MindBlowBlog

Diamonds in Space?

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:44:35 -0700

Ever notice in storybooks how the coveted jewels are always rubies, emeralds & sapphires? Diamonds actually aren’t very rare, they just have a century of excellent marketing and market manipulations by the De Beers monopoly. Carbonados, the rarest form of black diamonds, have been shown to have a chemical spectrum that indicates they originated before the formation of the Earth; their high hydrogen content suggests they are from a star-like environment. Since this carbon is only found in Brazil & West Africa in Gondwanaland geological layers, it may have arrived via an asteroid. In fact, diamonds may be more common in space than on Earth...astronomers have found enormous nebulae with large amounts of diamond dust and even a star core made of it...

Lucy: Moon-sized diamond found in space
The biggest ever diamond has been found floating in space. The gem, estimated at close to 10 billion trillion trillion carats, is at the core of a dead star (BPM 37093) - a crystallized white dwarf.

Space Diamonds: Dime a Dozen
Irene Klotz, Discovery News

March 5, 2008 -- Scientists have devised a way to use an infrared telescope to find diamonds in space.

Happy Vernal Equinox!

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:44:20 -0700

Why is it called Equinox? It is a compound of Latin for “equal night” which, of course, implies “equal day” as well. There are only two days during a year when the day & night are equally long (a tiny bit over 12 hours)...the Vernal or Spring Equinox and the Autumnal (Fall) Equinox. Between Vernal & Autumnal, days are longer than nights. Between Autumnal & Vernal, the opposite is true, nights are longer than days. The longest day is Summer Solstice (Sol=Sun “standing still”); the longest night is Winter Solstice. Nearly every culture on Earth has or had some kind of holiday/special observance on each of these four special days.

Why does length of daylight/nighttime change? The Earth’s rotational axis is tilted quite a bit (23.5 degrees) compared to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. On the two Equinox days, the tilt angle neither away nor toward the Sun, so the amount of time half the Earth is lit up by the Sun is exactly half a day. All other days, one of Earth’s Hemispheres (North or South) is tilted up to 23.5 degrees toward or away from the Sun, resulting in longer days in one hemisphere and longer nights in the other. (see the diagram below)

How does this create the seasons? Very simple...the higher the Sun’s angle and the longer it is shining means more solar energy which means higher temperatures! That’s called summer! In the Winter time, the Sun appears much lower in the sky and stays “up” for shorter time...that means less solar energy coming in over less time which results in colder weather. In the June, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, the day is up to 16 hours long at the mid-latitudes and we experience warm, toasty Summer. At the same time, our friends in the Southern Hemisphere are tilted away from the sun with only an 8-hour day and a 16-hour night (more time to “lose”/release solar energy) and they experience the cold, cruel Winter!

Why does Equinox date & time change? Great question! The methodology/definition has changed over the centuries as astronomers increased their knowledge & measurement accuracy. There are a few different reasons like tilt wobble and precession, but mostly it has to do with the Earth’s varying speed in its orbit and the adjustments required in the Gregorian calendar most of us use. Each year, an equinox will occur about 6 hours later than in the previous year. Leap Years reset this cycle back one day. (And of course, if U read the Leap Day blog about calendars, U know that dates were all over the place!)

The Vernal Equinox is usually March 20 or 21, but it was early this year...11:44 AM UTC, March 20th), it was at 5:48 AM last year!

Happy Spring!

Happy St. Patty’s Day! Green Snakes!

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:19:51 -0700

St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland was actually a British dude who lived around 440-490 AD. The story about him ridding the island of snakes is widely known, but probably completely false since there is virtually no evidence of there ever having been any snakes in Ireland to begin with! Oh, well...a nice little legend anyway...

But it got me to thinking...are there any green snakes? Yes!

Slam Dunk Science 4 March Madness!

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 01:38:07 -0700

Well, Basketball season is over for me and I’m sad about that. I’ve been coaching youth teams at YMCA and in Cupertino Hoops for 10 years! All my teams have finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Now, it is time for March Madness! Here are some great links about the science of B-Ball!
Here are Coach Ken’s Five Best Physics/Ballistics Tips to Know for Shooting Baskets...
1: Always focus the energy from “your Toes to your Nose”! Your legs are the strongest muscles—use them! Your nose aligns your whole shot toward the basket!
2: On jump shots, always release ball just before peak of your jump where your kinetic energy is strong & steady. [release before and it will be too strong or wiggly, peak or after means you have zero or negative velocity, so your shot will be “all arm.”]
3: always shoot with medium high arc to improve the ball’s angle to the rim/plane of the basket. Lower arcs reduce probability a lot even if your aim is good. Too high an arc reduces probability off backboard & secondary bounces on the rim.
4: Always release with ONE hand! Two hands always induces a side spin (which ruins the trajectory AND the backboard/rim bounce)
5: Backspin helps to soften the bounce impact—the ball drops in ~25% more often than a no-spin and 50% more than a forward-spin ball given the same trajectory!
Physicist Teaches Basic Science Principles To Help Basketball Players Make Their Shots Every Time
Basketball players looking to rule the court may need more than just skill and endurance to be a top player. A good dribble, some fancy footwork ... It might look good on the court, but when it comes to playing the game, getting the ball through the hoop is what basketball is all about. But it'’s not that easy for every player. Now, physicist and former college ball player, John Fontanella, teaches a few basic principles of science to help players make the basket every time!

Universal Pi (π) Day

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:59:09 -0700

Some people have started to celebrate this as π Day in honor of the mystical, wonderful, transcendental, irrational # which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it’s diameter. It also happens to be Albert Einstein’s Birthday! Fitting, isn’t it? Arguably the world’s greatest mathematician/scientist was born on 3•14 of 1879. It would have been better if he was born in 1592 or in 1915...either would be a better approximation of the value of π = 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510............................... [or U can use 22/7ths for most purposes]

So today, enjoy some pie, but before you eat it...
1. make sure U slice the diameter and a radius
2. measure them, then compare to the circumference.
3. Don’t eat until U get a value at least out to 3.14.
4. U may commence eating at either 1:59 or 3:14:15 AM or PM.
5. Don’t mess it up! Its as easy as Pie! A piece of cake!
6. If U don’t follow these instructions, U will have 3.141592 years of bad luck and a pie in the face ;-)