Archives for the 'physics' Category
The Yarkovsky Effect
Published on 30 Oct 2006 at 4:36 pm.
9 Comments.
Filed under asteroids, physics.
In my second semester physics classes, we discuss how light sometimes acts like particles. Light ”particles” are called photons.  A photon of light can carry momentum like any particle. Thus, when an object it emits light, it must have some sort of “recoil”. Likewise, when photons strike something, they impart momentum to it just as if they were tiny […]
Newton’s First Law and Space Travel
Published on 23 Sep 2006 at 2:47 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under physics, science fiction.
A drug runner is racing towards the US in a powerboat. The Coast Guard is giving chase. The Coast Guard orders the drug runner to cut their engine. The drug runner refuses. The Coast Guard opens fire into the path of the drug runner. Seeing that they mean business, the […]
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What is the Matter?
Published on 25 Jul 2006 at 10:02 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under physics.
Some time back, I had a post about dark matter. So, I thought that I’d say a bit more about matter. First of all, just what is matter? After all, if we are going to talk about dark matter, we should have some idea what non-dark matter is, right? This is […]
Cosmic Radiation and Airline Crew Radiation Exposure
Published on 17 Jul 2006 at 11:12 pm.
22 Comments.
Filed under aeronautics, cosmic rays, physics, travel.
I had an idea to write about cosmic rays and cosmic ray exposure, but this post turned out to be a much larger project than I thought. Below you will find information about cosmic rays themselves, as well as the exposure that airline crews experience due to cosmic rays.
A century ago, scientists were just […]
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The sort-of emptiness of space
Published on 6 Jul 2006 at 4:31 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under Uncategorized, cosmology, physics.
Space is empty. There is nothing in a vacuum. In space, no one can hear you scream (because there is nothing to transmit sound). Well, sort of. As it often turns out, what we are told is often a simplification of reality. As it turns out, space isn’t really empty. It is full of things. […]
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Weighing a planet
Published on 17 Feb 2006 at 7:24 pm.
2 Comments.
Filed under physics, planets.
How do you weigh a planet?
Look in the back of any astronomy textbook, and you’ll see a table of planetary data. Among the data are the masses of the planets. So, just how do you go about weighing a planet? After all, you can’t just carry it into the lab and plop it down on […]
Dark Matter (part one)
Published on 18 Dec 2005 at 7:48 pm.
6 Comments.
Filed under cosmology, dark matter, physics.
A while back, Tom had suggested dark matter as a blog topic. So, here goes with part one. It is a pretty intense subject, and no one really understands all about dark matter, so it will be the subject of more than one entry.
The story goes back over 70 years. Fritz Zwicky […]
