Universe expansion accelerating
One of the observational foundations for the big bang model of cosmology was the observed expansion of the universe. Measurement of the expansion rate is a critical part of the study, and it has been found that the expansion rate is very nearly flat . That is, the universe is very close to the critical…
Newtons Apple Tree
In May 2015, UNL planted two Flower of Kent trees on the west side of Jorgensen Hall, home of the Physics & Astronomy Department. Landscape Services cloned the two trees from the original Flower of Kent tree granted to the university in 1991. Also called Newton’s Apple Tree, UNL s first Flower of…
Force of gravity on Earth
Gravity is one of those things we take completely for granted. And there are two things about it that we take for granted: the fact that it is always there, and the fact that it never changes. If the Earth s gravity were ever to change significantly, it would have a huge effect on nearly everything because so many things are designed around the current state of gravity. Before…
Continue ReadingWhat is the pull of gravity?
• Reading level: Young Adult • Hardcover: 208 pages • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (May 10, 2011) • Language: English • ISBN-10: • ISBN-13: 9937 Ah, at last a book with many of my favorite things all mixed up. But, what do you get when you mix troll dolls, Slinkies, John Steinbeck, and Yoda? From past experience, I can tell you some of my best laid culinary plans…
Continue ReadingLaw of gravitational pull
In my two previous posts, I explained how understanding the laws of the universe and the differences between perception and reality can help businesses to do better marketing. In this one, I take these concepts a bit further to show marketers how they can use gravity - the least understood of the four fundamental forces of nature - to improve their marketing. What is gravity?…
Continue ReadingHiggs particle
[Updated slightly, to reflect the fact that a Higgs of some type has been discovered, as announced at the LHC on July 4th, 2012.] Most of us learned in school, or from books, that all the materials around us — everything we eat, drink and breathe, all living creatures, and the very earth itself — are made from atoms. These come in about 100 types, called “the chemical elements”…
Continue ReadingGravitational force Problems
Using physics, you can calculate the gravitational force that is exerted on one object by another object. For example, given the weight of, and distance between, two objects, you can calculate how large the force of gravity is between them. Here are some practice questions that you can try. Practice questions The gravitational force between objects A and B is 4 newtons. If…
Continue ReadingTheoretical energy
Group Overview The last decades have seen exciting progress in high energy physics with the establishment of the Standard Model of the quark and lepton constituents of matter and their interactions. A unified gauge theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions received experimental confirmation through the discovery of the W and Z bosons and a host of other experiments. The…
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