Tag Archives: astro201

A Different Spin on Scale

Posted on January 26, 2014 by jgarrett9

The universe is massive. We know it, we think we can understand it, but every time we see one of those pictures with a tiny Earth next to a huge star, it still blows our mind. So yes, based on the principle of size, I agree that we are tiny and insignificant compared to the… Continue reading →

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The Zodiac

Posted on January 26, 2014 by colepospisil

The signs of the zodiac have been the focus of astrologers for thousands of years, believed to have influence on the personalities and fortunes of those born under their time in the sun. While there is no scientific evidence to support this belief, there can be no denying that it serves as an important cultural […] Continue reading →

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Issues with time

Posted on January 26, 2014 by colepospisil

Imagine a perfectly accurate clock, one that measures nanoseconds away without any margin of error. This clock is more advanced and precise than anything we have today, even the atomic clock pictured above. If you wanted to know what time it is right now, this clock would still be a little behind, unfortunately. This is […] Continue reading →

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Light Speed

Posted on January 26, 2014 by philipapelles

After learning about how fast light travels, I became curious to see if man could ever travel at such speeds. I realize that at today’s current level of technology it would be impossible to create a vehicle or shuttle capable of traveling that fast but I wanted to see if physics lent itself to the… Continue reading →

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Is it a parallax or only one? ;)

Posted on January 25, 2014 by juliamac17

So one feature of star observation that has allowed us to figure out that we’re not the center of the universe is this really neat and slightly tricky idea of stellar parallax. It’s the phenomenon where based on our position in orbit, a star may appear to have moved based on the stars behind it. […] Continue reading →

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I swear the universe doesn’t even know I exist

Posted on January 25, 2014 by juliamac17

So I was watching this video called Powers of Ten, yes? And this video takes you from looking at a view that’s 1m^2 and then increases that by a factor of ten every ten seconds (so after the first ten seconds you’re looking at 10m^2, then 100m^2, and so on and so forth), and by […] Continue reading →

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Star Walk: Planetarium in Your Pocket

Posted on January 25, 2014 by hollyreichert

When looking up into the sky at night, usually I can’t identify all the constellations above.  The Star Walk app knows where you are and tells you what stars and planets are above you.  You can hold it up wherever you are and it is like having a mobile planetarium.  Even in the city where […] Continue reading →

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Humans: Only Around for a Blink of an Eye

Posted on January 25, 2014 by hollyreichert

The universe has been around for 13.8 billion years.  In the grand scheme of things, this means that human life has only been around for the blink of an eye.  When 13.8 billion years is put into one calendar year, homo erectus does not appear until 10:48 pm on December 31.  All of our human […] Continue reading →

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The Grandest Experiment

Posted on January 24, 2014 by jblubin

The majority of physics experiments take place in a small lab found in the basement of a university science building. However, for a grand hypothesis, one needs a grand experiment. The year was 1919 and a nervous Albert Einstein awaited the results of an experiment on the scale never before seen nor bested up to … Continue reading The Grandest Experiment → Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Speed Limit

Posted on January 19, 2014 by jblubin

It was Einstein who only came up with his Theory of Special Relativity after having been inspired by a daydream of himself riding on a beam of light across the cosmos. What a journey that must have been, despite its fantasy; our only idea of what travelling at the speed of light may look like […] Continue reading →

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