32. The speed of time.

If you traveled at the speed of light, time would stop. According to

Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, the faster you go, the slower
time passes for you relative to your surroundings. Seriously—if you zip
around in a Ferrari for an hour, you’ll have aged ever-so-slightly less
than if you had just chilled at home on the computer. The extra
nanoseconds you get out of it might not be worth the price of gas, but
hey, it’s an option. Now, before you whip up a get-immortal-quick
scheme, note that moving at the speed of light isn’t actually possible,
unless you happen to be made of light. Technically speaking, moving
that fast would require an infinite amount of energy (and frankly, not
even a Chihuahua has that much energy).
Getty Images

31. Spot that star.

Our sun bends light. Affected by gravity, the path of a beam of light is
not entirely straight. So if a beam of light from a distant star passes close
to our sun, it will actually bend slightly around it. The effect on an
observer—like us—is that we see stars in different spots than they are
actually located.
Wikimedia Commons

30. Where’s the mass hiding?

The amount of total mass in the universe is vastly greater than the mass
we can actually account for. Physicists developed an explanation for
this, and the leading theory right now is that dark matter—a mysterious
substance that emits no light—accounts for the missing mass. Dark
matter and dark energy account for approximately 95% of the mass in
the universe.
Flickr

29. Understanding cosmic expansion.

Here’s where things get a little trippy. Before it was a TV show, the Big
Bang Theory was an important explanation for the origin of our
universe. Basically, the universe started as an explosion. Debris (planets,
stars, etc) was flung around in all directions, driven by the enormous
energy of the blast. Because all of this debris is so heavy, we would
expect this explosion to slow down after a while. Here’s the catch: it
hasn’t slowed down at all. In fact, the universe is expanding faster over
time. This as crazy as if you threw a baseball that kept getting faster and
faster, never falling back to the ground. The prevailing explanation for
this is that force exerted by dark matter and energy is propelling cosmic
expansion.
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28. So many hydrogen atoms.

The most abundant atom in the universe is the hydrogen atom. Nearly
74% of the atoms in the Milky Way galaxy are hydrogen atoms.
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27. Say what now?

Electrons behave differently when it’s being observed. That’s right, The
mere act of observation can completely change the outcome of an event!
In the famous Double Slit Experiment, researches proved that hen a
camera observes electrons, they act as particles. However, when the no
equipment is used to observe the electrons, they act as waves and
particles simultaneously. There’s enormous disagreement and lack of
certainty as to why this occurs.
Pixabay

26. Feather vs. bowling ball.

All objects fall at the same speed. You would be forgiven for assuming
that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones—it sounds like common
sense, and besides, a bowling ball drops more quickly than a feather. But
really the force of gravity pulls the objects toward the center of the earth
at precisely the same speed. It’s air resistance that accounts for the
feather’s slower flight. This means that if you repeated the feather vs.
bowling ball experiment on the moon (which has no atmosphere), they
would hit the ground at the exact same time.
pixabay
25. Empty space.
There are, in the annals of science, some facts that simply beggar belief.
Things that, if they hadn’t been studied for years by the most intelligent
minds on the planet, I’d feel tempted to dismiss instantly as the stupefied
ravings of an absolute lunatic. In this case I’m still tempted to do
that. Apparently all the matter that makes up the human race could fit in
a sugar cube. That’s right. Everyone you’ve ever known… everyone
who’s ever lived, for that matter… all of us could be squashed into a
little hunk of matter about half-an-inch on each side, if only you reduced
us down to our basic components. Atoms are, after all,
99.9999999999999 percent empty space. Mind. Blown. Mic drop.
Pixabay

24. Multi-colored holes?

Black holes aren’t black. They’re very dark, sure, but they aren’t black.
They glow, slightly, giving off light across the whole spectrum,
including visible light. This radiation is called “Hawking radiation” after
the former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University
Stephen Hawking, who first proposed its existence. Because black holes
are constantly giving off this radiation, and therefore losing mass, they
will eventually evaporate if they don’t have another source of mass to
sustain them.
Aleksandra Sokaroska | Factinate

23. Usain Bolt, the heaviest man in the world?

The faster you move, the heavier you get. However, this is negligible at
human speeds – even Usain Bolt is not noticeably heavier when running
than when still – but once you reach an appreciable fraction of the speed
of light, your mass increases rapidly. So in a sense, if you’re willing to
yourself in the context of the entire known universe, you’re basically as
fast as Bolt. How ’bout that?
Wikipedia
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22. I’m already at my ideal weight… on the moon.

Weight (force of gravity) decreases as you move away from the earth.
This is because, although we don’t tend to think about it much during
our lives on Earth, weight is not actually an objective measurement
of how much matter a thing contains—that’s what we have mass for.
Weight is a measurement of how much gravity something experiences,
which is a function of what other bodies are surrounding said object, and
how they themselves respond to gravity.
Flickr

21. Take that, astronauts!

Some roller coasters have been known to include g-forces of around 4 to
6 g. Astronauts normally experience a maximum g-force of around 3gs
during a rocket launch. Have you ever been to a theme park?
Congratulations, according to my very hazy understanding of the
transitive property of equality, you are officially an astronaut.
Congratulations, Doctor. Stay humble.
Wikipedia

20. Mass is king.

Gravity keeps Earth and the other planets in our solar system in orbit
around the Sun. It also keeps the Moon in orbit around Earth.

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19. Orbiting in straight lines.

Planets don’t actually travel in a circular motion. They orbit suns
because space-time itself is bent. This is because, in a sense, gravity
actually bends the fabric of the universe. Concepts like this are really
where you begin to appreciate the monumental genius of men like
Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein. What just took me, for example,
about 2 hours to even begin to understand, is something that they grasp
relatively (ha ha) easily. Not even just grasp, but discover and then
explain to others. Hmmm. Raise your hand if you’re feeling a little bit
star-struck.
Wikimedia Commons

18. Sweet equilibrium.

The Sun and the planets are staying approximately the same distance
apart and have been in roughly the same places for several billion years.
The planets currently lie in a perfect balance that results in each planet
moving fast enough to not be pulled closer to the Sun, but not too fast
that it moves away from the Sun and launches of the Solar System.

Wikipedia

17. If Saturn went for a swim…

Saturn would float if you put it in water. Technically, this is true since
Saturn, which is composed mostly of gas, is much less dense than water.
However, finding a pool of water big enough may be a challenge… And,
of course, the planet itself may not be the best swimmer. Most physicists
agree that Saturn would fall apart pretty quickly if ever plopped it into
this yet-to-be-discovered colossal pool.

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16. Cute little quarks.

Although atoms are the smallest unit of an element, they consist of even
tinier particles called quarks and leptons. An electron is a lepton. Protons
and neutrons consist of three quarks each.
Wikipedia

15. In God we trust…

Physics has often clashed with religious views, and many renowned
physicists have taken strong stances. “The role played by time at the
beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the
need for a Grand Designer, and revealing how the universe created itself.
… Time itself must come to a stop. You can’t get to a time before the
big bang, because there was no time before the big bang. We have
finally found something that does not have a cause because there was no
time for a cause to exist in. For me this means there is no possibility of a
creator because there is no time for a creator to have existed. Since time
itself began at the moment of the Big Bang, it was an event that could
not have been caused or created by anyone or anything. … So when
people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them the question itself
makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the Big Bang, so there is no
time for God to make the universe in. It’s like asking for directions to
the edge of the Earth. The Earth is a sphere. It does not have an edge, so
looking for it is a futile exercise.” – Stephen Hawking
Aleksandra Sokaroska | Factinate

14. Rocket power!

In a rocket, fuel is burned in a combustion chamber to produce a mass of
hot gases. Gas expands and streams backwards out of the rocket. The
force as they stream out backwards sets up a reaction force in the
opposite direction, called thrust, which propels the rocket forwards.
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13. Great spirits have always encountered violent

opposition…
Robert Goddard fired the first liquid-propellant rocket in 1926. He was
ridiculed when he said that rocket technology could be used to fly to the
Moon. This earned him the nickname “Moony Goddard,” and he
avoided publicity for the rest of his life.

Wikipedia

12. I think I get it, but I’m not sure.

The Uncertainty Principle, or the Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, is
one of the most famous and misunderstood ideas in physics. It states that
the position and momentum of a particle cannot be simultaneously
measured with high precision. In layman’s terms, this means that there is
a fuzziness in nature, a fundamental limit to what we can know about the
behaviour of particles and, therefore, nature. This radical principle
caused many physicists to change their goal. Many physicists
acknowledge that the goal of modern physics is no longer to understand
the nature of the universe entirely, but rather to understand it within the
limits of the Uncertainty Principle.
Pexels

11. It’s all about acceleration.

Practical space rockets, or launch vehicles, are made up of several rocket
units joined together. This arrangement is called a step rocket. The
principle behind the step rocket is that each rocket unit, or stage, fires for
a time and then falls away when the fuel has been used. This makes the
rocket lighter and enables it to accelerate faster.
Wikipedia
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10. Bang!
If you place a pinhead-sized piece of the Sun’s core on the Earth, you
will die from standing within 145 km (90 miles) from it. Why?
Basically, it contains a wack ton of energy, and it’ll blow up like a
freaking nuclear bomb. Which begs the question: why did you try this
experiment in the first place?!? You’ve gone and destroyed life on
Earth as we know it, you maniac. Did your curiosity know no
bounds??????

Pixabay

9. Can science explain love?

While Einstein remained adamant that the universe could be explained
in its entirety, he was also a man of sentiment who sometimes favored
humanist explanations over scientific. He once said, “No, this trick
won’t work… How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of
chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first
love?”
Pixabay

8. So much room for activities!

Space is not a complete vacuum. There are about 3 atoms per cubic
meter of space. Massive understatement of the century: that’s not a lot.
To put it in perspective, at sea level, there are approximately 2.5 x 10^25
air molecules in a cubic meter of air. That’s
250,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. And because we know
you were just wondering: that’s pronounced 250 Septillion. Which is a
lot.
Pixabay

7. Sorry, Chuck.
Neutron stars are so dense that a teaspoon of them would be equal to the
weight of Earth’s entire population. In fact, Scientists agree that even
Chuck Norris couldn’t bench press a neutron star.
Aleksandra Sokaroska | Factinate

6. Dizzy stars.
Neutron stars are the fastest spinning objects known in the universe.
Pulsars are a particular type of neutron star that emits a beam of
radiation that can be observed as a pulse of light. The rate of this pulse
allows astronomers to measure the rotation. The fastest spinning known
pulsar is the catchily-titled PSR J1748-2446ad, which spins at over
70,000 kilometres per second.
 Flickr

5. Creating singularities.
Dying stars create black holes. Like a good old chap, our Sun is going to
end its life quietly. When its nuclear fuel burns out, it’ll slowly fade into
a white dwarf. That’s not the case for far more massive stars. Let’s say
you have a star that’s about 20 times more massive than the Sun. When
this monster runs out of fuel, gravity violently overwhelms and collapses
the core and other layers are flung into space. This is called a supernova.
The remaining core collapses into a singularity — a spot of infinitely
dense mass and almost no volume. That’s another name for a black hole.
Aleksandra Sokaroska | Factinate

4. High praise.
Using the Equivalence Principle, Einstein is the man who discovered
relativity. Here’s what Stephen Hawking had to say about his work:
“Einstein’s use of the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass to
derive his principle of equivalence, and eventually all of general
relativity, amounts to a relentless march of logical reasoning unmatched
in the history of human thought.” That’s high praise from one smart
dude to another!
Flickr

3. The never-ending journey.

Our quest for knowledge won’t end anytime soon. Explaining the nature
of the universe is no easy task. Bill Bryon, author of A Short History of
Nearly Everything said this on the subject: “Physics is really nothing
more than a search for ultimate simplicity, but so far all we have is a
kind of elegant messiness.”
Aleksandra Sokaroska | Factinate

2. Perpetual motion.
Newton’s First Law of Motion explains how inertia affects moving and
non-moving objects must remain at rest or move at a constant speed in a
straight line unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
Getty Images

1. Take that, Heisenberg!

One of Albert Einstein’s most famous quotes is, “God does not play
dice.” Few quotes have been so radically misunderstood. Many people
have assumed Einstein to be referring to a personal or religious god. He
wasn’t. The full quote is actually “God does not play dice with the
universe.” This was Einstein’s rebuttal to the Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle, which Einstein adamantly rejected. He believed there must be
some underlying laws of nature that could define particles and make it
possible to calculate both their speed and position. There’s no evidence
of the law Einstein hoped for, and all experimental evidence suggests
that quantum mechanics is real. However, quantum mechanics (the field
where the Uncertainty Principle is king) doesn’t fit with other widely
excepted theories, like Einstein’s Special and General Theory of
Relativity. Quantum mechanics may be supported by evidence, but it
remains a total mystery as to how it fits in with the rest of physics.

1. The Meaning of Physics

It’s interesting to know that the literal meaning of word “Physics” is taken
from Greek saying “knowledge of nature”. It is one of the oldest fields of
science which dates back to 650 BC which was discovered by Greeks.
2. GPS works on Physics formula
The modern day applications like GPS which literally shows us the right
paths of life is based on a physics formula of E= mc 2. The satellite
navigation systems are related to geostationary satellites to pinpoint the
locations and data exchange using radio waves. So the theory of relativity
helps in proper working of GPS.
3. Space Travellers become kinda Younger due to Relativity
space rocket This must interest all the ladies out there! The astronauts who are at
International Space Station experience the time slowly since both velocity and
gravity have an effect on the speed of time. This is why astronauts kind of look
younger to us.
4. The Science of “Dead Sea”
 The nature’s way of proving that physics is cool is shown in a way of Dead
Sea which is one such marvel. Known for its density because of presence of
salt in this sea, a person can easily float in the water without drowning. So,
you don’t have to be swimmer to enjoy the Dead Sea.

5. 5. It is all dark out there

space Can you believe that everything we see in this universe is only 5% of the
whole universe. The rest of things are simply dark energy and dark matter. This
makes us feel so insignificant now!

6. 6. Light Travelling faster is not entirely true

Remember all your classes when teachers says “Light travels faster”, well it’s not
entirely true. See the speed of light does not always pass through vacuum and its
only there that they have a constant speed. When it passes through water, protons
travel at around 3 quarters that speed.

7. 7. You gain fast by going Fast

sheldon Probably all the lazy people out there must be interested in knowing
this that the energy is added to the moving object with increased speed.
Since mass and energy is equivalent, then while increasing speed, the
object’s mass also increases. As you approach speed of light, mass tends to
increase dramatically. But cars and air planes don’t fall in this category
because the increase of speed is temporary in these things.
8. 8. Black Holes are not Black in color

blackhole Another interesting fact about Physics is that the famous physicist,
Stephen Hawking who proposed the existence of Black hole discovered a
radiation called “Hawking radiation” which makes the black hole glow and
gives off light across whole spectrum.
 9. 9. The touch screen of your phone is based on YOU!

phones Don’t get surprised that much. Physics has all the answers. Based on the
formula of resistance, body’s electrons repel the objects similarly when we
touch the screen of phone. The current circuit is broken, potential drop at the
point you touch and sensed by a sensor, implementing required action.

10.10. Quantum Foam

foam All the empty space of universe is not empty. The particles constantly pop
into and out of existence and are called virtual particles. They exist for fraction
of seconds, break some fundamental laws of physics and this does not matter.
This phenomenon is known as “Quantum foam”. It is like shifting bubbles in
the head of soft drink.

11.11. The Humanity could fit in sugar cube

sugarcube Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons along with
empty space. So if we gather all the humanity at one place and remove all
the empty spaces from the atom, it would fit in a small sugar cube and that
would weigh 5 billion tons because of being extremely dense!
Mind blowing, isn’t it!!

12.12. Time is Relative

space science You would be amazed to know that passage of time is different for
people moving at different velocities. Everyone has their own sense of time. This is
one of the astounding physics facts you would come across!
13.13. Light waves don’t always move in straight lines:
It is generally believed that light waves only move in straight lines.
However, as per the recent research in 2010 using computer controlled
 hologram, it has been proved that light, too, can get twisted into knots.
According to the study, when light passes through the hologram, it twists
into different shapes, producing multiple knots.
14.14. Unbelievable hydrogen energy:
It is estimated that Sun burns around 620 million metric tons of
hydrogen/second into 616 million metric tons of helium. Out of this total
volume, around 4 million tons of mass enters the solar system. Furthermore,
only about 3.6 pounds of the mass reaches our earth. Had even 1 percent of
the energy produced out of fusion reached us, what would have been the
scenario?
15.15. Human radiations:
As per the recent studies and discoveries in the field of Physics, a nude
human body constantly radiates around 1000 watts of heat and absorbs about
900 watts. However, once the person covers his body with clothes, the
outflow of the heat flux reduces considerably due to the exterior barrier. The
amount of heat outflow from the human body is more than enough in
lightning up a 100 watt bulb for some time.
16.Anti-gravity movement:
Water can easily run against the gravitational pull when moving up narrow
pipes. The process is described as ‘Capillary Action’. Water moves up in the
narrow spaces without any assistance and against the gravitational force.
This ability of the liquid proves that gravitational force can’t control the
movement of every matter present on earth. At times, other forces (Surface
tension, in this case) can defeat it.
17.Viscous fluids can flow at high speeds:
It is generally believed that viscous fluids can’t flow fast enough like water –
a liquid with reduced viscous level. However, some scientists went on to
prove that fluids like “Ketchup” can attain high speeds, too, if constantly
sheered over a period of time till they attain momentum. Once thrust is
achieved, the viscous forces dwindle down considerably and free movement
is observed.
18.Gravitational constant:
The standard value of the gravitational constant is 9.8 m/s^2. It must be well
known to all the science students that the value is calculated from the free
fall of an object at sea level. The point worth noting is that the free fall
should be at latitude of 45 degrees from the base level in order to obtain this
value than 90 degrees as believed by the most.
19.Air current:
The speed of wind near the surface of ocean is much lower than what is
observed in the higher altitudes. The reason can be attributed to the friction
it receives from the water surface. It is due to this reason that most birds fly
at a higher altitude. They manipulate the wind power in order to use least
amount of energy on flying.
20.Universe is a Computer:
On the basis of a paper published by a professor in MIT, the Universe is
equivalent to a computer. The figure is roughly equal to 10^120 bits. The
number was calculated by him on the basis of the amount of information that
can be stored in a volume just before it adopts the properties of a black hole.
The information can be equated to absolute entropy of the universe.
21.Mystery of microwave and liquids:
As per the latest researches worldwide, water in the liquid state has the
characteristic to enable many new molecular interactions to develop. This
helps in enhancing absorption of heat by food items. Due to this property,
foods items like burgers become soft enough to be eaten after coming out of
microwave ovens.
22.Ultimate expansion:
It is proved by scientific theories that the universe is constantly expanding. It
is expanding at a decent pace and it is believed that galaxies will evaporate
in the coming 10^19 to 10^20 years. It has been learnt from a number of
theories by different Physicists worldwide that only White Dwarfs (a type of
star) would be able to survive as their lifetime is more than 10^32 years.
to slow down after a while. Here’s the catch: it hasn’t slowed down at all. In
fact, the universe is expanding faster over time. This as crazy as if you threw
a baseball that kept getting faster and faster, never falling back to the
ground. The prevailing explanation for this is that force exerted by dark
matter and energy is propelling cosmic expansion.
23.Selfies Kill More People Than Sharks
According to the International Shark Attack File, there have been just 439
fatal shark attacks worldwide since 1958. That’s just 7.5 shark-related deaths
per year. However, in India alone, 27 people perished from selfie-related
causes in 2015.
24.Is parallel universe real?: We generally believe that the spacetime is curved
but according to the data of astrophysics, the spacetime is flat and this is one
of the reasons it is never-ending. If this information is somehow true then
 the region what we see and think of the universe is just one patch in an
infinitely large multiverse. So, multiverse is generally a cosmos that consists
of multiple universes. One of the most popular alternate universe theories
out there is String Theory. In this theory, we live in a nine-dimensional
multiverse — with only three dimensions of those being visible to us.
25.The Dead Sea: One of the most interesting and amazing facts about Physics
on earth is “The Dead Sea”, which is known for its density due to the
presence of salt, as a result of which you can easily float on it without
drowning, so one can always claim to be a swimmer there!
26.Dark Energy: It is something we can neither see nor feel, but we can test for
it. Nobody has proved yet, what it is. However, scientists consider that the
dark energy makes up around 70% of the universe. It was used to explain
why galaxies don’t just drift apart but instead accelerate away from each
other. You can think of it as a repulsive gravity that pushes matter apart.
How it works, however, is still a mystery.
27.All the matters that make up the human race can fit in one sugar cube.
28.Atoms have 99.9999999999999% empty space.
29.Water can boil and freeze at the same time.
30.The mass of the entire atmosphere is estimated to be some 5.5 quadrillion
tons i.e. 55 followed by 14 zeros.
31.All objects fall at the same speed.
32.Neutrinos and dark matter
We like to think that we can interact with most of the world around us, but
this couldn’t be further from the truth. Neutrinos and dark matter are passing
through your body right now, as if you weren’t even there. The fact that 65
billion neutrinos pass through each square centimeter of your body every
second is weird enough, who knows what we’ll learn about dark matter
33.Weight doesn’t matter
34.If it wasn’t for air resistance, everything would fall at exactly the same
speed. If you let go of a hammer and a feather from the same height at the
same time on the Moon, they would hit the ground simultaneously.
35.Nebulae come in all shapes and sizes
Nebula means cloud in Latin. These are areas in which stars are being created or
where a star has died. The cosmic clouds come in all shapes and sizes and are
made out of interstellar dust and gases. There is a Christmas tree nebula, a
horsehead, a unicorn, a hand, fried egg and lots more. These beautiful clouds
which are not visible to the naked eye really highlight the fact there is a lot more
happening in the night sky than you can see.
36.What is the identity of the dark matter?
It has been eight decades or so since astronomers began to notice that there
is more gravity pulling stuff around out in space than there is visible matter
able to produce such effects. Attempts to detect the supposedly exotic (as in,
unknown) species of subatomic particle responsible for the extra gravity
have been frustrating. Hints seen in some experiments have been ruled out
by other experiments. I think there’s a missing piece to this puzzle, but it
probably has nothing to do with game theory.
37.The Inconsistent Light
We are always told to be as fast as light. Well here is answer for all those
who hate being told that. Light travels fast only in a vacuum. It is slowed
whenever it passes through something, being measured as traveling as
slowly as just 38 miles per hour at absolute zero (-273.15C) through ultra-
cooled rubidium.
38.Time Stops at the Speed of Light
According to Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity, the speed of light can
never change—it’s always stuck at approximately 300,000,000
meters/second, no matter who’s observing it. This in itself is incredible
enough, given that nothing can move faster than light, but it’s still very
theoretical.
39.Light is Affected by Gravity
But let’s get back to light for a minute, and talk about the Theory of General
Relativity this time (also by Einstein). This one involves an idea called light
deflection, which is exactly what it sounds like—the path of a beam of light
is not entirely straight.Strange as that sounds, it’s been proved repeatedly
(Einstein even got a parade thrown in his honor for properly predicting it).
40.even though light doesn’t have any mass, its path is affected by things that
do—such as the sun. So if a beam of light from, say, a far off star passes
close enough to the sun, it will actually bend slightly around it. The effect on
an observer—such as us—is that we see the star in a different spot of sky
than it’s actually located (much like fish in a lake are never in the spot they
appear to be). Remember that the next time you look up at the stars—it
could all just be a trick of the light.
41.Big Bang Theory
42.If you're going to know one scientific theory, make it the one that explains
how the universe arrived at its present state. Based on research performed by
Edwin Hubble, Georges Lemaitre and Albert Einstein, among others, the big
bang theory postulates that the universe began almost 14 billion years ago
with a massive expansion event. At the time, the universe was confined to a
single point, encompassing all of the universe's matter. That original
movement continues today, as the universe keeps expanding outward.
43.The speed of light in a vacuum is constant: 300,000 km per second. We’re
not denying that. But a lot of the universe isn’t a vacuum. For example, light
travels at 225,000 km per second when it travels through water. OK, that’s
absurdly fast but it’s also a big difference.
44.An interesting phenomena caused by the slowing of light through a medium
is Cherenkov radiation. Have you ever seen the eerie blue glow of
underwater nuclear reactors? That’s Cherenkov radiation and it’s because
the reactor is causing some particles to travel at extremely high speeds.
Sometimes these particles travel through a substance that’s particularly good
at slowing down light. The blue glow occurs when the particles travel
through the same substance faster than the light. So the next time someone
tells you nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, you can remind
them that sometimes light travels slower than other things.
45.Atomic nucleus
Once physicists agreed that atoms had parts, the next task was figuring out
how those parts arranged themselves. Thomson suggested that his negatively
charged electrons dispersed themselves like plums in a positively charged
pudding. But when Ernest Rutherford had his assistants shoot alpha particles
at a thin sheet of gold, some of the alpha particles bounced backward. To
express his surprise, Rutherford commented that it was like shooting an
artillery shell at a piece of tissue paper and seeing it bounce back at you. He
soon figured out that almost all of the atom’s mass was crunched into a tiny
ball in the middle. Rutherford called that ball the kern; today it’s known as
the nucleus.
46.The Biggest Mountain in Our Solar System Is on Mars
Sorry Mount Everest — you’re not the king of the solar system. That honor
belongs to Olympus Mons, a massive mountain on our planetary neighbor,
Mars. Olympus Mons is a giant mound of red dirt and rock. This volcanic
behemoth is 2,400 meters, or 80,000 feet tall, which makes it almost 15
 miles high. Everest is a mere dwarf in comparison. This giant Martian
volcano is either a mountain climber’s wildest dream, or worst nightmare.
47.If an object moves relative to a reference frame—for example, if a professor
moves to the right relative to a whiteboard, or a passenger moves toward the
rear of an airplane—then the object’s position changes. This change in
position is known as displacement. The word displacement implies that an
object has moved, or has been displaced.
48.Displacement is a vector. This means it has a direction as well as a
magnitude and is represented visually as an arrow that points from the initial
position to the final position.
49.What do distance and distance traveled mean?
We must be careful when using the word distance since there are two ways
in which the term distance is used in physics. We can talk about the distance
between two points, or we can talk about the distance traveled by an object.
50.What's confusing about displacement?
People often forget that the distance traveled can be greater than the
magnitude of the displacement. By magnitude, we mean the size of the
displacement without regard to its direction (i.e., just a number with a unit).
For example, the professor could pace back and forth many times, perhaps
walking a distance of 150 meters during a lecture, yet still end up only two
meters to the right of her starting point. In this case her displacement would
be +2 \text{ m}+2 mplus, 2, space, m, the magnitude of her displacement
would be 2 \text{ m}2 m2, space, m, but the distance she traveled would be
150 \text{ m}150 m150, space, m. In kinematics we nearly always deal with
displacement and magnitude of displacement and almost never with distance
traveled.
51.What does velocity mean?
Your notion of velocity is probably similar to its scientific definition. You
know that a large displacement in a small amount of time means a large
velocity and that velocity has units of distance divided by time, such as
miles per hour or kilometers per hour.
Average velocity is defined to be the change in position divided by the time
of travel.

52. The average velocity of an object does not tell us anything about what
happens to it between the starting point and ending point, however.
53. The smaller the time intervals considered in a motion, the more detailed
the information. Carrying this process to its logical conclusion, we are left
with an infinitesimally small interval. Over such an interval, the average
velocity becomes the instantaneous velocity, or the velocity at a specific
moment.
54. What does speed mean?
In everyday language, most people use the terms speed and velocity
interchangeably. In physics, however, they do not have the same meaning,
and they are distinct concepts. One major difference is that speed has no
direction. Thus, speed is a scalar. Just as we need to distinguish between
instantaneous velocity and average velocity, we also need to distinguish
between instantaneous speed and average speed.
55. since distance traveled can be greater than the magnitude of displacement,
the average speed can be greater than the magnitude of the average velocity.
For example, if you drive to a store and return home in half an hour and your
car’s odometer shows the total distance traveled was 6 km, then your
average speed was 12 \dfrac{\text {km}}{\text{hr}}12hrkm12, start
fraction, k, m, divided by, h, r, end fraction. 
56. How are position vs. time graphs useful?
Many people feel about graphs the same way they do about going to the
dentist: a vague sense of anxiety and a strong desire for the experience to be
over with as quickly as possible. But position graphs can be beautiful, and
they are an efficient way of visually representing a vast amount of
information about the motion of an object in a conveniently small space.
57.What does the vertical axis represent on a position graph?
The vertical axis represents the position of the object. For example, if you
read the value of the graph below at a particular time you will get the
position of the object in meters.
58. What does the slope represent on a position graph?
The slope of a position graph represents the velocity of the object. So the
value of the slope at a particular time represents the velocity of the object at
that instant.
59. This is also true for a position graph where the slope is changing. For the
example graph of position vs. time below, the red line shows you the slope
at a particular time. Try sliding the dot below horizontally to see what the
slope of the graph looks like for particular moments in time.
60. What does the curvature on a position graph mean?
 Look at the graph below. It looks curvy since it's not just made out of
straight line segments. If a position graph is curved, the slope will be
changing, which also means the velocity is changing. Changing velocity
implies acceleration. So, curvature in a graph means the object is
accelerating, changing velocity/slope.
61. What does acceleration mean?
Compared to displacement and velocity, acceleration is like the angry, fire-
breathing dragon of motion variables. It can be violent; some people are
scared of it; and if it's big, it forces you to take notice. That feeling you get
when you're sitting in a plane during take-off, or slamming on the brakes in
a car, or turning a corner at a high speed in a go kart are all situations where
you are accelerating.
62. If you’re not changing your speed and you’re not changing your direction,
then you simply cannot be accelerating—no matter how fast you’re going.
So, a jet moving with a constant velocity at 800 miles per hour along a
straight line has zero acceleration, even though the jet is moving really fast,
since the velocity isn’t changing. When the jet lands and quickly comes to a
stop, it will have acceleration since it’s slowing down.
63. What's confusing about acceleration?
I have to warn you that acceleration is one of the first really tricky ideas in
physics. The problem isn’t that people lack an intuition about acceleration.
Many people do have an intuition about acceleration, which unfortunately
happens to be wrong much of the time. As Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what
you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that
just ain’t so.”
64.Another way to say this is that if the acceleration has the same sign as the
velocity, the object will be speeding up. And if the acceleration has the
opposite sign as the velocity, the object will be slowing down.
65. What does the vertical axis represent on a velocity graph?
The vertical axis represents the velocity of the object. This probably sounds
obvious, but be forewarned—velocity graphs are notoriously difficult to
interpret. People get so used to finding velocity by determining the slope—
as would be done with a position graph—they forget that for velocity graphs
the value of the vertical axis is giving the velocity.
66.What does the slope represent on a velocity graph?
 The slope of a velocity graph represents the acceleration of the object. So,
the value of the slope at a particular time represents the acceleration of the
object at that instant.
67.What does the area under a velocity graph represent?
The area under a velocity graph represents the displacement of the object. To
see why, consider the following graph of motion that shows an object
maintaining a constant velocity of 6 meters per second for a time of 5
seconds.
68.What does the vertical axis represent on an acceleration graph?
The vertical axis represents the acceleration of the object.
69. What does the slope represent on an acceleration graph?
The slope of an acceleration graph represents a quantity called the jerk. The
jerk is the rate of change of the acceleration.
70. What does the area represent on an acceleration graph?
The area under an acceleration graph represents the change in velocity. In
other words, the area under the acceleration graph for a certain time interval
is equal to the change in velocity during that time interval
71. What is a freely flying object—i.e., a projectile?
it might seem like the fact that the kinematic formulas only work for time
intervals of constant acceleration would severely limit the applicability of
these formulas. However one of the most common forms of motion, free fall,
just happens to be constant acceleration.
72. How do you select and use a kinematic formula?
We choose the kinematic formula that includes both the unknown variable
we're looking for and three of the kinematic variables we already know. This
way, we can solve for the unknown we want to find, which will be the only
unknown in the formula.
73.

How do you derive the first kinematic

formula, v=v_0+atv=v0+atv, equals, v, start
subscript, 0, end subscript, plus, a, t ?
This kinematic formula is probably the easiest to derive since it is really just
a rearranged version of the definition of acceleration. We can start with the
definition of acceleration,
 74.

How do you derive the second kinematic

formula, {\Delta x}=(\dfrac{v+v_0}
{2})tΔx=(2v+v0)tdelta, x, equals, left
parenthesis, start fraction, v, plus, v, start
subscript, 0, end subscript, divided by, 2,
end fraction, right parenthesis, t?
75.

How do you derive the third kinematic

formula, \Delta x=v_0 t+\dfrac{1}
{2}at^2Δx=v0t+21at2delta, x, equals, v,
start subscript, 0, end subscript, t, plus,
start fraction, 1, divided by, 2, end fraction,
a, t, start superscript, 2, end superscript?

76.
How do you derive the fourth kinematic
formula, v^2=v_0^2+2a\Delta xv2=v02
+2aΔxv, start superscript, 2, end
superscript, equals, v, start subscript, 0,
end subscript, start superscript, 2, end
superscript, plus, 2, a, delta, x?
77.What's confusing about the kinematic formulas?
People often forget that the kinematic formulas are only true assuming the
acceleration is constant during the time interval considered.
78. What's a 2D projectile?
In a fructose induced rage, you decide to throw a lime at an angle through
the air. It takes a path through space as shown by the curved, dashed line in
the diagram below. The lime in this case is considered to be a two-
dimensional projectile since it's flying both vertically and horizontally
through the air, and it's only under the influence of gravity.
79. How do we handle 2D projectile motion mathematically?
One of the easiest ways to deal with 2D projectile motion is to just analyze
the motion in each direction separately. In other words, we will use one set
of equations to describe the horizontal motion of the lime, and another set of
equations to describe the vertical motion of the lime. This turns a single
difficult 2D problem into two simpler 1D problems. We're able to do this
since the change in the vertical velocity of the lime does not affect the
horizontal velocity of the lime. Similarly, throwing the lime with a large
horizontal velocity does not affect the vertical acceleration of the lime. In
other words, if you fire a bullet horizontally and drop a bullet at the same
time, they will hit the ground at the same time.
80. Horizontal direction:
There's no acceleration in the horizontal direction since gravity does not pull
projectiles sideways, only downward. Air resistance would cause a
horizontal acceleration, slowing the horizontal motion, but since we're going
to only consider cases where air resistance is negligible we can assume that
the horizontal velocity is constant for a projectile.
81. What's confusing about 2D projectile motion?
Many times, people try to substitute vertical components into a horizontal
equation, or vice versa. Analyzing each direction (horizontal and vertical) of
a projectile independently only works if you keep the different directions
(xxx or yyy) in their own separate equations.
82.

Why do we break up vectors into components?

Two-dimensional motion is more complex than one-dimensional motion
since the velocities can point in diagonal directions. For example, a baseball
could be moving both horizontally and vertically at the same time with a
diagonal velocity vvv. We break up the velocity vector, vvv, of the baseball
into two separate horizontal, v_xvxv, start subscript, x, end subscript, and
vertical, v_yvyv, start subscript, y, end subscript, directions to simplify our
calculations.
83.How do we break a vector into components?
Before we talk about breaking up vectors, we should note that trigonometry
already gives us the ability to relate the side lengths of a right triangle—
hypotenuse, opposite, adjacent—and one of the angles, \thetaθtheta

84. How do you determine the magnitude and

angle of the total vector?
We saw in the previous sections how a vector magnitude and angle can be
broken up into vertical and horizontal components. But what if you start with
some given velocity components: v_yvyv, start subscript, y, end
subscript and v_xvxv, start subscript, x, end subscript? How could you use the
components to find the magnitude vvv and angle \thetaθtheta of the total
velocity vector?

85. What's confusing about vector components?

When using \theta=\tan^{-1}(\dfrac{{v_y}}{{v_x}})θ=tan−1(vxvy)theta,
equals, tangent, start superscript, minus, 1, end superscript, left parenthesis,
start fraction, v, start subscript, y, end subscript, divided by, v, start subscript,
x, end subscript, end fraction, right parenthesis, the fact that we put v_yvyv,
start subscript, y, end subscript on top as the opposite side and the v_xvxv,
start subscript, x, end subscript on the bottom as the adjacent side means that
we are measuring the angle from the horizontal axis.
86.Why do objects slow down?
Before Galileo and Newton, many people thought objects slowed down
because they had a natural built in tendency to do so. But those people
weren't taking into account the many forces—e.g., friction, gravity, and air
resistance—here on Earth that cause objects to change their velocity. If we
could observe the motion of an object in deep interstellar space, we would
be able to observe the natural tendencies of an object's motion free from any
external influences. In deep interstellar space, we would observe that if an
object had a velocity, it would continue moving with that velocity until there
was some force to cause a change in the motion. Similarly, if an object were
at rest in interstellar space, it would remain at rest until there was a force to
cause it to change its motion.
87. What do force, external force, and net force mean?
A force is a push or a pull exerted on one object by another object. The units
of force F are called Newtons or simply N.
88. What does mass mean?
The property of a body to remain at rest or to remain in motion with constant
velocity is called inertia. Newton’s first law is often called the law of inertia.
As we know from experience, some objects have more inertia than others. It
is obviously more difficult to change the motion of a large boulder than that
of a basketball, for example.
89. What is Newton's second Law?
In the world of introductory physics, Newton's second law is one of the most
important laws you'll learn. It's used in almost every chapter of every physics
textbook, so it's important to master this law as soon as possible.
We know objects can only accelerate if there are forces on the object.
Newton's second law tells us exactly how much an object will accelerate for
a given net force.
90. What does net force mean?
A force is a push or a pull, and the net force \Sigma FΣF is the total force—
or sum of the forces—exerted on an object. Adding vectors is a little
different from adding regular numbers. When adding vectors, we must take
 their direction into account. The net force is the vector sum of all the forces
exerted on an object.
91. How do we use Newton's second law?
If the problem you're analyzing has many forces in many directions, it's
often easier to analyze each direction independently.
92. What do we do when a force is directed at an angle?
When forces are directed in diagonal directions, we can still analyze the
forces in each direction independently. But, diagonal forces will contribute
to the acceleration in both the vertical and horizontal directions.
93. What is Newton's third law?
You probably know that the Earth pulls down on you. What you might not
realize is that you are also pulling up on the Earth. For example, if the Earth
is pulling down on you with a gravitational force of 500 N, you are also
pulling up on the Earth with a gravitational force of 500 N. This remarkable
fact is a consequence of Newton's third law.
94. What are other examples of Newton's third law?
Other examples of Newton’s third law are easy to find. As a professor paces
in front of a whiteboard, she exerts a force backward on the floor. The floor
exerts a reaction force forward on the professor that causes her to accelerate
forward.
95. What is weight?
Weight WWW is just another word for the force of gravity F_gFgF, start
subscript, g, end subscript. Weight is a force that acts at all times on all
objects near Earth. The Earth pulls on all objects with a force of gravity
downward toward the center of the Earth. 
96.What is normal force?
Ever turn too quickly and walk straight into a wall? I have. It hurts and
makes me feel dumb. We can blame the normal force for the pain we feel
when running into solid objects. The normal force is the force that surfaces
exert to prevent solid objects from passing through each other.
97. How do inanimate surfaces "know" to exert a normal force?
It makes sense for most people that a person would have to exert an upward
force with their hands when carrying a heavy bag of dog food
98. What are the forces of static and kinetic friction?
Parking your car on the steep hills of San Francisco is scary, and it would be
impossible without the force of static friction.
 99. What is the formula for the kinetic frictional
force F_kFkF, start subscript, k, end
subscript?
If you press your hands into each other hard and rub them together, the force
of kinetic friction will be larger than if you were only pressing your hands
together lightly. That's because the amount of kinetic frictional force between
two surfaces is larger the harder the surfaces are pressed into each other (i.e.
larger normal force F_nFnF, start subscript, n, end subscript).

100. What is the formula for the static

frictional force F_sFsF, start subscript, s,
end subscript?
The static frictional force is a little different from the kinetic frictional
force. For one, the static frictional force will change its value based on
how much force is being applied to the unbudging object. Imagine, for
example, trying to slide a heavy crate across a concrete floor. You may
push harder and harder on the crate and not move it at all. This means
that the static friction responds to what you do. It increases to be equal
to and in the opposite direction of your push. But if you finally push
hard enough, the crate seems to slip suddenly and starts to move. Once
in motion it is easier to keep it in motion than it was to get it started,
indicating that the kinetic frictional force is less than the maximum
static frictional force.
101. What are inclines?
Slides at the park, steep driveways, and shipping truck loading ramps are all
examples of inclines. Inclines or inclined planes are diagonal surfaces that
objects can sit on, slide up, slide down, roll up, or roll down.
102. How do we use Newton's second law when dealing with inclined
planes?
 In most cases, we solve problems involving forces by using Newton's second
law for the horizontal and vertical directions. But for inclines, we're
typically concerned with the motion parallel to the surface of an incline so
it's often more useful to solve Newton's second law for the directions parallel
to and perpendicular to the inclined surface.
103. How do we find the perp⊥ and parallel components of the force of
gravity?
Since we're going to be using Newton's second law for the directions
perpendicular to and parallel to the surface of the incline, we'll need to
determine the perpendicular and parallel components of the force of gravity.
104. What does tension mean?
All physical objects that are in contact can exert forces on each other. We
give these contact forces different names based on the types of objects in
contact. If one of the objects exerting the force happens to be a rope, string,
chain, or cable we call the force tension.
105. How do we calculate the force of tension?
Unfortunately, there's no special formula to find the force of tension. The
strategy employed to find the force of tension is the same as the one we use
to find the normal force. Namely, we use Newton's second law to relate the
motion of the object to the forces involved.
106. What is centripetal acceleration?
Can an object accelerate if it's moving with constant speed? Yup! Many
people find this counter-intuitive at first because they forget that changes in
the direction of motion of an object—even if the object is maintaining a
constant speed—still count as acceleration.
107. Acceleration is a change in velocity, either in its magnitude—i.e.,
speed—or in its direction, or both. In uniform circular motion, the direction
of the velocity changes constantly, so there is always an associated
acceleration, even though the speed might be constant. You experience this
acceleration yourself when you turn a corner in your car—if you hold the
wheel steady during a turn and move at constant speed, you are in uniform
circular motion.
108. What you notice is a sideways acceleration because you and the car
are changing direction. The sharper the curve and the greater your speed, the
more noticeable this acceleration will become. In this section we'll examine
the direction and magnitude of that acceleration.
109. What is a centrifuge?
 A centrifuge is a rotating device used to separate specimens of different
densities. High centripetal acceleration significantly decreases the time it
takes for separation to occur and makes separation possible with small
samples. Centrifuges are used in a variety of applications in science and
medicine, including the separation of single cell suspensions such as
bacteria, viruses, and blood cells from a liquid medium and the separation of
macromolecules—such as DNA and protein—from a solution.
110. Centrifuges are often rated in terms of their centripetal acceleration
relative to acceleration due to gravity, ggg; maximum centripetal
acceleration of several hundred thousand ggg is possible in a vacuum.
Human centrifuges, extremely large centrifuges, have been used to test the
tolerance of astronauts to the effects of accelerations larger than that of
Earth’s gravity.
111. What is a centripetal force?
A centripetal force is a net force that acts on an object to keep it moving
along a circular path.
112. It is important to understand that the centripetal force is not a
fundamental force, but just a label given to the net force which causes an
object to move in a circular path. The tension force in the string of a
swinging tethered ball and the gravitational force keeping a satellite in orbit
are both examples of centripetal forces. Multiple individual forces can even
be involved as long as they add up (by vector addition) to give a net force
towards the center of the circular path.
113. What does energy and work mean?
Energy is a word which tends to be used a lot in everyday life. Though it is
often used quite loosely, it does have a very specific physical meaning.
114. A speeding bullet has a measurable amount of energy associated with
it; this is known as kinetic energy. The bullet gained this energy because
work was done on it by a charge of gunpowder which lost some chemical
potential energy in the process.
115. A hot cup of coffee has a measurable amount of thermal energy
which it acquired via work done by a microwave oven, which in turn took
electrical energy from the electrical grid.
116. Energy is a measurement of the ability of something to do work. It is
not a material substance. Energy can be stored and measured in many forms.
117. whenever work is done to move energy from one form to another,
there is always some loss to other forms of energy such as heat and sound.
For example, a traditional light bulb is only about 3% efficient at converting
electrical energy to visible light, while a human being is about 25% efficient
at converting chemical energy from food into work.
118. How do we measure energy and work?
The standard unit used to measure energy and work done in physics is the
joule, which has the symbol J. In mechanics, 1 joule is the energy transferred
when a force of 1 Newton is applied to an object and moves it through a
distance of 1 meter.
119. How long do I have to push a heavy box around to burn off one
chocolate bar?
Suppose we're feeling guilty about eating a chocolate bar; we want to find
how much exercise we need to do to offset those extra 280 Calories. Let's
consider a simple form of exercise: pushing a heavy box around a room
120. If the force is not constant, one way to determine the work done is to
divide the problem up into small sections over which the change is
negligible and sum up the work done in each section. Just as we have
learned when looking at velocity time graphs, this can be done by
calculating the area under the curve using geometry.
121. Without the tilt of the earth's axis, we would have no seasons. The
sun's rays would be directly overhead of the equator all year long. Only a
slight change would occur as the earth makes its slightly elliptical orbit
around the sun. The earth is furthest from the sun about July 3; this point is
known as the aphelion and the earth is 94,555,000 miles away from the sun.
The perihelion takes place about January 4 when the earth is a mere
91,445,000 miles from the sun.
122. What about simply holding a weight stationary?
One frequent source of confusion people have with the concept of work
comes about when thinking about holding a heavy weight stationary above
our heads, against the force of gravity.
123. It turns out that what is actually happening here is that our bodies are
doing work on our muscles to maintain the necessary tension to hold the
weight up. The body does this by sending a cascade of nerve impulses to
each muscle. Each impulse causes the muscle to momentarily contract and
release. This all happens so fast that we might only notice a slight twitching
at first. Eventually though, not enough chemical energy is available in the
 muscle and it can no longer keep up. We then begin to shake and eventually
must rest for a while. So work is being done, it is just not being done on the
weight.
124. What is kinetic energy?
Kinetic energy is the energy an object has because of its motion.
125. If we want to accelerate an object, then we must apply a force.
Applying a force requires us to do work. After work has been done, energy
has been transferred to the object, and the object will be moving with a new
constant speed. The energy transferred is known as kinetic energy, and it
depends on the mass and speed achieved.
126. Kinetic energy can be transferred between objects and transformed
into other kinds of energy. For example, a flying squirrel might collide with
a stationary chipmunk. Following the collision, some of the initial kinetic
energy of the squirrel might have been transferred into the chipmunk or
transformed to some other form of energy.
127. How can we calculate kinetic energy?
To calculate kinetic energy, we follow the reasoning outlined above and
begin by finding the work done, W, by a force, F, in a simple example.
Consider a box of mass m being pushed through a distance d along a surface
by a force parallel to that surface.
128. one can say that the change in kinetic energy is equal to the net work
done on an object or system.
129. Kinetic energy depends on the velocity of the object squared. This
means that when the velocity of an object doubles, its kinetic energy
quadruples. A car traveling at 60 mph has four times the kinetic energy of an
identical car traveling at 30 mph, and hence the potential for four times more
death and destruction in the event of a crash.
130. Kinetic energy must always be either zero or a positive value. While
velocity can have a positive or negative value, velocity squared is always
positive.
131. Kinetic energy is not a vector. So a tennis ball thrown to the right with
a velocity of 5 m/s, has the exact same kinetic energy as a tennis ball thrown
down with a velocity of 5 m/s.
132. What is gravitational potential energy?
We all know instinctively that a heavy weight raised above someone's head
represents a potentially dangerous situation. The weight may be well
secured, so it is not necessarily dangerous. Our concern is that whatever is
 providing the force to secure the weight against gravity might fail. To use
correct physics terminology, we are concerned about the gravitational
potential energy of the weight.
133. All conservative forces have potential energy associated with them.
The force of gravity is no exception. Gravitational potential energy is
usually given the symbol Ug, start subscript, g, end subscript. It represents
the potential an object has to do work as a result of being located at a
particular position in a gravitational field.
134. What is interesting about gravitational potential energy is that the
zero is chosen arbitrarily. In other words, we are free to choose any vertical
level as the location where h=0, equals, 0.
135. What if the gravitational field is not uniform?
If the problem involves large distances, we can no longer assume that the
gravitational field is uniform. If we recall Newton's law of gravitation, the
attractive force between two masses, 1m, start subscript, 1, end
subscript and m 2m, start subscript, 2, end subscript, decreases with
separation distance r squared. If GGG is the gravitational constant,
136. When dealing with gravitational potential energy over large distances,
we typically make a choice for the location of our zero point which may
seem counterintuitive. We place the zero point of gravitational potential
energy at a distance r of infinity. This makes all values of the gravitational
potential energy negative.
137. What is the principle of conservation of energy?
In physics, the term conservation refers to something which doesn't change.
This means that the variable in an equation which represents a conserved
quantity is constant over time. It has the same value both before and after an
event.
138. There are many conserved quantities in physics. They are often
remarkably useful for making predictions in what would otherwise be very
complicated situations. In mechanics, there are three fundamental quantities
which are conserved. These are energy, momentum and angular momentum.
139. Energy, as we'll be discussing it in this article, refers to the total
energy of a system. As objects move around over time, the energy associated
with them—e.g., kinetic, gravitational potential, heat—might change forms,
but if energy is conserved, then the total will remain the same.
140. Conservation of energy applies only to isolated systems. A ball
rolling across a rough floor will not obey the law of conservation of energy
 because it is not isolated from the floor. The floor is, in fact, doing work on
the ball through friction. However, if we consider the ball and floor together,
then conservation of energy will apply. We would normally call this
combination the ball-floor system.
141. What do we mean by system here?
In physics, system is the suffix we give to a collection of objects that we
choose to model with our equations. If we are to describe the motion of an
object using conservation of energy, then the system should include the
object of interest and all other objects that it interacts with.
142. How can conservation of energy describe how objects move?
When energy is conserved, we can set up equations which equate the sum of
the different forms of energy in a system. We then may be able to solve the
equations for velocity, distance, or some other parameter on which the
energy depends.
143. Why can perpetual motion machines never work?
The perpetual motion machine is a concept for a machine which continues
its motion forever, without any reduction in speed. An endless variety of
weird and wonderful machines have been described over the years.
144. it is possible today to make extremely low friction flywheels which
rotate in a vacuum for storing energy. Yet, they still lose energy and
eventually spin down when unloaded, some over a period of years
145. The earth itself, rotating on its axis in space is perhaps an extreme
example of such a machine. Yet, because of interactions with the moon, tidal
friction, and other celestial bodies, it too is gradually slowing. In fact, every
couple of years, scientists have to add a leap second to our record of time to
account for variation in the length of day.
146. What is thermal energy?
Thermal energy refers to the energy contained within a system that is
responsible for its temperature. Heat is the flow of thermal energy. A whole
branch of physics, thermodynamics, deals with how heat is transferred
between different systems and how work is done in the process
147. Since the friction force is non-conservative, the work done is not
stored as potential energy. All the work done by the friction force results in a
transfer of energy into thermal energy of the box-floor system. This thermal
energy flows as heat within the box and floor, ultimately raising the
temperature of both of these objects.
148. The force of drag on a moving object due to a fluid such as air or
water is another example of a non-conservative force.
149. When an object moves through a fluid, some momentum is transferred
and the fluid is set in motion. If the object were to stop moving there would
still be some residual motion of the fluid. This would die down after some
time.
150. What is happening here is that the large scale motions of the fluid are
eventually re-distributed into many smaller random motions of the
molecules in the fluid. These motions represent an increased thermal energy
in the system.
151. James Prescott Joule (1818 – 1889), for whom the SI unit of energy is
named. Using a paddle wheel submerged in a tank of whale oil and driven
by falling weights he was able to determine the relationship between
mechanical energy and heat. This lead to the law of conservation of energy
and the 1ˢᵗ law of thermodynamics.
152. What is power?
Much like energy, the word power is something we hear a lot. In everyday
life it has a wide range of meanings. In physics however, it has a very
specific meaning. It is a measure of the rate at which work is done (or
similarly, at which energy is transferred).
153. How do we measure power?
The standard unit used to measure power is the watt which has the symbol
W. The unit is named after the Scottish inventor and industrialist James
Watt. You have probably come across the watt often in everyday life. The
power output of electrical equipment such as light bulbs or stereos is
typically advertised in watts.
154. There is also another unit of power which is still widely used: the
horsepower. This is usually given the symbol hp and has its origins in the
17th century where it referred to the power of a typical horse when being
used to turn a capstan.
155. How do we measure varying power?
In many situations where energy resources are being used, the rate of usage
varies over time. The typical usage of electricity in a house is one such
example. We see minimal usage during the day, followed by peaks when
meals are prepared and an extended period of higher usage for evening
lighting and heating.
156. Average power is the power measured over a long period, i.e., when
Δdelta, t in the equation for power is very large. One way to calculate this is
to find the area under the power vs time curve (which gives the total work
done) and divide by the total time. This is usually best done with calculus,
but it is often possible to estimate it reasonably accurately just using
geometry.
157. Peak power is the maximum value the instantaneous power can have
in a particular system over a long period. Car engines and stereo systems are
example of systems which have the ability to deliver a peak power which is
much higher than their rated average power.
158. The equation for power connects work done and time. Since we know
that work is done by forces, and forces can move objects, we might expect
that knowing the power can allow us to learn something about the motion of
a body over time.
159. What is a spring?
A spring is an object that can be deformed by a force and then return to its
original shape after the force is removed.
160. Springs come in a huge variety of different forms, but the simple
metal coil spring is probably the most familiar. Springs are an essential part
of almost all moderately complex mechanical devices; from ball-point pens
to racing car engines.
161. What happens when a material is deformed?
When a force is placed on a material, the material stretches or compresses in
response to the force. We are all familiar with materials like rubber which
stretch very easily.
162. Every material responds differently to stress and the details of the
response are important to engineers who must select materials for their
structures and machines that behave predictably under expected stresses.
163. Elastic deformation. When the stress is removed the material returns
to the dimension it had before the load was applied. The deformation is
reversible, non-permanent.
164. Plastic deformation. This occurs when a large stress is applied to a
material. The stress is so large that when removed, the material does not
spring back to its previous dimension. There is a permanent, irreversible
deformation. The minimal value of the stress which produces plastic
deformation is known as the elastic limit for the material.
165. Any spring should be designed and specified such that it only ever
experiences elastic deformation when built into a machine under normal
operation.
166. Hooke's law
When studying springs and elasticity, the 17ᵗʰ century physicist Robert
Hooke noticed that the stress vs strain curve for many materials has a linear
region.
167. It is always important to make sure that the direction of the restoring
force is specified consistently when approaching mechanics problems
involving elasticity.
168. Pulling down on a spring will cause an extension of the spring
downward, which will in turn result in an upward force due to the spring.
169. Because the manufacturers of spring balances expect their product to
be used vertically (for example, by a fisherman measuring the mass of his
fish) the scale is calibrated to take into account the mass of the spring and
hook. It will give an incorrect absolute result if used to measure a horizontal
force.
170. Hooke's law tells us that there is a linear relationship between force
and extension. Because of this we can still rely on the scale for relative
measurements when used horizontally. Some spring balances have an
adjustment screw which allows the zero point to be calibrated, eliminating
this problem.
171. What is elastic potential energy?
Elastic potential energy is energy stored as a result of applying a force to
deform an elastic object. The energy is stored until the force is removed and
the object springs back to its original shape, doing work in the process.
172. An object designed to store elastic potential energy will typically have
a high elastic limit, however all elastic objects have a limit to the load they
can sustain. When deformed beyond the elastic limit, the object will no
longer return to its original shape. In earlier generations, wind-up
mechanical watches powered by coil springs were popular accessories.
 173. How can we calculate elastic potential energy for
an ideal spring?

Our article on Hooke's law and elasticity discusses how the magnitude of the
force FFF due to an ideal spring depends linearly on the length it has been
compressed or expanded \Delta xΔxdelta, x,
174. Some elastic materials such as rubber bands and flexible plastics can
function as springs but often have hysteresis; this means the force vs
extension curve follows a different path when the material is being deformed
compared to when it is relaxing back to its equilibrium position.
175. the basic technique of applying the definition of work that we
employed for an ideal spring also works for elastic materials in general. The
elastic potential energy can always be found from the area under the force vs
extension curve, regardless of the shape of the curve.
176. What is momentum?
Momentum is a word that we hear used colloquially in everyday life. We are
often told that sports teams and political candidates have "a lot of
momentum". In this context, the speaker usually means to imply that the
team or candidate has had a lot of recent success and that it would be
difficult for an opponent to change their trajectory. This is also the essence
of the meaning in physics, though in physics we need to be much more
precise.
177. What is impulse?
Impulse is a term that quantifies the overall effect of a force acting over
time. It is conventionally given the symbol J and expressed in Newton-
seconds.
178. One of the reasons why impulse is important and useful is that in the
real world, forces are often not constant. Forces due to things like people and
engines tend to build up from zero over time and may vary depending on
many factors. Working out the overall effect of all these forces directly
would be quite difficult.
179. Momentum in space
Most people are familiar with seeing astronauts working in orbit. They
appear to effortlessly push around freely floating objects. Because astronauts
 and the objects they are working with are both in free-fall, they do not have
to contend with the force of gravity.

180. What is specific impulse?

Specific impulse—I_{SP}ISPI, start subscript, S, P, end subscript—is a

specification commonly given to engines which produce a thrust force. Jet
engines and rocket engines are two common examples. In this context,
specific impulse is a measure of the efficiency of using fuel to produce thrust
and is one of the most important specifications of such an engine.
181. What is the principle of conservation of momentum?
In physics, the term conservation refers to something which doesn't change.
This means that the variable in an equation which represents a conserved
quantity is constant over time. It has the same value both before and after an
event.
182. There are many conserved quantities in physics. They are often
remarkably useful for making predictions in what would otherwise be very
complicated situations.
183. In mechanics, there are three fundamental quantities which are
conserved. These are momentum, energy, and angular momentum.
Conservation of momentum is mostly used for describing collisions between
objects.
184. Just as with the other conservation principles, there is a catch:
conservation of momentum applies only to an isolated system of objects. In
this case an isolated system is one that is not acted on by force external to
the system—i.e., there is no external impulse.
185. What this means in the practical example of a collision between two
objects is that we need to include both objects and anything else that applies
a force to any of the objects for any length of time in the system.
186. Why is momentum conserved?
Conservation of momentum is actually a direct consequence of Newton's
third law.
187. Momentum is a vector quantity, and therefore we need to use
vector addition when summing together the momenta of the multiple
 bodies which make up a system. Consider a system of two similar
objects moving away from each other in opposite directions with equal
speed. What is interesting is that the oppositely-directed vectors cancel
out, so the momentum of the system as a whole is zero, even though
both objects are moving.
188. Collisions are particularly interesting to analyze using
conservation of momentum. This is because collisions typically happen
fast, so the time colliding objects spend interacting is short. A short
interaction time means that the impulse, Delta tF⋅ΔtF, dot, delta, t, due
to external forces such as friction during the collision is very small.

189. It is often easy to measure and keep track of momentum, even

with complicated systems of many objects. Consider a collision
between two ice hockey pucks. The collision is so forceful that it
breaks one of the pucks into two pieces. Kinetic energy is likely not
conserved in the collision, but momentum will be conserved.

190. Provided we know the masses and velocities of all the pieces just
after the collision, we can still use conservation of momentum to
understand the situation. This is interesting because by contrast, it
would be virtually impossible to use conservation of energy in this
situation. It would be very difficult to work out exactly how much work
was done in breaking the puck.

191. Collisions with "immovable" objects are interesting. Of course,

no object is really immovable, but some are so heavy that they appear
to be. Consider the case of a bouncy ball of mass mmm traveling at
velocity v towards a brick wall. It hits the wall and bounces back with
velocity −v, v. The wall is well attached to the earth and doesn't move,
 yet the momentum of the ball has changed by 2mv, m, v since velocity
went from positive to negative.

192. If momentum is conserved, then the momentum of the earth and

wall also must have changed by 2mv We just don't notice this because
the earth is so much heavier than the bouncy ball.
193. How can we solve 2-dimensional collision problems?
In other articles, we have looked at how momentum is conserved in
collisions. We have also looked at how kinetic energy is transferred between
bodies and converted into other forms of energy. We have applied these
principles to simple problems, often in which the motion is constrained in
one dimension.
194. If two objects make a head on collision, they can bounce and move
along the same direction they approached from (i.e. only a single
dimension). However, if two objects make a glancing collision, they'll move
off in two dimensions after the collision (like a glancing collision between
two billiard balls).
195. For a collision where objects will be moving in 2 dimensions (e.g. x
and y), the momentum will be conserved in each direction independently (as
long as there's no external impulse in that direction).
196. What is an elastic collision?
An elastic collision is a collision in which there is no net loss in kinetic
energy in the system as a result of the collision. Both momentum and kinetic
energy are conserved quantities in elastic collisions.
197. Suppose two similar trolleys are traveling toward each other with
equal speed. They collide, bouncing off each other with no loss in speed.
This collision is perfectly elastic because no energy has been lost.
198. In reality, examples of perfectly elastic collisions are not part of our
everyday experience. Some collisions between atoms in gases are examples
of perfectly elastic collisions. However, there are some examples of
collisions in mechanics where the energy lost can be negligible. These
collisions can be considered elastic, even though they are not perfectly
elastic. Collisions of rigid billiard balls or the balls in a Newton's cradle are
two such examples.
199. Why would we ever approximate a collision as perfectly elastic?
 Given that no mechanics problem we are likely to encounter involves a
perfectly elastic collision, it may seem that the concept is of little practical
use. However, in practice it is often very useful. This is because the
requirement that kinetic energy is conserved provides an additional
constraint to our equations of motion.
200. What is an inelastic collision?
An inelastic collision is a collision in which there is a loss of kinetic energy.
While momentum of the system is conserved in an inelastic collision, kinetic
energy is not. This is because some kinetic energy had been transferred to
something else. Thermal energy, sound energy, and material deformation are
likely culprits.
201. Suppose two similar trolleys are traveling towards each other. They
collide, but because the trolleys are equipped with magnetic couplers they
join together in the collision and become one connected mass. This type of
collision is perfectly inelastic because the maximum possible kinetic energy
has been lost. This doesn't mean that the final kinetic energy is necessarily
zero; momentum must still be conserved.
202. In the real world most collisions are somewhere in between perfectly
elastic and perfectly inelastic. A ball dropped from a height h above a
surface typically bounces back to some height less than h, depending on how
rigid the ball is. Such collisions are simply called inelastic collisions.
203. Are there any examples of perfectly inelastic collisions?
The ballistic pendulum is a practical device in which an inelastic collision
takes place. Until the advent of modern instrumentation, the ballistic
pendulum was widely used to measure the speed of projectiles.
204. What is the coefficient of restitution?
The coefficient of restitution is a number between 0 and 1 which describes
where an interaction falls on the scale between perfectly inelastic (0) and
perfectly elastic (1).
205. Modern vehicles are designed to make use of both inelastic and elastic
collisions in the event of an accident. The frame of a vehicle is designed to
absorb energy in a collision through deformation of crumple zones built in to
the structure of the vehicle.
206. Suppose a vehicle collides elastically with another object. The vehicle
will necessarily rebound. The change in momentum as the vehicle rebounds
is greater than in an equivalent inelastic collision.
207. What is the center of mass?
 The center of mass is a position defined relative to an object or system of
objects. It is the average position of all the parts of the system, weighted
according to their masses.
208. What is useful about the center of mass?
The interesting thing about the center of mass of an object or system is that
it is the point where any uniform force on the object acts. This is useful
because it makes it easy to solve mechanics problems where we have to
describe the motion of oddly-shaped objects and complicated systems.
209. For the purposes of calculation, we can treat an oddly-shaped object
as if all its mass is concentrated in a tiny object located at the center of mass.
We sometimes call this imaginary object a point mass.
210. If we push on a rigid object at its center of mass, then the object will
always move as if it is a point mass. It will not rotate about any axis,
regardless of its actual shape. If the object is subjected to an unbalanced
force at some other point, then it will begin rotating about the center of
mass.
211. How can we find the center of mass of any object or system?
In general the center of mass can be found by vector addition of the
weighted position vectors which point to the center of mass of each object in
a system.
212. Complex objects can often be represented as collections of simple
shapes, each with uniform mass. We can then represent each component
shape as a point mass located at the centroid. Voids within objects can even
be accounted for by representing them as shapes with negative mass.
213. What is the center of gravity?
The center of gravity is the point through which the force of gravity acts on
an object or system. In most mechanics problems the gravitational field is
assumed to be uniform. The center of gravity is then in exactly the same
position as the center of mass.
214. What about determining the center of mass for a real object?
There are a couple of useful experimental tests that can be done to determine
the center of mass of rigid physical objects.
215. Center of mass reference frame
When the term reference frame is used in physics it refers to the coordinate
system used for calculations. A reference frame has a set of axes and an
origin (zero point).
216. In most problems the reference frame is fixed relative to the
laboratory and a convenient (but arbitrary) origin point is chosen. This is
known as the laboratory reference frame.
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