we figured it out

laurka and i have been talking about lost since 9:30 this morning, and i think we finally figured out something really important. and i just want to put it here, so when they reveal that this is what is actually happening, i can come back and show that we solved it first.

i don't know how to insert a page cut, so if you don't want to be spoiled, just don't read this.



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here is our conversation leading up to the revelation:

Laurka : The Casimir effect can be understood by the idea that the presence of conducting metals and dielectrics alter the vacuum expectation value of the energy of the second quantized electromagnetic field. Since the value of this energy depends on the shapes and positions of the conductors and dielectrics, the Casimir effect manifests itself as a force between such objects.
Kathryn : uhhhhhhh
Laurka : yeahhhhhh
Laurka : i feel so stupid
Laurka : i mean, this could be the key that unlocks the mysteries of lost
Laurka : right in front of me
Kathryn : hahah
Laurka : and i'm too stupid to grasp it
Laurka : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Casmir_plates.jpg this might mean something
Laurka : it's traveling through the plates
Kathryn : so like maybe they're stuck between the plates?
Kathryn : which plates and what they are, i dont know
Laurka : hahaha exactly
Laurka : but if you look at the arrows...
Laurka : you'd think that the plates would be pushed together, but inside it's repelling them
Kathryn : like magnets
Laurka : yeah
Laurka : and we know the island's a giant electromagnet
Kathryn : right
Laurka : maybe the island is the space between the plates
Kathryn : ooh maybe
Laurka : hahah OH!
Kathryn : and then when they "move" it, they
turn off the magnetic field and it moves to some other plates
Laurka : the space that DOESN'T EXIST unless seen through quantum mechanics!
Laurka : Oooooooooooooooooooooooh
Kathryn : oohhhh cause no one knows its htere, so it doesnt exist
Laurka : we may have cracked it down
Kathryn : we are so smart

so basically, casimir effect says that there are these two plates that can't touch because there's some matter between them, sort of the way magnets repel each other. so if the island is one giant magnet, pushing these plates away from each other, even though they want to touch, when it disappears (or the magnetism is turned off for a brief moment), the plates can finally come together, pushing the island somewhere else.

make sense? it is totally the answer.