"Wisdom begins in wonder" – Socrates
Category: Physics
The photosphere 03/31/16
The photosphere of the sun is so important that if it were to not exist there would be no human life! The photosphere is the spherical surface encapsulating the sun that is thought to emit light. It is situated just above the convection zone of the sun. photosphere blocks certain wavelengths of light. The photosphere is often used to describe a star’s visible surface as it is the part that emits light.
Solar prominence 03/30/16
Solar prominences are one of the most important subjects in modern day astronomy. Solar prominences are Bright, gaseous features that extend out from the surface of the sun. Prominences are anchored to the photosphere of the sun in a loop-like geometry. A prominence can form in as little time as a day, and can last for months on end! Solar prominecnes can break apart and give rise to Coronoal mass ejections
Black holes 03/26/16
One of the most bewildering and fascinating phenomena of reality is that of black holes. Throughout the Universe there are sections of space that have such a high density that the geometry of the space-time becomes so warped that not even light can escape the gravitational pull of such objects. Black holes are usually created with the collapse of a insurmountably large star. The star has such a great contraction that the equivalent density would be if all of the Earth was shrunk down to a marble. Black holes can be of various sizes. A super massive black hole is thought to exist within the center of the milky way. On February 11th, confirmation was received of gravitational waves originating from a black hole merger.
Solar power 03/21/16
Let one consider this. The earth receives around 3.86*1026joules of energy hits the Earth every second. The Earth directly receives1.74*1017of those joules. This number is over 35,000 times the amount of energy that all of human civilization consumes every second. If we are able to receive this much energy from the sun, wouldn’t it be logical to create a system to harness this energy? This is where Solar Power comes in. Solar power uses Solar panels which in take the energy of the sun and uses the photoelectric effect to transform this into usable energy. Most commercial solar panels have an efficiency rating of 15-20 percent, so research in to higher efficiency solar power is paramount.
Surface tension 03/20/16
Do you ever wonder why a liquid is able to maintain it’s volume and incompressibility? This facet is due to a phenomena known as surface tension. Because molecules of the same element are under the influence of the same intermolecular forces, they tend to coalesce together. This means that there is a net inward force on the molecules due to the fact that there is no molecules on the outside of the surface area to interact with. In fact, when liquids are in an environment with little to no external forces, they end up becoming spherical shaped as a result surface tension.
Solar irradiance 03/19/16
Our Sun is the largest producer of energy in our solar system. This energy is often produced in the form of solar radiation. Because of this, scientists pay special attention to the study of solar irradiation. The unit used for measuring such radiation is wm2(WattsMeter2) because we often measure the energy striking the surface area of the earth. Part of the energy that reaches an object in the range of the sun’s energy is absorbed and part is reflected, depending on the level of it’s albedo (reflectivity). The amount of energy that a receives from a blast of sunlight is also contingent upon the Cosine of the angle between the surface and the light, imagine it like water striking object at an angle, if the angle is closer to zero, then a higher percentage of the medium will come into contact with the surface. The study of Solar irradiance has a very pragmatic purpose in the form of solar energy, since the energy that strikes the earth can be transferred into useful processes.
Transformers 03/12/16
One of the most pertinent devices in the field of electrical engineering are transformers. The function of a transformer is very simple, it changes the potential difference from one value of wiring to another. The mechanism works a follows; The will be two wirings of coil, one on each each side of the transformer. The wire on the left will be hooked up to an alternating current which in turn will cause a magnetic field to be produced. As a by-product of Maxwell’s equations, there will be an voltage difference induced on the second coil. The voltage potential depends on the number of loops that the wire makes. If the wire has more loops then more voltage will be produced and it will be called a step up transformer. If there is less wiring there will be less voltage and it will be called a step down transformer. The equation for a transformer is VsVp=NsNp, with Vsbeing the secondary voltage Vpbeing the primary NsBeing the number of loops in the secondary and Np being the number of loops in the primary. As one can observe, The voltage ratio is directly proportional to the Loop ratio. Power also is assumed to be conserved for Mathematical purposes, so we can derive that V1I1=V1I1by using the fact that P1=P2and that P=IV.
Modelling a pendulum using differential equations 03/10/16
A most interesting intellectual exercises for anyone with a mathematical mind is to model the swing of a pendulum using differential equations. We know that the two forces that act upon a pendulum are the damping force Fdamping=-cx’and the restoring force Frestoring=-kx. When we combine this with Newton’s second law, we get mx”=-cx’-kxwhich can be rearranged to make the following second order differential equation mx”+cx’+kx=0. We can then use any solution method to solve for this differential equation
Inductor 03/07/16
Inductors are some of the most fundamental components of the modern day circuit. An inductor usually consists of conducting wire wrapped into a coil, and since a current will run through this wire, a magnetic field will be produced. As a result of Maxwell’s equations, the energy stored in the magnetic field will try to oppose any change in current and a voltage will be created in the inductor. The strength of an inductor is measured by it’s inductance. Inductance is defined as L=i, with Lbeing the inductance , being magnetic flux and ibeing the current. The voltage across an inductor can be symbolically derived by faraday’s law of inductance v=ddtwhich by using substitution leads to v(t) =L*didt. Inductors are widely used to tune out certain frequencies
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