"Je
n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là"
"Sir, I had no need for that Hypothesis"
Pierre Simon Laplace
allegedly (love this word- makes no commitment if he said or not) to Napoleon.
What was he talking to
Napoleon about? - you will know if you read this post!
CHON - Carbon Hydrogen
Oxygen and Nitrogen pretty much makes up a large part of humans and other
species - Organic Chemistry and add to that the other elements you get
inorganic chemistry
When Chemistry combines
and starts living ,multiplying and starts consuming earth's resource then we
enter the world of Biology.
These
creatures(including Humans) think about creation, walking, talking and you
enter 'Physics'.
We assume that we are
the only creatures who think about world and future. We don't include 8.5
million species including cows, tigers, mosquitoes, bacteria and all species we
share this earth with.
“Einstein may teach you
how to bend space and time, but only Newton will get you to Mars!” - A classic
student fighting between Newton and Einstein.
Do you care if Einstein
is better or Newton is better?
Einstein got an element
named after him in periodic table
Element 99 Einsteinium,
Es, discovered in 1952,the only element ever named after a living
scientist.
No element has been
named even today for Newton!!! Sir Issac Newton also never won Nobel Prize.
Do you know why?
Cos Nobel who made a lot
of money by inventing dynamite made lots of money and he came to earth 100
years after Newton to the earth!
Read my post on
Mystery behind Chemistry at Link to learn about periodic table and elements named people.
#112 Copernicum, Cn, is
named for Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. and Uranium which is
element
Uranus - the planet is
represented in the periodic table uranium which is element 92.
These two elements are
part of the story below on physics
Before we discuss physics
let's stay with chemistry and its interaction with Physics.
When My son was very
young - we went to a circus . We saw people jump high and low. Many
animals were missing and there was a small group of animal rights fellows
outside who protested the Barnum and bailey circus in Austin . Lion , Elephant
,Monkeys,cats and dogs. The only species that was taken for a ride and was not
protected were the humans. They were swinging bar to bar and rope to rope. I
explained to my son about gravity and how what goes up must come down and
sometimes what goes up comes down even without its will!.
The next due to his
carelessness he fell in the staircase and he shouted 'Daddy,Gravity is pulling
me down!'
I always like talking
about Physics and learning from kids, Just
because Kids can teach and we can learn.
It doesn't work the
other way around – adults can’t teach so kids can learn.
Go to facebook and find
any photo tagged with your name and view the picture . Where does your eye go
first? Your picture of all pictures in that group?
The world is not what it
is but what we look for.
If you stop an adult off
the street and ask what is the lowest particle each element is made up of, you
might get answers like protons, electrons and neutrons.
Really. This theory on
quantum physics is true – if this was still 1980.
With protons, electrons,
neutrons as the basis quantum physics couldn’t have leaped to where it is
today(Who cares?, we do- and we will learn about it in later blogs once I read
more about them).
There are quarks, 3
Quarks forming 1 electron. 3 Quarks forming 1 neutron and there is also
neutrino.
What is neutrino? -
break an neutron and we expect a proton and an electron and natures gives us
proton,electron and a neutrino.
It is really intriguing
– empty space in space and empty space inside atoms .
Atoms – means
indivisible and we have already divided that into electrons protons all the way
to neutrino. Now there is string theory, wave theory, particle theory which
keeps dividing these little fellows while we keep looking up to the stars and
talk about galaxies and their expansion.
We see the move away from us – the galaxies. Where are they going? Why is the
universe expanding? If we are in the milky way galaxy where is our sun? If you
can imagine a spiral we are in the end of the spiral. More like a suburban area
away from a downtown. So what is in downtown milky way ? - Empty!
These come up Steven
Hawkins and Neil Degress Tyson . Amazing scientist – who love to think in
complex terms and explain in simple terms.
Physics – deals with
questions outside and inside space – empty space and every particle along the
way.
Now to Copernicus - This man who understood their our senses fool
us – was able to clarify that our earth is not the center. The Center is sun!.
This view is called
Helio-centric view. This other view is
called geocentric view - where earth is
the center.
The scientist who could
figure this out had to observe the planets and sun. See them move back and
forth and not around us. Conclude that we are not the center. Propose a theory
and follow up with data on sun is the center. Now before Copernicus could say
this – he can be doubly sure that the Church and other entities who don’t like
this non earth centric view will prosecute and kill him. So – he waited until
dead bed ,proclaimed earth is not the center and died!
This way – he could be a
voice of truth and not be killed(how could you kill a man in his death bed?). Such was the plight
of physicist.
We have astro physics,
meta physics and quantum physics all other weird named physics trying to
explain matter ,antimatter ,space, atom and every conceivable complex subject –
so we can understand ,answer and ask more questions. Once we reach a point of
understanding , in physics – another scientist will disprove and provide more.
In Math, once proved always proved. In Physics that is not the case – labs
,real world experiment and mind are three tools that could be used for
understanding.
So Copernicus gets his
space in chemistry books and periodic table as element number 112.
Now to Uranium’s
namesake Uranus.
Newtonian physics is an
universal phenomenon. Newton as I
understand was not waiting for a falling apple. He had a problem to solve
looking at the sky!
Why is the moon attached
to earth? Why is the earth attached to Sun and going in circles ? Why are the
planets revolving around sun?
So – this attachment and
circular motion (perceived as circular motion but actual elliptical – again our
senses fool us) .
Think about it – we
don’t see earth move , we don’t feel
earth move- we have no clue about what is out there in space. With satellites
we are now able to view from the outside in (zoom out and zoom in) and we see a
new view . Hubble telescope named after Hubble has provided so many pictures
now - which has given us various views
of the universe around us.
So while newton was
thinking about moon – an apple could have fallen on his head,hand,body,shoulder
or near him which made him think what is the basis of this movement. Gravity
was the answer but this is not just Gravity. This is called Universal Gravity .
The theory of universal gravity is applicable to all parts of the universe-
atleast so they thought. The calculations held good for all planets and clearly
explained the different orbits and positions for Venus,Earth,Mars,Jupiter.
A scientist who found
Uranus couldn’t fit these calculations for Uranus and so he was sad(we don’t
know – but why should the scientist always be curious!). Thus it was reasoned
that we need another planet to explain this theory – Neptune. Spot 1 planet and
get another planet for free!
We ended up now with
Neptune and Uranus.
This – Newtonian gravity
is true everywhere. Is it?
When it came to Mercury
no one could explain its path. Again for few years it was theorized that there
was another planet called Volcan (named after Volcano ). The scientist agreed
that there might have been an asteroid which was misclassified as this planet
and stepped back from that theory.
Here is where our Hero
steps in – Einstein.
Einstein gravity is all
about time and space. eqGravity instead of being 2 objects attracting each
other he theorized that it is more like the spiral interwoven platform surface
– the surface being gravity and what is under the surface is where these
objects are pulling each other in space.
More like your bed and
what is on the bed and not what is under the bed.
This theory helped
solved the mystery for not just Mercury but even remote galaxies.
More on Einstein on next
blog.
Einstein prove E=mc2.
Darwin’s theory and his book “On the Origin of
Species” focused on why God may have not created humans directly as written in
bible but as chimps and all lower level species which evolved into Humans.
Michael Faraday
a poor book binder proved that energy is conserved – in line with God’s
wish. Electromagnetic theory and breakthroughs proved world has a fixed energy
going from one form to another. Open a door – your energy is transferred to
kinetic and sound energy (if your door is not well oiled!). Gun powder and corn
the energy stored will be released as Mass and Energy can also become mass!
Take a spring/rubber band. Weight it.
Now stretch it and weight it.
It will weigh more and this additional weight is
due to conversation of energy from your hand. The amount of weight will be using speed of
light *(times) Speed of light.
Can you imagine? If you can imagine and
understand this concept – then you understand a part of theory of special
relativity for which Einstein got a Nobel prize.
That leave us with Nobel – the man who has an
element named after him called Element 102.He invented Dynamite among 355 other
patents. With lots of wealth that he had amazed before he died he endowed 94%
of his wealth. Do you know that he owned a company called Bofors?
Yes for Indians familiar with Bofors scandal
this is a company which was owned by Alfred Nobel himself and you guessed it
right – he was Swedish.
After his death his money was used to establish
Nobel foundation to give prizes to best in
1. Medicine
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Literature
5. Peace
6. Economics
There is no Nobel Prize for Math!! Did you know
that?
Google and find out why!!
Keep Learning
Sivakumar Manikanteswaran
, where 
are integer coefficients and the reduced fraction 
is a rational zero, then p is a factor of the constant term 
and q is a factor of the leading coefficient 
.
