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Showing results for tags 'Tanners blog post'.
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it is true that matter and energy are just two sides of the same coin. In fact, you've known this your whole life, if you've ever heard of the formula E=mc^2. The E equals Energy and the m equals Mass. The amount of energy contained in a particular amount of mass is determined by the conversion factor c squared, where c represents... the speed of light. The explanation for this phenomenon is really quite fascinating, and it has to do with the fact that the mass of an object increases as it approaches the speed of light (even as time is slowing down). It is, however quite complicated, so for the purpose of this blog post, I'll simply assure you that it's true. For proof(unfortunately), look no further than atomic bombs, which convert very small amount of matter into very large amounts of energy.
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it is true that matter and energy are just two sides of the same coin. In fact, you've known this your whole life, if you've ever heard of the formula E=mc^2. The E equals Energy and the m equals Mass. The amount of energy contained in a particular amount of mass is determined by the conversion factor c squared, where c represents... the speed of light. The explanation for this phenomenon is really quite fascinating, and it has to do with the fact that the mass of an object increases as it approaches the speed of light (even as time is slowing down). It is, however quite complicated, so for the purpose of this blog post, I'll simply assure you that it's true. For proof(unfortunately), look no further than atomic bombs, which convert very small amount of matter into very large amounts of energy.
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I'm here to talk about the theory of General Relativity, this involves an ideas called light deflection, which is exactly what it sounds like- the path of a beam of light is not entirely straight. As strange as this may seem to you, it's been proven repeatedly. What this means is that, even though light doesn't have any mass, its path is affected by things that do-such as the sun. So if a beam of light from, lets say a really far off star in the sky passes aclose enough to the sun it will actually bend slightly around it, The effect on a star gazer such as us is that we see the star in a different spot of the sky than it's actually located (much like fish in a lake are never spotted where they appear to be when looking at them from above water). So remember the next time you look up at stars, it could all just be a track of light.
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We all can agree on that there is nothing faster than the speed of light correct? Well, yes and no. While it is technically it is true, but at least in theory it turns out that there's a loophole to be found in the mind-blowing branch of physics known as quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics, in essence, is the study of physics at a microscopic scale, such as the behavior of subatomic particles. These types of particles are the impossibly small, but very important, as they form the building blocks for everything in the universe. I'll leave the technical details aside for now (it gets very complicated), but you can picture them as tiny, spinning, electrically-charged marbles. Okay, maybe that's kind of complicated too. So say we have two electrons (a subatomic particle with a negative charge). Quantum entanglement is a special process that involves pairing up these particles in such a way that they become identical (marbles with the same spin and charge). When this happens, things get weird-because from now on, these electrons stay identical. This means that if you change one of them-say, spin it in the other direction, its twin reacts in exactly the same fashion. Instantly, no matter where it is. Without you even touching it. the implications of this process are huge, it means that information (in this case, the direction of the spin) can essentially be teleported anywhere in the universe.
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The study of physics is the study of the universe-and more specifically, just how the universe works. It is without a doubt the most interesting branch of science, because the universe, as it turns out, is a whole lot more complicated than it looks on the surface (and it looks pretty complicated already). The world works in some weird ways, and through you made need a PhD to understand why, you only need a sense of awe to appreciate how. According to Einsteins's Theory of Special Relativity, the speed of light can never change-it's always stuck at approximately 300,000,000 meters/second, no matter who's observing it. This in itself is incredible enough, given that nothing can move faster than light, but it's still vey theorectical. The really cool part of special relativity is an idea called dilation, which states, that the faster you go, the slower time passes for you relative to your surroundings. Seriously-if you go take a ride in your car for an hour, you will have aged ever-so-slightly less than if you had just sat at home on your computer. The extra nanoseconds you get out of it might not be worth the price of gas:).
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