Monthly Archives: February 2014

Tides

Posted on February 17, 2014 by mariah0407

Having grown up near the ocean, I always found tides fascinating.  Until now though, I never quite understood what was happening. Moon tides are caused by the Moon’s gravity which creates two “bulges.”  Additionally, there are Sun tides, but these are not as strong due to how far away the Sun is. Recently, in the […] Continue reading →

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Blog #4: Telescopes

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Lauren

Even though I was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, I have never taken the time to visit the renowned Griffith Observatory until this past winter break.  After my trip, I found my awestruck in wonder by the breathtaking beauty of the night sky.  It is difficult to see stars in the city since […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post #3: Defying Gravity

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Lauren

It always blew my mind that despite the vastness of the universe, there was a central force that centered it all.  Just thinking about how far away the sun is from the earth, but how a certain force (gravity) can still pull the two together past the distance to create an orbit and a revolution […] Continue reading →

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Let’s just go back to the good old Greek days

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Asad Pabani

Whilst it is true we have a lot more to discover about the Universe, we have dramatically increased the knowledge we have on the Universe in recent times. Indeed, just my astronomy textbook is about 750 pages. All this learning, yet we can never know enough about the Universe. It just makes me think sometimes, […] Continue reading →

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X-Ray vision is pretty useless

Posted on February 17, 2014 by Asad Pabani

X-Ray vision. Sounds pretty cool right? In a discussion of which superpower one could have, it would rank right up there as a people’s favourite. The reality however is a bit of a letdown. Most things in everyday life like people, clothes and houses do not emit X-Ray vision which means you would have very […] Continue reading →

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Equal and Opposite

Posted on February 17, 2014 by hindsolar

Newton’s third law of motion tell us that for any force that is applied there is always an equal and opposite force. Physics and Astronomy are tightly intertwined. I thought the example of a plane captures this idea and is quite interesting. Planes must maintain certain altitudes. This is controlled by the wing of the […] Continue reading →

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The Kessel Run

Posted on February 17, 2014 by colepospisil

In Star Wars: A New Hope, Han Solo claims to have made the Kessel Run in only 12 parsecs. It is at this point that a general outcry raises from the physicists who know that a parsec is a unit of distance, not time. But when one knows more about Star Wars, it all makes sense. […] Continue reading →

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Zero Gravity

Posted on February 17, 2014 by colepospisil

Planets are like ogres, they have layers. As you approach the center of the planet, mass is skimmed off until the effective mass of the planet is zero at the center. At this point, the planet’s gravity affects you in equal and opposite directions, so there is essentially no gravitational force. Everywhere other than the […] Continue reading →

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E=mc² is Incomplete

Posted on February 17, 2014 by gradytlynch

This brief and to the point video breaks down the nature of Einstein’s famous equation E = mc^2. Using the simple analogy of a right triangle, it shows how an object with mass can never achieve light speed. In everyday life, the “pc” component of Einstein’s equation doesn’t matter, as objects can rarely travel significantly […] Continue reading →

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Interfer… What did you say again?

Posted on February 17, 2014 by blankster22

To this point in history, we have created some pretty impressive telescopes. We are now able to see things that we could scarcely have even conceived of a hundred years ago. But even with the incredible advancements we’ve made so far, there’s good reason to think that we can even make what we have now […] Continue reading →

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