Science Stuff

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Forgot to mention a few things about the Big Bang. One of the early Big Bang theories was the Big Bang/Big Crunch theory. It was believed that the Universe goes in an endless cycle. There's a Big Bang and the Universe explodes into existence then eventually collapses in on itself then does it all over again. Problem is if that were the case then the expansion of the Universe would slow down. Instead it's speeding up. So it's unlikely to collapse. Instead we'll suffer from Entropy where the Universe slowly dies as all matter burns out (Thermodynamics)

One thing people don't often understand about the Big Bang is the concept of the 4 dimensions. You hear this when people say, "What came before the Big Bang?". The answer is "Nothing" as time is a dimension. Big Bang theory suggests that everything in the Universe was in a single tiny point the size of a pin head. And that means everything. All of space and time. But with that level of compression time would not move, or it may move ever so slowly (100 billion years to pass only 1 second of our time). But we don't know what caused it to expand, and many scientists don't believe the Big Bang actually happened, but it's the best theory we have.
I've always liked the K.I.S.S principle.
Ask simple questions with an expectation of a simple answer.
What happens when you compress matter? It creates a byproduct, namely heat.
So if all of the universe is compressed into one atomic cell, despite infinitesimal density, the heat created doing so will ignite it, thus Big Bang.
But what possibly can compress to such a level?
Black holes, namely two or three massive one's that have absorbed the matter of almost everything else, including smaller black holes, which results in the end game of them collapsing upon and into each other to form said atomic cell.
But at the end of the day, we're theorising upon a topic we've as much understanding upon as females and their logic!

Science, in particular physics, fascinates me.
Probably why I almost ended up as Homer Simpson, be it for a lack of private transport at the time, I'd likely be working @ ANSTO to date.
Probably would of advanced further in my understanding if I wasn't the product of an all boys public school with teaching quality standards such as a head of maths being blind!
 

Hacky McAxe

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Nice would they have a Video of the earth fully spinning on its axis that would be awesome.
Kind of. They do but it's a composition video. Most of the earth videos come from the International space station as it's the only one with the image quality that is aimed at earth. But the space station isn't far enough away to get a full shot. In order to get a full video of the earth spinning we would need a camera set up about 5 times the distance of the moon. That would be very difficult to do.

One interesting thing we had though was when Voyager 1 and 2 were sent out, one of the Voyagers took a photo of earth and sent it back to us and it was just a tiny blue dot. Carl Sagan wrote a book about this.

In that tiny blue dot was everything and everyone that has ever existed. All in a tiny dot. Really put things in perspective for us.
 

Hacky McAxe

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BTW, if anyone wants a fairly simplistic explanation of the original Quantum Superposition experiment and how crazy it is (as well as why we still can't explain it), this video explains it well

 

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Kind of. They do but it's a composition video. Most of the earth videos come from the International space station as it's the only one with the image quality that is aimed at earth. But the space station isn't far enough away to get a full shot. In order to get a full video of the earth spinning we would need a camera set up about 5 times the distance of the moon. That would be very difficult to do.

One interesting thing we had though was when Voyager 1 and 2 were sent out, one of the Voyagers took a photo of earth and sent it back to us and it was just a tiny blue dot. Carl Sagan wrote a book about this.

In that tiny blue dot was everything and everyone that has ever existed. All in a tiny dot. Really put things in perspective for us.
Would it be the same as taking a video from Mars ?
Or is mars to far?
All I’m saying is with all the technology we have we can’t have a video of our earth?
 

Squash the Berries!

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Science Stuff.

As a science enthusiast I’m fascinated in what we discover and what we are yet to learn. As such I’m going to dump interesting science stories in this thread on an ongoing basis.

I’m going to provide links where I can and explanations when I think I know, but I want peeps to correct me if I get something wrong about a story or article. Yes I want to be peer reviewed!! And if there is a science topic that peaks your interest, put it in here and I’ll grab some info on it to discuss. So load up your pocket protectors and straighten your bow ties, it’s time to get all Sciencey.

To start off with we’ll look at something close by and familiar to each of us, our Sun.

Fun Sun Facts:

We use our Sun as a unit of measure = 1 AU (Astronomical Unit) is the distance from the Sun to Earth. Saturn is an average of 9.6 AU from the Sun. Old Pluto’s average distance from the sun is 39.5 AU.

Our Sun sings and breathes - https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/sounds-of-the-sun

Our Sun Farts - https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2288/the-solar-wind-across-our-solar-system/

Our Sun is currently converting 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second - https://sunearthday.nasa.gov/2007/locations/ttt_solarenergy.php

Now that sounds like a lot, but when you think our Sun is only halfway through its lifecycle and has approximately 4 billion years of fuel left to burn, than you start to understand how big it is. If you want a visual of how big compared to Earth, check out the pic below.

View attachment 12609

The material of the Sun is so compressed and so dense, it takes a particle of light 3 million years to get from the core where it’s created to the surface of the Sun itself and then only 8 mins to reach Earth.

And yes our Sun does have a name, Sol. This name originates from the ancient Roman’s god of the Sun, Sol. This alternate name is where we get the term “solar system,” which literally means system of the Sun.

Inevitably our Sun will die and use up all its hydrogen fuel. When that happens it will grow into a Red Giant and consume Mercury, Venus and Earth as its outer layers expand to the reach and melt Mars. That will be the end of all the inner rocky planets of our Solar System and the outer gas giants will be stripped of their upper clouds and reduced to roughly 10-30% of their current size due to the increase in the power of the solar winds (farts). And when that expansion part of our Sun’s lifecycle is compete and it shrinks back to become a White Dwarf Star, our Solar System will be unrecognisable. Our Sun will then spend the rest of its 100billion year existence faintly flickering as part of the ocean of White Dwarfs that currently inhabit our Galaxy.
You’ve certainly brought out the Science fans.
 

Hacky McAxe

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Something to keep folks occupied.
https://imgur.com/gallery/sdKrnen
And some food for thought.
https://imgur.com/t/science_and_tech/x0EkC
When asked why we haven't found evidence of extra terrestrial life, I have always liked the explanation, "using our current methods of observation and not finding alien life is like dipping a teaspoon in the ocean and not finding evidence that whales exist"

One other point that makes alien discovery difficult is the limit based on the speed of light. From our understanding nothing can travel faster than light. As the nearest star is around 4.5 light years away, if aliens were at that star they'd still need to dedicate a long time to get here. That speed limit being relative to mass, anything larger than a mouse couldn't pass 60% the speed of light so that time gets exceptionally larger. This is the same reason we probably can never go further than the Andromeda Galaxy. 'cause the Universe is expanding too fast.

There's also the problem of time being relative to speed so if we did manage to travel at 60% the speed of light then we could make it to the nearest star within about 8 years, but that's 8 years for the traveller. A lot longer for everyone else.

There is another way to deal with the light speed limit though. We can compress space in front of us and expand it behind us. Similar to how the Universe expands. Problem is that we would destroy anything we pass through and it has the potential to destroy us quite easily.

The most solid common way I've heard to discuss interstellar travel is to just ignore time. If we want to venture somewhere and it takes 20,000 years to get there then we cryo sleep for 20,000 years. But we're still a long way off cryo technology and we're still a long way off powering space craft by an efficient fuel source.
 

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Would it be the same as taking a video from Mars ?
Or is mars to far?
All I’m saying is with all the technology we have we can’t have a video of our earth?
Mars would be too far to be efficient. A video from Mars would have to be taken by a telescope that was in orbit around Mars. That would be ridiculously expensive just to see what we've already seen. Easier just to do a composite video.

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that the earth is moving extremely fast. Our satellites work well in orbit as the earth is a close gravity source holding the satellites there. If you move far enough away from the Earth then you get affected by other bodies. The gravity of the sun becomes more dominant then the earth's gravity. Other planets and asteroids affect the gravity and overall it would just be very expensive for very little gain.
 

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I've always liked the K.I.S.S principle.
Ask simple questions with an expectation of a simple answer.
What happens when you compress matter? It creates a byproduct, namely heat.
So if all of the universe is compressed into one atomic cell, despite infinitesimal density, the heat created doing so will ignite it, thus Big Bang.
But what possibly can compress to such a level?
Black holes, namely two or three massive one's that have absorbed the matter of almost everything else, including smaller black holes, which results in the end game of them collapsing upon and into each other to form said atomic cell.
But at the end of the day, we're theorising upon a topic we've as much understanding upon as females and their logic!

Science, in particular physics, fascinates me.
Probably why I almost ended up as Homer Simpson, be it for a lack of private transport at the time, I'd likely be working @ ANSTO to date.
Probably would of advanced further in my understanding if I wasn't the product of an all boys public school with teaching quality standards such as a head of maths being blind!
The thing with education is that it is never too late to go and learn, depending on your current situation you may be able to apply for uni again and do part time and see how you go.
 

Nano

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Mars would be too far to be efficient. A video from Mars would have to be taken by a telescope that was in orbit around Mars. That would be ridiculously expensive just to see what we've already seen. Easier just to do a composite video.

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that the earth is moving extremely fast. Our satellites work well in orbit as the earth is a close gravity source holding the satellites there. If you move far enough away from the Earth then you get affected by other bodies. The gravity of the sun becomes more dominant then the earth's gravity. Other planets and asteroids affect the gravity and overall it would just be very expensive for very little gain.
Just on this, if anyone wants to know "how" gravity works (based on classics mechanics and Newton’s law of gravitation) it's all dependant on the mass of two objects and their centre distances from each other plus the gravitational constant "G". The more mass an object has the stronger gravitational force/affect it has on an another object, the closer the objects are the stronger gravitational force/affect they have on each other. So any 2 objects in universe have a gravitational effect on eachother but if they are too far apart its negligible or if one object is massive while the other is small the small ones gravitational effect is also negligible.

Here is that law in use:

F is the force between the 2 objects, m is the mass of an object on the surface of the earth, M is the mass of the earth, R is the centre distance between the object and the Earth, G is the gravitational constant.

We get that F ≈ 9.8N, dividing out by the 1kgs mass we get g ≈ 9.8 m/s^2 thus our average value of gravity. It fluctuates by around 14% I believe depending on distances and masses used for the earth/object, so depending on where you are on the earth there is more or less of that affect meaning you might weigh less or more in some places which has been very important in the launching of spacecraft.

 

The DoggFather

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Just on this, if anyone wants to know "how" gravity works (based on classics mechanics and Newton’s law of gravitation) it's all dependant on the mass of two objects and their centre distances from each other plus the gravitational constant "G". The more mass an object has the stronger gravitational force/affect it has on an another object, the closer the objects are the stronger gravitational force/affect they have on each other.
So that's why my mother-in-law thinks the world revolves around her fat arse.....
 

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Kind of. They do but it's a composition video. Most of the earth videos come from the International space station as it's the only one with the image quality that is aimed at earth. But the space station isn't far enough away to get a full shot. In order to get a full video of the earth spinning we would need a camera set up about 5 times the distance of the moon. That would be very difficult to do.

One interesting thing we had though was when Voyager 1 and 2 were sent out, one of the Voyagers took a photo of earth and sent it back to us and it was just a tiny blue dot. Carl Sagan wrote a book about this.

In that tiny blue dot was everything and everyone that has ever existed. All in a tiny dot. Really put things in perspective for us.
I watched the video of the probe sent to Saturn it took a shot looking past Saturn at the Earth and its moon off in the distance it was amazing
 

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So that's why my mother-in-law thinks the world revolves around her fat arse.....
Haha, if it has enough pull from all that mass then yeah we are satellites around that fat arse
 

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I would like your thoughts on the following:

When I was in my early 20's (35 years ago) I undertook an 18 week course at the Sydney Observatory on Astronomy.

The teacher and head Astronomer a hippy looking dude who got a job running the Parkes telescope soon after mentioned to us the following theory:

Multiple universes and the fact that our universe might just be one bubble like in a bubble bath.

Interested to hear about this and about the theory our universe was caused by matter being sucked into a black hole and coming out the other side as another universe in the big bang.
I'm currently trying to get my head around M Theory or what they refer to as Membrane Theory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

It has some really out there premises such as the dimension of depth may be an illusion and that we exist on the inside of a membrane with other membrane universes existing right beside ours like hanging curtains. It also suggests that the big bang was in fact two membranes touching triggering the big bang and that our current universe may in fact be the latest in a long history of big bangs.

One thing about these theories (and there are many) is they fill your brain pretty quickly. :grinning:
 

Squash the Berries!

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Just on this, if anyone wants to know "how" gravity works (based on classics mechanics and Newton’s law of gravitation) it's all dependant on the mass of two objects and their centre distances from each other plus the gravitational constant "G". The more mass an object has the stronger gravitational force/affect it has on an another object, the closer the objects are the stronger gravitational force/affect they have on each other. So any 2 objects in universe have a gravitational effect on eachother but if they are too far apart its negligible or if one object is massive while the other is small the small ones gravitational effect is also negligible.

Here is that law in use:

F is the force between the 2 objects, m is the mass of an object on the surface of the earth, M is the mass of the earth, R is the centre distance between the object and the Earth, G is the gravitational constant.

We get that F ≈ 9.8N, dividing out by the 1kgs mass we get g ≈ 9.8 m/s^2 thus our average value of gravity. It fluctuates by around 14% I believe depending on distances and masses used for the earth/object, so depending on where you are on the earth there is more or less of that affect meaning you might weigh less or more in some places which has been very important in the launching of spacecraft.

Thanks I understand now its so easy to follow.
 

Hacky McAxe

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I'm currently trying to get my head around M Theory or what they refer to as Membrane Theory - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-theory

It has some really out there premises such as the dimension of depth may be an illusion and that we exist on the inside of a membrane with other membrane universes existing right beside ours like hanging curtains. It also suggests that the big bang was in fact two membranes touching triggering the big bang and that our current universe may in fact be the latest in a long history of big bangs.

One thing about these theories (and there are many) is they fill your brain pretty quickly. :grinning:
M Theory is crazy interesting. What I find most interesting with M Theory and other String Theories is that recent research suggest that they aren't entirely compatible with dark energy. Which means that either we are wrong about dark energy's effects on the Universe, or string theory is fundamentally flawed.

They're currently building new telescopes to test this. If string theory is correct then the Universe we see expanding faster and faster should actually be slowing down. So they're trying to test if the expansion by cosmic field is actually happening faster.

There is some conjecture to this theory though and it has divided the string theorists. The main problem with it is that if it's true and what we know about dark energy is wrong, then the Universe never should have reached the stage it's currently at.
 
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