Semester Project

Part 1: Star Identification

The photo below is of the centaurus/southern cross region of the milky way. This is not visible in our sky as our latitude on the Earth is too far north. These are starfields seen generally in the southern hemisphere and some of the tropical latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Centaurus is a large constellation in terms of the area it covers. The easiest markers in this constellation are the two brightest stars, alpha and beta centauri. These are the two brightest stars in the photo and are located just under the center of the photo. Alpha Centauri is yellow and Beta Centauri is blue. Alpha Centauri is the nearest star system to our own. Were we living in the Alpha Centauri system, looking back towards the Sun, the Sun would look much like Alpha Centauri does from here. If you draw a line from Alpha Centauri through Beta Centauri and move, from Beta Centauri about 2.5 times the Alpha Centaure/Beta Centauri distance you will see a bright red star. That bright red star is one of the stars of the Southern Cross. Pick 5 of the stars in the photograph below. Label each of these stars on the photo. Then tell me the following things about each star: 1) Its name 2) Distance from Earth in light years (a light year is how far light can travel through the vacuum of space moving at 670 million miles per hour for a year. By everyday standards a light year is an enormous distance) 3) When the light from the star now visible in the skies of Earth actually left the star (if a star is 10 light years away its light now visible in the skies of Earth left that star 10 years ago in 2002) 4) Its size compared to the Sun (you can do the comparison using the stars radius to the Suns radius or the stars volume to the Suns volume) 5) The stars luminosity compared to the Sun (luminosity is a measure of brightness)

The constellation of the Southern Cross contains five stars: Gacrux, Becrux, Alpha Crucis (1&2), Delta Cru, And Epsilon Cru. Name Distance in Light When the Light Years from Left the Star Earth 1.496108 km 8 min 19 s at light speed Gacrux/ Gamma Cru Beta Crucis/ Becrux/ Mimosa Alpha Crucis-1 (A) Alpha Crucis-2 (B) Delta Cru 280 LY 88 LY 2013 8 min 19 s ago 1925 88 years ago 1733 280 years ago 321 LY 1692 321 years ago 360 LY 1653 360 years ago Epsilon Cru 228 LY 1785 228 years ago 32.9 Solar Radius 330 Solar Luminosity (A) 14.0 Solar Radius (B) 10.0 Solar Radius 8.0 Solar Radius (A) 25,000 Solar Luminosity (B) 1600 Solar Luminosity 10,000 Solar Luminosity 8.4 Solar Radius 34,000 Solar Luminosity 113 Solar Radius 1,500 Solar Luminosity Size (Compare to our Sun) 6.96342105 km Luminosity (Compare to our Sun) ~3.75 Lumens

Our Sun

Part 2: Equation Analysis:

Equation 1: E = mc2 Question 1: Find out what the things in this equation (using your book or a net search will do it) are and identify them as either variables or constants. Mass- Energy equivalence. E stands for the energy that any mass has at rest, M stands for mass, and C is the speed of light, 299,792,458 metres per second. E and M are variable, C is constant. Question 2: What is the size of c2? 299,792,458 metres per second2, or 448,900,000,000,000,000 mph, Question 3: Are mass and energy related? Answer yes or no and then provide a brief explanation of your answer based on the analysis of the equation. Yes. Where E is energy, M is mass, and C is the speed of light, energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Mass and energy could be swapped as variables. This also converts units of mass into units of energy. Question 4: Analyze the statement: if it is possible to change mass into energy a little bit of mass could produce a lot of energy. Is it true or not? Provide a brief explanation based on your analysis of the equation Yes. If we plug a random number into the equation E = mc2 and break it down, as mc2 = E, then plug in a mass of 2 kl x 448,900,000,000,000,000 mph = 8.978 x 1017 thats quite a bit or energy. Equation 2: d = gt2/2 where: d = distance an object falls when released from rest (no air resistance) g = acceleration of gravity at the Earths surface t = time the object has been falling Question 5. Which of the following statements do you agree with and why? Use the equation to support your answer (you can also refer to the learning from equations module files). a) heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects b) objects fall at the same speed (if no air resistance) and weight doesnt matter.

I agree with b) objects fall at the same speed (if no air resistance) and weight doesnt matter. Gravity is pulling equally on the 2 objects assuming they are on the same planet when they are dropped. Equation 3: v = gt where: v = velocity of a falling object if released from rest (no air resistance) g = acceleration of gravity at Earths surface t = time the object has been falling Question 6: Which of the following statements do you agree with and why? Use the equation to support your answer (you can also refer to the learning from equations module files). c) heavy objects fall faster than lighter objects d) objects fall at the same speed (if no air resistance) and weight doesnt matter. If the objects are both released at the same time, they will fall at the same rate, and the same velocity, with no air resistance. Again gravity is the constant and is pulling equally on them.

Now go online and view this link. If the link is inoperable go to google video and do a search on Galileo hammer feather experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mTsrRZEMwA

Question 7: For most of recorded history, people thought that heavy objects naturally and under all conditions fall faster than lighter objects. Why did it take us so long to realize the true state of affairs? I think that because objects of greater mass are heavier than objects of smaller mass, people think that they would fall faster simply because of their weight. The simple idea of crumpling a piece of paper to drop with a rock, might not have occurred to many people allowing the air resistance to float the open paper to the ground, landing after the rock. Or until we had a large enough vacuum to drop a hammer and a feather in, like when we went to the moon.

Question 8: The Earths gravity DOES exert a greater force on heavier objects than lighter ones (these forces are called weight). However, with no air resistance objects fall at the same speed in a given gravity field. The weight difference can be thousands of pounds to one and the objects still fall at the same speed. What physical property of mass compensates for the difference in applied forces?

Equation 4: e = 1 Tcold/Thot where: e = efficiency of energy use Tcold = the temperature of the environment surrounding the heat engine Thot = the internal operating temperature of the engine This is the equation for the efficiency of a heat engine (your car is a heat engine unless you have an electric model). An e = 1 is 100% efficiency, meaning 100% of the energy gets used to do what you want to do with no wasted, unrecoverable energy. An e = 0 is an efficiency of zero with none of the energy going to what you want to do and all of the energy being wasted or in unrecoverable forms.

The temperatures in this equation are in the Kelvin scale where the lowest temperature is 0 degrees. There are no negative temperatures in the Kelvin scale. A temperature we might encounter on Earth would be about 300 degrees Kelvin.

Question 9: Is it possible to achieve 100% efficiency, in theory, by lowering the temperature of the environment surrounding the heat engine (Tcold)? Why or why not? No. The second law of thermodynamics says that heat itself never flows from a clod object to a hot object, by lowering the surrounding air, you are wasting more efficiency in heat loss. Question 10: Is it possible, in practice, to achieve 100% efficiency by lowering the temperature of the environment surrounding the heat engine (Tcold)? Why or why not? No. there is no way of getting the temperature to that level. Question 11: Is it possible to achieve 100% efficiency, in theory, by raising the internal operating temperature of the heat engine (Thot)? Why or why not? In theory, yes. If the hea surrounding the engine was hotter than the heat wasted, then no heat would escape and all the energy would be used.

Question 12: Is it possible to achieve 100% efficiency, in practice, by raising the internal operating temperature of the heat engine (Thot)? Why or why not? No. The heat would have to be raised to a hotter temperature then the engines heat waist so that no heat would travel away from the engine. But this would be so hot that the engine would crack a block, the cooling system would fail. And it would take energy to produce that heat and waist would be created at that point. Question 13: If your car is not electric, it is a heat engine and is subject to the efficiency equation. Is it possible to build a car, using any kind of burning fuel, that is 100% efficient? Explain. No. Especially with a burning fuel driven car. The heat that is created by the actual burn of the fuel will cause wasted energy in heat loss. Unfortunately, nothing is 100% efficient. Some heat loss will always occur.

Part 3: Learning about a Law of Physics

Pick any Law or Principle of Physics in your textbook and: Newtons 3rd law of motion. 1. Give me an explanation of what it is and what it means. Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second object exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. -Hewitt 2. Give me 3 examples in the real world involving the law or principle. 1. When a rocket pushes on the gas expelled, the gas pushes on the rocket at an equal and opposite direction. 2. A hammer hits a nail, they both exert the same amount of force on each other. 3. A vase pushes on the table just as the table pushes on the vase. 4. A bat hitting a baseball.

Part 4: Explanation of Fermis Paradox and possible resolution

This involves the possible existence of alien life in the Universe. A net search should bring up some immediate information on the subject. 1. Clearly explain what this paradox involves and why it is a paradox. Fermis Paradox is basically the high probability of the existence of alien life somewhere in the universe, based on a few key points. Our sun is a young star and there are so many more stars that are quite a bit older. It is likely that there are other planets similar to earth that may support life, it is also likely that they would develop interstellar travel. By this theory, we should have either been visited already or found signs of life somewhere in the universe. Fermis question is Where is everybody? This is a paradox because it could very well be true that life exists somewhere in space, and its highly probable, but we have no scientific evidence so far that can be true. 2. List and briefly explain (like in a paragraph for each) 4 possible resolutions (reasons we havent apparently had contact with any aliens) to the paradox. Maybe they are out there and they are avoiding us due to a lack of interest. It could be quite possible that life exists and they have noticed us, but they have better things to do. They may have seen the way human life exists here on Earth and the way we have treated our planet with the landfills we dump our waste in, the number of extinct and endangered species caused by our hand, the habitats that we have overharvested. Maybe we are viewed as a danger to their existence, so theyre avoiding us. Life can be difficult to begin and can take a very long time to evolve, so were the only ones here in the universe. The earliest life on Earth that we have found to exist was at least 3.5 billion years ago. It is theorized that life needed just the right conditions to begin, such as the amino acids that needed a first jump start by lightning or some other source. Maybe those combinations just dont exist elsewhere. Or maybe they do but they are still in a Precambrian slime stage only existing as cyanobacteria. It was a bit of a process for us to get to this point, maybe they just need time to cook? They exist and are too far away to be found. They could very well be on the other side of the universe, billions of light-years away and we just havent walked far enough down our sidewalks to meet the neighbors yet. Or maybe they have something preventing them from reaching out to investigate us, being so far apart, we could simultaneously exist and just not know it yet. They are here and we are living in a zoo type setting unknowingly. Maybe they do exist, maybe they found us, and maybe theyre here on Earth raising us in a nice little zoo type setting, cultivating us or even just watching us. Maybe were the ones on the inside of the glass, and were just not looking out. Many films have taken this idea and run with it to the negative enslaved human race idea. The X-Files movie that came out several years back or the Transformers movie had this concept, while some of the human race were aware of the

control but kept the illusion going. They could be here just watching us in our busy little lives, while eating popcorn and cotton candy while holding a little red balloon and tugging on their parents shoulder saying look how silly they are daddy.