Did you know?

[Friesiansam]

I think you both misunderstand. Matter can and does bend space, but without matter to bend it, and in particular on larger scales, space is flat insofar as we can tell. There have been pieces in The Sky at Night magazine recently.

(FWIW, I did physics and astrophysics to degree level, though freely confess I didn't finish - but I have kept up to date. Last year I bumped into someone from my school who went to the same university and did the same degree. He teaches physics and has worked at several large telescopes (even has an asteroid named after him) - my ego was plumped up by being able to comfortably converse at the same level, and by the fact that my understanding of orbital mechanics and why the Lagrangian points are stable was better than his. So it wasn't all wasted.)

I have an interest in physics and astrophysics, that dates from when I was still at primary school, but not at degree level...

 

[12th Monkey]

I have an interest in physics and astrophysics, that dates from when I was still at primary school, but not at degree level...

Having re-read my post it feels a bit like trying to pull rank - not what I intended, and certainly doesn't mean I'm automatically right on such things - just means I've probably read as much as I need in order to know that I still feel baffled by much of physics!

 

[Gray]

I still feel baffled by much of physics!

Who doesn't?
I won the senior school cup and prize for 'overall achievement in science'.
But really only because they had to give it to someone

 

[Friesiansam]

I didn't get on well at school, always felt like an outsider and underachieved badly. Physics was the one subject that actually interested me.

 

[plastic penguin]

Did you know a normal size ball point pen cartridge has enough ink to cover 2.5 miles or around 4km

 

[Gray]

Did you know a normal size ball point pen cartridge has enough ink to cover 2.5 miles or around 4km

...and the groove (data stream) on an 80 minute CD is more than 3.5 miles long.

 

[12th Monkey]

It's often said that the Sun is an average star - but it's far from typical. Most are Red Dwarves, so much much smaller. But some are rather large...

 

[12th Monkey]

There is a piece on Andy Wallace in this week's Autocar. He got a slightly non-standard Bugatti Chiron to just under 305 mph. The valve caps on the tyres weigh a couple of grams, but at that speed the centrifugal force means even these 'weigh' 7.5kg - about as much as a typical Jack Russell.

Gives an idea of the sheer forces involved.

 

[plastic penguin]

Did you know.... the only fictional character to have a blue plaque on the front of their fictional building is Sherlock Holmes. 221b Baker St is actually a Sherlock Holmes museum.

 

[12th Monkey]

I was reading a short piece about neutron stars the other day. These can form during the death of stars not large enough to form black holes, but are still startlingly dense. Apparently a sugar cube's worth of neutron star matter weighs as much as the entire human race.

I seem to recall reading a while back that if you could stand on top of a wall on a neutron star (neither standing nor the wall being possible, but there you go), if you jumped off (again not possible) you'd be travelling at a million miles per hour by the time you hit the surface.

 

[Friesiansam]

I was reading a short piece about neutron stars the other day. These can form during the death of stars not large enough to form black holes, but are still startlingly dense. Apparently a sugar cube's worth of neutron star matter weighs as much as the entire human race.

I seem to recall reading a while back that if you could stand on top of a wall on a neutron star (neither standing nor the wall being possible, but there you go), if you jumped off (again not possible) you'd be travelling at a million miles per hour by the time you hit the surface.

I think many people don't appreciate just how much of normal matter, is actually empty space, even though it may appear solid.

 

[jjbomber]

I think many people don't appreciate just how much of normal matter, is actually empty space, even though it may appear solid.

Between their ears?

 

[Bruiser]

My bmi is now 29 down from 33!

 

[Symples]

My bmi is now 29 down from 33!

Well done

 

[Bruiser]

Well done

Thanks.

 

[daveh75]

Gel is very obviously back

 

[plastic penguin]

Did you know limestone caves in Devon was responsible for a well-known saying.

With around 50 miners in close proximity banging lumps of limestone, the echoing noise for hours everyday made the miners death....

That's where the saying: 'Stone death' comes from.

 

[Symples]

made the miners death....

Or deaf... eh, what, pardon

 

[plastic penguin]

Err. The batteries have run out

 

[plastic penguin]

Did you know...

Elvis Costello's first album, 'My Aim Is True', was made before The Attractions were formed. The backing band for this album were a bunch of US session musicians called 'Clover'. They went onto join Huey Lewis and became The News.

 

[12th Monkey]

Elvis Costello's first album, 'My Aim Is True', was made before The Attractions were formed. The backing band for this album were a bunch of US session musicians called 'Clover'. They went onto join Huey Lewis and became The News.

I didn't. I think he chose wisely!

 

[plastic penguin]

I didn't. I think he chose wisely!

That album is one of his best and I have 9 albums of his from the 70s and 80s.

Watching The Detectives is still an amazing British Reggae track.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

There's an annual march ('pointless walk') from the town of March that takes place in March.

The March March march.

 

[jjbomber]

There's an annual march ('pointless walk') from the town of March that takes place in March.

The March March march.

My university mate was born in March, in July.

 

[12th Monkey]

Fascinating piece about the Earth's core and structure in this month's Science Focus:

- The cooling of the core adds 8,000 tons of iron to the solid core every second. This works out as the same as adding the mass of every human alive every year. But this only increases the core's diameter by about 2mm a year.

- As the outer core solidifies, our magnetic field will weaken and then cease to exist. Probably making life here impossible, but that's estimated at 91Bn years away - the sun will long have toasted us by then.

- The magnetic field is not even though, because of varying degrees of convection in the outer core. The area of lowest strength is called the South Atlantic Anomaly, and the field's weakness has damaged satellites and ISS astronauts cannot perform spacewalks when they pass through it.