Category Archives: Class

The Resurgence of Flat Earth Theory

Posted on February 9, 2020 by avighitterman

While believers in a Flat Earth have always existed (even after it became widely understood that the Earth is a sphere), the number of “Flat Earthers” has grown (and continues to grow) at alarming rates. So how is a fact that has been proven thousands of different ways over a few thousand years rejected byContinue reading “The Resurgence of Flat Earth Theory” Continue reading →

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Ultraviolet Catastrophe

Posted on February 9, 2020 by remieri

While we discussed in class the importance of blackbody spectra continuous spectra, there is an important historical footnote in understanding where the famous blackbody curve arises from. Physics in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s predicted the wavelength-intensity relationship to be I α 1/λ^4, using a derivation based on classical statistical mechanics. This relationship closelyContinue reading “Ultraviolet Catastrophe” Continue reading →

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The Origin of Tides: The Sun & The Moon

Posted on February 9, 2020 by maverickbennett

How much impact do The Sun and The Moon have on Earth’s tides? Also, what would happen to the Earth’s tides if there were no moon? These are questions that are covered in this blog post about tides. The Earth’s tides are results of the gravitational pull from the Sun and the Moon on Earth’sContinue reading “The Origin of Tides: The Sun & The Moon” Continue reading →

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Light and Vision

Posted on February 9, 2020 by coreyxcas

Humans can only see a limited range of all of the light that is in the universe. As learned in class, there is UV, radio, infrared, and Gamma ray waves. The light we can see is a small portion between the UV and infrared waves, but other animals rely on their ability to see light […] Continue reading →

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Stromatolites

Posted on February 9, 2020 by seths1

Stromatolites are layered mounds or sheet-like layers of sedimentary rock that were originally forced by growing on a layer of cyanobacteria, a single-cell microbe. Fossilized stromatolites provide a record of ancient life and tidal patterns on Earth. Millions of years ago, seas all over the world would resemble the picture above, which was taken fromContinue reading “Stromatolites” Continue reading →

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Invisible Stars Bending Space-Time with Gravity

Posted on February 9, 2020 by alexsolarsystem

Researchers at the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw have recently discovered two previously invisible stars deep within the Milky Way. These binary stars (two stars that effectively orbit each other) were found thanks to a star called Gaia16aye that is considerably farther away. A few years ago, astronomers noticed that Gaia16aye would occasionallyContinue reading “Invisible Stars Bending Space-Time with Gravity” Continue reading →

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The Moon’s Tug

Posted on February 9, 2020 by gatorsguidetothegalaxy

Three weeks ago, for my Earth System Dynamics course, I listened to a Radiolab podcast about the distance between the Earth and the Moon. In “The Times They Are a Changin’” paleontologists talk about how coral shells taught us that the Earth used to have shorter days. Their shells have tiny bands, an alternating patternContinue reading “The Moon’s Tug” Continue reading →

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How Gravity Affects Light

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Reece Boggs

Gravity exerts a force on photons, even though it has no mass. This can distort the things we see if the light that reaches us is being distorted by gravity, as seen in the picture at the top of this post. The confusing aspect of this is that gravity affects this light even though theContinue reading “How Gravity Affects Light” Continue reading →

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Blog 2- Ch 3,4,5,6: Neap and Spring Tides

Posted on February 9, 2020 by katelynmofield

Throughout this unit, we learned about tides, their causes and what influences them. In preparing for this blogpost, I came across two different kinds of tides (besides high and low tide) called “spring” and “neap” tides. These tides correlate with the moon phases, in that spring tides occur during the new or full moon, andContinue reading “Blog 2- Ch 3,4,5,6: Neap and Spring Tides” Continue reading →

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Interesting tides

Posted on February 9, 2020 by caseycao

Tides are caused by differences in magnitude between th继续阅读“Interesting tides” Continue reading →

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