Absolute Zero in Chicago

-  1643  -  Absolute Zero temperature is the state of minimum entropy, or maximum order,  and , thermodynamic equilibrium where there is no net flow of energy.  Nothing changes, atoms won’t allow that condition.  The lowest temperature can not reach Absolute Zero.
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---------------------  -  1643  -  Absolute zero temperature.
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-  I dedicate this review to my relatives in Chicago and Indiana who are experiencing the coldest winter since global warming was first announced.  They are experiencing hyphens in front their temperatures.  Below 0 Centigrade.  But that is still +273 Kelvin.  It cannot get any colder than -273C.  Why?  Because that is so cold it is Absolute Zero.
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-.  What is “cold“?
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-.  When water freezes its weight does not change although it gets bigger.  Water expands when it freezes.  A condition that causes it to float.  The conclusion is that there are the same number of particles in the water, but, they must be spreading apart.
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-.  When science started measuring cold they needed the thermometer.  When science invented temperature they invented “degrees“.  Boiling water became 100 degrees.  Freezing water became zero degrees.  Dividing this scale into 100 increments defined degrees Centigrade.
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-.  When cooling and heating gases science learned that pressure increased with temperature.  Vice versa, pressure decreased as gases cooled.  This pressure – temperature relationship was graphed as a straight line, a linear relationship.  At that time the idea evolved, what happened if he extended the straight line to zero pressure and zero temperature?  This intersection occurred at approximately -273 degrees centigrade on the graph.
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-  In the 18th century ice was a primary source of producing cold.  When I was young boy in Indiana ,1940s ,I would go with my dad to the icehouse to get a block of ice to set in the back of our kitchen refrigerator.
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-.  Refrigeration started in 1824 when the idea of “energy”  first surfaced.  That heat could be transformed into mechanical energy, that is  steam engines.  That evaporating gas like ammonia could be recycled with pressure in a compressor returning it back to the liquid to become the refrigeration cycle.  Energy could be used to create “cold“.
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-.  Soon the goal became how cold could we get.  Science new that “heat” was particles (atoms) in motion.  The lower the heat the slower the atom’s motion.  Could we make cold low enough to stop the atoms altogether?   Could atoms be frozen?
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-.  At very low temperatures particles become waves.  Colder waves are  longer wavelengths, radio waves.  At the hottest temperatures the waves are gamma rays,  the shortest wavelengths.
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-.  At Absolute Zero all the waves overlap and become a single wave.  This is called Boise-Einstein Condensation.
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-.  The coldest laboratory temperature is 0.45 *10^-9 Kelvin. That close to Absolute Zero Kelvin.   Lasers are tuned to the wavelengths of the cold particles to continuously cool the atoms to continuously slow them down.  In June, 1995, the Boise-Einstein Condensation was first created in the lab.
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-  Temperature is a measure of average kinetic energy of the motion of vibrating particles.  Heat, or thermal energy, also depends on the density of the  particles.  Hot water burns more than hot-air at the same temperatures because more particles with the same kinetic energy are hitting your skin.   The temperature in Earth orbit could be 2,000 degrees hot,  but, astronauts will get cold because of the extremely low density of space.
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---------------------------------  Absolute Zero can not be reached  -------   0 Kelvin  ---
---------------------------------  The lowest temperature reached  -------  0.45*10^-9  --
---------------------------------  Cosmic Background Radiation --------   2.725  ---------
---------------------------------  Liquid Hydrogen ------------------------   21  -----------
---------------------------------  Liquid Helium  ---------------------------  4.2  ----------
---------------------------------  Water freezes  -------------------------- 273.15  --------
---------------------------------  Body temperature  --------------------   310  -----------
---------------------------------  Boiling water  -------------------------   373  -----------
---------------------------------  Surface of the Sun ------------------  6,000  -----------
---------------------------------  Interior of the Sun    ---------   10,000,000  -----------
---------------------------------  Hydrogen fusion  -------------   10,000,000  -----------
---------------------------------  Helium fusion  ---------------   100,000,000 -----------
---------------------------------  3 minutes After Big Bang --   500,000,000  ----------
---------------------------------  10^-12 seconds ABB ---- 10,000,000,000,000,000  ---
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-.  Thermodynamics is a study of systems of which temperatures are a necessary coordinate.  The 3rd law of thermodynamics states that it is impossible to bring a system down to Absolute Zero temperature.
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-.  The 2nd law of thermodynamics is that entropy never decreases.  Entropy always increases towards thermodynamic equilibrium, which is maximum randomness, maximum disorder.
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-.  The 1st law of thermodynamics is basically the law of the Conservation of Energy.  Energy can be neither created nor destroyed.  Energy can only be transformed from one form to another form.
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-.  We can not achieve Absolute Zero because economic energy of the ground state of atoms cannot be totally removed.
--------------------  - 273.15 C
--------------------  -459.67 F
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. - The rapid expansion of gases leaving the Boomerang Nebulae causes of lowest observable temperature outside of the laboratory. (  See the Review on the Boomerang Nebulae).   This gas has been releasing at 300,000 miles per hour for the last 1,500 years.  It has cooled to 1 Kelvin.
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-  Absolute Zero is the lowest temperature possible.  Entropy is at a maximium.  Temperature is a measure of how fast atoms are moving, or vibrating, or oscillating.  Entropy is a measure of disorder or the randomness of their motion.  Minimum entropy must be maximum order.  Maximum entropy is the thermodynamic equilibrium, there is no net flow of energy, it experiences no change.  This is called Absolute Zero and it's a state of minimum possible energy.  Nature won’t let you get there.
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Other Reviews #1345, 727, 1254, 1355, 406
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Students launch small satellite?

-  1642   -  Students launch small satellite in to space.  Home designed and built at Sonoma State University.  Measurements and programming worked flawlessly.
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---------------------  -  1642   -  Students launch small satellite in to space.
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-  January 27, 2014, Sonoma State University lecture by Kevin Zack, a student, presented a program that launched the SSU satellite on November 13, 2013.  It operated for 8 weeks, all systems working, and then suddenly stopped communicating 4 days ago.  Not sure what caused the failure, but, 8 weeks of operation was a great success.

-.  The satellite was 100% SSU student designed , develop,  and built.  Called a “pocket cube” design, it was a small box 5 x 5 x 15 centimeters.  It contained a magnetometer,  3 temperature sensors, and a torque coil, plus radio and computer software.  The magnetometer and torque coil  could sense the Earth’s magnetic field.

-.  The satellite was designed and tested by SSU students for a total cost of $200 in materials, not including the solar cells that were gifted.  The ground station costs another $500.  The launch itself was a stowaway.  The satellite was shipped to Italy where it was packaged with 31 other cube satellites.  This payload was shipped to Russia where a ballistic missile launched out of the silo shot it into space.  All 32 satellites were flung into the same polar orbit together.  The drags on each individual satellite allowed them to separate over time.
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-  The satellite was put into a north-south polar orbit, 700 kilometers  altitude, traveling at 7.5 kilometers per second.  (435 miles altitude, traveling 16,800 miles per hour.)  This gives the satellite a kinetic energy, (mass * velocity^2), equal to a 100 watt lightbulb being on for 33 hours.  This kinetic energy with the drag associate with the satellite calculated to allow the satellite to stay in orbit for 39 years.  NASA has rules that every satellite launched must be the de-orbited in less than 25 years.  Therefore ,  the students modified the satellite to include open transparency kites attached to the dipole antenna.  The dipole antenna function like a folded tape measure that snapped out when it exited the missile package.  The kite’s additional drag kept the satellite within the NASA restrictions.  The missile  launch put the satellite through 6G’s of acceleration to reach this orbit.

-.  The rectangular cube was surfaced in solar cells that were gifts to the project.  They were premium cells because they operated at 27% efficiency.  RadioShack and residential installations normally operate at 12 to 15 percent efficiency.

-.  The satellites contained a RadioShack radio transmitter that operated at 100 milliwatts.  A normal cell phone operates at 400 milliwatts.  It's frequency was 437.465 megahertz in the 70 centimeter, HAM, amateur radio band.  The range of the transmitter proved to be 2,700 kilometers, (1,700 miles).
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-  The ground station costs $500 for HAM radio receivers ,transmitters and 2 yagi antennas mounted at 90 degrees to each other.   This  system could listen to all 32 satellites’ data.  The SSU satellite had to use its unique HAM call letters to meet the FCC HAM licenses requirements.

-.  The communication of one’s and zero’s measured magnetic fields and temperatures.  The cube design meant the satellite had two panels always facing towards the Sun.  The torque coil measured the Earth's magnetic field.  Because NASA has already mapped the Earth’s magnetic field at that elevation the measurements could determine the location of the satellite and it's spin rate, one rotation every 20 seconds.

-.  The temperature measurements were varying with 60 minutes of daylight and  30 minutes of nighttime for each 90 minute orbit.  Varying from 272 Kelvin to 291 Kelvin, that is comfortable for astronauts, -1 C to 18 C, or, 64 degrees Fahrenheit,  (my current room temperature).

-.  The magnetometer had a resolution of 0.015 micro-Tesla.  The magnetic field of the Earth is about 50 micro-Tesla.  Again magnetic field measurements mapped on the NASA magnetic field map accurately located the satellite in orbit.
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-  The nickel-cadmium batteries were the same as those used in  power tools.  They put out 4.5 volts and 150 milliamps.

-.  In north-south polar orbit the satellite moved east-west one degree per day.  The polar orbit put the satellites through  rigorous magnetic fields and solar radiation.  Cosmic ray collisions are likely what put the satellite out of commission 4 days ago, although the cause is still unknown.

-.  The noteworthy achievement is the student’s use of micro-logo programming language that allowed them to reprogram the satellite while it was in orbit.  NASA would never allow this on one of their missions, that is way too much flexibility.  The programming worked flawlessly.  12 individual measurements were continuously transmitted every 20 seconds.  This is the first satellite to ever operate with this ground based programming flexibility.

-.  Even the printed circuit board was designed and assembled by the students.  The soldering of 12 millimeter traces proved to be a challenge.  But, the secret was continuously testing.  A small vacuum chamber was used.  A garden glow heat lamp serve to be the Sun.
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-  The rigorous testing paid off.  The logo cube operated flawlessly for 8 weeks which is a record for this type of endeavor.

-.  The students are busy building another satellite for launch.  They plan to add an X-ray measurement capability.  100%  student design, built, and tested on campus.  This one will go up to the International Space Station and be flung into orbit using the ISS Canadian throwing arm.

-.  When I was in college the school’s public address system broadcast the beep- beep-beep of the first Sputnik satellite.  That was meant to be a motivator for those young  engineering students.  Today the students launch their own satellites.  What a motivator that is! There is such a wide range of physics that is learned and experienced.  True engineering to follow through and achieve valued results.  An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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  (1)    The satellite operated at room temperature, 291 Kelvin.  Heat and temperature are interesting phenomena.  Temperature is how fast particles are vibrating, on average.  Particles could actually be oscillating at 2,000 degrees Kelvin in space, but, the rarefied , scarcity of  particles in space means few actually make contact with the satellite.  The density of particles (atoms) as well as their thermal energy determine the heat.  Temperature of air and water can both be at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.  The air will feel warm, but, stick your hand in the water and it will get scalded.  Water density means more particles with the  same kinetic energy are making contact with your skin at any moment. Don’t try this at home.
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 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Tuesday, January 28, 2014  ---
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New Ideas to change your life?

-  1641   -  New ideas to change your life.  Here are some breakthrough technologies that could see a future in commercial products all of us can use.  Supercomputers speed up time-to-market for these products.
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---------------------  -  1641   -  New ideas to change your life
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-  For ideas to pass from science and to make it through engineering they must be scalable, able to make the journey from a lab prototype to volume production.  They must be practical and have the value that will make money.  They must meet customers expectations and be customer tested.  Ideas must go from novelty to value.  Here are some ideas to ponder that might make this journey.
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-.  Material science is using quantum mechanics math ( Schrödinger’s equations) and supercomputers to design new materials atom by atom.  Materials are designed and tested inside the computer.  Trial and error in the lab is far more time-consuming and expensive.  Decade development cycles are reduced to months.
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-.  In 1991 the lithium battery was commercialized.  It took a hundred thousand engineers and 20 years of lab development to reach commercialization using the  trial and error method.
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-.  A material’s density, hardness, shininess, electrical conductivity, thermal properties, …..  are determined by the quantum characteristics of the atoms of which it is made.  Once defined this data can go into a database that all the scientists can use.  There are 35,000 inorganic materials to work with.  The results will be materials designed to be lighter, stronger used in car frames and as skyscraper beams, airplane skins, solar cells batteries.………
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-. New materials include transparent conductive glass used in smart phones and in fiber optics.
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-.  One drawback: these quantum equations are so complex they can only be solved using supercomputers.  But, the efficiencies and payback are worth it.
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-  Designing thermoelectric devices that can transform industrial waste heat, or wasted auto engine heat, directly into electricity.
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-.  These devices in reverse could provide solid-state cooling.  One material being studied is lead tellutide, it works, but, it is too expensive and toxic to be commercial.  The search is on for a substitute.
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-.  Titanium dioxide can turn sunlight and water into oxygen and hydrogen.  Hydrogen can be processed into liquid fuel for hydrogen powered cars.  The exhaust from these cars is back to water.
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-.  Reducing a car's weight using new materials could improve fuel economy by 8 %. Integrated circuits could use new materials that would work better than silicon.  Graphene in magnetite can switch on-off in a trillionth of a second.  That is 1,000 times faster than in silicon.
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-.  A good career for young computer savvy students could be in the material sciences.
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-  Carbon storage could be a great boon to solving global warming.  Returning CO2 , carbon dioxide, into porous sedimentary rock.  My backyard is completely covered by the basaltic rock.  It is a perfect stories  place for CO2 to form carbonate crystals inside the porous basalt.  The biggest obstacle is not technology it is current regulations and policy.  We can't legally pump gas underground.  We can pump it out, but, we can pump it back in.
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-.  K’ nex is a new material that snaps together like Lego bricks.  These structures are incredibly lightweight and strong.  K’nex structures could be assembled into airplane fuselages with without rivets.
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-.  Each K’nex block is carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer shaped like a flat “X”,  2 inches across.  A rectangular node is at the center and small loops are on each arm.  Each node holds 4 loops forming a cubic lattice of orthogonal cells.  Eventually robots will assemble this material.  They could build levees for flood control.  They could assemble satellites in space.
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-.  Soft-robots could be built that would copy the movements of octopuses, worms, and other invertebrates.  One application would be as a “universal gripper”, or an artificial hand.  These robots could even be used by doctors during surgery.  These soft-robots may show up as artificial muscles for the disabled.  Their great advantage is that they cost much, much less then moving, metallic robots.
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-.  Meta-materials manipulating light could provide wireless Internet connections , denser data storage, and a smart phone as thin as a credit card.  The same material can bend radio waves around objects to conceal them from radar.  To bend light waves you need nanoscale materials,  far smaller than today’s lab prototypes that are working in radar.
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-.  Science is beginning to study the genetics of microorganisms.  Our bodies rely on trillions of bacteria, fungi, archaea, and viruses to function and stay healthy.  Manipulating these microbes to get the right balance could cure many diseases,  even obesity, or ulcers.
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-.  Cloud computing gives us more computing power for everyone.  And, for ever everyone less security.  A hackers delight.  One new chip called “Ascend” sends out a smokescreen of false information every time a server requests data from a remote source.
The computer chip sends requests to the computer’s memory at regular intervals, even when it requires no new information.  That was attackers cannot tell how long the computer is spending on any specific data.  The chip is to be available in early 2015.  An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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-  Mass spectrometry imaging of molecules.  Atoms imaged in 3-D.
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-  Electricity from viruses.  The virus saturated gels could be mounted in your shoes and the electricity generated could power your smart phone.
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-  Science is creating a pill to protect your body from radioactive exposure.  Molecules are designed to bind to radioactive elements so the body can safely discharge them.  Hope we never have to use it.
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-  Other reviews that cover the history of breakthroughs in science over the past 50 years;  request:   #1463, 1464, 1466, 1196, 1194, 1112.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Wednesday, January 29, 2014  ---
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Things are getting too complicated too fast?

-  1639   -  Too Complicated, Too Fast?   Technology is moving too fast.  “ Smart” people are needed to take on the challenge of making these new systems redundant, fail safe, and protected.  Can these smart people work fast enough?
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---------------------  1639   -  Too Complicated, Too Fast?
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-  Things are getting too complicated, and we are moving too fast.  When I was 26 years old stationed in South Ruislip,, England,  my job had responsibility for the red phone that was on the desk of Prime Minister Wilson, 10 Downing Street.  When the phone was picked up the red phones rang in Washington and Moscow.  The system was designed to prevent a nuclear war, by mistake.  If any incident occurred the three leaders could double check with each other before launching defensive missiles.
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-.  The system was encrypted and had quadruple redundancy in the hardware and in the lines of communications.   My responsibility was preventive maintenance, making sure all four systems were working and the encryption being sound.
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-.  These were serious times and smart people had thought through possible events and implemented backups and redundancies at every corner.  “What if’s” were compensated for.
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-.  May 6, 2010, the New York Stock Exchange suffered a “flash crash” with the DOW plunging 1,000 points in just minutes.  This was bordering on financial collapse.  If it had lasted longer it could have caused a global financial meltdown.  I have never heard a good explanations as to why the computers failed.  Have we learned to put backup systems in place?
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-  A similar scenario has occurred with air-traffic control computers November 19, 2009, a router in Salt Lake City failed and computers nationwide were off the air.  Airplanes were on “visual” while someone was replacing single circuit boards in a computer somewhere.
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-.  We have linked our destinies to technology  The Internet has interwoven our world.
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-.  When I was an engineer at Hewlett- Packard, Palo Alto, we had 3 proto-type runs for a new product built by R&D, then, 3 pilot-runs built by production  technicians, then, 3 production-runs that went into environmental test.  Today the product is launched after the first prototype and let the market do the testing.  That is not too dangerous if the product just listens to iTunes,   But, when will the automobile crashes have been caused by a software or computer failure that has not had environmental testing?  Too soon automobiles will be computer chips with wheels.
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-.  Our Congress passed a 350,000 word health insurance plan into law that nobody, including the president, had read.  The chair of the health planning committee admitted that even if he had read it he could not understand it because it was all written in legalese.  How can we  pass laws that we do not understand.
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-.  When I was working with HP software programmers they had responsibility for the “entire product” all the way to customer satisfaction.  Today programmers link complicated modules together without understanding how the other pieces even function.  The program that directs trucks to restock stores uses GPS to locate trucks and warehouses, links to the street maps, links to store inventories, links to tracking packages, links to pay the truck drivers, links to truck maintenance logs.  The Internet being the primary linker.  Now connect this to factories, power plants, salespeople, advertisers, insurers, regulators, stock traders and hackers, and, you begin to see how complicated things get
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-.  Some smart people need to think this through and design some backup systems, some redundancies,  some fail-safes.  We need some redundant communication systems in key places that are independent of one Internet.
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-.  When the phone lines went down from the general's hospital bed in France and he could not reach NATO headquarters in Fontainebleau  because some farmer plowed through the underground cable, a staff sergeant set up a ham radio link from the hospital bed to the Air Force Base which in turn relayed to the switchboard to get communications back to headquarters.  The general had to be taught how to say “over“.  We had a backup plan.
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-.  We need to control our technologies to have a backup if we don't our technologies will control us when we least expect it.  Science needs to up its game and come up to this challenge.  Education needs to teach the young scientists who will be the doers to control this technology.  Can our society possibly learn fast enough to keep from destroying itself in the meantime?
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Wednesday, January 22, 2014  ---
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Should I rent or buy my house?

-  1638  -  Should I rent or buy
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---------------------  1638  -  Should I rent or buy.  What will burn the most cash?  How about the long term?  When can I break even?
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-  If I rent it costs me -1700 / month, 20,400 per year.
-  I have 200K cash in the bank at 4% I get 8000 per year
-  Net is - 12,400 per year burning money by renting
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-  Rent cost per year--------------------    - 20,400
-  Interest on cash-----------------------    + 8000
-  Net cost per year----------------------  - 12,400
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-  If I buy I use my 200K cash in down payment and renovations.  - 8000 / year lost interest.
-  I get a 234K mortgage at 4.25 %,  1200 / month, 800 interest , and 400 principle
-  Mortgage  - 14,400 per year  less savings on taxes by deducting interest + 3,500
-  Net is -  10,500 add to the loss of interest on cash at 4%  =  -8000.
 - Net,net is - 18,500 per year burning money by buying.
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-  Mortgage ---------------------    - 14,400
-  tax savings--------------------    +   3,500
-  loss interest on cash  --------      - 8,000
-  Net is cost per year ------------ - 18,500
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-   Rent is 6,000 per year cheaper.  A savings of 500 per month.
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-  House appreciation must go up by 6000  per year to break even.
-  2012  value is 390,000
-  2022  value needs to be 450,000 to break even.  Anything higher is a good investment.,  less the cash put back into the house in maintenance and improvement.
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-   That is how the math helps you decide.  Of course the decision is more emotional than financial. But, it does not hurt to have some balance in a open mind.

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(1)  .Kahn Academy
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
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 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Monday, January 20, 2014  ---
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What does Dark Matter Look Like?

-  1636   -  What does Dark Matter Look Like?   85% of the matter that curves space time we can not see.  We feel this curvature because we are so close to matter Earth.  Some among us can feel the Moon the same way. (2)
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---------------------  1636   -  What does Dark Matter Look Like?
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-  We don’t know it’s dark.  Dark Matter is a discovery that needs more discovery.  Astronomers see its gravitational effects, but, that is about as much as we know.

-.  Dark Matter accounts for 5.4 times as much mass is ordinary manner in the universe.  Ordinary matter is made of protons, neutrons, and electrons.  We do not know what Dark Matter is made of, but, the math says it is out there made of something?

-.  Ordinary matter in our galaxy is stars, gas, and dust in the structure of a giant disk.  Our Milky Way is analogous to a warped vinyl record, 33 1/3 RPM.

-.  The thin disk has a pin and wheel spiral pattern.  In the center is a dense nucleus hosting a 4,500,000 Solar Mass blackhole.  Through the center is in an elongated bulge known as a “bar“.  Surrounding all of this is a “halo” of old stars.

-.  Dark Matter’s structure is surmised from the gravitational effects on visible ordinary matter.  Calculations tell us it is approximately spherical extending far beyond the halo.  It's density falls off approximately as a square of the distance from the center the same as gravity does.
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-  At distances of 50,000 light-years from the center of our galaxy it consist mostly of atomic hydrogen and a few stars.  By the time you get out 75,000 light-years distance the disc is warped bending 7,500 light-years out of the plane.  The gas density is oscillating above and below the plane as it rotates around the center.  These oscillations are 100 billion years in their cycle, completing one orbit about the center

-.  At one point astronomers thought the neighboring galaxy, the Megellanic Cloud, was gravitationally  causing this distortion.  However, better measurements have determine thar the Megellanic gravity to be far too weak to have any effect.

-.  In addition to the Megellanic Cloud galaxy there are 16 known satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy.  Some of these dwarfs contain only a few hundred stars.

-.  Could there be Dark Matter galaxies orbiting our galaxy?  Could galaxy collisions  early in the evolution of our galaxy cause the ringing that warps the shape of our galaxies disk?  Could the center of gravity of Dark Matter be offset from the center of gravity of ordinary matter causing the asymmetry to occur?  The puzzle of Dark Matter has become one of the most vibrant research areas in both physics and astronomy.
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-  Hydrogen gas emits a spectral line at the radio wavelength of 21 centimeters.  Measuring the Doppler shift of this spectral line tells us relative velocities.  With a little geometry a graph can be made showing the rotation velocity of stars, or galaxies, and their distances from the gravitational center.

-.  Objects further from the center have further to travel and should be moving at faster speeds if the system is all held together.  In contrast, the rotation curve for our solar system drops off with distance from the Sun, because inner planets orbit at faster speeds than the outer planets.

-.  This is because the system’s  mass is at the center, the Sun.  The gravitational force holding a planet in orbit decreases as the inverse of the square of the distance from the Sun.  A smaller force means lower orbital speed.

-.  Our galaxy is different.  Unlike the rotation curve for a solar system are galaxies orbital velocities remain constant beyond the inner thousand light-years which makes the rotation curve flat.
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-   Unlike a solar system most of the mass of the galaxy must not be concentrated at the center.  The orbits of progressively more distant objects must encircle more and more mass.

-.  The Sun's orbit encompasses 100 billion Solar Mass.  An orbit twice as large encompasses twice as much mass.  Mathematical analysis implies that most of the mass is located in a spherical halo surrounding the disk of our galaxy.  It must be 10 times the total mass in the galaxy disk.  90 percent of the total mass must be Dark Matter?

-.  For example: a galaxy cluster has a radius of 6.2 million light-years.  And an orbiting galaxy has a velocity of 1,350 kilometers per second, 3,019,864 miles per hour.
-
----------------------  Kepler’s 3rd law about the radius and period of orbit:
-
--------------------------  M  =  4 * pi*a^3  /  G * p^2
-
--------------------------  v  =  2 * pi* a  / p
-
--------------------------  M  =  r * v^2  / G
-
--------------------------  M  =  1.6*10^10  r * v^2
-
-  The mass is directly proportional to the radius times the velocity squared.
-
--------------------------  M  =  1.6 * 10^45 kilograms
-
--------------------------  Solar Mass  =  2 * 10^30  kilograms
-
--------------------  M  =  8*10^14  Solar Masses
-
-  The total mass is 800 trillion Solar Masses
-
- One Milky Way mass is 1 trillion Solar Masses
-
-  The Galaxy Cluster is 800 Galaxy Masses
-
-.  Comparing the clusters mass to its luminosity determined the cluster's mass is made much, much, greater than the luminosity mass.

-.  A second method to determine the clusters mass uses a temperature of X-ray hot gas.  The gas temperature is related to the speed of the individual gas particles.
-
------------------  velocity  =  140 meters  / second  * square root of Temperature
-
------------------  The hot gas temperature of the cluster  =  90,000,000 Kelvin
-
-------------------  v  =  140 * (9*10^7)^½
-
-------------------  v  =  1.3 * 10^6 meters per second
-
-------------------  M  =  1.5 * 10^45 kilograms
-
-   The Galaxy Cluster is 800 Galaxy Masses, same answer.

-No cluster of galaxy galaxies contains enough visible matter to stay bound together.  Galaxies orbit at velocities that should be flying apart.  So what is holding them together?  The total mass needed to bind a typical cluster is 10 times greater than the mass of the material that shows up in the visible light images.

-.  What is it and what effect does it have on us?  An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned
-------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------
(1)   www.ScientificAmerican.com/oct2011/blitz
(2)  Some among us can feel the Moon.  Those standing next to the sea shore and the cold water circles their feet as the tides come in.  Gravity is the weakest force but it reaches us across the Cosmos.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Monday, January 20, 2014  ---
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Binary stars with planets?

-  1635  -  Binary Stars with planets.  Like the Star Wars movie can planets actually survive with 2 or more suns?  Seven such systems have been confirmed.  What is the math to support these conclusions?
-

---------------------  - 1635  -  Binary Stars with planets?
-
-  When you look up at the night sky on a good night in a good location you can count 4,000 points of light.   Surprisingly, 65% of those points are actually binary stars, or multiple star systems.
-
-  Over 1,000 exoplanets have been discovered to date.  Astronomers estimate that 200 million planets exist in the Milky Way galaxy.  Tens of millions of these are likely circum-binary planets.  What's a circum-binary planet.?
-
-  How can planets exist if they are being tugged by two or more suns?
-
-  The two suns could be orbiting each other relatively close together.  Planets could be orbiting the pair in a far larger orbit.
-
-  Or, the two suns could be widely separated orbiting a center of mass.  Planets in this configuration would have more complex orbits.  Could they even exist in such a solar system?
-
-  If the two stars have orbits in hundreds of years then there solar system of planets are likely unaffected by the other sun.
-
-   If the two stars have closer orbits then there gravity could likely destabilize the planets orbit.  Planets would either be swallowed up or ejected out into the galaxy.
-
-  However, there is a middle ground where planets could orbit two stars and still have stable orbits.  These are called circum-binary planets.  Do they exist?
-
-  The math for orbits gets extremely complicated for a 3-body system.
-
-  The trick is to find these eclipsing binary stars.  These stars pass in front of each other once per orbit.  Astronomers can see this if we happen to be in the right line of sight.  By measuring the light curve as the light dims during the eclipses astronomers can learn the size and shape of the stars, and, the geometry of their orbits.  They can measure the star’s  diameter and mass.
-
-  In a binary system the planet will cross the star early and sometimes late of a predictable orbit.  The transits will not be periodic.  Once this data is well understood the binary stars orbit can be deciphered.  Circum-binary planets can be confirmed.  So far out of 1,000 exoplanets found 7 are Confirmed circum-binaries.
-
-  Over 2,000 eclipsing binary star systems have been discovered by the Kepler space telescope.  In 2011 Kepler – 16b was the first transiting circum-binary planet discovered.  Named “ Tatooine“ from Star Wars movie.
-
-  These discoveries are made by the dip in brightness that is periodic.  The primary eclipse and the secondary eclipse are repeated very accurately in their light curve.  Measuring how much the light curve is early or late confirms the orbit about a center of mass.
-
-  Measurements made on the eclipsing planets can yield the same calculations.  These data are all moeled in a computer suntil the model matches observations.  Once the model is perfected conclusion are made ast o the binary orbits and the masses of stars and planets in the system.  Amazing!
-
-  As stars orbit each other one can eclipse the other. The light dims during the eclipse.  In a 2-body system the light intensity dips in a perfectly periodic and regular manner.  In a 3-body system with a planet or planets involved the light curves get more complex
-
- In a 3- body system the center of mass of the 2-body systems orbits around the center of mass of the 3-body system.  At times the 2 stars will be further away at other times the 2 stars will be closer together.  This distance change will make a slight delay in the observed eclipse timing.  If the distance is shorter the eclipse will occur slightly earlier.  T
-
-  By only observing a single star we observe a point of light.  We can analyze the light spectrum to learn surface temperature and age of the star.  But, if we have a binary system of 2 or more stars orbiting a common center of gravity we can calculate masses, periods, luminosity, and, frequency of radiation.  If they eclipse each other we can calculate diameter, volume, density, and accumulate an astronomical wealth of information.
-
-  To illustrate the math used in to be learned from eclipsing binaries.  The orbit of one star is eclipsing with a semi-major axis of 4 astronomical units, and, its complete orbit takes 2.5 years.  Kepler's third law states that the sum of the masses equals the radius cubed divided by the period squared
-
------------------------  Masses   =   (radius)^3   /   ( period)^2
-
---------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  a^3  / p^2
-
----------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  (4)^3  / (2.5)^2
-
---------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  10.5  Solar Mass
-
-  This is the sum of the two masses.   The formula works when the period is in years and the radius is in astronomical units.   If the stars are eclipsing it may be possible to determine the relative sizes of the two orbits around a center of mass and the ratio of the two masses, M1 / M2.
-
-  The second way to learn amasses eclipsing binaries is created light curve of the apparent brightness as a blocking star dims the total light that we see.  Newton's version of' Kepler’s  3rd law relates the masses to the orbital system in the general case using metric units:
-
------------------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  (4*pi^2  /  G)    *   a^3 / p^2
-
-  The orbital velocities are determined measuring the Doppler shift that occurs when the star moving toward us versus the star moving away from us shifts the light spectrum observed.
-
-------------------------  velocity  =  distance traveled in one orbit   /   period of one orbit.
-
----------------------------  v =  2*pi*a  /  p
-
-  The ratio of M1 / M2  can be calculated knowing the relative velocities of the 2 stars around a common center of mass is inversely proportional to their relative masses.
-
------------------------  p  = period  =  2 years  =  6.3*10^7 seconds
-
------------------------  a  =  semi-major axis of an ellipse, or, radius of a circle.
-
------------------------  a  =  P*v  /  2*pi
-
------------------------  a  =  ( 6.3*10^7)  *  (  10^6 meters / second)  /  2*pi
-
------------------------  a  =  10^12 meters
-
------------------------  (4*pi^2  /  G)   =  5.92*10^11
-
----------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  (5.92*10^11)    *   a^3 / p^2
-
-  The sum of the masses in kilograms  =  the ratio of 600,000,000,000 * the cube of the radius to the square of the period.
-
---------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  (5.92*10^11)    *   (10^12)^3 / (6.3*10^7)^2
-
---------------------- ( M1  +  M2)  =  1.5*10^32 kilograms
-
-  Measuring the Doppler shift of the spectral lines shows that one star has twice the spectral shift of the other star:
-
----------------------  Star 1  =  0.5  * 10^32 kilograms
-
-----------------------  Star 2  =  1.0  * 10^32 kilograms
-
-----------------------  Solar Mass  =  2 * 10^30  kilograms  /  Ms
-
-----------------------  Star 1  =  25  Ms
-
-----------------------  Star 1  =  50 Ms
-
-  Two stars are better than one, if you do the math.
-------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------
(1)  Request review  #  1528  “  Measuring Binary Stars”
(2)  Request review  #  1384  “  Spiral Sprinkler not a Galaxy”
(3)  Request review  #  1118  “  Why are 2 stars better than one?”
(4)  Request review  #  1063  “  Binary Stars”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Wednesday, January 15, 2014  ---
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The Universe is expanding, how did it start?

-  1634  -  Universe is expanding.  When we run the clock backwards it was compressing.  When things get hot and dense enough we enter the realm of particle physics to explain what is happening.
-

---------------------  - 1634  -  The Universe started out in the realm of particle physics.
-
-  The Universe started 13,800,000,000 years ago in a Big Bang.  95% of its composition is Dark Matter and Dark Energy that control the destiny of Universe.  But, we don't know what that stuff is.  5% of the Universe is what we know as our “natural world“.

-  In 1920 Edwin Hubble knew the universe was expanding.  He came up with:
-
-------------------------v  =  Ho * d
-
-----------------------.  Velocity of expansion   =    Hubble's Constant   * the distance of separation.
-
------------------------  Ho  is about is how fast the universe is expanding.  It is a constant.
-
------------------------  Ho  =   47,000 miles per hour for every million light-years distance of separation.
-
-  Space is expanding
-
-  The more space there is between us and another galaxy the faster we are separating.
-
-  The expansion is same in all directions.
-
-  There is no center from which the rest is expanding.
-
-  The revelation that there is the expanding universe at a uniform rate meant that back in time the universe was all compressed together.  The density at the beginning must have been infinite.  The entire universe was compressed into a single point.
-
-  The time for that compression to occur is the reciprocal of the Hubble constant.
-
-----------------------------  Time  =  1  /  Ho
-
-----------------------------  Ho  =  47,000 mph  /  million lightyears
-
---------------------------  Time  =  13 billion years
-
-  In addition to being dense it must have been very hot as well.  Some of that heat still remains today.  It is 2.725 degrees Kelvin.  Which is -455 Fahrenheit,  throughout the entire universe.  Any observer in the universe would see the same temperature.
-
-Gravity is always an attractive force.  If we take into account all the matter in the universe, gravity should be slowing things down.  How much matter do we need to stop the expansion?
-
-  Surprisingly it is an amazingly small number
-
-  9*10^-24 grams per cubic centimeter is enough matter density for enough gravity to stop the expansion.
-
-  This density also represents a “flat” geometry for space.  If there is more matter density the curvature of space would be spherical.  If there was less matter density the curvature of space would be saddle-shaped.  The conclusion is the curvature of the universe is flat.  So, the critical density of 9*10^-24 grams per cubic centimeter must be what the average density actually is.
-
-  But, ordinary matter adds up to far less than this amount of matter to arrive at this critical density.  Ordinary matter is only is only 5% of the total mass-energy in the universe.
-
-  To understand what came out of the Big Bang we must exit the Theory of Relativity and Gravity and get into Quantum Mechanics and Particle Physics.  As things got compressed the math changed.
-
-   The Standard Model of Particle Physics is one of the most successful theories ever devised to explain the world we live in.
-
-  It starts with only three classes of indivisible matter particles:
-
----------------------  (1)  Quarks that make up protons and neutrons
----------------------  (2)  Leptons that are electrons and neutrinos.
-
-  The right mix of these two classes of particles can make up all the elements known in the universe, in our natural world.
-
-  To bind these particles together we have 4 forces:   gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces.
-
-  Force particles are known as Bosons.  They mediate the 3 forces electroweak (combining the electromagnetic and weak nuclear force.) and the strong nuclear force.  The force carrier for gravity has not been discovered yet.
-
-  The Higgs Boson was discovered in 2013 and is the last particle to be added to the Standard Model of Particle Physics.
-
- The Standard Model includes two families of heavier particles for each of the Up -Quark,   Down -Quark ,  Electron, and Neutrino.  But, these heavier particles quickly decay into the lighter particles present in the natural world.
-
-  The Standard Model treats Quarks and Leptons as point-like particles without any internal structure.  However, the possibility remains that there exist configurations of even smaller building blocks of matter within Quarks and Leptons.
-
-  The weak nuclear force  is present in radioactivity and can change a neutron into a proton by changing the identity of the constituent quarks.
-
---------------------------    Neutrons have one Up-Quark  and  2  Down-Quarks.
----------------------------- Protons have 2 Up-Quarks and 1 Down-Quark.
-
-  Standard Model postulates that the Higgs field is the source of mass for all these fundamental particles.  Massive particles feel a drag as they move through this field.  Massless particles, like the photon, do not interact with the field.  They feel no drag at all and move at the constant speed of light, 186,000 miles per second.
-
-  The masses of the fundamental particles cannot be predicted mathematically.  Their masses can only be determined by measuring them.  Obviously, we need a theory about particles that is missing up to now.
-
-  Supersymmetry and String Theory are two of the theoretical avenues being pursued.  The challenge remains.  When theoretical ideas fail to agree with experimental measurements the theories are wrong.  That is the definition of science.
-
-  Protons and neutrons have radii of     10^-15 meters  (0 .000001 nanometers).
-
-  Quarks are believed to be 0.0002   to   0.0010  times the size of a proton, 10^-18 meters.
-
-  If there is a smaller fundamental particle it must be smaller than 10^-18 meters.
-
-  The discussion so far has ignored antimatter.  Take the standard model table and double it.  Each particle has an exact twin with the opposite charge.  Electrons have a negative charge.  Anti-electrons have a positive charge and are called positrons.
-
-  Satellite experiments have found that less than 1% of the cosmic rays are anti-electrons and antiprotons.  This small amount of antimatter does not appear to come from the Big Bang.  They appear to be newly made in some other energetic process yet to be discovered.
-
-  The International Space Station experiments detect anti-electrons ranging from 10 billion electron volts  to 250 billion electron volts.  Antiprotons detected have maximum energies of 2 billion electron volts.  No evidence has been found of anti-helium nuclei or other heavier antimatter nuclei.
-
-  Reductionism is a method to gain understanding of how complex things work by breaking them down into constituent parts with simple properties and simple interactions.
-
-  Conclusion:  The macroscopic world is quite different than the microscopic world.  Classical physics works well in the macro.  But, Quantum Mechanics is needed to describe the micro.
-
-  Low-energy physics works well with protons , neutrons,  electrons,  and photons.  Basically this makes up our natural world.
-
-  But, high-energy physics  learns that these are complicated objects that have more fundamental  parts
-
 ----------------------------------  Quarks
-----------------------------------  Anti-Quarks
-----------------------------------  Gluons
-
-  To understand this level in the micro we need:
-
------------------------------------  Quantum mechanics
------------------------------------  Special relativity
------------------------------------  Gauge symmetry
-
-  It was Gauge Symmetry that predicted the existence of Gluons before their existence was even observed.  (See the book “ The Beautiful Question”.)
-
-  The way to think of energy and matter as “being the same thing” is to think of the atomic bomb.  Simply put that is a matter converted to energy.
-
-----------  Energy  =  mass *   (449, 500,000,000,000,000 miles^2  /  hour^2)
-
------------  Energy  =  mass *   (299,800 kilometers per second)^2
-
-  Light is massless.  But, so are the building blocks of matter.  When you see the tracks of light, gamma rays, light coming out of a particle accelerator, those were particles transformed into massless light.
-
-  Empty spaces not empty.  It is full of these virtual particles.
-
-  Particles are identified as separate entities, but, they can physically transform themselves into one another.  When the light is summarized emanating from a particle collision adding energy and momentum, the equations essentially become the same as Quarks or Gluons.
-
-  The Standard Model of Particle Physics with the 4 force carriers and the Higgs Boson is still woefully incomplete.  We still have a gravity force carrier to contend with?  Then, there is likely a more fundamental particle yet, the Axion might appear.
-
-  Then, there is Supersymmetry that doubles the standard model with a high-energy pair for every particles   There is the doubling again of equal amounts of matter and  antimatter that formed from “nothing”.  (  ie: These two cancel each other out).
-
-  The mystery remains why we get to live in this “matter” world?  What happened to the other world.  The antimatter matter world?  As Richard Feynman said, “ There is plenty of room at the bottom".  It's nice when there is always more to learn.  An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned.
-------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------
(1)  Check out Wikipedia “ cosmology”
(2)  Wikipedia:  “ Cosmic Background Explorer
(3)  http:// www.haverford.edu/faculty/bpartrid
(4)   http:  www.esa.int/OurActivities/SpaceScience/Planck/Planck reveals an almost perfect Universe
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Monday, January 13, 2014  ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evolution of the Universe

-1633  -  New spectroscopy measurements have modeled the evolution of the Universe over the last 6,000,000,000 years to better than 1 % accuracy.  What have we learned?
-

---------------------  - 1633  -  Evolution of the Universe?
-
-  How big is the universe?  What if we could measure it?  Where formation has got to within one percent accuracy?

-  Well it can be done with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopy Survey, which is part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.  The survey recorded light spectra for over 1 million galaxies within the redshifts of 0.20  to  0.70, looking back in time over 6,000,000,000 years. The 20 percent to 70 percent redshift refers to what happens when light increases in wavelength due to the objects moving away from each other.  The redshift is how much the wavelength got stretched. Longer wavelength is equivalent to lower frequency and lower energy longer wavelength
-
------------------  redshift  =  z  =  (wo  -  ws)  /  ws
-
------------------   1 + z   =   wo  /  ws
-
-----------------  “wo” is the wavelength observed.  “ws” is the wavelength from the source.
-
-  Part of the goal in measuring the evolution of the universe is to learn how Dark Energy is today accelerating the expansion of the universe.
-
 -  Conclusions are that the Dark Energy is a constant force that does not vary over space or time.   What causes this force is still a mystery.
-
-  Another conclusion is that the geometry of space is flat.  The 3-D geometry is not spherical , it is not saddle-shaped,  it  is flat.
-
-  Straight lines can remain parallel.  And ,  triangles have three angles totaling exactly 180 degrees.  Being flat means that the Cosmic Inflation lasted longer and made the Universe larger, making it flatter..  It's like the geometry of the earth.   It's so big the ocean's look flat until you get far enough away.
-
-  1,277,503 galaxies, over 8,509 square arc degrees of survey including hundred and 60,000 quasars.
-
-  Baryons are, in short, all “visible” manner.  Dark Matter is part of this mix but it is not visible.
-
-  380,000 years after the Big Bang the expanding mix cooled enough that photons could escape the charged plasma.  Today it has continued to expand and cool for 13,400,000,000 years.   There are minute variations in temperature that record the density waves, sound waves, that were oscillating throughout the expansion.
-
-  This data is transformed into a 3-D map of the evolution of the expansion.  Complex computer algorithms were used to remove data distortions and reconcile measurement uncertainties.  When the math of the model matched the refined data of observation the conclusion is the model is within 1% accuracy.
-
-  Result:   Astronomy is confident that it has a very good story of how the universe behaved the first 6,000,000,000 years.  More analysis will yield a better understanding of Dark Matter and Dark Energy.   This mystery comprises 95% of the total mass-energy in the universe.
-
-------------------  E  =  mc^2
-
-------------------Energy and mass are the same thing .  To get the energy you multiply the mass by 449,750,000,000,000,000  miles^2 per hour^2.  The constant of proportionality is10^17.  You can get a lot of energy out of a little bit of mass.
-
-  An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned.
-
-------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------
(1)  Berkeley’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center ( NERSC)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, January 10, 2014  ---
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Pluto and Beyond. How big is our Solar System?

-1632  -  Pluto and Beyond?
-

---------------------  - 1632  -  Pluto and the Kuiper Built Dwarf Planets?
-
-
-  We lost Pluto.  Pluto is no longer the 9th planet in our solar system.  Our solar system has gotten smaller.  Now we are down to 8 planets, 4 rocky planets and 4 giant gaseous planets.  I'm writing this from the 3rd rock from the Sun.

-  Or, has our solar system got larger?  The reason Pluto got demoted to a dwarf planet was because astronomers have found 1,000 more dwarf planets, or, asteroids, or, Kuiper Belt Objects, or, what do we want to call these things that are part of our larger solar system beyond the planet Neptune?
-
-  Pluto's orbit is inclined by 17 degrees to the plane of the rest of the planets.  Its orbit is in 2:3 resonance with Neptune's orbit.  Pluto orbits the Sun twice for every three times Neptune orbits the Sun.  Pluto is 1,467 miles diameter and it takes 248 years to orbit the Sun.  Its gravity is 6% that of Earth’s.  Average temperature is - 380F.
-
-  Since the advent of Charged Couple Devices,  CCD’s,   astronomers have  found  many more objects having orbital resonances with Neptune.  These Kuiper Belt Objects are 38 to 48 astronomical units from the Sun.  The Earth - Sun distance is 1 astronomical unit.  1AU = 93,000,000 miles.  About 30 percent of these objects have moons, or satellites of their own.  Pluto has 5 moons.
-
-----------------  Eris with moon  Dysnomia
-----------------  Pluto with moons Charon, Kerberos, Nix, Hydra,  Styx
----------------  Makemake
----------------  OR10
----------------  Haumea with moons Hi’Iada,  Namaka
---------------  Quaoar with moon Weywot
----------------  Sedna
----------------  Orcus with moon Vanth
---------------  MS4
---------------  Salacia
-
-  Moons are great for astronomers because they can be used to find the mass of the object they are orbiting.  By measuring their radius of the orbit.  And, the period of their orbit we can use Kepler's 3rd law to calculate the mass of the object.   His 3rd law says that the square of the period is equal to the cube of the radius.
-
------------------------  p^2  =  a^3
-
---------------------period  *  period  =  radius  * radius  * radius
-
--------------------  when the period is in years and the radius is in AU
-
-  Newton generalized Kepler’s 3rd law to:
-
----------------------------  p^2  =  4*pi^2  * a^3  /  G  * ( M1 + M2)
-
-----------------------  4*pi^2  =  39.44
-
----------------------  G  =  gravitational constant  =  7.67*10^-1 m^3 / ( kg*sec^2)
-
----------------------  4*pi^2  /G  =  (5.9*10^11)  which is the constant of proportionality needed to make the proportionality an equality.  When the mass of the planet is much, much larger than the satellite the formula reduces to:
-
------------------  M  =    (5.9*10^11)  a^3  /  p^2
-
--------------  For Example :  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is at 3,700 kilometer radius with a period of 114 minutes.
-
-------------------  M  =    (5.9*10^11)  (3.7*10^6)^3  /  6.84*10^3)^2
-
------------------  M  =  6.3 * 10^23 kilograms, the mass of Mars, about 10% the mass of the Earth.
-
- Once we have the diameter of the object we calculate the density as mass / volume.  What we learn is that these objects are all over the map.  The colors range from bright white to pitch black.  The densities range from pure ice to rocks with a thin coat of ice.  The size ranges from bigger than Pluto to small asteroid size.
-
-  What can we say by Pluto's neighborhood?  Called the Kuiper Belt Objects these represent a “large variety” of new discoveries.
-
-  Most objects are less than 190 miles diameter, dark red in color.  We can't call these Dwarf Planets.  They resemble more like Saturn's moon Phoebe, which is 137 miles in diameter.  Phoebe is pockmarked with craters and not perfectly spherical.
-
-  Many of the larger objects, greater than 250 miles in diameter, are brighter and lighter in color.  Larger bodies have self-gravity that pulls them into a round shape.  They may have even heated up to cover their surface with fresh, bright ice.  Maybe these should be called Dwarf Planets.  There are about 100 of them and 10 of them have names shown in the above paragraph
-
-  Pluto has an atmosphere of nitrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide.  The atmosphere could mean that it has weather.  Liquid nitrogen could rain into rivers and lakes on the surface.  See photo above on how Pluto’s seasons change color.

-  Pluto's moon Charon is large enough that if it was on its own it would be a Dwarf Planet as well.

-  Eris is the same size of Pluto and has a moon Dysnomia .  It is 3 times further from the Sun than Pluto, 38 to 90 AU.
-
-  Triton is a moon of Neptune. It is in retrograde orbit and was once probably a Dwarf Planet in the Kuiper Belt very similar to Pluto and Eris.  Somehow , Neptune just happened to capture Triton.
 -
-  The Makemake is half the size of Pluto, 0.05% the size of the Earth and traveling 9,843 miles per hour..  It's surface is most mostly methane ice, -402F.
-
-  Quaoar has a methane ice surface as well.  It has a 783 mile diameter
-
-  Haumea spins so rapidly one day is 3.9 hours.
-
-  Sedna the is the oddball.  It bears methane ice surface too and is 76 astronomical units away from the sun, more than twice the distance as Neptune.  It's enormous orbit in 5,000 years will put it out to 1,000 astronomical units away.  Sedna is half the size of the Moon, 1,000 miles diameter.  At  8,000,000,000 miles distance it is like trying to see a soccer ball 900 miles away.  It takes 11,500 years to orbit the Sun. It has a slow rotation of 40 days.
 -
-  There is most certainly other objects past Neptune that are larger than Pluto.  They are just too dim and distant to have been discovered by now.  An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned.
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(1)   See these reviews for more learning on Pluto and the other Dwarf Planets. 1364,  1129,  685,  1279
(2)  See Review 502 on Sedna.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Friday, January 10, 2014  ---
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Neutrinos find supernovae explosions?

-1631  -  Neutrinos are neutral particles that travel in a straight line.  They arrive hours ahead of light that results from a supernovae explosion that can be as bright as a billion stars.  New detectors are catching these illusive particles and pointing astronomers to their sources.
-

---------------------  - 1631  -  Neutrinos used to detect Supernovae Explosions?
-
---  In 1987 an amateur astronomer in Chile discovered the closest supernova in the large majority and it cloud.  The large majority and cloud is a satellite galaxy orbiting the Milky Way.  There are 23 such galaxies in our local group of galaxies.
-
---  One supernova can briefly outshine 1 billion stars
-
---  A few hours later on the same night an amateur astronomer in New Zealand made the same discovery.  The astronomers around the world were soon studying this unique event so close to home.  The supernova is the first one to occur in our local group of galaxies since the telescope was invented 400 years ago.
-
---  Particle physicists were busy studying this as well.  Theory tells us that a bath of neutrinos proceeds the photons when a massive star collapses into a supernova.  The neutral particles get free of the charged plasma first.
-
---  The photo tubes in the Kamiokande underground experiment in Japan detected 11 flashes of neutrino impacts lasting several seconds.  These detections occurred nearly 3 hours before the first optical sighting.
-
---  A second neutrino detector registered 8 flashes at exactly the same time.  It was located in a salt mine near Cleveland, Ohio.
-
---  A third observatory in Russia recorded  5 neutrinos
-
--- These 24 neutrinos were only a small part of the billions of neutrinos that swept through our planet as result of this exploding supernova.
-
---  This event was the first time neutrinos were detected from an astronomical source other than our Sun.
-
---  The energies calculated after these neutrino detections match the theoretical calculations predicted from this size supernova explosion.
-
---  The mass of these neutrinos must be very small because the calculations showed they were traveling at nearly the speed of light.  With this conclusion science does not see the neutrino population in the universe accounting for Dark Matter, despite their prodigious numbers the are too near massless.
-
---  In our make Milky Way galaxy supernovae have occurred in 1604 and 1572 witness by Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe.  Astronomers predict that on average the Milky Way galaxy should see a few supernovae every 100 years.  Detecting a burst of neutrinos should be able to make these discoveries even though light waves are blocked by interstellar dust.
-
---  Astronomers now have a worldwide supernova early warning system, SNEWS, to alert the entire community as soon as a detection is made.  The hope is that neutrino detections being first would allow radio, microwave, x-ray, as well as light detections soon thereafter.
-
---  Astronomers predict that if the neutrino burst lasts for 10 seconds or so the supernova collapse was to a neutron star.  If the burst comes to a sudden halt in just a few seconds that a blackhole was formed.
-
---  Current neutrino detectors are only sensitive to the Electron Neutrino Antimatter.  Neutrinos exist in three flavors, Electron, Muon, and Tau.  Because we can only see one flavor we in effect get a black and white photo of a full-color image.  To resolve this problem work is progressing on developing detectors that can detect all of these two flavors as well as their anti-neutrino equivalents.
-
---  Since neutrinos interact only very rarely with matter, the enormous flux of solar neutrinos racing to the Earth is sufficient to produce only 1 interaction for 1,036 target atoms, and each interaction produces only a few photons.  The observation of neutrino interactions requires a large detector mass along with a sensitive amplification system.
-
---  Given the very weak signal sources  background noise must be reduced as much as possible.   Detectors must be shielded by a large mass so they are constructed deep underground, underwater, or, under ice.  They record upward going muons in neutrino interactions.  Upward because no other known particle can traverse the entire earth.  The detector must be at least one kilometer deep to suppress downward traveling muons.   The background noise of extraterrestrial  neutrons interacting in the Earth’s atmosphere  provides a standard calibration source.
-
---  Sources of radioactive isotopes must also be controlled as they produce energetic particles when they decay.  The detectors consists of an array of photomultiplier  tubes housed in transparent pressure spheres which are suspended in large volume of water, or ice.  The photomultiplier tubes record the arrival time and amplitude of Cerenkov light emitted by muons.  The trajectory can then usually be recon-structured if at least three interactions are detected as a single event.
-
---  Unfortunately even these advances are able to detect neutrinos coming from sources only half the distance across our galaxy.  The hope is that detectors can be made sensitive enough to detect neutrinos emitted from sources in other galaxies.
-
---  Andromeda galaxy is only 2,500,000 light-years away.  That would be a good target.
-
-  Betelgeuse and at Eta Carinae are two giant aging stars that might appear supernova any day now.  Astronomically speaking “any day now” might occur any time over several hundred thousand years.  Do you see why supernova 1987 is so special.
-
---  The newest neutrino detector is the ICECUBE  detector installed deep in the ice of the Antarctic.  This detector has already observed 28 extremely high-energy events that are solid evidence of astrophysical neutrinos outside our solar system.
-
---  Early evidence from these neutrino measurements are that something is accelerating particles to energies above 50 trillion electron volts.  Two of these detections were measured at 1,000 trillion electron volts.
-
---  These cosmic accelerators are 40 million times more powerful than our Large Hadron Collider in CERN, Switzerland.
-
---  Cosmic rays are electrically charged particles, usually protons, but, in some cases , heavy nuclei, even iron.  Being charged particles they spiral through magnetic fields to disguising  wherever they originated from.
-
---  Neutrinos are neutral particles.  They tend to travel in a straight line and travel virtually through everything in their path.  The only way to detect neutrinos is through  their interaction with the Weak Nuclear Force.  They are unaffected by the electromagnetic force.
-
---  The ICECUBE Observatory has 5,160 basketball size detectors, digital optical modules, suspended along 86 lines down a cubic kilometer of clear ice.   They start one a half kilometers below the icy Antarctica surface. An announcement will be made shortly stay tuned.
-------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------
(1)  Other reviews available on neutrinos: 1608, 1589, 1139, 632, 630,
1219 is on  ICECUBE neutrinos
1511 is on Sterile neutrinos.
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RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Tuesday, January 7, 2014  ---
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Is there water on Mars?

-1630   -   Mars has had liquid water in its past.  It is too small of a planet with too little atmosphere to retain the liquid state of water over time.  It surface has not changed for over 3 billion years.
-

-
-
---------------------  - 1630  -  Is there water on Mars?
-
-  August 6, 2012, Curiosity Land Rover landed on Mars after a 352,0000,000 mile journey.  The Land Rover has an expected roving capacity of 12 miles over its lifetime.  During Curiosity’s first year it  took 36,700 full images and shot laser targets to detect elements 75,000 times.
-
-  Using spectrometers and x-ray diffractors  measurements uncovered sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon suggesting that a water wet, life friendly environment did exist there at one time.  The rocks were made from sediments similar to those on Earth’s surface.  The rocks contain clay and sulfate minerals.
-
-  Clay minerals occur when standing water reacts with igneous rocks such as olivine.
-  Sulfates are sulfur plus oxygen.
-  Sulfides are sulfur minus 2 electrons.
-  Phosphates are phosphorus plus oxygen.
-  Carbohydrates are carbon plus hydrogen plus oxygen.
-
-  Bacteria on Earth live on each of these elements.  DNA is made of these elements.  The elements are there but they need a solvent.  They need water.
-
-  All evidence leads to the conclusion that water has existed on Mars in the past.  But, as Mars heated up it was unable to hold on to water in its liquid state.
-
-  Water has been detected  through the presence of hydrogen.  The water is bound up in minerals referred to as "hydrated".  The surface is about 3% water in this form at a depth of 10 centimeters.
-
-  Sand was heated and analyzed finding oxygen, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and chlorine.
-
-  Mar’s atmosphere is 95.95%  carbon dioxide only 0.146%  oxygen.  Mar’s atmosphere is too thin and depleted to keep the planet warm.  The solar wind likely stripped Mars of its atmosphere over time.  the Earth is protected from solar wind by its magnetic field.  Mars does not have a magnetic field to deflect these high-energy particles streaming away form the Sun.  On Earth they give us the Northern Lights.
-
-  Mar’s low gravity with no significant magnetic field cannot hold onto the lighter isotopes.  Isotopes are the same elements with extra neutrons.  There is a disproportionate excess of heavy isotopes on Mars indicating that the surface has lost most of the lighter isotopes.  The mass of Mars is known from the orbital periods of its two moons,  It mass is 10% that of Earth.  ( See footnotes 2  -  4 for these calculations ).
-
-  Evidence in the walls of the of the craters contain sediment layers that are like pages of history.  This evidence indicates that wind and water have played a major role in a dynamic Mars history.  In fact, Mars would likely have looked a lot like Earth did several billion years ago.
-
-  Temperatures vary from 32 degrees Fahrenheit high to a -94 degrees Fahrenheit low.   An average of -31 degrees Fahrenheit.   That is as bad as Chicago is today.
-
-  The highest atmosphere pressure is only 0.0095 atmospheres.  Earth has one atmosphere or 15 pounds per square inch.
-
-  Radiation is about as high as having a CT scan every 5 days.
-
-  The large impact of craters that were formed 3.5 to 4.5 billion years ago show evidence of water sediments and deposits.  Mars has a surface has not changed for 3 billion years. Everything you see takes you backwards in time.   Mars becomes a giant laboratory for  inquisitive scientists.  Astronomers conclude that Mars was at least at one time habitable.
-
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(-  1)  MAVEN is a space mission designed to measure the rate of atmosphere loss.  “ Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution”.
-
-  (2)  The Martian moon Phobos has an orbital radius of 9,380 kilometers and a period of 0.32 days.  Kepler’s 3rd law states the square of the period is equat to the cube of the radius of orbit.
-
--------------------  p^2  =  4*pi^2  a^3  /  G  *  M
-
-------------------  M  =  4*pi^2 * a^3 / G  *  p^2
-
-------------------  G  =  Newton’s Constant of Gravity  =  6.67*10^-11 m^3 / ( kg*sec^2)
-
---------------------  a  =  radius  =  9.38*10^6 meters
-
--------------------  p  =  period  =  0.32 days  *  24 hours / day  *  3600 seconds / hour
--------------------  p  =  27,648  seconds.
-
-------------  M  =  4*( 9.87) * 9.38*10^6)^3 /   6.67*10^-11  *  (2.7648*10^4)^2
-
-------------------  Mass  =  6.39*10^23  kilograms
-
-  (3)  The Martian moon Diemos has an orbit of 1.26 days with a radius of 23,400 kilometers.
--------------------  M  =  4*pi^2 * a^3 / G  *  p^2
-
-------------  M  =  4*( 9.87) * (2.34*10^7)^3   /  6.67*10^-11  *  (10.8864*10^4)^2
-
--------------------  Mass  =  6.39*10^23  kilograms
-
-  (4)   March 10 2006 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter orbited with a 3,700 kilometer radius and a period of 114 minutes.
-
--------------------  M  =  4*pi^2 * a^3 / G  *  p^2
-
-------------  M  =  4*( 9.87) * (3.7 *10^6)^3   /  6.67*10^-11  *  (6.848*10^3)^2
-
---------------------  Mass  =  6.39*10^23  kilograms
-
-  (5)  The mass of the Earth is 59.7 * 10^23 kilograms.  Mars is 10.6% that of the Earth’s.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, with comments, suggestions, corrections. Index of reviews available ---
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
----  email request for copies to:   -------      jamesdetrick@comcast.net  ---------
 ---- https://plus.google.com/u/0/  , “Jim Detrick” ----- www.facebook.com  ---
 ---- www.twitter.com , ---   707-536-3272    ----   Monday, January 6, 2014  ---
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