The first thing which the Newton second law failed to foretell were distances between electron possible orbitals in an atom. The electron’s energy spectrum appeared to be discontinuous so a novel equation had to give a set of discrete solutions. … Continue reading
Look, to know the exact value of some physical quantity you have to measure it using some instruments — devices made of artificial and natural materials. In the process of measurement, the material of instruments interacts with with the object … Continue reading
Indeed, we can see stars and planets while particles of cosmic dust are only detectable since they change spectra of stars’ radiation reddening them. As light passes through interstellar cosmic dust, its particles absorb blue photons more than the … Continue reading
First of all, it was recently discovered that despite the temperature and matter density being cosmically low, chemical reactions at the surface of a dust particle can create organics that could be a cradle of life. Being glued up … Continue reading
Thanks Faraday we learned the change of magnetic flux through a conductor results in a circular current appearing in this conductor. The Lenz’s law defines such a direction of this current that magnetic field induced by the current compensates … Continue reading
Indeed, electrons undergo diffraction at a crystalline target. Therefore an electron beam hits a suitable crystal lattice, one can see on a screen an interference pattern typical for waves. The beam here is comprised of a lot of electrons … Continue reading
Electrons are tiny, so a nickel surface should reflect them at various angles since a sample of nickel consists of many randomly oriented small crystals. This is called the diffuse reflection. This is what Davisson and Germer thought in … Continue reading
What is light had always been mysterious for thinking people. Newton believed there are particles carrying light, explaining thereby why an obstacle in the light way creates a shadow on a screen. A century later, they discovered light is … Continue reading
It appears that periodical phenomena, e.g. waves are of utmost importance in nature. In practice, waves of different frequencies are superimposed so that the resulting periodical phenomenon is not of sinusoidal shape. Then, how can we deal with them … Continue reading
Perception by ear (listening) is easy for someone while for others it is difficult to understand what is said in a foreign language, even though all the words are known to the listener. He/she just does not recognize them. … Continue reading
You know, electromagnetic waves bring information from the early Universe as well as provide the information exchange between our smartphones. In physics, to mathematically describe waves, we use so called complex exponential function. Its exponent includes an imaginary unit. … Continue reading
Precision here implies repetition of measurement to minimize deviation of the average result of the measurements from the expected value of physics quantity. Such deviation is normally caused by random (stochastic) errors. Nonetheless, this average value may still appreciably … Continue reading
By the end of the 19th century, it became clear from the development of chemistry that substances are composed of atoms. Guesses about their existence arose earlier, in ancient Greek science, from the desire to give nature a coherent … Continue reading
Einstein noted the unthinkable tenacity with which Kepler sought harmony in the motion of planets, while around Kepler, on Earth, there was not even a suggestion of harmony. To begin with, he was born prematurely, then contracted smallpox yet … Continue reading
Behind the Iron Curtain, Soviet physicists worked actively and nevertheless made a number of fundamental discoveries. At first, however, they were not isolated from the world — they learned from and worked with European scientists. One of the founding … Continue reading
Nowadays, we are transmitting colossal streams of data, including cellular and Wi-Fi, using ultra-high frequency electromagnetic waves. This had began in 1820, with the discovery of Oersted and Ampere that the movement of a charge in a conductor creates … Continue reading
In the III century BC, Aristarchus of Samos had concluded that the Earth and other planets orbit around the Sun. He also guessed about the rotation of the Earth around its own axis. However, it took a millennium and … Continue reading
It started with the fact that the ancient Greek scientist Hipparchus compiled a star catalog in the century II BC. He subdivided the stars into classes according to their brightness. Then, after three centuries, Ptolemy in his scientific treatise … Continue reading
About irreversible processes… The everyday experience seems to tell us that time differs from the spatial dimensions on having a direction from the past to the future. Therefore, in the first half of the XX century, Arthur Edington has introduced … Continue reading
On the mind demons… To put things in order, as is well known, you need to do some work. In thermodynamics, this (second) law is expressed in the fact that the disorder of molecule motion in a container with gas, … Continue reading
About the aggressiveness of video Video games clearly show the current level of computer technology — their software is able to eat the most modern video hardware. Therefore, those who find pleasure in the illusory world of computer games need … Continue reading