Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [November 15, 2024]

The Stephen Wolfram Podcast

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa

Questions include: In class, we learned that light behaves like both a wave and a particle. How is that even possible? - My teacher said there's no "up" or "down" in space. Why is that, and how do astronauts navigate? - Is the universe as small as it is big? - When will we reach the physical computer chip size limit? I heard in two, three years. I also heard that quantum computer chips are still far away. Is this true? Can you elaborate on it? - How do you expect propagation of light in your model to work out? Will you get frequency-dependent propagation like in a normal elastic solid or independent propagation? - If light has no mass, how can gravity, like from a black hole, pull it in? Doesn't that break the rules?