Questions in Physics and Astronomy.

-  1867  -  Questions in Physics and Astronomy. If this is your chosen career field, or, your current hobby, you have a lot of important mysteries to solve.  Here is a list for you to start working on:
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---------------------------  1867  -  Questions in Physics and Astronomy
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-  When you graduate from college you need something to work on.  I chose electrical engineering because I liked physics and math.  And, I was pretty much guaranteed to get a job with those skills after graduation.  Today I would choose astronomy.  Our technology is giving us reams of new amazing data.  Measurements galore.  And, the more we learn, the more mysteries we uncover.  What a Challenge!  It is a treasure hunt to learn about life and how it all happened.  “ May you always have more questions to work on.”
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-  The “ very big” question has to be “what is Dark Matter and Dark Energy that makes up 95% of the composition of the Universe?  The part we know is only 5%.  The Dark Matter is providing the gravity necessary to hold everything together.  The Dark Energy is a mysterious force that is causing everything to separate from everything else.  Space between matter is expanding at an accelerating rate.
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-  Today for every 1 million light years of space the expansion is increasing 47,000 miles per hour.  Over several billion lightyears of expanding space the separation speeds exceed the speed of light.  Either we do not understand this expansion rate as we observe it.  Or, we do not understand what is causing it if it is accelerating at this rate of expansion?  Where does the energy to do that come from?
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-  Then there is the Theory of Gravity that tells  us if the laws are correct there is 5 times more matter out there than what is visible.  If that Dark Matter was not there providing the gravity pull needed the galaxies would be flying apart.  Something out there is holding it all together.
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-  The next question has to do with the planet Mars.  The myriad of instruments we have sent there have uncovered new mysteries.  The data tells us that Mars once contained oceans of water.  The surface water has disappeared, but, there appears to be periodic water flows back to the surface.
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-  Where there is water there could be life?  Was there life there in the past?  Did life on Earth somehow migrate from Mars on the backs of meteors?  Is there life still residing on Mars?
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-  Cosmic Rays are charged particles that come to us from the Sun in the form of a Solar Wind.  These charged particles enter the magnetic poles creating the ionized colored gases that we call our Northern Lights.
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-  Physics can explain these charged particles coming from the Sun.  But, we also detect extremely high energy Cosmic Rays.  How these super-charged particles attain such extremely high energies is a mystery.  Astronomers can not determined what direction they are coming from because their path is twisted and turned when charged particles are passing through the magnetic fields of interstellar space.
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-  We are not only bombarded by Cosmic Rays we are also get hit with fast radio bursts.  These are millisecond-long flashes of radio waves.  Astronomers have no explanation of how the radio signals are generated or where they come from.  One question persists is if they come from a single source?  Or, are they coming from several cataclysmic disasters that never repeat themselves?
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-  The Universe was born from “ nothing” in the Big Bang.  Equal amounts of matter and anti-matter were created.  When these particles come in contact they annihilate each other.  Why is our universe not now devoid of particles?  Somehow our Universe is made of matter that has out-numbered the anti-matter .  Where is that extra anti-matter today?  Is it still out there somewhere and it just somehow stayed separated.
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-  I am here writing this stuff and my most profound question remains, how did I even get here?  I mean, how did life itself get here?  Earth is the only place we know sustains life.  Does it exist elsewhere?  How did it get started on Earth?
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-  In the early formation of Mother Earth a billion of years ago the Earth was too hot to hold water, or, sustain even primitive life.  Maybe, life arrived later on the spaceship   asteroids?  Science has found organic material on these asteroids.  Somehow simple organic molecules caused chemical reactions to happen forming complex molecules.  These molecules combined into RNA, one of the necessary ingredients for multicultural organism, of which I happen to be one, somehow?  Please explain how this all could possible happen?
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-  The Universe is expanding and cooling.  Today it is 2.73 degrees Kelvin and it started out at millions of degrees Kelvin.  So, the Universe was hotter and denser in the past.  The volume of the Universe used to be smaller.  Matter was denser.  Wavelengths of photons were shorter containing more energy.  The early Gamma Rays have stretched their wavelengths through expanding space to Microwave wavelengths today.
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-  The wavelengths of photons defines their energy and temperature.
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--------------------------  E  =  h * f
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-----------------  Energy  =  frequency  * ( 6.625 * 10^-34  kilogram * meters^2 / second)
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---------------------------  E  =  h*c*T  /0.0029
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-------------------------  Energy  =  Temperature  * (6.85*10^23)
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---------  Blackbody maximum wavelength  -  0.0029 meters * Kelvin / Temperature.
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-  Our biggest question in Cosmology is that as we get closer and closer to the beginning, the Big Bang, the Universe gets hotter and denser and our physics equations break down.  Physicists speculate that an Inflationary Period occurred expanding the Universe faster than the speed of light.
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-  This Inflation would mean that the total Universe is much, much larger that our Observable Universe.  We assume the Universe is uniform density on the largest scales.  We assume laws of physics are the same everywhere, in all directions.  We assume it has always been like this since the beginning of time.  And we assume the fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background were when the Universe was only 380,000 years old.
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-  Then , the Universe today is 27% Dark Matter, 68% Dark Energy, 4.9% Norman Matter ( us and everything around us), 0.1% Neutrinos, 0.01% radiation.  And , the Universe is 13.81 billion years old + or - 120 million years with 99.1% accuracy.
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-  If the Universe were all 100% Normal Matter then the calculations would put us at 10 billion years old.  If the Universe was expanding 50 km/sec/mpc instead of 70 km/sec/mpc then the Universe would be 16 billion years old.  But, all the observations we have today puts us at 13.81 billion years old.
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-  The age of the oldest stars we can find is 13.2 billion years.  12 billion year old stars are relatively common.  None have been found that are 14 billion years old.
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 -  So, how old is the Universe going to get before it dies?
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-  The Earth will die in about 6 billion years.  That is when the Sun runs out of fuel and expands into a Red Giant Star and vaporizes us.
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-  The Universe, however dies when it expands and cools to where the temperature is all the same everywhere at zero degrees Kelvin.  Today we are at 2.73 degrees Kelvin.  All the stars will have fizzled out.  All the matter will have decayed.  A dead Universe is cold and rarified space.
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-  Ok, let’s be optimistic.  Lets say for some unknown reason the Universe expansion reverses itself and we begin the “Big Crunch”  Then, our future would be a dense, fiery inferno back to a single point with no space and no time.
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-  Let’s face it.  We have nothing to look forward to.  Except, the fun of learning and solving some of these questions.  Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1742  -  Astronomy facts, 2 pages of interesting facts to ponder.
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-  #1716  -  Astronomical Disappointments.  Not every mission is a success.  What have we learned from failures.
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-  #1615  -  # 1616  #1617-  Key discoveries in astronomy.  Over the years beginning in 400 B.C.  to 1998.
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-  #1614  -  Problems to be solved in astronomy.  Written in 2013 has some of the same questions as this review.
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-  # 1493  -  Puzzles in astronomy
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-  #1108  -  Cosmic distance ladder.
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-  #942  -  Last 35 years in astronomy
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-  #758  -  Ancient astronomers
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Do statistical forces control Nature?

-  1855  -  Cosmology -  astronomy studying energy flows and the force of statistics.  Chaos ensues and stuff happens.  Do statistical forces create Nature?  Are we just a product of large numbers?
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--------  1855  -  Cosmology -  astronomy studying energy flows and statistics.  -
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-  Everything in our world, every atom in your body, is made of elements found in the Periodic Table of Elements.  These elements range from the lightest, Hydrogen with one proton, to one of the heaviest, uranium with 92 protons.  Your body is mostly water, which is hydrogen and oxygen, H2O, oxygen with 8 protons and carbon with 6 protons.
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-  The lightest elements hydrogen and helium were born in the Big Bang.  All the rest were made by fusion to heavier elements in the center core of stars.  Stars like our Sun but larger.  Our bodies are essentially the by-products of a nuclear furnace.
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-  The intense temperatures and pressures at the core of these large stars molded the elements heavier that helium.  When this fusion furnace ran out of the lighter elements to fuse into heavier elements the fusion stops, the star collapses to the core and rebounds into a giant explosion.
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-  The violent death of a star is called a “ supernova”.  The explosion spreads these heavier elements into space.  They form clouds of atoms and molecules that are gathered up by gravity and eventually create another star causing the process to repeat. If the star is big enough another supernova ensues.
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-  The heavier elements like the ones of your body ( like calcium) required a few of these cycles of supernova explosions.  The Big Bang started the process 13.7 billion years ago.  Our Earth has been around 4.6 billion years.  The planets formed with a build up of atoms that were orbiting in the Accretion Disks around several generations of suns.
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-  Life swept up a sub-set of these atoms to become our mortal selves.  It all came from the exploding dust of stars.
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-  What explains this extraordinary complexity out of total simplicity?  How do we go from the Quarks in protons to an accelerating Universe carrying galaxies and planets along for the ride?
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-  God made Nature to have a “ natural instability”, energy flows and chaos ensues.
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-  Instabilities create “ phase changes”.  Like water vapor ( simplicity) can go through energy flows to produce snowflakes ( complexity).  No two snowflakes discovered to date have been exactly alike.
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-  The Big Bang started with an instability of a “false vacuum” decaying into an “ordinary vacuum”  (I have no idea what this means?)  The hot plasma contained Quarks (positive charges) and Gluons ( force particles to hold positive charges together that would normally repel each other) and electrons and neutrinos.
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-  When the Universe expanded and cooled enough Quarks bound together to produce protons and Neutrons.  Another phase transition with neutral atoms the Universe became “ transparent” and photons were released to spread electromagnetic energy through out space.  This happened 380,000 years after the Big Bang.
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-  Gravity pulled clouds of atoms together to form stars and galaxies.  The next instability occurred when hydrogen and helium fused at the core of stars releasing energy that lasted for billions of years.  Our Sun will release its energy for 10 billion years  When the fuel runs out the larger stars release their energy as supernovae.  Smaller stars go through a Red Giant Star phase and eventually become White Dwarf stars.
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-   Planets like Earth have instabilities and energy flows too.  Gravity pulls the heavier elements into the core.  Water and air are left on the surface.  The heat from the Sun makes energy flow from the equator to the poles in constant weather circulation.
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-  The energy flows create chemical laboratories.  Somehow this complexity transformed from chemistry into biology.
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-  Today we know that there are at least as many planets as there are stars.  All are dealing with these same or similar instabilities, constantly evolving.  Could life simply be a “statistical force”?  This is the theory of large numbers.  If the numbers are large enough anything can happen given enough time.  We have billions of stars in billions of galaxies and 13,700,000,000 years, which should be enough numbers and time for statistics to work.
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-  Just like rolling 5 die.  Enough rolls taken will produce 5 sixes.  It is simply the result of statistical force.  It is hard to comprehend.  All this life came from star dust. Where did the star dust come from?  I am trying to comprehend it?  Where did I come from?  Statistics should tell us that complexity is everywhere.  Somewhere else there must be biology. Stay tuned as announcement will be made shortly.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Cosmology:
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-    There 12 reviews available upon request:  #1849,   #1775 (May 4, 2015),  1771, 1697 ,1602, 1601, 1215, 767, 759, 713, 50, 14( to May 31 2003)
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Supernovae and evolution on Earth

-  1866  -  Supernovae and evolution on Earth.  Could Dark Matter also have impacted evolution on Earth?  Or, did the 9th planet yet to be discovered send Kuiper Belt asteroids into the inner Solar System causing mass extinctions and life evolution?
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---------------------------  -  1866  -  Supernovae and evolution on Earth.
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-  When the earliest human ancestors roamed the Earth, 2,000,000 years ago, a supernova exploded that out shone the full moon.  It was a star that exploded 325 years earlier and its flash of light was just reaching us.
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-  Not only the light but interstellar dust rained on to the Earth and the Moon.  The radiation was intense enough to alter Earth’s climate.  It may have been the seed that gave rise to the human lineage.  That was about time it all started, the Adam and Eve era.
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-  We are all made of star dust.  Our blood pumps iron that was formed in stars billions of years ago.  Science is using ocean sediments as “ telescopes” looking back in time to learn about past supernovae explosions near Earth.  Digging into the Earth to learn our Cosmic past.  Looking down instead of up to see the past.
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-  The technique being used is radioactive dating of the isotope iron-60.  Current thinking from early results is the Earth has experienced many supernovae explosions in the past.  Iron-60 concentrations were found from 1.5 to 3.2 million years ago.  And, from 6.5 to 8.7 million years ago.  Samples from the two Apollo Moon missions came to the same conclusion.
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-  The calculated star masses were 8.8 Solar Mass.   And , 9.2 Solar Mass for a supernova exploding 2.3 million years ago.
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-  Could these supernovae have been responsible for the rapid climate changes that created the eras of change on Mother Earth?  Supernovae remnants could interfere with Earth’s atmosphere.  There could be a loss of Ozone.  There could be X-ray, Gamma Ray, Ultraviolet ray and Cosmic ray bombardments.
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-  Betelgeuse is the closest star, in Constellation Orion, that could be the next supernova near Earth.  So, we have evolved  “ supernovae archaeologists” to study human evolution.  We humans are not just Earthlings, we are also citizens of the Cosmos.
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-  Supernovae affects on evolution is not the only theory.  Dark Matter could have been an impact factor.  After all it is 83% of all the matter in the Universe.
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-  Astronomers can not “see” Dark Matter, but, they have detected and measured it through its gravitational pull.  It is the fabric that is holding galaxies together, keeping them form flying apart like a lawn sprinkler.
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-  Science has not determined what particles exist that make up Dark Matter.  It appears to be outside our “ Standard Model of Particle Physics”.  A new name for Weakly Interactive Massive Particles, “ WIMPS”.
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-  We think the gravity math is true, it has worked for over 100 years of observations.  Detection has expanded to the search into Gamma Ray emissions that may result in Dark Matter interactions with Ordinary Matter.  Dark Matter may have its own “dark electromagnetism‘.  It may be composed of not just one particle but many different partially - interacting particles.  Neutrons in our Natural World do not interact with protons or electrons.  Maybe WIMPS are similar?
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-  Lisa Randall has authored a new book “ Dark Matter and Dinosaurs” that postulates Dark Matter may have influenced the evolution of life on Earth.
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-  Our neighborhood of galaxies, the Milky Way, Andromeda, and dozens of Dwarf Galaxies lie in roughly the same plane.  Maybe a slight Dark Matter interaction is responsible for creating this structure.  The rotation of clouds of Dark Matter could collapse into flat disks.  Maybe these “Dark Disks” are embedded in our visible disks.
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-   Our solar system takes 240,000,000 years to complete one orbit around the Milky Way.  Evidence is that our galactic orbit bobs up and down in a wavy motion traveling through the galactic plane every 32,000,000 years.  Meteor impacts on Earth have occurred at about the same intervals.  The Cretaceous - Tertiary extinction of the dinosaurs occurred 67,000,000 years ago.
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-  An asteroid impact left a crater 110 miles in diameter at Chicxulub, Mexico.  The asteroid was 6 miles diameter.  The release of energy into the climate killed 75% of the life on Earth.  Studying older craters uncovered nearly the same 35,000,000 cycle of large meteor impacts.
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-  Can science really tie mass extinctions to the meteorite cratering record?
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-  Could still another theory include a 9th planet orbiting outside the Kuiper Belt of asteroids and Dwarf Planets that is sending meteors into the inner Solar System.
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-  New evidence shows astronomers that the 6 most distant objects with orbits beyond Neptune are all mysteriously aligned in one direction.  They al tilt identically from the plane of the Solar System.  The probability calculated for this occurring by coincidence is 0.007 percent.  So, what was the cause for this alignment?
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-  Computer modeling puts constraints on the 9th planet that is 10 times the mass of he Earth.  In orbit 30 degrees from the orbital plane of our 8 planets.  With an average distance of 600 AU from the Sun.  ( 1 AU -  Earth-Sun distance, 93 million miles)
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-  The planet could have a 20,000 year orbit.  At its closest distance in its eccentric orbit it could be as bright as Magnitude 18 in the southern sky.  Perihelion is when the orbit is closest to the Sun.  Aphelion is when it is the furthest.  At its furthest point its brightness would be a very dim Magnitude 25  ( See footnote 1)
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-  The active search is on.  All the math gives us confidence we will find a 9th Planet.  Stay tuned, an announcement will be made shortly.
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-  #1806  ,  #1807  ,  #1808  -    evolution is my genealogy over 4,000 years, 139 generations.  And, the evolution of time 10^-43 seconds to present day, 15,000,000,000 years
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-  #693  -  Evolution of plants and animals.
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-  #583  -  Life Evolution and God.
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-  Footnote (1)  The Greek Astronomer Hipparchus ( 190 - 120 B.C.) first described the Magnitude system for the Apparent Brightness of stars.     The brightest stars were given a Magnitude 1.  The next brightest Magnitude 2, etc…. to the faintest visible stars a Magnitude 6.
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-  Today modern algorithms define Apparent Magnitudes “ Each difference of 5 Magnitudes represents a factor of 100 in brightness.  Magnitude 1 star is 100 times brighter than a Magnitude 6 star.  The brightest star needs a negative Magnitude, Sirius is Magnitude -1.46.
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---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
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Equations are just another language to learn.

-  1865  -  Equations are just another language to learn.  Here are several of equations that changed our understanding of our world.  Also listed of how important they are in our daily lives.
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----------------  1865  -  Equations are just another language to learn.
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-  The language of mathematics is a shorthand.  It was created to make things simpler to understand and to manipulate.  Learn the new vocabulary in math and how equations can be transformed into longhand, words and sentences.  For example:
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----------------------------  h^2  =  a^2   +  b^2
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----------------------------  The square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.
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-  Equations are designed to simplify ideas and theories  One of the simplest ideas was discovered 100 years ago.
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--------------------------  E  =  m
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-------------------------  Energy  =  mass
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-  This equation says that energy and mass is the same thing.  To be an equality we need a constant of proportionality depending on the units used.  Mass in kilograms.  Energy is kilograms * meters^2 / seconds^2.
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-----------------------kg * m^2 / sec^2  =  kg  ( constant )
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--------------------  The constant must be m^2 / sec^2, which is the square of velocity.  The genius of Einstein was to realize the constant velocity was the speed of light ( c ).
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----------------------------  E = m*c^2
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-  The equation in the first paragraph involved a simple right triangle.  Take 2 sticks connected at an angle, a vertex.  Measure 3 feet along one stick and make a mark.  Measure 4 feet along the other stick and make a mark.  Measure 5 feet between the marks and the angle at the vertex is exactly 90 degrees, perpendicular, a right angle.
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-  This is the Pythagorean Theorem.
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--------------------(3)^2  +  (4)^2   =  (5)^2
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-------------------  9  +  16  =  25
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-------------------  a^2  +  b^2  =  h^2
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-This simple equation helped build the pyramids and was around 1,000 years before Pythagoras , a Babylonian, made it famous.  Today it is still the core of geometry, trigonometry , surveying, map making , navigation, even art, and of course our GPS satellite navigation system.  The Pythagorean Theorem works in plane geometry.  A right angle on the surface of a sphere, the Earth’s surface for example, does not work with this theorem.  In that case the 3 angles of the triangle does not add up to 180 degrees.
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-  There at least 6 different proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem.  My favorite uses geometry.  Puts a right triangle inside a trapezoid.  Doubles the trapezoid to form a rectangle.  One side being the hypotenuse.
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----------------   ½ ab  +  ½ ab  + ½ c^2  =  h ( a+b) / 2
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--------------------  h  =  a+ b
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-----------------  c^2  =  a^2 + b^2
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-  Logarithms are another math invention to make life simpler.  Numbers can be  multiplied and divided by adding and subtracting their exponents with a common base.  The common base can be 10, or 2, or “e”.  Reference tables are created that make multiplying large numbers less tedious.  Just add up the exponents.
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-  Today logarithms are used to model compound interest and exponential biological growth, and radioactive decay.
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-  Logarithms are the inverse operations to exponentials.  For logarithms to the base 2:
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-------------------  y = log 2(x)
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------------------  64  =   2^6
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------------------Log 2 (64)  =  6
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-  Binary logarithms are used in computer science Natural logarithms using the base “e”, 2.71828.…….  Are used in physics.
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---------------  Log ( x*y)  =  Log x  +  Log y
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-  Calculus was a math invented to calculate instantaneous rates of change.  The inventors were Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz.  Calculus is the foundation of  many of Nature’s laws.  It is the source of differential equations.  It is used to measure solids, curves, and areas.  It s used to calculate the optimal solutions in medicine, economics, physics, engineering and computer science.
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-  A linear function is the equation y  =  mx +b
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-   “m” is the slope or “the rate of change” of y with respect to x at the point of intersection of “a” and “b” coordinates.
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----------------------  m = delta y /  delta x  =  change in y / change in x
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--- Differential-----------------  d(x^2)  /  dx  =  2x
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----Integral -----------------------  2x*dx  =  x^2 + a constant.
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-   The equation for gravity:
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--------------------  F  =  G * m*M /r^2
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-  This equation calculates the force of gravity between two objects ( m  and  M ).  Isaac Newton,  Johannes Kepler, and Robert Hooke all had a  hand in its creation.  Newton’s law descries how gravity works everywhere from the baseball field to the evolution of galaxies.  An enhancement to Newton’s law was introduced by Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity which is needed in dealing with massive objects or motion approaching the speed of light.
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-  Complex Numbers were needed to work with the square roots of negative numbers.  The square root of (-2) has no “real” solution.  There is no real number multiplied by itself that has the answer (-2).  The imaginary solution to the square root of (-4)  is (2i)  Math using these imaginary numbers is essential in working with electrical systems and a variety of modern data processing algorithms.
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-  Euler’s formula for polyhedral describes a numerical relationship for solid shapes.  Polyhedral are 3-dimensional versions of polygons.  The corners are “vertices”, the connections lines are “ edges”.  a cube had 8 vertices, 12 edges, and 6 “faces”.  If you add the vertices and faces together ( 8 + 6)  and subtract the edges ( 12) you will always get the number 2.
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------------------------  8  +  6  -12  =  2
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-  This concept is used extensively in the science of topology, which is the geometry of continuous surfaces.  This scientific tool is also used to study DNA, and networks like the internet.
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---------------------  e^ix  =  cos x  +  i*sin x
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-------------------  “e”  is the base of natural logarithms
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------------------  “i”  is the imaginary unit
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-  The Normal Distribution is a bell shaped curve that has defined probabilities at points near the average and extending to the edges.  68% of the values in the distribution are within one “standard deviation” of the mean.  95% of the values are within 2 standard deviations.  99.7% are within 3 deviations.
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-  It came from the initial work of Blaise Pascal.  The Normal Distribution has become the foundation for modern statistics.  The curve mathematically describes purely random occurrences, like flipping a coin, heads or tails.  Today it is used to determine whether drugs are sufficiently effective in clinical trials.
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-  The Wave Equation is a differential equation that describes the behavior of waves, for example the vibrating guitar string and the resulting sound wave.  It works equally well with earthquakes and ocean waves.  Oil , gas, mining companies set off explosives and read reflecting data in sound waves to discover geological formations.
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-  To describe a sinusoidal wave you need a “ second - order linear partial differential equation”:
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-------------------------- d^2 f(x)  /  dx^2  =  - (w/c) f(x)
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-  Fourier Transforms describe patterns of time as a function of frequency.  The equation can describe complex wave patterns in heat flow, music, speech, images and signal analysis.  Today it is used to compress the JPEG image format in your cell phone and describe the structure of molecules. ( Charles Fourier  1772  - 1837 ).
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-  The Navier-Stokes equations are used to describe how fluids work. The left side of the equation is the acceleration of fluid and the right side is the forces that act upon it.  It is applying Newton’s 2nd law of motion to fluid motion.    The equations are used to model the weather, ocean currents, water flow in a pipe, air flow around a wing.  It allows the design of vehicles that are more aerodynamic.
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-  Maxwell’s equations are the ones I spent 3 years working on in electrical engineering school.  They define the relationship between electric and magnetic fields.  Maxwell then realized that light was an electromagnetic wave.  Today we owe these equations to the development of radar, television, and modern communications.
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-  The 2nd  law of Thermodynamics defines how heat and energy dissipate over time.  The concept of “ Entropy” is a measure of disorder, or randomness, in the system.  The sum of entropies must continually increase over time.  The simplest example is that of heat flow from hot to cold until equilibrium is reached.  The 2nd law expresses the irreversibility of this process.  Thermodynamics is an essential tool in the understanding of chemistry and engines.
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-  Einstein’s Theory of Relativity says energy and matter are 2 forms of the same thing,    E = mc^2.  “c^2” is the speed of light squared.  “c” is a universal speed limit such that space / time must change to keep “c” constant in all forms of motion.
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-  Schrodinger’s equation.   In 1924  Louis de Broglie determined the dual nature of matter being both particles and waves.  Erin Schrodinger  (1867 - 1961) in 1924 defined the math that describes how particles exist over a range of probabilities.  This today is the modern Quantum Mechanics that matches all observations and predictions in physics.  The equation is used in nuclear power, semi-conductor based computers, lasers, and other quantum phenomena.
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-  Shannon’s Information equation estimates the amount of data in a piece of code by the probabilities of its components.  It measure the information content of a message or anything represented symbolically.  The Shannon Entropy is how much the message can be compressed without losing content.  It is used in source coding given a noisy communications channel.
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-  Chaos Theory equations are used in logistic models of population growth.  Chaos is a normal consequence of differential equations.  Processes evolve based on their initial conditions.  Weather is the best known example of a small change in initial conditions resulting in a completely different weather system days later. (popularly known as the butterfly effect).  It is also used to model earthquakes.
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-  The Black-Scholes equations were created for the multi-trillion dollar financial derivatives market.  Improper use of the formula created a financial crisis.   Variants of the model are still in use to price derivatives today.
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-  And , we still have not gotten to F = ma.  Force = mass * acceleration.  An object in orbit at a constant speed is accelerating.  Velocity is speed AND direction.  A circular orbit is constantly changing directions.  And, changing velocity is acceleration.  The centripetal force is exactly balanced by the pull of gravity.
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-----------------------  F  =  G*m*M / r^2  =  m*a  =  m*v^2 / r
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-----------------------  So if you can measure the orbital speed and the distance from the larger mass , “M“ , you can calculate the mass inside the orbit.
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-  Or,   e^i*pi + 1  = 0,    An “ irrational number” raised by the power of and “ imaginary number” plus a normal number 1 =  zero.  Who ever thought of that?
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-  Leonard Euler.  ( 1707 - 1783)
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-  or,  Heisenberg’s Uncertainty principle.  Equations are a simplification to help us understand complex things.  Simplification helps us know more and more about less and less until we know everything about nothing.
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How is Dark Energy expanding the Universe?

-  1864  -  How is Dark Energy expanding the Universe?  Why is this expansion rate accelerating?  Where does the energy come from?  What is the likely end result?
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-----------------1864  -  How is Dark Energy expanding the Universe?
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-  Empty space that separates everything is growing wider and wider.  Not that we can notice.  We need cosmic scales before we can begin to measure it.  Edwin Hubble made the first measurements in 1920.  His distance measurements for galaxies determined that the farther the galaxy was away from us the faster it was receding away from us.  The space between us was expanding.
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-  In 1998 measurement of supernovae determined that not only was the Universe expanding it was accelerating in its expansion.  18 years later and all we have is a “name” for this phenomena, “ Dark Energy”,   but, no explanation on what is causing this cosmic acceleration.
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-  One theory assumes that empty space is not a vacuum, not nothing, but, teeming with pairs of “ virtual particles”.  Virtual because these  particles and their anti-particles spontaneously appear and disappear so quickly they avoid detection.  In the process these particles carry energy.  Energy can produce gravity just as mass can produce the effects of gravity.
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-  Somehow this energy is negative pressure, a type of anti-gravity.  In Einstein’s equation for gravity this term is called the “ Cosmological Constant”.  He called it the “ constant energy density throughout space”.
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-  Another theory is that the Dark Energy is a “Quintessence“ field, where every point in space counteracts the pull of gravity.  If Dark Energy is a quintessence field it might change with time.  So it may accelerate the Universe for a while , then, reverse itself and return the Universe into a “ Big Crush”.
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-  Still a third theory is that our theory of gravity, the “General Theory of Relativity’, is incomplete.  These laws of gravity themselves might need to change.  But, where, why, how?
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-  None of these theories mathematically,  completely match observation.  Regardless the vacuum energy must be very tiny. It only is effective on cosmic scales.  Still any one of these theories if true could produce very different results in the long run.
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-  Is Dark Energy a field?  Will it send the Universe into a “ Big Rip” or change direction and collapse the Universe in a ‘ Big Crunch”?
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-  Or, is there no Dark Energy at all?  Instead we may learn that we need to change the laws of gravity?
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-  If space is expanding under the cosmological constant in a trillion years from now all the galaxies will be so far away their light will never reach us.  Even the Cosmic Microwave Background will have a wavelength wider that our visible universe.
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-  “ Cosmic inflation” suggests the Universe ballooned enormously in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang.  Maybe there are multiple pocket universes that form in isolation from one another doing the same thing?
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-  This last theory comes out of “ string theory” and “ M-theory”.
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-  To learn the nature of Dark energy we need more measurements of the pressure and the density of space.  It the ratio of pressure to density is equal to -1 it could be that the “cosmological constant” is the right theory.
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-  If the ratio differs from -1 it may be energy is evolving differently over time.  If the ratio is different with different observations maybe the Theory of Relativity needs to be modified.?
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-  The new data astronomers need are to learn how galaxy clusters grew over time.  A new technique for astronomers is Gravitational Lensing.  This new tool allows the most distant measurements of galaxies.  The data collected will define how the Universe has expanded over time.  The distant measurements rely on “ redshifts’ of light spectrum.  The greater the redshift the more distant the source.
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-  A new measurement for distant measurement involves “ Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations”.    Newly discovered “ Gravitational Waves” may also be a tool to measure cosmic evolution.
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-  Another very interesting test involves the equations for gravity being verified measuring the changing distance to the Moon.  This is done using laser light off reflectors placed on the Moon by the Apollo astronauts.  Astronomers are looking for minuscule discrepancies in the calculations using current laws for gravity.
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-  There are many tests being focused on the current model for cosmology.  Dark Matter is 23% of the Universe, Dark Energy is 73%.  4% ordinary matter. Matter is using gravity to slow cosmic expansion.  Dark Energy is using anti-gravity to accelerate expansion.  How has these ratios changed over time and will they remain constant in the future?
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-  Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation is a snapshot of the Universe expansion 400,000 years after the Big Bang.  Using this data to calculate expansion does not agree with today’s direct measurements.
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-   The Universe expansion rate is called the “ Hubble Constant” but it is only constant everywhere at this point in time.  Measurements are trying to determine the rate existing in the past, and the rate does not appear to be constant going into our future.
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-  Direct measurements rely on “standard candles” of brightness of stars in galaxies to determine how fast galaxies are moving away from each other.  That is , how fast is space growing in between the galaxies.  Only those gravitationally bound together can resist this pressure to spread them farther apart.
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-  Brightness calculations depend on the “intrinsic brightness” of these “candles” compared to their “ apparent brightness” measured by the Hubble Space Telescope.  This month (April 2016) the data was published for a measured constant with an uncertainty of +-2.4%.  But, that answer is 8% faster expansion rate compared to the Cosmic Microwave Background results.
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-  Using distance ladders with Cepheid stars and Type1a supernovae astronomers get an expansion rate of 73.02 +-1.79 km/sec/mps  That is with an uncertainty error of +-2.45%.  Translating these mega parsecs into lightyears we get 47,000 miles per hour expansion rate for every million lightyears of distance.  The further the distance the faster the galaxies are receding.
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-  Using the CMB to calculate expansion rate we get 67.43 km/sec/mps  +-0.7 which is an uncertainty of +-1.04%
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-  The bottom line is the Universe looks like it is expanding 8% faster than expected based on looking at its youth (CMB) and how we expected it to evolve from then to now.
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-  Three theories surface to try to explain the disparity:
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-  (1)  Maybe the elementary particles of Dark Matter that we have not yet discovered have different properties than our current thinking.
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-  (2)  Maybe Dark Energy is not constant.  It has been different in the past and it is changing its acceleration into the future.
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-  (3)  Maybe “ standard candles” measurements were not precise enough to give us accurate results.
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-  May your curiosity always reign, and may you always have more to learn”  Cosmology is certainly granting us this wish.  God has made sure we have plenty to do.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more about Dark Energy:
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-  #1749  -  When the visible universe was half its current size the density was 8 times higher and the radiation twice as hot.
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-  This review lists 5 more reviews about Dark Energy.
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-  #1516  -  Dark Matter would have to be 200 times the mass of visible matter in order to have the critical density needed to halt expansion.
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-  #1499  -  Astronomers find about one supernova explosion every night.
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-  #1290  -  The observable universe has 10^22 sun-sized stars as a measure of ordinary matter.
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-  #1083  -  The intensity of luminosity of the supernovae follow the Blackbody Curve which has a defined peak as a function of wavelength and temperature.
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-  #1047  -  Is the Universe like Swiss Cheese?
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-  #822  -  Does gravity only come in one polarity?  The more studying you do the more mysteries you find.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Monday, April 25, 2016  -----
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From star light to star dust.

-  1863  -  From starlight to star dust.  Photons have some very interesting characteristics.  They are constantly moving energy around the Universe.  Mass is concentrated energy.  The gassy stars created the star dust at their cores and then exploded.
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---------------------------  -  1863  -  From starlight to star dust.
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-  Light is the most amazing thing!  Electromagnetism and the whole spectrum of radiation that we can not see, but often feel.  We can only “ see” light with wavelengths of 400 to 700 nanometers (10^-9 meters),  blue light to red light.  This is a very, very narrow slice of the whole electromagnetic spectrum.
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-  I marvel at  my cell phone.  It is able to “see” longer wavelengths in the radio spectrum and process electrical energy to produce audio wavelengths I can hear.  Amazing!  Oh, and picture pixels I can see.  Oh, and GPS satellite communications that tells me where I am standing.  Amazing!
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-  Photons are massless, but, they do carry energy.  And, energy and mass are the same thing according to E=mc^2.  Mass is just concentrated energy.  Massless photons can only ravel at one speed, 670,633,500 miles per hour.  But, that is in a vacuum.  In other media photons appear to be traveling slower.  Actually what is happening is the photons are being absorbed and re-emitted over and over again  making their forward travel appear to be slower than the speed of light.
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-  This effect can actually produce “shockwaves” in water or air, similar to sonic booms.  Light appears to slow down as it interacts with the atoms in the medium.
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-  Gamma Rays from space hit the upper atmosphere moving faster than the speed of light “in air”.   The resulting shockwave produces more photons at lower energy levels.  This effect is known as “ Cherenkov Radiation”.  Nuclear reactors produce this effect in the water surrounding the nuclear fuel.
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-  Color is our brains way of interpreting the wavelength of visible light.  Red is the longest wavelength we can see, 700 nanometers.  Longer wavelengths are in the infrared and microwave that we can feel but not see.  Blue or Violet is the shortest wavelengths that we can see, 400 nanometers.  Shorter wavelengths are ultraviolet that we can feel in sunburns, X-rays that can penetrate the skin, and Gamma Rays that are deadly radiation.
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-  The longer wavelengths like radio waves have much lower energy.  That is the reason you need amplifiers in your cell phone.  Shorter wavelengths have higher energies.
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----------------------  E  =  h * f
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-  “h”  is Planck’s Constant of Action  =  6.625 *10^-34 kilogram * meters^2 / seconds.
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--------------------  Energy  =  6.6^10^-34  * frequency
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-  The higher the frequency the shorter the wavelength the higher the energy.  w*f  = c
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-  High frequency Gamma Rays burn living tissue.
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-  Knowing the energy and the frequency it is possible to calculate the number of photons, which are little bundles of energy.  See Review #1810.  An incandescent light bulb emits 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons per second (10^20)
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-  The Sun emits 10^45 photons per second.
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-  Amazingly science can actually perform measurements on a single photon.  Your eyes are sensitive enough to detect a bundle of 6 to 10 photons.  Photons can appear particle-like or they can appear like a bundle of wave-energy.  And this wave-like character can produce interference patterns of “light” amplification and ‘dark” wave cancellations.
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-  Visible light wavelengths are larger than the size of atoms and molecules allowing us to see matter.  Shorter wavelengths like X-rays and ultraviolet light are able to “see” even smaller structures.  Particle Accelerators accomplish this by accelerating electrons using changing magnetic fields producing photons at specific wavelengths.  This is called “synchrotron radiation”.  By producing pure X-rays and ultraviolet rays science at a single wavelength can produce movies of the structure of molecules , viruses, and chemical reactions.
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-  Light photons are just one of the force carriers.  Photons carry the electromagnetic force.  “Gluons” carry the Strong Nuclear force that holds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of atoms.  “Bosons” are the force carriers for the Weak Nuclear Force responsible for the Beta Decay of neutrons and radioactivity.  “Gravitons” are yet to be discovered as force carriers for Gravity.  In the meantime gravity is explained as the curvature of space and time created by the presence of mass.  Empty space is explained as a seething soup of “ virtual particles”, also yet to be discovered.
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-  Photons are easily emitted and absorbed by atoms.  Your eyeball is absorbing photons causing electrical signals to your brain.  An electron moving in a strong magnetic field will emit photons just from its acceleration.  Photons disappear inside atoms by kicking electrons into higher energy orbits.  When the electron falls back to a lower orbit photons of specific wavelength is emitted.  Each atom has unique energy levels and the emitted photons are also at unique wavelengths giving each atom a unique spectrum of light.  That is what is responsible for creating all the different colors that are around you.
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-  When matter and anti-matter annihilate each other their masses are converted to a pair of Gamma Ray photons.  When two photons of the right energy collide that can produce matter.  But, that takes a  lot of energy because mass is concentrated energy.
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----------------- E  =  m*c^2
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-------------------  E  =  m * 90,000,000,000,000,000
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-  All mass and the material world around us, and us too, are made from the dust of stars.  Your body is composed of elements created in many different stars, and even many generations of stars.
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-  Our Solar System formed from the collapse of a gas and dust cloud some 4,568,000,000 years ago, + or - 1 million years.
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-  The gas cloud was 72% hydrogen
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-  27% helium
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-  1% all the other 90 or so elements in the Periodic Table.
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-  Only hydrogen, helium and lithium were produced in the Big Bang 13,800,000,000 years ago and within minutes afterwards when the density was low in the rapidly expanding Universe. All the heavier elements had to wait for the explosion of supernovae to form in their high pressure, high temperature cores.
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-  The largest stars exploded first because their immense gravity burned their nuclear fuel the fastest.
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-  140 to 160  Solar Mass supernovae produced the heaviest elements.
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-  50 to 100 Solar Mass produce oxygen, nitrogen, iron and carbon
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-  10 to 100 Solar Mass stars went supernovae 200 to 300 million years after the Big Bang
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-  Stars shine, produce photons, because they are fusing lighter elements into heavier elements which releases energy.  Hydrogen fuses into Helium for example.  When the stars run out of these lighter elements, the pressure and temperature is not high enough the fusions stops, the outer star layers are no longer supported by radiation, the star collapses into the core and rebounds into an explosion, a supernovae.  Dust and photons are spread throughout the Universe to start the process all over again.
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-  The gas and dust begins to collect due to the pull of gravity and the whole process of star formation repeats for another generation.  “Let there be light”.  and it was so.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1810  -  Photons are everywhere.  The Sun is a giant light bulb producing 10^45 photons per second.
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-  #733  -  When a photon hits an object, an atom, it is reflected or absorbed.  The transfer of energy is proportional to its frequency.  E=h*f  In broad daylight 79,000,000,000,000,000 enter the eye every second.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
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-  https://plus.google.com/u/0/  -- www.facebook.com  -- www.twitter.com
 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Saturday, April 23, 2016  -----
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How can space be curved?

-  1861  -  How can space be curved?  2,200 years ago curvature was determined by plane geometry.  Relativity showed us space was curved by mass and gravity.  Today curvature in space tells us 96% is mysterious Dark Mass and Dark Energy.
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------------------------  -  1861  -  How can space be curved?
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-  The concept of curved space and time is challenging.  Not easily digested.  Most of the concept relies on mathematics to provide the descriptions, but, math is another language that has to be learned first.
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-  And, even space itself is a hard concept.  It is impossible to leave space.  It holds everything.  Like time keeps everything from happening all at once, space keeps everything from being in the same place.  If we study space we have to study it from the inside.  A corollary might be how early humans discovered that the Earth was not flat, it was not seen as a giant sphere,  not totally visible until thousands of years later.
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-  Math was used by an Egyptian, Eratosthenes, 2,200 years ago to show the Earth was a sphere and we could calculate its circumference.  He used plane geometry.  He used camel drives to gage the distance between two cities, Syene and Alexandria.  He assumed the Sun’s rays were parallel lines.  At noon in Syene he saw the Sun light directly overhead  reach the bottom of a well.  At noon in Alexandria, 5,000 stadice away, the Sun rays were at an angle of 1/50 of a circle ( 7 degrees, 12 arc-seconds)  A full circle would be 50 * 5,000 stadice, or 35,000 miles for the circumference.  The Earth is 24,901 miles circumference.  He was 29% to high.  The camels must have been taking shorter steps that day.
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-  Using geometry on curved surfaces did not arrive until 1818 when Carl Gauss showed that for curved surfaces the laws of geometry were different.  The shortest distance between two points is not a direct line.  The shortest path is always a geodesic, a curved arc with the center at the center of the Earth in the case of our sphere.
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- Euclid decided that not only the Earth’s surface was curved, but, space itself was curved.  The tracers for the geodesics are rays of light.  Light always takes the shortest path in empty space.  Gravitational lensing uses the fact that light bends passing through curved space created by a massive object.
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-  It was not until 1916 that the General Theory of Relativity showed us the math for curved space.  Space curves in response to mass.  Arthur Eddington first demonstrated how star light bends around a solar eclipse.
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-  So, if we can measure how much mass bends light we can calculate how much mass is there.  The biggest effect occurs around galaxy clusters, the most massive objects in the Universe.  Clusters contain thousands of galaxies and billions of stars.
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-  The surprising result measuring bending starlight ( actually quasars) was that cluster contain more mass than can be seen.  This missing mass is known as Dark Matter and we have yet to discover what it actually is.  It is affected by gravity but not electromagnetism.
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-  Astronomers are using this technique on the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, light that has been redshifted into the microwave spectrum after 13 billion lightyears traveling through expanding space.  The “ hotspots” in the fabric of the CMB are magnified or shrunk from actual size.  If we can determine the true size we can calculate the magnification and the average curvature of space.
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-  The result.  On average the curvature of space is “flat“.  And, the density of mass is on average 10^-29 grams per cubic centimeter.  With that small a number it is obvious that most of space is “empty” of mass.  But, add up all the mass in the Universe and it reaches only 30% of the calculated result using this density.
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-  Where is the missing 70% of the universe?  It has been given the name “ Dark Energy”.  Remember, energy and mass are the same thing.  Mass is concentrated energy according to E=mc^2.
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-  What we model as “ space” today is resembling an old picnic table.  Full of chips and scratches you can see up close.  But, from a distance the table top looks perfectly smooth and flat.  The chips and scratches correspond to small regions of strong space curvature due to the gravity from individual stars and galaxies.  These stars and galaxies account for only 4% of the mass-energy in the Universe.  The other 96% is the missing matter and energy.
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-  We have come a long way from plane geometry in understanding the Universe.  With 96% left we have a long way to go.
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-  Maybe the Universe appears flat because it is so big even if it is curved we can not notice it.  God only knows?  It sure looks flat to me.
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-  Request these Reviews to learn more:
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-  #1831  -  From Blackholes to empty space.
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-  #1790  -  Why space and time must change as we approach the speed of light.
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-  #1773  -  The size of space depends on how fast you are moving.
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-  #1407  -  Space is in constant motion.
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-  #1241  -  At the smallest levels things remain connected.  Even though they are separated in space.  Believe me this defies all logic.
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----  Comments appreciated and Pass it on to whomever is interested. ----
---   Some reviews are at:  --------------     http://jdetrick.blogspot.com -----
--  email feedback, corrections, request for copies or Index of all reviews
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 -----   707-536-3272    ----------------   Friday, April 22, 2016  -----
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