Tag: Physics

Standard Candles

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I love this phrase, standard candles, it’s a way of looking at the universe to work out distances in light years.

But I keep getting conspiracy theories about the universe from people on the Internet. I decided to try and explain my point of view.

I explained I’m not a physicist or optical expert. But I’ve read a lot over the years so this is my take on measuring the universe’s size.

This is what I wrote. Please accept my apologies if this is totally wrong. I only have a scant understanding.

I’m no

t an expert in optics but I think they have found the universe is over 13 billion years old based on the time light takes to arrive at earth. The science uses standard candles (globular clusters of stars that have the same light production so they can be used to judge distance because of light intensity). John Gribben explains this well in his popular science books.
Parallax can also be used to measure distance. If you look out of one eye at your thumb at arms length, then at it from your other eye you will see it apparently move. The same can be done from earth observatories. Look at a star at one end of Earth’s orbit around the sun then 6 months later at the other end… Effectively creating a very long thin triangle. The star will move a tiny fraction against the background of other stars. Using simple geometry you can measure the distance. These methods helped to work out how far other galaxies are outside the milky way. I read all of this from books by authors like Issac Asimov, Sir Patrick Moore, Carl Sagan, Brian Cox, and John Gribben among others. Not by watching Fox news.

(the last bit because I was accused of believing things that are on TV)

Justification

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I’ve got into a bit of a debate on Facebook about whether the exhaust from airplanes is from water vapour (yes) or chemicals (no). I’ve got especially annoyed since they have said they will be getting rid of fact checkers. I think if you see something on line that does not make sense you should not ignore it but at least put in an alternative realistic point of view. I finished one comment with the words Occams Razor.

Following a series of comments when I rebutted each strange argument with an alternative reasonable comment, someone asked where was I getting my information from? I could of course just said Google. But I don’t. I have had a long life and I like learning information. My memory is very retentive. I can remember telephone numbers from more than 40 years ago (0992 37963) my old home number. I learnt the Greek Alphabet for fun… Alpha, beta, Gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta….. Etc…

So I answered the question, how do I know things by stating :

Mainly science programmes on radio and TV. Reading the new scientist magazine, I’m also interested in the environment and am a member of various nature groups. I’m interested in astronomy. I took science classes at school (biology and chemistry) and had to take physics in one of my diploma courses. I’ve always been interested in science and try and keep abrest of up to date information. My favourite authors when I was growing up were Arthur C Clarke, Issac Asimov, Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman. I enjoy reading biographies of scientists such as Mme Marie Curie and about the Leakies who discovered  the Australopithicine Ape Lucy. I am interested in what’s going on in the world. Does this answer your question? I just enloy thinking things through and trying to understand. If that is wrong I will stop commenting.

I try and be polite and as accurate as I can be.

Who’s coming to dinner?

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If you could host a dinner and anyone you invite was sure to come, who would you invite?

I’d like to invite Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman.

I don’t know if I would be able to understand any conversation between them. But I have noticed that the three men seemed to have funny senses of humour. The two I know most about were Feynman (one of his books is Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman) and Sagan (who wrote Cosmos and Contact among other books).

All of them were interesting people and I hope they would take pity on my lack of knowledge of Physics and the other sciences. Maybe it would be a difficult meal to host. I would research the food they liked and try and replicate it, but I would have to be careful not to cause them stomach problems!

Anyway it’s never going to happen. Fun imagining the guest list though.

Joined and left a page

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I joined a fun science page on Facebook this week. But soon realised that there were a lot of sceptics there. For everyone discussing a theory five seemed to be completely anti the facts! I should have laughed but I could not believe it! There were people who were anti everything.. I decided to leave the page.

I also posted to a page about clouds and again there was a discussion about chem trails (saying the condensation trails from aircraft have chemicals pumped out of them!). The trails are water vapour condensing around dust and ice particles in the air. My question to the commenter was to fact check his theory, he told me to check mine. What fun. I give up. Maybe science was taught differently in my childhood….

Successful?

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When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

It’s taken me ages to decide on a person or group of people to represent this.

I could have chosen a single person, a musician, an actor, sportsperson, vet, doctor, or a news caster, and of course the richest people in the world.

But no, I’ve decided scientists would be the best choice. There success has bought us so many inventions and knowledge. Yes there have been bad inventions too, but these are because of political influence to some extent? Yes, there are bad scientists that either create bad things, or alter the results of research to allow bad things to happen. For example Thalidomide was originally being used for elderly arthritic patients, but to sell more of the drug it was sold to pregnant women as a tablet that would stop morning sickness, with the resultant tetaragenic damage to babies (see the Sunday? Times report into it’s effects).

But then these are weighed against chemistry’s inventions such as the creation of analine dye that led to the discovery of quinine? The invention of batteries, using chemistry and physics. The use of x rays following discoveries by Marie Curie. And biological knowledge including genetic treatments, monoclonal antibodies, knowledge of how our behaviour is damaging the environment.

As with all successes they are balanced with failures. Each person will have their own opinions on this.

Six years ago

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I was at the potbank cafe, which was part of the potbank hotel in the grounds of Spode factory site, part of the industrial heritage (and revolution) of Stoke on Trent.

The cafe was taken over by a cafe group called “the quarter”, but the hotel is still there and is based within the industrial architecture on the site.

I think I drew the flower in a jam jar while waiting for a friend? I noticed the deration of the flower stem in the water, an example of how the density of matter changes the way light travels through it. When I was young I hated trying to calculate the angle of defraction. Perhaps I should have drawn it and measured my drawing?

Three books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman

Chaos by James Gleick

I’m surprised the books I have chosen are all about various science subjects, are all by male writers and all white American writers.

I don’t have a preference for science books or something written by men, but these stuck in my mind because they pushed the boundaries of science fact books.

Cosmos was written in the 1970’s I think, and is a glorious look at the universe and how it is made up. It might not be the most up to date book about astronomy, and obviously we have learnt a lot since it was written, but it got me hooked when I was young and I have two copies of it in the house.

The Richard Feynman book is an autobiography/humourous book. Feynman was a physicist, but the book is much more than a historical retelling of his scientific work. It ranges from his penchant for safe cracking to his interest in art, teaching, and questioning authority. Along the way he talks about nuclear physics. I have another of his books, which is about QED. Quantum Electro Dynamics… No I can’t explain it!

Finally I have chosen Chaos by James Gleick. Chaos is about Chaos theory, it introduced me to fractals and the Mandelbrot set, an infinite pattern of twirling and dizzying shapes that can be created by using a small set of coordinates that make the pattern repeat. I tried drawing patterns using some of the ideas in the book

All three books are 30 or 40 years old but I think they would still hold the interest of someone coming at them from a new interest in science. They helped me navigate some concepts I would never have come across without them. If you feel like expanding your knowledge have a look.

Mostly scientists

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List the people you admire and look to for advice…

Issac Asimov, three laws of robotics

Carl Sagan, pale blue dot, astronomer and scientist

Noel Fitzpatrick, exceptional veterinary surgeon

Marie Curie, discovered Polonium and Radium

Sir Patrick Moore, famous amateur astronomer,

Sir Oliver Lodge, invented the spark plug

Dr Jane Goodall, primatologist

Rosamund Franklin, jointly discovered DNA, British Chemist

David Attenborough, naturalist, broadcaster and environmentalist

Chris Packham, Environmentalist and broadcaster

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, discovered Pulsars

Mary Anning, discovered fossils.

Albert Einstein, General and Special theories of relativity.

Richard Feynman, American physicist. Wrote ‘Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman’ and other books.

Is that a long enough list? I like to try and understand basic science, I don’t know enough, but I try and get some understanding. I think Asimov got me thinking about science at an early age. He not only wrote science fiction, but books about chemistry and other sciences. So I found out about the early chemist’s, physicists and astronomers. By reading his books they introduced me to Carl Sagan, who wrote books such as Cosmos.

At the same time I used to (and still do) watch ‘The sky at night’ on TV. So I learnt a bit about astronomy, but also about people like Jocelyn Bell-Burnell who discovered pulsars, and other scientists including Issac Newton.

David Attenborough introduced me to gorilla’s, in his TV programme ‘life on earth’ and so I heard about Jane Goodall and her work with primates.

Finally in the 1970’s there was a TV series that dramatised the lives of Marie and Pierre Curie. Having read about her in Asimov books it was fascinating to see what she had been doing in the early twentieth century.

It’s a random list, but it helps me explain my interests…

How does this work?

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I found this upstairs earlier so I put some batteries in and then watched the sparks flitting round the inside of the sphere. Hubby says it must have a partial vacuum inside it and the colour is possibly caused by Argon?

Does anyone know how it works….

Anyway it made for some interesting photos. But really I’d like to know if it proves any physics theories?

Another prompt

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Laboratory was the #30daysketchbookchallenge for today. I decided to draw some glass vessels full of coloured liquids. I suppose that’s the stereotypical image people have of the equipment in laboratories, but they come in all sorts of types, for physics, chemistry, biology, geology, archeology, with lasers, scanning electron microscopes, x-ray machines, burettes and pipettes….. So much to find out about the world around us…