ... "The same type of tanks have been used to detect neutrinos." Actually, if I recall, it's not the same type of tanks, it's the very same tanks. For example, the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan is mostly known for detecting neutrinos, but has also been used to search for proton decay. Nitpicking (talk) 12:38, 16 February 2023 (UTC)