Out of Ideas

I am currently out of ideas on what to post. If you would, please give me ideas on what I should talk about. I might do something on dark matter and dark energy soon (or maybe neutrinos or something). Please help!

The Brain - Explained in Physics

OK. We're going into philosophy and psychology today. So anyway. Have you ever thought about scientifically how thinking works? Well, this is it: You're brain thinks by having the nerve cells send messenger RNA everywhere. Does it ever feel like that? I don't think so. Does our soul think? Or does our brain do it for us? Can souls exist legally within the laws of physics? Do they exist in a completely different dimension but can communicate and use our bodies through the use of soulions*? If our consciousness is only in out brains, then is our thought mostly controlled by physics? Even though physics and philosophy are both just a bunch of questions, they just don't work together. It is very mind-boggling.


*soulions is a made-up term that I just invented.

A Wrinkle in Time (And Space)

The fifth dimension. A topic of hot debate, especially between astrophysicists and particle physicists. Mathematically and abstractly, the fifth dimension is structurally legitimate. The fifth dimension is a dimension that supposedly exists at a right angle to time. If one were to draw a space-time diagram (please read Stephen Hawking's books for reference for now about space-time diagrams; I'll explain them later), then add an extra axis at a right angle to time, then it would look as though once an object reaches a certain point in time, it could suddenly change to a different position in space.
Is instantaneous travel throughout the universe possible? Maybe.

End of the Universe

There are many speculations about the end of the universe, and has been of debate by scientists all over the world. Some of them are just stupid crummy and un1337 ones that unknowledgable people made up like this: Aliens are going to take over the universe, and eventually cause war and antimatter bombs will turn the universe into pure energy, which will dissipate into nothing. Those are useless and no one wants to hear them, because this is a physics blog.

One theory is that the universe is stationary. This is what Einstein believed in. When he made his general theory of relativity, he was dissatisfied with the fact that his theory did not support a stationary universe, so he added a cosmological constant. He later called it the "biggest blunder" of his life.

The two most supported speculations of the end of the universe are opposite of each other. One states that the universe will eventually started to fall back to the power of gravity and collapse back to a singularity as it was before the Big Bang in what is called the "Big Crunch". The other states that the universe will continue to expand until the universe will cool down to absolute zero and become desolate, which some people call "Heat Death". The people supporting Heat Death theory say that according to calculations, there is not enough matter in the universe to cause the collapse. The people supporting the Big Crunch theory say that there exists some form of "dark matter" that is usually invisible to or unrecognized by telescopes, and that there is enough of this stuff that it will eventually cause the universe to collapse.

What do you think?

Pluto and Charon are not alone

Pluto's moon, Charon, was discovered by an American astronomy James Christy on June 22, 1978. But these two lonely objects in the outer reaches of the solar system are not alone. Just recently this year, on May 15, the Hubble Space Telescope Pluto Companion Search Team discovered two possible moons of Pluto, currently codenamed P1 and P2. P1 has the diameter of approximately 50 to 160 kilometers, and P2 has the diameter of approximately 30 to 150 kilometers.

"God does not play dice"

The quote "God does not play dice" was from Albert Einstein. This was his reply to the unveiling of the uncertainty principle, which at the time, he firmly disagreed with. The uncertainty principle is a principle from quantum mechanics which states that the more you know about the momentum of a particle, the less you can know about its position. This changed the world of physics a lot, because this was saying that it is impossible predict the future with physics, even with all the measurements and calculations in the universe.

Stephen W. Hawking

Stephen W. Hawking is the greatest physicist of our time. He has formulated ideas about many things, including string theory, quantum mechanics, black holes, and even white holes (though later he stated that his idea about white holes is wrong). He has and is doing a lot of research about the supposed "Theory of Everything" and other "great theories". He strides to combine the laws of the four forces in physics: strong force, weak force, magnetic force, and gravitational force.
Mr. Hawking lives in the UK in Cambridge. He is crippled by ALS, or neuron motor disease, but he still has a great mind. He has written many books and given many lectures (with his voice synthesizer computer on his wheelchair). One book I recomment is The Universe in a Nutshell, which talks about many cool physics stuff. The reading level is just right so people with little prior knowledge of physics could understand it too.

Stephen W. Hawking's Homepage

Particle Spin

I have a really good question I want an answer to: How can a particle only look the same after turning it 360º TWICE? I really don't get it. I know that it might have something to do with some particles being "virtual particles" (i.e. gravitons), but I just am really stumped on that. Please give some answers in the comments. Thanks!

Antimatter

Here's an interesting link from CERN's website that talks about antimatter.

Antimatter: Mirror of the Universe

Antimatter is matter composed of antiatoms. Atoms are composed of electrons (negative charge), protons (positive charge), and neutrons (neutral). Antiatoms, on the other hand, are composed of identical particles but of opposite charge: positrons (positive charge), antiprotons (negative charge), and antineutrons (also neutral). Antimatter looks identical to matter. When antimatter has contact with "regular" matter, they annihilate, creating pure energy as the antimatter and matter just disappear into nothing. Any particle (except neutral particles, which always have neutral charges) will annihilate with the same effect with its counterparter.

What is Physics?

The word "physics" has its roots in the words in Greek meaning "natural" and "nature". It is the science of how everything "natural" works. For example, it can be the science that explains why things move. Everything in the universe have to obey the laws of physics. Physics is almost always intertwined with mathematics, because for physics to be calculated, there have to be lots of mathematical formulas, equations, etc.
The most dominant fields in physics include astrophysics (physics in "space"), particle physics (study of particles such as electrons, quarks, etc.), atomic/molecular physics, and condensed matter physics. Physics is also tied very closely to many different sciences such as astronomy.

The First Post

Hi Everyone! I have created a blog about physics, and I don't know what to do yet. There will be many things to talk about, and please post a comment to advise me on what to put here.