Relativity for Earth People is an app for everyone who wants to gain an intuitive understanding of Einstein's theory of special relativity but doesn't have the time or patience to work through the math.
A reminder, in case you missed it ... I'm starting a newsletter!
My intent is to share (occasionally) news & views on developments in the world, the solar system, & the Universe ... focusing on the big #science-related issues of the day, and how our world has gotten to this point & where it might be headed.
If that sounds like fun, subscribe here and join the already 6100+ who took the leap!
He is best known as the co-inventor of the detector component of the Geiger counter and for the Geiger–Marsden experiment which discovered the atomic nucleus. He was the brother of meteorologist and climatologist Rudolf Geiger. via @wikipedia
Einstein liked inventing phrases such as "God does not play dice," "The Lord is subtle but not malicious." On one occasion Bohr answered, "Einstein, stop telling God what to do."
Photograph by Paul Ehrenfest, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Ehrenfest Collection.
#OTD in 1905. Albert Einstein completes his doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich.
Titled "Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen", he calculated the size of sugar molecules in solution and from this a value for the Avogadro constant. It is related to his work on Brownian motion, published in the same year, and supported the atomic hypothesis, which was still controversial among leading physicists at the time.
A spherical shell-like structure 1 billion light-years in diameter named Ho’oleilana is discovered in the distribution of relatively nearby galaxies. We posit this is the 1st observation of an individual Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO).
Happy birthday to Marie Skłodowska Curie, who was born on this day in 1867!
She is best known as the discoverer of the radioactive elements polonium and radium and as the 1st person to win 2 Nobel prizes. For scientists & the public, her radium was a key to a basic change in our understanding of matter and energy. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science but also ushered in a new era in medical research & treatment. via @aip
Researching the physics of sandcastles and I have just found a paper (https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00549) that says you can use hydrophobic sand to make sandcastles underwater, because the roles of water and air are reversed and the air makes bridges that hold the whole thing together. The picture is from that paper. Has anyone tried this? I’m pretty sure I’ve got some hydrophobic sand which I’ll dig out later, but I’m trying not to be too distracted now. #sand#physics#sandcastles
He was a Nobel Prize-winning who developed fundamental results in quantum theory. In particular, he is recognized for postulating the Schrödinger equation, an equation that provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time.
He wrote many works on various aspects of physics, philosophy and theoretical biology and philosophical aspects of science. via @wikipedia
French chemist & physicist Irène Joliot-Curie died #OTD in 1956.
In 1935, Irène and her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie succeeded in creating radioactive isotopes by bombarding various elements with alpha particles, a discovery that earned them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Their work laid the foundation for further research into nuclear physics & chemistry, including the development of nuclear energy and its applications in medicine, industry, and scientific research.
One of the things I found very frustrating about professional physics magazines 15-20 years ago (all my degrees are in physics) was that they were so po-faced about “proper” physics (only quantum mechanics and cosmology counted) and really looked down on anything messy in the real world. I made a physics career out of studying the mess. And then look at this, seaweed on the cover of Physics Today, because they’ve finally discovered how interesting messy things are. #ocean#science#physics
Hallo! I’m trying to get a bit more social interaction in my life, so here I am writing an #introduction post on #Mastodon. :moogle_peek:
I’m Jaden (though I go by different names in different circles :bulbasaur_confused:). I have a silly potato (@nuz) and a silly sausage (#sillyDoggy). I’m fairly socially awkward, a bit #autistic and very #ADHD. :ms_neurodiversity: Sometimes I say very little and sometimes I say a whole heck of a lot, depending on the topic. I’ll probably be posting random facts or videos that I find particularly cool/amusing~ :cat_wow:
I love science (and have a PhD in #physics, but was it really worth it? :frog_think:) and maker videos that try to bring comic books and fiction to life (shoutout to #Hacksmith and #JLazerVideos, amazing folks)! I also really love technology (in particular, I really like #LTT / #LinusTechTips, although I know he can be a bit problematic :shiba_hide:).
I'm also an avid video gamer! :gaming_love: I play a lot of #RPG, #Survival, and #Automation games. Some of the ones that I've really enjoyed and/or played recently are:
Feel free to say hello, boost, follow, or any combo of the above! I'd love to make new friends on here, but I feel awkward a lot, so I might just end up favoriting your posts if I can't figure out what to say :panda_derp: (but I appreciate you nonetheless! :blob_heart:)
German physicist Albert Einstein was born #OTD in 1879.
Best known for developing the theory of relativity, he also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect, which contributed significantly to the foundation of quantum theory. He was also a prominent public figure & advocate for pacifism, civil rights, and social justice.
Physicist Peter Higgs has died. He theorized the subatomic particle that gives mass to matter. One of the great joys of my career was waking up at 3am on July 4, 2012, to report on the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson.
Happy birthday to #astrophysicist Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (1900-1979), trailblazer for women in #astronomy who discovered that hydrogen and helium are the most common elements in the universe.
Born England, she won a scholarship to Newnham College Cambridge in 1919 where she heard a lecture which changed her life. She wrote, “My world had been so shaken that I experienced something very like a nervous breakdown.” 🧵
Johannes de Sacrobosco ("John of Hollywood") published detailed geometric descriptions of a solar eclipse in the year 1230. People in the "dark ages" were not so dumb!
I dig through 5000 years of eclipse investigations in my latest Invisible Universe column:
In 1715, Edmund Halley (of comet fame) was able to predict the timing of the next solar eclipse with an accuracy of 4 minutes! He also produced the first illustrated eclipse forecast.
That's what is possible once you understand the nature of orbits and have a working theory of gravity...