Listen Now

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 31 March 1966- The Luna 10 became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon, which was launched by the USSR. Word of the Day- Atmosphere is a gaseous layer surrounding a planet or other body which has a strong enough gravity to hold gaseous substances to it. Think about that. The gravity of the earth is the only thing holding those gaseous particles in place on our planet. Earth's "atmosphere" has several different "layers", including the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere (where many meteors are observed), thermosphere, and exosphere. The atmosphere also highly contributes to trapping sunlight and thermal heat on our planet, making it suitable for life. By contrast, the moon has virtually no atmosphere, similar to that of Mercury. They do not have the substance of gravity to significantly bind matter to the planet.  Question of the Day- Do you appreciate your atmosphere??  Keywords: Atmosphere, Luna, USSR, Moon

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 30 March 1922- Happy Birthday to Arthur Strong Wightman who would have turned 94 today. "[He] was an American mathematical physicist. He was one of the founders of the axiomatic approach to quantum field theory, and originated the set of Wightman axioms."  Word of the Day- Air resistance is a force which acts opposite an object traveling through air, or any gas. The particles in the gas collide with the object, and even though the molecules are microscopic, many small parcels can create a serious amount of force. It is what cars must oppose to maintain speeds on highways, and why cars are designed to look like they do, they are optimized to minimize air resistance, or drag. It's what pushes sails on sailboats and what can even create enough friction to cause extreme heat and damage upon reentry of satellites, space shuttles, and maybe even....UFOs! Question of the Day- Do heavier objects fall more slowly than lighter objects? Answer: In the presence of no air resistance, objects fall at the exact same rate, and what changes their fall in the presence of air is AIR RESISTANCE. Check out the video to see a feather and coin fall at the exact same rate in a vacuum. Keywords: Air, Resistance, Force, Space Shuttle, Drag

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 29 March 2010- The particle accelerator CERN officially went online, a year and a half late.  Word of the Day- Gravitational Lensing is a phenomenon which involves light from very far away and very massive galaxies. When a galaxy emits light which passes close to a very massive object like a star or a black hole, it can bend the light such that the galaxy can be behind the galaxy and appear as one or multiple galaxies to the side of the massive object. In 2011 an astronomy pic of the day featured a star which warped the light from a galaxy creating a gravitational lensing mirage.  Question of the Day- Do heavier objects fall more slowly than lighter objects?  Keywords: Gravitational Lensing, Mirage 

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 28 March 1946- Happy Birthday to Wubbo Ockels, a Dutch astronaut who would have turned 70 today. He was the first Dutch citizen in space and did so aboard the American Space Shuttle. Word of the Day- A Matrix is a square or rectangular array of numbers. A matrix is defined by how many rows and columns it has. For example, a matrix with 2 rows and 3 columns is referred to as a "2 by 3" matrix. The plural of matrix is matrices. Matrices are very useful for describing quantities which may exist in multiple dimensions, such as vector quantities or tensor quantities. They make very complicated numerical situations very easy to manipulate and are used in almost every facet of physics and mathematics. If you have ever computed a cross product, you have essentially dealt with matrices before, even if you didn't know it. Keywords: Matrix, Space Shuttle.

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 27 March 1845- Happy Birthday to Wilhelm Rontgen, a German Physicist and 1901 Nobel Prize winner who would have turned 171 today. He was the first to discover radiation first known as Rontgen rays and now referred to as X-rays.  Word of the Day- The Drake Equation is an equation developed by Frank Drake in 1961 which uses probabilistic factors which are multiplied together to estimate the number of extraterrestrial intelligent species in the galaxy or universe. Per wikipedia: "The number of such civilizations, N, is assumed to be equal to the mathematical product of (i) the average rate of star formation, R*, in our galaxy, (ii) the fraction of formed stars, fp, that have planets, (iii) the average number of planets per star that has planets, ne, that can potentially support life, (iv) the fraction of those planets, fl, that actually develop life, (v) the fraction of planets bearing life on which intelligent, civilized life, fi, has developed, (vi) the fraction of these civilizations that have developed communications, fc, i.e., technologies that release detectable signs into space, and (vii) the length of time, L, over which such civilizations release detectable signals". Check it out here. By this equation and even conservative estimates there are somewhere between 1000 and 100,000,000 civilizations in the Milky Way alone. Keywords: Drake, Equation, Roentgen, Extraterrestrial.

Dig deeper  at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 26 March 1938,Happy Birthday to Sir Anthony James Leggett, who turns 78 today. "Leggett is widely recognized as a world leader in the theory of low-temperature physics, and his pioneering work on superfluidity was recognized by the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics." [Source] Word of the Day- CETI is an acronym meaning communication with extraterrestrial life. The idea is to transmit messages that could theoretically be decoded by other intelligent civilizations. One of the most famous CETI attempt was done by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake at Arecibo observatory, in 1974. They transmitted a message from the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico of 1769 binary digits which form a picture when placed in sequence which can be seen here. We have as of this writing not received any known transmissions from this or any other CETI attempts. Question of the Day: If you could communicate with extraterrestrial life, what would you say??? Keywords: CETI, Extraterrestrial, Superfluids

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 25 March 1655- Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, was discovered by Christian Huygens.  Word of the Day- Lava Tubes- I came across an article in the National Geographic which stated that scientists had discovered Lava Tubes on the moon, and that they are currently being scouted to house a permanent moon base. So Lava Tubes are tunnels under the surface of the Moon, where lava once flowed. Now they are hollowed out caves of drained lava, but proof of volcanic activity on the Moon. Now they can be used to protect our first Moon base from space shrapnel such as asteroids and other hazards like direct exposure to the Sun.  Question of the Day: Would you live in a Lava Tube on the moon??? Keywords: Lava, Tube, Moon, Lunar, Titan, Huygens

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 24 March 1820- Happy Birthday to Edmond Becquerel, a French physicist who is credited with first observing the photovoltaic effect. His father was Henri Becquerel, the discoverer of radioactivity, and the namesake of the SI unit of radioactivity, the Becquerel. Word of the Day- Deimos is the second and smaller moon of Mars. It is much further away than Phobos, 23,000 km from Mars, compared to Phobos' 6,000 km. Because it is further away, it has an orbital period of roughly 30 hours, compared to Phobos' 7.5 hrs. In Greek mythology, Deimos is the twin brother of Phobos. It is half the size of Phobos and is very similar to a C or D class asteroid in makeup. Quote of the Day- "It shouldn't be humans to Mars in 50 years, it should be humans to Mars in ten." -Robert Zubrin Keywords: Becquerel, Radioactivity, Deimos, Mars

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 23 March 1882- Happy Birthday to Emmy Noether, a Female German Jewish mathematician who made contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. She contributed to the explanation and relationship between mathematical symmetry and the physical laws of conservation. She was named by such giants as Albert Einstein as the most important woman in the history of mathematics...and I really don't know anything about her. Word of the Day- Because Phobos is so close to Mars, it actually orbits Mars faster than Mars itself rotates around its axis. It takes roughly 7.5 hours to go around Mars, whereas the Martian day is about the same but slightly longer than the Earth day, 24.5 hours. Another feature of how close Phobos's proximity to Mars is is that we can say fairly certain we know about its demise. In 30-50 million years, it will either collide with the Martian surface, or break apart and give Mars a lovely ring not unlike Uranus, Saturn, or Jupiter. In Greek mythology, Phobos was the son of the God of War, Ares, also known as...Mars. In lieu of a quote of the day today, I present to you a song from the Tony Levin album Pieces of the Sun, named Phobos. Check it out! Very spacey! Keywords: Women, Conservation, Phobos, Moon, Mars, Connected 

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 22 March 1995- Russian Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov triumphantly returns to our terrestrial home of Earth after a staggering 437 days at the MIR Space Station. To date he has logged over 22 months in space. Word of the Day- Phobos is a moon orbiting mars. It is the largest of the two moons which orbit Mars, and orbits closer than any other moon that we know of. It is roughly 6000km from the surface, which is roughly the width of the United States. Phobos itself, on the other hand, is very small. Its kind of egg shaped, with the dimensions being roughly 27 x 22 x 18 kilometers. To put this in perspective, it's roughly a third of the size of Long Island, NY, my current home which is 118km by 37km, roughly.  You could fit three Phoboses side by side and they could kind of fit on Long Island, with room to spare.  Quote of the Day: "We are all connected, to each other biologically, to the Earth, chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically." -Neil Degrasse Tyson Keywords: Cosmonaut, MIR, Phobos, Moon, Mars, Connected 

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 21 March 1768- Happy Birthday to Joseph Fourier, who would have turned 248 today. I can't say it better than his wikipedia article: He was "best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's law are also named in his honour. Fourier is also generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect." Word of the Day- A Moon Dog is a phenomenon of a bright spot seen on a lunar halo, roughly 10 moons in diameter, as seen from observers on earth. They look like little swatches of light around the halo, which are caused by small ice particulates in our atmosphere at cirrus cloud height. There is a fantastic picture of moon dogs photographed in Alaska as the astronomy picture of the day, which you can see here. Quote of the Day: "Mathematics compares the most diverse phenomena and discovers the secret analogies that unite them." -Joseph Fourier  Keywords: Moon Dog, Moon, Sphere, Night, Sky, Woodstock, Physics, Superconductor

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 20 March 1942- Happy birthday to Gabriele Veneziano, who turns 74 today. He has performed the most experiment at CERN ("Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire"), in Geneva Switzerland, and holds the Chair of Elementary Particles, Gravitation and Cosmology, at the College of France.  Word of the Day- Magnetic Monopoles are currently a theoretical particle or object which has a net magnetic charge. Magnets have a north and south pole, but a magnetic monopole would have only a north or south pole. While they are considered "allowed to exist" by current physical theory, they have yet to be observed in nature. Question: Why aren't electrons and protons considered magnetic monopoles?? Answer: They are electric monopoles.  Quote of the Day: “A physicist Is an atom's way of knowing about toms." -George Wald Keywords: Magnetic, Monopoles, Atoms, Cern, Elementary Particles

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 19 March 1910- Happy Birthday to Arseny Sokolov who would have turned 106 today. He was responsible for developing synchrotron radiation theory.  Word of the Day- Cooper pairs were named after Leon Cooper, and what he discovered was that at low temperatures, electrons and other Fermions will bind together to form pairs. These nanometers can still be up to several hundred nanometers apart and remain paired. These pairs are able to move almost effortlessly through the material that they exist in.  Quote of the Day: “There is no democracy in physics. We can's say that some second-rate guy has as much right to an opinion as Fermi." -Luis Walter Alvarez Keywords: Cooper Pairs, Electrons, Superconductors, Fermi, Radiation, Theory, Synchrotron

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 18 March  1987- The "Woodstock of Physics" took place, which was a marathon American Physical Society meeting during which there were 51 presentations on high-temperature superconductors, a budding field at the time. Word of the Day- A Superconductor is a material which allows electrons to flow through it with exactly zero resistance. In the real world, most materials which allow current flow with extremely little resistance are referred to as superconductors as well. Most materials which can have superconductive properties do so at extremely low temperatures. They do this because the electrons in the material pair up in what are known as cooper pairs, and in doing so also in general do not repel from other electrons in the material, but rather flow effortlessly through the material.  Quote of the Day: In searching for physics woodstock, I came across the following quote: "A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything"- Irish Proverb Keywords: Woodstock, Physics, Superconductor

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 17 March 1803- Happy birthday to Carl Jacob Lowig, who was a German chemist who discovered bromine, which he did independently of scientist Antoine Jerome Ballard (more on this in the quote of the day.  Word of the Day- The work function is the energy which binds an electron to its atom. The work function is the minimum amount of energy needed to free an electron from the shackles of a solid. This ties in with the photoelectric effect because the frequency needed or energy needed from the light must be at minimum equal to the work function of the solid and we can test this by just doing the photoelectric effect experiment, and varying the light until we start seeing the effect. There is a monster table somewhere which has the work function for pretty much any solid you could ever want. Lastly, the unit of the work function is the Joule, which makes sense since it relates to the amount of energy. Quote of the Day: "Balard did not discover bromine, but rather bromine discovered Balard." Justus Von Liebig Keywords: Work Function, Photoelectric Effect, Bromine, Balard, Lowig

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 16 March 1789- Happy Birthday to Georg Simon Ohm, who would have turned 227 today. Ohm is the namesake of our unit of resistance, the Ohm, and is the physical opposite of the inverse of the ohm, the Mho. Ohm continued the work of Alessandro Volta and his work with electrochemical cells. Word of the Day- Sublimation is a process where a solid changes immediately to the gaseous state without entering the intermediate liquid state. Sublimation occurs when temperatures change that cause a solid to exist, to temperatures which cause a gas to exist. At certain pressures (which are lower than a substance's "triple point"), it is not possible to have that substance exist in a liquid state.  Quote of the Day: "Resistance is Futile" -Georg Ohm (I was cruising for quotes and I came across this joke quote, which I thought was too good not to share here) Keywords: Resistance, Ohm, Sublimation, Triple Point, Gas, Solid

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this YESTERDAY in physics: 14 March 2015- Happy Birthday to a little man named ALBERT EINSTEIN, the founder of one of the two pillars of modern science, Relativity, Nobel Prize winner for his work on the Photoelectric Effect, and all around great guy. He would have been 137 yesterday. Word of the Day- The photoelectric effect is a phenomenon which exists in many metals. These metals will emit electrons when light shines upon them. These electrons are called "photoelectrons" and the energy of these electrons come in multiples of the frequency of the light which shines on the metal. Each metal also has what is known as a "threshold frequency", which if incoming light is of a lower frequency will not induce the photoelectric effect.  Quote of the Day: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science." -Albert Einstein Keywords: Einstein, Relativity, Speed, Mass, Time

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 14 March 2015- We celebrated super pi day, or 3-14-15. March fourteenth usually describes the first three numbers in pi, 3.14, but last year we celebrated the pi day which describes pi to five decimal places, 3.1415, which only occurs once every hundred years! Word of the Day- Verschränkung is the German word first used by Erwin Schrodinger to describe the idea of quantum entanglement. Entangled particles are two particles whose states only occur once measured. If a decay happens and two particles are emitted, their combined spins must add to zero, so if one is measured to have spin of -1/2, the other MUST immediately have a spin of 1/2. Verschränkung describing entanglement was first used in the description of the Schrodinger Cat thought experiment featured as yesterday's word of the day. Quote of the Day: "Quantum physics thus reveals a basic oneness with the universe.” -Erwin Schrodinger Keywords: Schrodinger, Cat, Quantum Mechanics, Superposition, Entanglement

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 13 March 1899- Happy Birthday to John Hasbrouck Van Vleck who would have turned 117 today. He was one of the winners of the Nobel Prize in 1977 for his contributions understanding the behavior of electrons in magnetic solids. He was also one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during The Second World War.  Word of the Day- Schrodinger's Cat is a story or metaphor devised by Erwin Schrodinger to describe the superposition of states a quantum particle can exist in before measurement. In this scenario there is a cat in a box which can release poison by pressing a button. Until the observer opens the box to take stock of the cat's state, it is impossible to know whether it is alive or dead. It is from this experiment that the very paradoxical idea that the cat is in a superposition of being both alive and dead comes from. It's to describe the idea of quantum entanglement.  Quote of the Day: "We spend the first years of our children's lives teaching them how to walk and talk and the rest of their lives telling them to sit down and shut up.” -Neil Degrasse Tyson Keywords: Schrodinger, Cat, Quantum Mechanics, Superposition

Dig deeper at pwnphysics.blogspot.com On this day in physics: 12 March 1954- Happy Birthday to Elena Aprile who turns 62 today. As per wikipedia: "She has been a Professor of Physics at Columbia University since 1986. She is the founder and Spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter Experiment since 2002. Aprile is well known for her work with noble liquid detectors, and for her contributions to particle astrophysics in the search for dark matter." [Source] Word of the Day- Density is the measure of how compact the mass is per volume. It is calculated as mass divided by volume. When solids are placed in a liquid, objects more dense than the liquid will sink and objects less dense will float. Liquids when mixed together will sort based on their densities, the most dense closest to the bottom and the least dense towards the top.   Quote of the Day: "The great thing about science is that it's true whether you believe it or not."- Neil Degrasse Tyson Keywords: Density, Mass, Volume