Masses increase with
acceleration
ASK
DR.STUPID
Temp. of Black
Holes
Posted by:
Jo Black
From:
Mississippi
Question:
Wouldn`t the surface temperature
of a black
hole be zero,since no radiation can get away?
Answer:
Actually,contrary to popular
wisdom, radiation can escape from the surface of a
black hole. This effect was first described by
Stephen Hawking in 1973, helping to establish his
reputation as a brilliant theoretical physicist.
As Hawking put it,"Black holes ain`t so
black".According to quantum mechanics, the laws
that describe the realm of fundamental particals,
empty space has energy. From this energy, pairs of
virtual" particals continuosly and spontaneously
pop into existence. One partical will always be a
matter partical, while the other always be it`s
antimatter counterpart. The two particals are
destined to annihilate each other and disappear a
tiny fraction after coming into existence. This
idea might sound crazy, but it has been
experimentaly confirmed in differnt
laboratories.
When these "quantum fluctuations"
occur at the event horizon, the particles gain a
mnute ammount of energy at the expense of the
black hole. Most of the time both fall back into
the abyss. But on few occassions one of the has
just the right speed and trajectory to escape the
black holes grasp. The surviving partical carries
away some of the black holes mass making a five or
ten solar mass hole radiate a tempature of a few
millionths of a degree above absoute zero.At this
rate it would take the black hole of this size 10
to the 66th power yars to completely evaporate
Creation of heavy
elements
Posted by:
Ric R.
Posted from:
Los Angeles
Question
"If stars undegoing nuclear
fusion combine lighter elements into heavier ones
but stop at iron, why do we have elements heavier
than iron here on Earth"?
Answer:
The major fusion reactions in
stellar cores that turn hydrogen(1) into
helium(2), then helium into carbon(6),and then
oxygen(8), and in massive stars even heavier
elements such as silicon(14) int iron(26), release
energy that stabilizes the stars and keeps them
from collapsing unde their own gravity. A huge
number of other reactions which do not involve
main energy production, however, can take place as
well, those involving heavy elements absorbing
energy.When loww mass stars are in their giant
phases, free neutrons released during helium
burning can be captured leisurely by atoms heavier
than iron. The resulting element is often
unstable, and a neutron can eject an electron and
become a proton, thus increasing the elements
atomic number. Neutron capture and subsequent
radioactive decay create elements all the way up
to bismuth(83).Supernova temperatures are
suficiant to create elements all the way up to
Plutonium(94)!
Time dialation
Posted by:
Richard Cranium
From:
The Mike Hunt Institiute of
Learning
Question:
What exactly is "time
dialation"?
Answer:
Time itself can be caused to slow
or
even stop in the presence of a strong
gravitational
field or high-speed acceleration. Any object
approching
the speed of light ages more slowly. To put this
into
prospective, a near light-speed trip to the
galactic
center (30,100 light years) would take 30,102
years as
measured by Earth calenders. Shipboard calenders
would
measure only 20 years. These are proven
facts of
Einstien's special theroy of relativity.
Gravity also slows time. An example of this is the
redshifting of light as it leaves the influence of
a
dense, massive object, such as a star, neutron
star, or
black hole (infinite redshift, so it is
undetectable
and does not leave the event horizon). Since the
light's frequency of occilation is governed by the
flow
of time at the place where the light is emitted,
light
emerging from atoms on the star's surface will
have a
lower frequency when it reaches Earth than light
emitted by the same kinds of atoms in interstellar
space. The frequency will be lowered by precisely
the
same amount as the flow of time is slowed. (ex. at
the
sun's surface time flows more slowly by 2 :
1,000,000
[64 seconds in one year])
Size of
atoms
Posted by:
Jo Jim Bob Pikkin
From:
(no address)
Question:
(quoted and spelling mistakes
preserved) "I looked for them there adams in my
micrascope but I cudnt find em. Can you help me
Dr.
Stupid?"
Answer:
Atoms consist of a tenuous cloud
of
electrons roughly 0.000000008 centimeters in
diameter
(about 1/1,000,000 the diameter of the human
hair). The
massive nucleus at its core: 100,000 times smaller
than
that. If the electron shell were enlarged to the
size
of the Earth, the nucleus would fit into an area
the
size of a football field.
Hubble
Telescope
Posted by:
Burt Ward
From:
137 Robin Lane California
Question:
How long has Hubble been in
space
now, and how good does it actually see things?
Answer:
The Hubble space telescope from
the
spaceship Discovery in April, 1990. It has a 94.5
inch
(240 centimeters) mirror. It is powerful enough to
see
a small coin 450 miles away. The distance from New
York
to Detroit. It can detect light from a two-cell
flashlight over 250,000 miles away.
Whiskey in
Space?
Posted by:
"Crazy" Eddie
From:
Somewhere in the Mississippi
bayou
Question:
My wife told me I was
spaced-out on
whiskey. To get away from her nagging, I wish I
was in
space. Dr. Stupid, is there whiskey in space?
Answer:
Interstellar gas contains many
complex compounds, and alcohol is one of them. In
fact,
"Crazy", it is estimated that the gas cloud in the
Sagittarious constellation contains enough alcohol
to
fill 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
whiskey bottles. Drink up.
Mars
Meteor
Posted by:
Inez Jadu
from:
Unknown
Question:
Was it ever cofirmed that the
fossil like residue found in the Martian Meteorite
was from a living organism, or was it only a look
a
like.
Answer:
The Martian meteorite
ALH
84001 has undergone extesive testing. Here is what
we
came up with. On December 1984 in Antarctica a
U.S.
meteor expedition found a potato shaped 4inch by
3inch
4.75 pound(1.93 kilogram) meteorite that
originated on
Mars after a possible asteroid collision about
16million years ago flung it out to space finally
landing on Earth about 13,000 years ago.While
there is
no doubt the meteor is of Martian origin signs of
ancient life are not as clear cut and still being
debated today. The latest comes from The Case
Western
Reserve University in a December issue of "NATURE.
They report that the purported nanofossils or
"worm-like
images" are nothing more than famellae, or
fractured
surfaces of pyroxene and carbonate crystals. The
lamellae look like worms or nanofossils but when
viewed from a different angle it clearly shows the
lamellae
are attached to the mineral. I suspect this
argument
will go on for years which only conveys how mans
desire to seek-out other intellegent beings will
push us ever
farther along the path to infinite
wisdom.
Photon
Question
Posted by:
Cerebalx1
From:
Unknown
Question:
"Lets make an analogy lets say
we shot a cannonball straight up. It would rise
until the gravity of the Earth overtook it. Now
lets say we increase the powder charge until it is
enought to shoot the ball straight out over the
influence of the Earth's gravity. It is possible
(however unlikely) that you could shoot to a point
where it would never come down but would not
escape, it would orbit. Now lets replace the
cannonball with a photon speeding away from a
star. According to the accepted laws that govern
the speed of light, it is a constant speed. Now we
know light cannot escape from a black hole. While
our star collapses, its gravity increases, and our
photon would be affected by gravity. Wouldn't it
slow and eventually stop, and under the right
conditions stay where it was? How could it slow?
How could it stop? If it doesn't do these things,
what does it do?"
Answer:
Well, that is a very good
question, and here is the answer. The photon would
not slow down, if it is below a critical area it
would turn around and speed toward the black hole
at 186,282 miles per second (the speed of light).
If it were above the critical level at the time of
collapse, it would escape. A photon IN the layer
would still travel at the speed of light, yet not
move. This can happen due to the infinite
space-time distortion created by a black hole. The
photon would not physically move from an
observer's point of veiw, it would redshift.
Redshift is caused by a loss of energy in a
photon. It would be infinitely redshifted. At this
point it would begin to orbit the black hole in a
layer called the photosphere. The photoshpere is
composed of photons, greatly redshifted, either
were in the right place when the hole collapsed,
or struck the event horizon at the right angle.
Thank you for your question.
Masses increase
with speed
Posted by:
Martin
LandauFrom:
Moonbase
ALPHAQuestion:
I`ve heard that as a object
approches the speed of light that it`s mass
increases. If so where does the mass come
from?Answer:
Good question Commander.The
mass comes from the objects energy. Albert
Einstein`s famous equation:E=mc squared says that
mass and energy are equivalent. When you increase
an objects speed you increase it`s kinetic
energy-it`s energy of motion- so you also increase
the objects mass.
Moons
disappearance?
Posted
by:
Mike CraftonFrom:
Lakeland
Fla.Question:
If the Moon were suddenly to
disappear, how long would it take for us to fel
the impact on the tides here on Earth?
Answer:
Well Mike gravity propagates at the
speed of light.Now according to Einstein`s general
theory of relativity (which basically is a
mathmatical description of how matter, time, and
space interact), gravity is not really a force,
but actually a warp or bend in spacetime. If mass
moves, the change in the dimple it makes in space
actually propagates outward at the speed of
lght.
If the Moon were suddenly to vaporize, the dimple
in space that the moon makes would suddenly snap
flat. This effect would travel outward at the
speed of light, reaching the near side of Earh in
just over a second. It would propagate through
Earth, reaching the far side about 0.04 seconds
later. Earth itself would feel a relief and would
try to reset itself into a more spherical shape.
That effect would move through the Earth at the
speed of sound and might cause earthquakes and
tsunamis.
The tidal force on Earth from the Moon
is due to the fact that gravity gets weaker with
distance.The effect is not huge but is
substantial: the solid crust beneath or feet rises
and falls about 12 inches a day due to tidal
stretching.
How big is
your solar system?
Posted by:
Cuünta-Kintay
From:
Regulas 9, Backside Republic
Question:
My home starsystem of Regulas
is quite small compared to your own Sol
starsystem. To make a comparitive analysis of the
two systems, could you give me the size of your
solar system in layman's terms?
Answer:
Well, Cuünta, to put everything
into prospective, if the sun were the size of a
beach ball 3ft across (90 cm), then Mercury would
be the size of a peppercorn 123ft (37m) away.
Venus, the size of a pea, 231ft (70m) away. The
Earth, also the size of a pea, 321ft (98m) away.
Mars, the size of a peppercorn, 489ft (149m) away.
Jupiter, the size of an apple, 1668ft (508m) away.
Saturn, a tangerine, 3060ft (933m) away. Uranus,
the size of a ping-pong ball, 1.9mi (1.8km) away.
Finally, Pluto, a mere pinhead, 2.4mi (3.8km)
away. In respect, if the sun were only 1in (2.5cm)
across the star nearest Earth (Alpha Centauri)
would be 445 mi (716km) away. At this scale, the
farthest star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, would
be 8 million mi (13 million km) away. Better pack
lunch Cuünta.
Theory on
Oscillating Universe
Posted by:
Kevin Shaw
From:
Unknown
Question:
I beleive in this theory. A few
main problems have been overlooked in these
researches. The scientists that beleive estimate
that 10% mass is missing to complete this. Through
careful examining of these theories, I have
concluded that They overlooked the small fact that
light is energy, therefore, can have mass. If all
the light were added up, then That would leave
only 8% missing. In conclusion. The missing 8%
mass is constantly being over looked, because of
it's speed. When the big bang occured, The outer
layer of the mass, was forced to go so fast, It
exceded the speed of light, therefore, Only when
It slows down, It will re-enter our "time frame"
and in due course, will make up the 8%
missing.
So, If the "timeless" mass were to reappear at
certain points in our future, Than when all the
mass is accounted for, It would start to condense,
and start over again. Proving the oscillating
universe theory.
Answer:
Well, actually it is 90% of the
mass missing and energy does not have mass. Please
be patient, as Dr. Stupid is a busy man. Answer
pending.