Showing posts with label space. Show all posts
Showing posts with label space. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Space.

As someone who loves physics, I am surprised that I have so much of Physics to learn and pick up. I was googling on 'space' - and then I just read the Wikipedia page. =)

Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of the boundless four-dimensional continuum known as spacetime. In mathematics one examines 'spaces' with different numbers of dimensions and with different underlying structures. The concept of space is considered to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe although disagreement continues between philosophers over whether it is itself an entity, a relationship between entities, or part of a conceptual framework.

The father of mathematics and physics, Isaac Newton took space to be more than relations between material objects and based his position on observation and experimentation. He used the example of water in a spinning bucket to demonstrate his argument. Water in a bucket is hung from a rope and set to spin, starts with a flat surface. After a while, as the bucket continues to spin, the surface of the water becomes concave. If the bucket's spinning is stopped then the surface of the water remains concave as it continues to spin. The concave surface is therefore apparently not the result of relative motion between the bucket and the water. Instead, Newton argued, it must be a result of non-inertial motion relative to space itself. For several centuries the bucket argument was decisive in showing that space must exist independently of matter.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Image roundup


Ministry of Magic access point.




Most popular names in Europe for newborns.




Grains of sand - - one of the many terrific magnified photographs by Gary Greenberg that are available as prints. Via.




"Easter eggs" from The Dark Knight Rises poster. Via.



Image from The Anthology Project, I believe.




There's Waldo.




Rapture wallpaper.




Solar system.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Moon light




The Moon by Nosigner (one of a kind as far as I could tell). Via.

*Previously: Tree growing in a light bulb.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Flash game lets you play golf on the moon




Golf Sector 6:
What will it be like to do ordinary things on the extraordinary alien worlds of our solar system? For instance, will we still play our favorite games? In 1971, during the Apollo 14 mission, astronaut Alan Shepard hit a few golf balls on Earth's moon, where the gravity is six times weaker than on Earth. But what if you took a swing on Hyperion, where the gravity is 500 times weaker than on Earth? How gently would you have to swing to prevent the ball from going into orbit?

GOLF SECTOR 6 is an easy-to-play, Flash-based golf game that lets you tee off on Saturn's moons. It is based on some of our most stunning images returned from the high resolution cameras onboard the Cassini spacecraft that have been processed by CICLOPS and released to the public here on this website. Each of Saturn's moons has its own weak gravity, which should keep things interesting, so be sure to take that into account when you make your swing! Just like golfing on Earth, the goal is to hit the ball into the hole -- or in this case, the crater! -- using the smallest number of swings.
It loaded instantly and ran smoothly in Chrome and was pretty fun. Via.

The Great Daylight 1972 Fireball



Wikipedia:
The Great Daylight 1972 Fireball was an Earth-grazing meteoroid which passed within 57 kilometres (35.4 miles) of the surface of the Earth at 20:29 UTC on August 10, 1972. It entered the Earth's atmosphere in daylight over Utah, United States (14:30 local time) and passed northwards leaving the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada. It was seen by many people and recorded on film and by space-borne sensors.
More at Astronomy Pic of the Day. Via.