New Look!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the new and improved Physics Phanatic blog, complete with background upgrade. To kick of this wonderful new chapter, try to wrap your head around this video:

Imagining the Tenth Dimension

Tell me how far you could fathom in a comment below! Thanks everyone!

Science Fiction... or Science FACT?

So it turns out that Elder-Geek.com was interested in my calculations, so I wrote a feature article on it:

Is Science Fiction Science FACT? - Death Star Physics

You should definitely check that out! It's got all you need in there! The story behind my quest for knowledge, the math, cool pictures, THE WORKS!

Alright, the moment you've all been waiting for! Here's the physics behind the Death Star:

I wanted to find the minimum amount of energy needed to destroy Alderaan. I thought that a good way to do this would be to find the amount of energy needed to tear the planet apart, chunk by chunk, at escape velocity (meaning just fast enough to pull free of the gravitational field). This is nowhere near as dramatic as it is in the film, but it’s a start. First, we’ll use the equation for the potential energy of an object in the gravitational field of the planet:

where G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of Alderaan, and m is the mass of the chunk being torn off. We want to make this easier on ourselves, so we’re going to substitute an equation for both masses. We’ll do this by using:

where m is mass, ρ is the density, and V is volume. First up, the mass of Alderaan! We know the volume of a sphere to be:

so our new equation for M is:

We’re going to take a slightly abstract approach to finding an equation for m. We’re going to imagine that we’ll “peel” a layer off of the planet that’s infinitesimally small (really, really, really, small). We’ll find the volume of this layer by multiplying the surface area of the spherical layer (4πr²) and the width of the layer (dr). This will give us the following equation for the mass of the layer:

Now we’re ready to calculate the energy. We’re going to take the integral of our formula so that we can add up every layer from the surface to the core. Assuming Alderaan has a radius R:

Since most of the values in the equation are constants, we can take them out front and simplify the integral:

After integrating, we see that plugging lower boundary term results in zero, so we now have our final equation:

We can now plug in our values:

• G = 6.673 x 10^-11 m³ kg^-1 s^-2
• Diameter of Alderaan = 12,500 km → R = 6250 x 10³ m
• ρ_Alderaan*= 5515.3 kg m^-3

Plugging in these numbers gives us:

E = 2.038 x 10³² J

*Note: I assumed that the density of Alderaan in equal to that of the Earth. I did this for several reasons: (1) Both Alderaan and Earth are terrestrial and support human life, (2) Alderaan’s diameter is only 250 km shorter than the Earth’s, and (3) Alderaan does not have any major oceans, just rivers and lakes. This means that it would have less water than the earth and more dense land mass.

BWAHAHAHA

Hello World:

I have calculated the minimum energy necessary to destroy Alderaan!

Isn't it beautiful? Yes, yes, it's on a napkin. I can't help it. I'm a nerd. The specifics to come later.

DEATH STAR!

So today I went to the Physics Book Club meeting. Whenever you get a group of nerds together in a room, someone's brain is bound to blow. Haha. In our case, it was mine. After an hour long discussion about space, time, and the concept of spinning while completely isolated... among other things... we moved on to trying to calculate the amount of energy the Death Star needed to destroy Alderaan. Yes my friends, geeks are that dedicated. I'm currently working on calculating it, so I'll post it when I figure it out.

Check Your Facts First...

I recently stumbled upon a website that's compiles written exchanges that get a little out of hand... to say the least. A lot of them are down right hilarious!

I found one that holds a valuable lesson for scientists (and pretty much any one who has a field they specialize in). Read this letter.

The moral of the story is: don't be too proud to admit you're wrong! You'll only look foolish! And you may be unfortunate enough to get it put on the internet! This is an especially important message for teachers!

If you liked that one, then you'll love this one. It's totally unrelated to physics, but it had me rolling on the floor laughing!

Approved TV Shows

So, I just returned to my home in Michigan. And that means I can watch TV again (we were too poor to afford it in Washington, haha). That means that I was reminded of all of the awesome shows that I watch that are physics phanatic phriendly (OH the alliteration and creative use of 'ph'!). So here's a list and a short description of what all you physics phans should watch, even if you're still warming up to physics!

• The Big Bang Theory (CBS) - This sitcom is on Mondays at 9:30PM EST (Season 3 Premiere September 21!). It's about 2 physicists, Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, who live across the hall from the lovely Penny, an aspiring actress in Pasadena, California. The show has lots of geek areas: various areas of physics, math, comics, video games, computers/technology, and much, much more! It's great for nerds and non-nerds alike since the social awkwardness of these physics nerds creates plenty of comedic situations.
• MythBusters (Discovery Channel) - This science based show is on Wednesdays (as well as various other times for re-runs). The MythBusters, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, test myths to see how true they are. More often than not, science creeps in you might actually learn something! Fun for geeks and non-geeks, the duo offer great comic relief and make the show great fun!
• Time Warp (Discovery Channel) - This is another science show on Discovery, Wednesdays at 8:00 PM EST to be exact. Basically, the hosts, fellow physicist Jeff Lieberman and camera guy Matt Kearney, do crazy stuff and record it in slow motion. They then look at the tape and see how everything works frame-by-frame! It's awesome! Everyone will love this show!
  
• Eureka (SyFy) - Formerly SciFi (don't even get me started on how dumb the name change is), the SyFy channel is continuing it's series, Eureka on Fridays nights at 9:00 PM EST. This show is about a top secret town that has the world's top scientists working on the latest advances in science and technology. This show has a little bit of something for everyone: some sci-fi futuristic stuff, some science, some humor! The show has nerd moments for those nerds among us, but always explains what it meant (in plain English) for the other viewers.
• Numb3rs (CBS) - This action show is on Fridays at 10:00PM EST. Granted, the nerd on the show is actually a mathematician (we'll forgive him), the show offers a great balance of high action FBI drama and nerdy solutions to satisfy everyone! The show focuses on two brothers, Don Eppes, an FBI agent, and his younger brother, Charlie, a brilliant mathematician. Together they solve crimes in an unconventional way that will make your head spin!

I hope that you tune in and watch some of my physics phanatic approved shows! ENJOY!

The Art of Physics

I really want to start doing a collection of drawings and photographs that illustrate the world from a physicist’s perspective. I’ve been inspired by several comics that float around the internet. My idea is to show physics terms in picture form. For example, a picture of people with bubbles around them to illustrate reference frames. I don’t know, I want to bring physics into my photography hobby.

Suggested Reading

I recently found a book that it basically amazing! I started reading it while on a 4 hour flight and could not put it down. In fact, the first time I did put it down was to sleep... that's how good this book it. Anyway, the book is called Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel by Michio Kaku. Alright, the title is long, but isn't it awesome?! First of all, Michio Kaku is an accomplished theoretical physicist. He's written several books and appeared on the History Channel for the series, The Universe. I love the way he explains topics that are so complex in a way that can inspire intrigue in anyone, even those who are fearful of physics. This book looks into technologies that have generally been dismissed as impossible. It's inspired by Star Trek, Star Wars, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings, and that's only in the first 2 chapters! Kaku looks at technologies that are central in the futuristic societies portrayed in these mainstream movies and classifies them in three classes of impossibilities. Not only does he claim most of these are not prevented by the laws of physics, he even goes so far as to suggest ways in which they could be achieved in the near and distant future. It's a great read for those on all levels of physics knowledge, even if you've never even taken a class! I would recommend it to anyone who love science or science fiction!

If you want to know more about Michio Kaku, visit his website:
http://mkaku.org/

To order Physics of the Impossible:
http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Impossible-Scientific-Exploration-Teleportation/dp/0307278824/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240616727&sr=8-1

Inside Jokes

Perhaps the best part of belonging to a group of people is the inside jokes. The field of physics is no different. I often find myself making jokes with the other physics students at Grand Valley and catch myself telling jokes to my friends and family who will not get the inside joke. I so enjoy this past (and present) time that I decided to share my fun with anyone who might read this blog. I was bored tonight while waiting for some friends to finish a programming assignment, I began to look up funny physics jokes. I started on Facebook by searching Flair and actually found a few good results including a red flair that said, "If this button in blue, you're going too fast." This joke refers to red and blue shifts in light, a sort of Doppler Effect/Shift that occurs with variances in the relative speeds of light emitting objects. I continued by Googling physics comics and found some about Schrodinger's Cat and one really funny one about being a physics undergrad (see link below). I also Googled physics jokes and found a great page that had several physics jokes and the explanations so that you can actually tell them to your friends and wow them with your knowledge of physics. I've put the link below. I hope that this brightens your day and brings you one step closer to fully appreciating the awesomeness that is physics!

Here's the Physics Undergrad comic:
http://www.brightlywound.com/comic/wallpaper01-800x600.jpg

Here's the Physics Joke page:
http://jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/jokes/physicsjokes.html

And seeing as how I told a joke about the Doppler Shift, here's a page for anyone who might want to know more about red and blue shifts:
http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/doppler.htm