The Nitrogen Cycle

We all know that Nitrogen constitutes approximately 70% of Earths atmosphere.

Did you know that it's very important in our everyday lives and a key part of proteins?

Nitrogen is an INERT gas so fundamentally it's unreactive and not necessarily a danger to us.

However, without it, our way of life would cease to be.

I'm going to start with how Nitrogen gets from the atmosphere to the ground/surface. Lightning has the ability to COMBINE Nitrogen and Oxygen to make weak nitrous acid which can fall to the ground as ACID RAIN.

Bacteria! Are found anywhere and everywhere! When the Nitrous acid hits the ground it forms NITRITES in the soil. BACTERIA convert the Nitrites into nitrates.The bacteria in question is known as NITROGEN-FIXING BACTERIA.

Planets can only take in Nitrogen in liquid-form and absorb it through their roots. Hence why it must be a nitrate.

DENITRIFYING BACTERIA also exist and they do the opposite to the NITRIFYING BACTERIA. They convert Nitrates to Nitrogen which is then released back into the air. These bacteria are largely the sole way that Nitrogen is restored to the atmosphere. We owe them quite a lot as they MAINTAIN the atmospheric balance that helps us sustain are way of life.

Other important aspects of the NITROGEN CYCLE are that once the nitrates are in the PLANT, the plant may be eaten and digested by an ANIMAL which could see the NITRATES return to the soil/ground either via faeces from the animal or the animals tragic demise. If it's faeces or the dead animal then DECOMPOSERS will break them down and this RELEASES Nitrogen compounds.

Now Nitrifying bacteria will convert the Nitrogen compounds into NITRATES or the Denitrifying bacteria will convert the compounds to NITRITES. Quite the battle. The cycle is perfectly balanced as the amount of Nitrogen in our atmosphere does not alter. REMEMBER! You CANNOT DESTROY AN ATOM! X

Thanks, Adam King :-) X

Here's a pic to summarise my text:

 

Special Relativity

The results that flow from the principles of special relativity are remarkable. Using thought experiments, Einstein showed that the speed of light is the same in all frames of reference, that means anywhere in the Universe.
The measures of space and time in one reference frame must be transformed to those in another reference frame. These transformations show us that when an object moves at a high speed relative to an observer, the observer sees LESS of its length - this is know as LORENTZ CONTRACTION. Also, TIME for such an object appears to run more slowly - an effect called TIME DILATION.

TIME DILATION:

Special relativity predicts that an Earthbound observer sees time slow down on board a spacecraft travelling at close to the speed of light relative to EARTH. At 90% of light-speed, the passage of TIME is halved - a clock on the spaceship advances only 10 minutes while more than 20 minutes pass on EARTH. This effect is symmetrical and can be reversed. This is because there is no absolute frame of reference. It's impossible to see everything as it is, when it is/was.

So measurements of time and space vary between moving reference frames. Einstein also showed that an object gains mass when its energy increases and loses it when its energy decreases. This ultimately led him to realise that mass and energy have an equivalence, which he expressed in his infamous equation E=MC2.

Space and Time

We all share some common-sense notions about the world. One is that a second in London is a second in Melbourne - time passes at the same rate for everyone. Another is that the length of a rigid object such as a car, does not change. The truth is that space and time are not absolute but they stretch and warp depending in relative viewpoint. What is more, the presence of matter distorts BOTH space and time. If Earth wasn't where it is then there would be no GRAVITATIONAL PULL present. Look at it this way, SPACE IS A GIANT BLANKET AND STARS AND PLANETS "dent" this blanket when present, this "dent" is their gravitational influence on space and time.

It does MATTER!!

Everything around you - your phone/computer/body, even the air you're breathing - it's all MATTER. Matter is the word for ATOMS whether it be a single Hydrogen atom or a huge POLYMER - this is a vast collection of atoms that are BONDED together by the ELECTROMAGNETIC force. In fact, you, me and evryone else are all POLYMERS as our bodies are BONDED together by the ELECTROMAGNETIC force.

Matter is the ATOM!

from Hydrogen:






















To Uranium:










Both atoms are from opposite ends of the PERIODIC TABLE - Hydrogen:1, Uranium:92. The number is a refernce as to how many PROTONS the atom has.

Every single piece of MATTER anywhere in the entire Universe is made of the SAME 92 types of MATTER. Some ATOMS are more common than others E.G you won't find some of them in the human body but as far as we know, these ELEMENTS have laws to abide by such as BONDING, MELTING POINTS, ELECTRONEGATIVITY etc. These laws are the SAME ANYWHERE in the Universe.

So the next time someone says to you "it doesn't matter! Maybe it doesn't, unless its made of ATOMS.

Thankyou.

Adam King

Much love. XX

Why does it get hot in my car?

If you've read any of my previous blogs you will now be accustomed with the knowledge that LIGHT comes in the shape of PHOTONS. PHOTONS come in different wavelengths which denotes their "type" - IE really long wavelength is a RADIO wave and really short wavelength are GAMMA waves.

Next up - how PHOTONS are ABSORBED by ELECTRONS. Electrons absorb photons then emit them. When a PHOTON is absorbed by the ELECTRON, the electron "jumps" to an atomic orbital of higher energy and then "drops" back down when it emits the PHOTON - this happens exceptionally fast.

If you've read my BLOG on GLASS you'll know why it's transparent and why PHOTONS pass straight through the GLASS.

So picture a PHOTON - a massless particle travelling from the Sun to Earth. This PHOTON is of the VISIBLE LIGHT WAVELENGTH. Now picture the PHOTON passing through the windscreen of your PARKED car. It is then absorbed by an electron in an atom of the drivers seat. The PHOTON is then emitted by the ELECTRON but it CANNOT pass back through the GLASS! WHY?

If a PHOTON gives an ELECTRON ENERGY, that means it must be CARRYING energy - PHOTONS ARE ENERGY! So if the PHOTON gives its energy to an electron who then "uses" it to move up and down then gives the energy back - PART of the energy has been USED. The PHOTON that is emitted is of a LONGER WAVELENGTH as it has "lost" energy. The PHOTON is now of the INFRA-RED category. This means that the PHOTON HAS LESS ENERGY and is not able to PENETRATE the windscreen. The PHOTON CANNOT "leave" the car and causes HEAT build-up as it is absorbed and re-emitted by atoms in the inside of the car.

This principle is the SAME for GREENHOUSES and many other similar scenarios.

Thanks.

Much love, Adam. XX

FAT = ENERGY

Yes it's true! Your body wants and need ENERGY to function - whether it be OXYGEN or CARBOHYDRATES, PROTEIN OR LIPIDS (FATS).

Your body will "borrow" calcium from parts of your body and transport it to a site where it is needed. It's all done for you and you don't have to even think about it. Your part in the process of meeting ENERGY needs is taking in food that will GIVE you energy then BURNING it off (exercising) or just generally living your life.

Most people think that FAT is bad, truth is you need some for a balnced BMI and for your body to function and be protected. There's nothing wrong with a bit of "cushioning"to protect your organs.

Here's the main point - YOUR BODY MAKES FAT. Fat is ENERGY that is STORED by your body. FAT is the only form that ENERGY can take if it is going to be stored for the LONG-TERM. Your body will have a SHORT-TERM supply and a LONG-TERM supply. It is obvious that if you TAKE IN a lot of energy 9food etc0 and don't BURN it off, your body will MAKE FAT as it is storing this energy - that is how people gain FAT to their body.

Genetics DOES have an influence as METABOLISM ans natural MASS/WEIGHT are hereditary to an extent.

Next time you see/meet a person that you may observe as having a bit of excess FAT (I'm sorry if that isn't PC), you can instead think to yourself - WOW this person has lots of STORED ENERGY.

Adam King XX

Some relevant temperatures

Here is a short list of temperatures that are applicable to our Earth, Solar System and Universe (in Celsius)

6000: Surface of the Sun
2861: Iron boils
1538: Iron melts
230: Paper catches fire
100: Water boils
58: Hottest weather on Earth
0: Water freezes
-39: Mercury freezes
-89: Coldest weather on Earth
-196: Air becomes liquid
-219: Air freezes
-270: Outer space
-273: Absolute zero

Absolute zero:
This is the lowest temperature possible, atoms have no kinetic energy and stop moving. It's impossible to get to -273 but you can get close. Very strange things happen within a millionth of a degree of absolute zero. Atoms lose their individuality and slide into each other, forming a single atom-sized "blob" - this is referred to as a state of matter known as "Bose-Einstein condensate".

Dark Energy and Dark Matter

Something must be out there amongst the blackness of space? Something must be making the Universe expand?

Current composition of the Universe:

Dark Energy : 70%
Dark Matter : 25%
Free Hydrogen and Helium : 4%
Stars : 0.5%
Neutrinos : 0.3%
Heavy Elements : 0.03%

Here's a pic to help:


You'll probably notice that these %'s don't add up to 100%. However, I fully trust this reliable source and this is the FACT.

THE BIG BANG

Not quite the big bang - more like the BIG EXPANSION.

If all the numerical aspects of this seem a bit much, then PLEASE READ the end of this blog as I will summarise everything, thanks.

The theory about the origin of the Universe has been debated and debated over and over again. Today we have a team of scientists plugging away at the LHC in Geneva, trying to find particles such as the HIGGS BOSON that will establish how our Universe went from a SINGULARITY to all that you see around you.

The Big Bang was not an explosion of space but an EXPANSION of spac, which happened everywhere. Quite possibly a slight imperfection within the singularity would cause this expansion, kind of like order out of disorder.

The Big Bang is split into eras which are more like time scales, periods in which change was occurring. I think it only idealistic to begin with the beginning!

The Planck Era: 10^-43 seconds



No-one as of yet truly knows what could have happened during this period.
Max Planck was a very renowned physicist, his surname is attached to many types of measurement, in fact usually it's attached to the shortest possible distance/time/length. It is often referred to as the "smallest possible amount worth measuring".

The Inflation Era: -10^-35 seconds - a hundred-billionth of a second! 
Diameter of Universe:

10^‑26 m

Temperature: 1,000 trillion trillion °C

It is believed that at the end of this period, GRAVITY split from the other forces of nature, followed by the STRONG nuclear force. It is widely accepted that this event triggered INFLATION - a short but rapid expansion. If INFLATION did occur, it helps to explain why the Universe seems so smooth and flat. During inflation, a fantastic amount of mass-energy came into existence, in tandem with an equal but negative amount of gravitational energy. By the end of inflation, matter had begun to appear.

The Quark Era: 10^-32 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 10m
Temperature:1,000 trillion trillion °C

Sometimes called the elctroweak era, this period saw vast numbers of quark and antiquark pairs forming from energy and then annihilating back to energy. Gluons and other more exotic particles appeared.


Separation of the electroweak force: 10  seconds 
Diameter of Universe:1 billion km/620 million miles  
Temperature: 1,000 trillion °C


Near the end of the quark era, the electroweak force separated into the elctromagnetic force and the weak interaction. From then on, the forces of nature and physical laws were as they are now experienced.


Hadron Era: 10^-6 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 60 billion miles
Temperture: 10 trillion °C

Around the beginning of this era, quarks and antiquarks began combining to form particles called hadrons. These included baryons (protons and neutrons), antibaryons and mesons.

Lepton Era: 10^-3 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 600 billion miles
Temperature: 1,000 billion °C

Leptons are - electrons, neutrinos and their antiparticles. The Leptons were very numerous. By the end of this period, the electrons annihilated with positrons (antielectrons).

Nucleosynthesis Era: 1 second
Diamter of Universe: 5.88 trillion miles/10 light-years
Temperature: 10 billion °C

Neutrons gradually converted into protons as the Universe cooled and slowed down. However, when there was about one neutron for every seven protons, most remaining neutrons combined with protons to make Helium nuclei, each with 2 protons and 2 neutrons.

Opaque Era: 200 seconds
Diameter of Universe: 6,000 light-years/
Temperature: 100 million °C

During this relatively lengthy era, the ocean of matter particles (comprising mainly protons, electrons and helium nuclei) were in a continual state of interaction with photons (radiant energy), this would make the then Universe appear "foggy".

Balance of Elements:
This is the 2nd part of the opaque era. Here, many more free photons existed than helium nuclei, or other atomic nuclei. The scene was set for the first atoms to form. When they did, about 9 Hydrogen atoms were made for each Helium atom. A few Lithium and Deuterium (heavy Hydrogen) atoms also formed.


Matter Era: 300,000 years - present day
Diameter of Universe: 100 million light-years
Temperature: 2,700 °C

At the start of our present era, photons were free to travel through the Universe. Most electrons were bound to atoms until the first stars formed and gave us the PLASMA state of matter and NUCLEAR FUSION - the building of the heavier elements.

Trends of the timeline:

• The Universe is getting bigger at each phase and is STILL expanding today
• The Universe is getting cooler at each phase and MAY still be cooling today
• TIME is the fourth-dimension and there is no stopping it - often referred to as the "Arrow of Time" - it has take a very long time for the Universe to get to where we are today (13.75 billion years!).

Evidence for the Big Bang:

If you look at everything in the Universe, all the matter is moving away from each other. So surely, you could rewind and bring everything back together. Light is the biggest indication of an expanding Universe - we call that REDSHIFT - I'll BLOG about that soon. A cool easy way to show Redshift and the idea that if something is moving away from you, the wavelength of visible light that it emits gets longer is this: get a balloon that isn't inflated, draw a wavelength on it, any will do. Now inflate the balloon, as it INFLATES the WAVELENGTH gets longer.

Hard to believe that everything you can see is from the something the size of a Proton eh? I find it hard to believe too but it seems the only feasible possibility.

The temperature was so high in the beginning that quarks were able to be formed into protons and neutrons, which is great to understand as it makes sense that protons and neutrons are no longer "made" anywhere in the universe. Plus the fact that an Atom is 99.99999% empty space means that every atom could be so tightly packed together.

A random fact to put in here is that the entire human race could fit inside the volume of a sugar cube if it were possible to compact atoms.

The Big Crunch:

What happens when all the stars have burnt their fuel and there's no more Hydrogen to be used? The Universe will become cold, dark and lifeless.......

I personally think that Gravity will step in because as long as there is matter, Gravity will have a say in what happens next. Although Gravity is weak it has an INFINITE range and that gives it the edge. I think Gravity will overcome anything and bring every atom back to the beginning. Remember Gravity is all about attraction of masses, the more mass Gravity brings together, the greater the Gravity of that mass. Think of it as the snowball effect. Once it starts, it will be difficult to stop. Then maybe the Universe will start again?!

Thanks.

Much love, Adam XX :-)

The Periodic Table and its trends

THE PERIODIC TABLE:

Can't touch this!?

What if I told you that you've never touched anything before and you never will?!. You'd probably think that I'm mad, yes.

An atom is so small and so empty. An atom is 99.9999% empty space. So then why don't two atoms pass through each other? If they're empty space it should be easy? Right?

My hand should pass through my other hand or the pen I hold. No!

The ELECTRONS in every atom are NEGATIVELY charged, meaning they REPEL each other. In fact the closest one electron can get to the other is a distance of 10^-8 cm!! This means that the electrons in your feet and being repelled by the electrons of the Earths surface! That's why you don't slide through the Earth like a knife through butter. The point is you can't touch anything due to the repulsion of electrons. Be thankful, without electron repulsion nothing would "be" stable.

Thanks. :-) XX

This isn't to scale but it will convey what I'm talking about:

 

I drew this image in PAINT - sorry if the quality is lacking but you get the jist of what I'm talking about. X

Can you feel the heat?!

Wouldn't it be great if you owned a telescope that was so powerful you could zoom right in to look at atoms and molecules. You would be able to see the atoms and molecules "jiggling" about. This "jiggling" motion of the atoms is HEAT. If you rub your hands together, they got warm. Keep rubbing them and they get even hotter. That's is because the rubbing motion EXCITES the atoms in your hands, causing electrons to "jump" to a higher energy orbital, only to fall back down and release a PHOTON! PHOTONS are HEAT as well as LIGHT. The heat released by you is INFRA-RED - and that's why you can't SEE it.

Temperature is fundamentally just a measure of how FAST the atoms are JIGGLING.

Types of Atomic Bonding

1. Covalent
2. Ionic
3. Metallic

Magnets?

The electrons that whizz around ATOMS don't just create electricity. They are responsible for the mysterious force of MAGNETISM.

Whenever an electron moves, it creates a magnetic field around it just like the field around a bar magnet. Every atom has electrons, so therefore every atom is magnetic. Or is it?

Normally the atomic magnets in objects I.E a table are jumbled up and have no arrangement, this means that the magnetic fields cancel each other out - there is NO NORTH and SOUTH magnetic poles. However, in some materials, such as IRON, the magnetic fields of atoms can line up together. Then the whole piece of IRON acts as a single magnet.

Magnets are surrounded by something called a FIELD OF FORCE. It's INVISIBLE! But you can see it by scattering iron filings on a piece of paper and placing a magnet on top. The iron filings jiggle about until they spread themselves as EVENLY as possible within the magnetic field. They particularly cluster around the NORTH and SOUTH poles, where the magnetic force is the most strongest.

Why is Earth magnetic?

Earth is a giant magnet and our planet has a liquid outer-core that is largely composed of IRON. However, the IRON in our outer-core CAN'T be magnetic as iron LOOSES its magnetic abilities at 760 degrees Celsius and our inner-core is roughly 5,000 degrees Celsius! One possibility, and I personally think this IS reason, is that our Earths magnetic field is generated by the swirling electric currents within the outer-core which are in-turn caused by our planets rotation about its axis.

Biology - Cellular Respiration

Biology - Body Systems

1. Circulatory
2. Skeletal
3. Muscular
4. Nervous
5. Immune
6. Lymphatic

Answers to common questions about the Universe and the world we live in.

Why is the sky blue?
Why is grass green?

I'll keep updating this blog over time, expect answers of 2-3 sentences to questions that may have crossed your mind many times before. Thanks, Adam King. X

The sky is blue due to the interaction of photons that have travelled the 8 minutes to the Earth from the Sun. They are being absorbed by the Oxygen in our atmosphere, however, the BLUE photons are being re-emitted/reflected and that is why the sky is blue.

You can take this fact and apply it to anything with colour!! If something is red, it is emitting/reflecting RED photons.

Grass/plants are GREEN because they use red and blue photons as energy for photosynthesis but reflect GREEN - this is probably due to the GREEN photons being of no use to them. I think they are spectacularly clever and GREEN is a nice colour - on a plant of course :-D. X

THE SUN IS WHITE! Yes, its true! It only appears yellow because we are observing it through our atmosphere. If you were to somehow view the Sun in a vacuum - it would be white. Why is it white? Well, visible light that has been "split" by a prism shows all the colours of the rainbow but if you use another prism the light essentially comes back together and when this happens - it is WHITE. All the colours of the rainbow together are WHITE. You look at the night sky when it's clear and you see many many stars and they are white. The Sun is a star and it's white too!! X

Why are Sunsets' RED? Well, if you've read the answer above as to why the sky is blue then this will make perfect sense. As the Sun sets on the horizon it appears to get lower in the sky because of the Earths spin and we are heading for night-time where we are on Earth at that time. Due to the Sun being lower on the horizon, the photons (light) will pass through more of the Earths atmosphere and encounter other gases such as pollution and perhaps water vapour. This results in the scattering of RED light predominantly, hints of orange are there too. So basically its all about YOUR position on the Earth and fundamentally, what is YOUR SUNSET is someone elses SUNRISE. X

Why are stars and planets spherical-shaped?
Gravity is the cause. Gravity is responsible for "building" every galaxy, star, planet, asteroid  and comet. If I gave you a bunch of rocks and instructed you to "squash" them all together at the same time or told you that you had to make these rocks as small and compact as possible, you would proceed to wrap your hands around them and squeeze. You would form a sphere with your hands as you crushed the rocks. Gravity forms rocks into spheres because it is the only shape in which MASS can be evenly distributed. Think about it for a second.........you wouldn't see a square planet or a pentagon planet would you? It would have edges and be uneven. MASS is evenly distributed throughout a sphere and therefore it is BALANCED. If something is BALANCED it is in a suitable state. Stars are born due to gravity forcing atoms of Hydrogen together yet the resulting nuclear fusion causes outward pressure that is almost equal to the crunching of GRAVITY. The star is BALANCED. The Earth is actually referred to as an OBLATE SPHEROID - it isn't perfectly spherical - it BULGES at THE EQUATOR.

Answers to questions.

Leave me a scientific question which I'll endeavour to answer. Write your question in my comments section and I'll answer it here and quote your name, thanks, Adam :-) Much love. X

The four fundamental forces of the Universe

Another blog I'm gonna adore!!

Yes, four fundamental forces are responsible for making the Universe what it is and these forces are enabling YOU to READ this right now.

Here they are (strongest =1, weakest=4):

1.Strong nuclear force
2. Electromagnetic force
3. Weak nuclear force
4. Gravity

Gravity is the weakest and the weakest by far - planet Earth is pulling everything around you down towards it, got a pen? Pick it up!! Gravity isn't so strong is it! However, the Suns gravity keeps Earth in orbit around it so it must be formidable! What if I told you that Gravity is both the creator and the destroyer? If Gravity is all about attraction, then why doesn't everything just come together instead of spread apart all over the Universe? The answer - it's too weak to overcome the other forces - atleast for now.

Here is aquick break-down of the strength differences. I've given Gravity no rating but instead the numbers reflect how much stronger the other forces are compared to gravity. the number in brackets is how many zeros after 10 there are.

1.Strong nuclear force 10(-38)
2. Electromagnetic force 10(-36)
3. Weak nuclear force 10(-25)
4. Gravity

Let's begin with the strong nuclear force - this is CRUCIAL and without it - no other force would exist. If you've read my post on the ATOM then you will know that the atomic nucleus contains protons and neutrons. Well the reason that they are BOUND together in the nucleus is due to the STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE. The strong nuclear force binds together the QUARKS inside the protons and neutrons (remember NUCLEAR FUSION) Each of the forces has a MESSENGER PARTICLE which basically represents the presence of the force, it is also known as a MEDIATOR (think MEDIUM - in-between). the MESSENGER for the strong nuclear force is the GLUON (easy to remember as GLUE).

Here's a pic:









This is a PROTON! You can see that the "wavey lines" are the GLUONS.

There is a second part to the STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE which I wanted to write about and that is the RESIDUAL STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE - the strength is the same but the MESSENGER PARTICLE is not. The messenger particle is the PION and the PION is responsible for binding the PROTONS and NEUTRONS together inside the ATOMIC NUCLEUS. This force stops the protons and neutrons from pulling apart from each other. PIONS are generated when the protons and neutrons try to move apart.

LASTLY, what is very important to understand is the RANGE of the force and by this I mean what is the distance at which this force can work. How close of a RANGE does the force need to work and can the RANGE be vast. The atomic nucleus and the distance between the QUARKS is majorly small (the diameter of a proton is 10^-15 m and the the distance between a proton and a neutron is the SAME. The strong nuclear force only works at a very very very small range.




THE ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE:

This force is responsible for HOLDING the ELECTRONS within the SHELLS surrounding the ATOMIC NUCLEUS. It attracts the NEGATIVELY charged electronstowards the POSITIVELY charged nucleus. The particle that MEDIATES the force is the PHOTON - the lovely particle that is MASSLESS (it weighs NOTHING) and gives us LIGHT. PHOTONS can be absorbed and emitted by electrons. The range of the ELCTROMAGNETIC FORCE is INFINITE! Yes,there is no limit as to which this force can work.This is down to the MASSLESS of the photon. Example: a photon can leave the Sun and travel 93 million miles to Earth and be absorbed by you then re-emitted by you and absorbed by an atom of the wall of your living-room.

I could say lots of other things about the electromagnetic force! It's what holds atoms together into molecules or crystals. It holds molecules together into cells, and holds cells together into people or plants or pasta. It keeps two solid objects, such as you and the chair you're sitting on, from passing through each other, and so on!


THE WEAK NUCLEAR FORCE:

To be continued later today!

The Electromagnetic spectrum!!!

I'm proper looking forward to blogging about this!!!!!!! How Yorkshire am I!!!

Here's a quick fact:

Human beings can see only wavelengths between 400-700 nm.

A nm is a nanometre and in length it's interpreted as one-billionth of a metre.

700nm - red light.
400nm - blue light.

Stay tuned, I've got work this morning.

Comets and Asteroids

Differences;

Comets are made of water-ice - hence the tail that forms (this is like a mini cloud) and always points away from the Sun because it's the Suns heat that generates the tail - its cooking the comet.

Asteroids are made of rock - in my opinion, all the rocky planets are all massive asteroids that coalesced (accredted) into planets. The Asteroid belt is fundamentally a "failed planet" - it didn't all coalesce, probably due to Jupiters HUGE gravitational pull stopping it happening.

Comets brought all the water that you see to earth, they are made of water and the continuous heating from the planet - yes it used to be hot millions of years ago - and the Sun - melted the comets - giving us water - which is sutained by our atmosphere.

I will delve into the separate classes to make you aware of the variety of these space-dwelling beauties.

To be continued...........

Newton's laws of motion

You will have heard these before in School no doubt, here they are.

1. An object in motion will stay in motion, an object will likewise remain at rest (still) unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

2. The greater the mass of an object the more energy needed/required to move the object in a given direction.

3. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

So here are explanations of the laws using scenarios.

1. If you let go of something that is moving, such as a shopping trolley (or anything with wheels), it will keep moving in a given direction before it hits something or looses momentum. This law is all about INERTIA. Inertia is the ability to resist change, as in practically every object around you has INERTIA, moving or not. A way for me to describe INERTIA is if you were in a moving car with your seat-belt on and the car suddenly stopped, you would move slightly forward. You do this because you HAVE INERTIA, which has effectively being given by the moving car. The seat-belt saves you and halts your momentum. FRICTION generally halts the movement of everyday things I.E it stops the car mentioned (BRAKES).

2. It's much easier to make something lightweight move than something super-heavy. Sound obvious?? Think of a bicycle and a lorry or a car. "Acceleration" means speeding up and that's what happens if you push something in a direction or drive/ride a vehicle. The harder you push or the more you put your foot down, the greater the acceleration. The less weight (bicycle) will accelerate quicker and easier. In physics, acceleration means ANY CHANGE from being still to moving, whether your getting up of the settee or running 100m. So if you are driving a car and you brake to slow down, the force of FRICTION gives you NEGATIVE ACCELERATION (you decelerate).

3. When a rocket pushes burninggas out of its engine, the gas pushes back on the rocket and lifts it into space. Forces can also be labelled as "actions" and always work in pairs. If one object pushes another then that object pushes back with the same force - the forces are equal. The effects may not be however as if you were to throw a tennis ball, the ball pushes back on your hand but the ball can travel a good distance. If you push down on the ground with your feet and the ground pushes back and flings you up into the air - you jump. The force from your feet also moves Earth! but not enough to notice!!

Kepler's laws of planetary motion

There are 3 laws:

1. Every planet orbits around the Sun in an elliptical orbit.
2. This concerns the speed of a planet around its orbit, and notes that an imaginary line between the planet and the Sun would sweep out the same area in the same given area.
3. The square of the time a planet takes to go round its orbit is proportional to the cube of the orbits semi-major axis (half the diameter of the planet's orbit).

The first law is relatively easy to convey, we all know that planets orbit the Sun and they effectively "circulate" it, better known as an orbit!!
What is important to understand is that a planet I.E Earth, has 2 key points in its orbit, these are known as the Aphelion and Perihelion.

Aphelion: Furthest from the Sun.

Perihelion: Closest to the Sun.

This effectively means that our orbit is not perfectly spherical and you're probably wondering why do we have these 2 key points??

Gravity pulls things together and in actual fact it wants to combine the Earth and the Sun and if it could it would, but it can't. Why?

The Earth is travelling at too high a velocity (velocity=speed in a given direction).

You may have heard the word FALLING mentioned when people talk about gravity.

Here's a pic to show the orbit:







You can see the 2 key points clearly marked. The Earth is bound to this orbit because of the gravitational pull of our Sun. The word FALLING may be easier to understand if I rotated the pic with the aphelion at the top, I'm not doing that as it would be illogical.

The Earth is travelling at a velocity around the sun which stops it being drawn in, however the gravitational pull of the Sun, results in this orbit. So the Aphelion is the point that Earth gets to when the Sun says "you're going nowhere" and pulls it back. The Perihelion is the point at which the Earth says "you can't have me".

A point to mention here is that the Earths velocity increases the closer it gets to the Sun - that is it is FALLING and everything increases its velocity as it falls. This doesn't mean it spins faster, it means it moves through space at a higher velocity.

You can see from the pic that our Moon has an elliptical orbit too!

Perigee: nearest

Apogee: furthest

Thats the first law.

Here's the second:





Sometimes labelled the law of "equal areas", the main principle to note here is that a planet will be travelling at its fastest when it's closer to the Sun and at it's slowest when it is furthest from the Sun. However, if I was somehow able to draw an imaginary line from the centre of Earth to the centre of the Sun, the line would be equal length at equal times.

Have a look at this picture:





You can see that although the triangles' sides are different, the actual area of each is the same. Please note that there are 12 Earths shown to reflect our 12 calendar months respectively.
The last part to note about the second law is that the short base of the triangles are a reflection that Earth is travelling slower (its further away from the Sun!). Therefore the longer base of the other triangles is a reflection that the Earth is travelling faster (it has travelled further over the course of the month).


Third law!

This is all about comparing the orbits of each planet in our solar system.

Probably a good idea to put this here:










AND THIS:

 

The important factor to establish here is that the closer the planet is to the Sun in general - I.E Mercury is the nearest planet, the faster/quicker its orbit of the Sun. This may seem obvious because it has the shortest distance to travel when compared to the other 7 planets. However, the time taken to orbit the Sun is due to the Sun itself, remember the point that the closer a planet gets to the sun, the more it accelerates. Well, Mercury is accelerating faster than all the other planets because it's the closest.

Here's an everyday example: you have an ice-skater on a rink who is spinning round and round with her arms out in front of her. In order to increase the speed of her spin, she PULLS her arms inwards to her body, the closer together she is - the faster she'll spin.

Planet	Period (s)	Average Dist. (m)	T2/R3 (s2/m3)
Earth	3.156 x 107 s	1.4957 x 1011	2.977 x 10-19
Mars	5.93 x 107 s	2.278 x 1011	2.975 x 10-19

You may wonder why I've put this table here, well it's because mathematics is an important part of the third law. I shan't go too in-depth. The main point is that:

The comparison being made is that the ratio of the squares of the periods to the cubes of their average distances from the sun is the same for every one of the planets.

Planet	Period (yr)	Ave. Dist. (au)	T2/R3 (yr2/au3)
Mercury	0.241	0.39	0.98
Venus	.615	0.72	1.01
Earth	1.00	1.00	1.00
Mars	1.88	1.52	1.01
Jupiter	11.8	5.20	0.99
Saturn	29.5	9.54	1.00
Uranus	84.0	19.18	1.00
Neptune	165	30.06	1.00
Pluto	248	39.44	1.00

The last column is the most important here. You can see that amazingly, each planet has the same T²/R^3.


No matter how long their "year" (orbit) is or how far away they are from the Sun. Kepler was able to devise a calculation that showed that every planets' orbit is the same.

The third law is also known as the LAW OF HARMONIES because every planet is in harmony with each other.

I hope you've enjoyed reading.

Much love, Adam XX.