Physics – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Dec 28
2021

Black Holes of All Shapes and Sizes in Largest Catalog of Gravitational Wave Events Ever Assembled

The largest catalog of gravitational wave events ever assembled has been released by an international collaboration that includes Penn State researchers. Gravitational waves are ripples in space time produced as aftershocks of huge astronomical events, such as the collision of two black holes. Using a global network of detectors, the research team identified 35 gravitational wave events, bringing the total number of observed events to 90 since detection efforts began in 2015.

The new gravitational wave events were observed between November 2019 and March 2020, using three international detectors: The two Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory supported by the National Science Foundation and operated by Caltech and MIT. It’s designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. It’s multi-kilometer-scale gravitational wave detectors use laser interferometry to measure the minute ripples in space-time caused by passing gravitational waves. It consists of two widely separated interferometers within the United States—one in Hanford, Washington and the other in Livingston, Louisiana.

Dec 27
2021

The Evolution of Robotics- The Story Behind and it’s Future

As robotics is growing, tech enthusiasts are looking beyond the story of the evolution of robotics and learning deeply about what is robotics. This article deals with the robotics evolution.

A magnetic field can be used to switch nanolasers on and off, shows new research from Aalto University. The physics underlying this discovery paves the way for the development of optical signals that cannot be disturbed by external disruptions, leading to unprecedented robustness in signal processing.

Dec 26
2021

2021’s Biggest Breakthroughs in Physics

It was a big year. Fermilab discovered possible evidence of new physics with the muon G-2 experiment. Physicists created a time crystal, a new phase of matter that appears to violate one of nature’s most cherished laws. And we got a glimpse of an enormous pair of bubbles towering over the Milky Way. Read the articles in full at Quanta: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-year-in-physics-20211222/

Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation.

Dec 26
2021

Tsunamis’ magnetic fields are detectable before sea level change

A new study finds the magnetic field generated by a tsunami can be detected a few minutes earlier than changes in sea level and could improve warnings of these giant waves.

Tsunamis generate magnetic fields as they move conductive seawater through the Earth’s magnetic field. Researchers previously predicted that the tsunami’s magnetic field would arrive before a change in sea level, but they lacked simultaneous measurements of magnetics and sea level that are necessary to demonstrate the phenomenon.

The new study provides real-world evidence for using tsunamis’ magnetic fields to predict the height of tsunami waves using data from two real events—a 2009 tsunami in Samoa and a 2010 tsunami in Chile—that have both sets of necessary data. The new study was published in AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, which focuses on the physics and chemistry of the solid Earth.

Dec 25
2021

New method converts bio-polyols into carbon monoxide

Syngas is an important feedstock for modern chemical industries and can be directly used as fuel. Carbon monoxide (CO) is its main component. Direct conversion of widespread renewable biomass resources into CO can help to achieve sustainable development.

Conventionally, bio-syngas is mainly produced through thermal-chemical processes such as pyrolysis, steam reforming or aqueous reforming, which require high temperature and consume a lot of energy.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. Wang Feng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with Prof. Wang Min from Dalian University of Technology, developed a new method to directly convert bio-polyols into CO.

Dec 24
2021

Time dilation

In physics and relativity, time dilation is the difference in the elapsed time as measured by two clocks. It is either due to a relative velocity between them (special relativistic “kinetic” time dilation) or to a difference in gravitational potential between their locations (general relativistic gravitational time dilation). When unspecified, “time dilation” usually refers to the effect due to velocity.

After compensating for varying signal delays due to the changing distance between an observer and a moving clock (i.e. Doppler effect), the observer will measure the moving clock as ticking slower than a clock that is at rest in the observer’s own reference frame. In addition, a clock that is close to a massive body (and which therefore is at lower gravitational potential) will record less elapsed time than a clock situated further from the said massive body (and which is at a higher gravitational potential).

These predictions of the theory of relativity have been repeatedly confirmed by experiment, and they are of practical concern, for instance in the operation of satellite navigation systems such as GPS and Galileo.^[1] Time dilation has also been the subject of science fiction works.

Dec 20
2021

Why Is December 21 The Shortest Day Of The Year?

The empirical fact of short winter days and long winter nights has been known essentially forever, and has driven enormous amounts of human activity including the construction of monuments like the passage tomb at Newgrange that I keep banging on about in previous posts about timekeeping. The correct explanation of the phenomenon has only been understood for around 400 years, dating back to Johannes Kepler’s description of the orbits of the planets.

The change in the relative length of days and nights is due to a combination of the motion of the Earth about the Sun, and the rotation of the Earth on its axis. Specifically, it happens because the Earth’s axis is tilted by about 23 degrees relative to the axis of its orbit. And because angular momentum is conserved, that axis stays pointing in the same direction through the whole orbit, in the same way that a gyroscope on a gimbal mount will remain pointed in the same direction in space as it’s moved around.

Full Story:

The bus that takes my 10-year-old to school picks him up at around 7:23 am, but he usually starts fidgeting loudly a good ten minutes before that, so he and I will go outside to wait. In recent weeks, between grumbles about particular classes or the recess monitor who won’t let him go outside in shorts and a T-shirt in 40-degree (F) weather, he’s been asking “Why is it so dark?” The answer, of course, is “astrophysics,” but with a side order of theology and politics.

This Tuesday, December 21, is the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning it’s the shortest day of the year. It’s not the earliest sunset (that was a couple of weeks ago) or the latest sunrise (that’s in early January), but it’s the day with the fewest hours between sunrise and sunset.

Continue reading “Why Is December 21 The Shortest Day Of The Year?” | >

Dec 19
2021

Note: There is a correction in this video that has been addressed in the pinned comment below.

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Category: physics – Page 208