Jump to content

Velociraptor42

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    59

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Velociraptor42

  1. Velociraptor42
    First, as usual, watch this video:


    (easter egg: look for the Doctor Who reference at 5:30)

    Yes, that is the entire history and future of everything in seven minutes. Yes, that is kind of scary. But the inevitable heat death of the universe is, well, exactly that. Inevitable. Luckily, we will all be loooooooong dead before then, if that makes you feel any better. Actually I think I just made that worse. Oops.

    Anyways, this brings up the interesting nature of time, and our lack of ability to travel through it. Well, we can time travel, at a rate of exactly one second per second. Pretty lame, and slightly asinine of me to bring up, but it proves the point that for us, time moves only in one direction and at a set speed. I know I've talked about the nature of time multiple times (ha. haha. punny.) but it's just very intriguing. We seem to think we're so important, dividing up our time into smaller time units and carefully planning all of it out, when compared to all of time it's a speck. Yet, our measuring of time as relatively constant (not getting into special relativity of course) is what makes everything measurable in physics.

    Well, time for me to end this post. Cricket's begging to sit on the laptop, and I need to stop making horrific puns.
  2. Velociraptor42
    As per usual, this will make more sense if you start out by watching a lovely
    It's fairly simplistic, but introduces the topic.
    So. Our universe is one with three dimensions of space and one of time. But why? Why doesn't it only have one dimension, or twenty? This is, of course, ignoring string theory/m theory (though I will likely make a post about that later). For a young 3D universe, our temperature is much more uniform than would be expected. There's also that whole pesky question of inflation and how the heck it works.

    A new theory has come out saying that our universe may in fact be the backside of a four dimensional black hole that exists in the larger 4D universe. Confused? Here's a "dumbed down" version of the theory. If that makes sense, you should read this article which goes a little more in depth.

    To put it most simply, our black holes have 2D event horizons, so by extrapolation we can assume a four dimensional black hole would have a three dimensional event horizon. If our universe was in fact a "brane" inside a larger and older 4D universe, that would give an interesting explanation for why our temperatures are so uniform even when looking into the past.

    Long story short? Olivia likes theoretical physics and black holes. When they come together how can I not blog about it?

    If you're still interested, you can read the original physics paper here
  3. Velociraptor42
    The Standard Model theorizes that the Higgs Field switched on about 100 picoseconds after the big bang. Recently, though, physicists have theorized that it happened a little more gradually than "switching on" in a process more like water boiling. When these bubbles of Higgs Field met, they created massive shockwaves that would have come with sonic booms. In one of the most cool theories in the early universe, the noise would have sounded a lot like thunder.

    or this


    (let's see if this cooperates and embeds this time)
    Regardless, researchers are now trying to hear the leftovers of this sonic boom.

    SPACE THUNDER.
  4. Velociraptor42

    Beauty of Orbits

    By Velociraptor42,

    I think that the way this was originally sent to me conveys the meaning better than any rewording I could do:


    Equation of orbit of a small mass around a much greater mass


    Equation of human awe of earth orbit

    So now that you've watched it, you should have a greater appreciation of gravitational forces and centripetal ones, the whole Fc=mv2/r and Fg=GM1M2/r2 and such.

    Or maybe you just affirmed that space is really freaking awesome, and a lot prettier than anyone gives it credit for. I'll take that too. Earth looks pretty cool from up there.
  5. Velociraptor42

    Mushroom Clouds

    By Velociraptor42,

    We all know the standard shape of a mushroom cloud
    It looks something like this:


    The question is why do they look like this?

    Well, as can be seen in this post, the less in-depth answer is a simple difference in density between the rapidly expanding gases and the rest of the air.

    However, this is a physics blog after all, and so I'm going to get into the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. In the most understandable terms (though to be quite honest after reading up on it I still don't really understand it), one fluid accelerates into another of a different density and convection magic and PHYSICS happen and things like supernovae and mushroom clouds happen.

    I don't really get fluids. Gizmodo explains it better than me. But it's pretty cool. Woo.
  6. Velociraptor42
    Though we may not think of plants as moving things, we are sorely mistaken. The force of an opening flower may be very low - in the micro if not nano newtons - but as they exist and move, they are physics. Enjoy some beauty of nature, all dictated by the ever-present laws of physics.

    photo credit to Yutaka Kitamura






    Source
  7. Velociraptor42
    Not quite a physics post, but something really cool that came out recently



    Now you know what it's like to see through the eyes of five different animals!

    I'm still waiting to see a mantis shrimp though... 8 color receptors compared to our three? How does that even work? Where do they fit in the electromagnetic spectrum? Extra colors that is. Maybe within our lifetimes we'll be able to find out.
  8. Velociraptor42

    Dancing Droplets

    By Velociraptor42,

    Despite my last entry clearly dictating that I have no idea what's going on when it comes to fluid dynamics, here I go again.

    This time, it's droplets of water and propylene glycol and how they interact when on a glass surface.

    First, watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Wx2PHIYGI. Now. Okay, watched it? No? Then the rest of this won't make much sense and will be pretty boring. I promise it's cool, and the music's pretty sweet too.

    Now that you've all either watched it or closed out of this post due to my incessant nagging, let's try to explain what's going on.

    The different types of droplets create a film on the glass that attracts other droplets due to surface tension differences. Once they actually meet, things happen and one droplet ends up "chasing" another. Add hydrophobic markers to the mix and a few curious scientists with a cool camera and a lot of awesome effects can be achieved.

    Read a much better explanation of what's going on (not including the one in the video itself) by people who actually understand it here.

Terms of Use

The pages of APlusPhysics.com, Physics in Action podcasts, and other online media at this site are made available as a service to physics students, instructors, and others. Their use is encouraged and is free of charge. Teachers who wish to use materials either in a classroom demonstration format or as part of an interactive activity/lesson are granted permission (and encouraged) to do so. Linking to information on this site is allowed and encouraged, but content from APlusPhysics may not be made available elsewhere on the Internet without the author's written permission.

Copyright Notice

APlusPhysics.com, Silly Beagle Productions and Physics In Action materials are copyright protected and the author restricts their use to online usage through a live internet connection. Any downloading of files to other storage devices (hard drives, web servers, school servers, CDs, etc.) with the exception of Physics In Action podcast episodes is prohibited. The use of images, text and animations in other projects (including non-profit endeavors) is also prohibited. Requests for permission to use such material on other projects may be submitted in writing to info@aplusphysics.com. Licensing of the content of APlusPhysics.com for other uses may be considered in the future.

APlusPhysics Books

APlusPhysics Books

×
×
  • Create New...