Category Archives: Physics

The Doppler Effect

Posted on February 19, 2013 by williamrmccormick

The Doppler effect is pretty amazing, in part because it both contradicts what one would naturally think and yet still makes perfect sense when you take the time to think about how we visualize the world. I say this because if you had never heard of the Doppler effect before, you would probably call me […] Continue reading →

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Types of Light

Posted on February 18, 2013 by ndtidol

The electromagnetic spectrum consists of radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, visible light waves, ultraviolet waves, X-rays, and gamma rays. Of these seven types, humans can only sense visible light waves, […] Continue reading →

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Frickin’ Laser Beams

Posted on February 18, 2013 by burnspress

On July 5, 2012, the world’s largest laser fired a record shattering shot that generated more power than the entire United States does at any given moment. The laser, located in Livermore, California, is housed in a building the size of three football fields dubbed the National Ignition Facility (photo above). The NIF laser is an […] Continue reading →

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Destination: Black Hole

Posted on February 17, 2013 by ibrahim2016

I like black holes. I like them a lot. They are in the top ten of my bucket list of destinations if I live for a thousand years. Black holes in popular culture are notorious for being very dark objects. I will try enlighten the readers about their shady origins, and hope that people see […] Continue reading →

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Artificial Gravity

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Megan C

Given the importance of gravity to life here on Earth, it’s interesting to think about the lack of gravity used in space exploration. Of course there’s gravity in space, but not anywhere near the amount of gravitational force we feel on Earth. So why doesn’t NASA design its space shuttles and space stations to create artificial […] Continue reading →

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Bullet Dropped vs. Bullet Fired

Posted on February 11, 2013 by CJ Jeon

In this blog, I explore the phenomenon of gravity and how it is constant throughout our world. In my senior year of high school, I took a physics class that taught me a resounding lesson about gravity, and how anything thrown or fired at a constant level will take the same amount of time to […] Continue reading →

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Gravitational Lensing

Posted on February 10, 2013 by fathomingthestars

Isaac Newton may be well known for his Law of Universal Gravitation, but the law has a fundamental flaw—it states that only things with mass can be affected by gravity.  Photons, the quanta of light, have no mass, but we know that they are affected by gravity.  One of the ways we can see how […] Continue reading →

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Historical Astronomers in Context

Posted on February 6, 2013 by wherrysg

Image Source Isaac Newton was very prominent and highly respected for his work in physics and mathematics. He was born the 4th of January 1643 and died the 31st of March 1727, and is important to Astronomy for several reasons: of those reasons, arguably the most relevant is his contributions to the science through his […] Continue reading →

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To Stretch or Not To Stretch

Posted on February 1, 2013 by ibrahim2016

Physics has the distinction of hosting the one of the weirdest concept hierarchies  Don’t get me wrong: physics is beautiful in its intricate connections. But sometimes, especially in the case of modern physics, one feels something like: So, most of us know about special relativity. A quick summary for the unfortunate: Special relativity establishes the speed […] Continue reading →

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Feeling a Bit Slow?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by ndtidol

Look in any physics textbook and the speed of light will be listed: approximately 300,000,000 meters per second. That’s a big number, but what exactly does it mean? Well, to […] Continue reading →

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