Application and Closure...

Now I will magically mix together all we've learned about physics from Dr.'s Tyson and Goldsmith's Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution into this one final post, ready? Let's go.

In my very first post 3 months ago, I told of how compact the universe was at the beginning and everything there, "The universe was hot enough for photons to spontaneously convert their energy into matter-antimatter particle pairs, which immediately thereafter annihilated with each other, returning their energy back into photons" (Tyson and Goldsmith 26). The doctors go on to explain how there was an imbalance of matter over antimatter in this time. Once the early universe had expanded enough, the final pairs of matter and antimatter ceased to exist, leaving the small leftover matter alone in a sea of photons where they transformed into the very first atomic particles(Tyson and Goldsmith 26)

For those of you who think the universe is a desolate wasteland, look up

Once all 4 major forces of nature(Gravity, electromagnetic, and weak and strong nuclear forces, not gonna go into this) had been distinguished, scientist can use Einstein's theory of relativity to calculate energy, this works because of the abundant amount gamma radiation in the early universe to contain enough energy to be calculated with this equation (Tyson and Goldsmith 37).

As the universe expands, everything that once fit onto a pin head, energy, radiation, and all matter expands into the universe. This weakened the gamma radiation into non-lethal forms of electro-magnetic radiation, which is why we are still alive right now.(Tyson and Goldsmith 54)

Look at that handsome devil doing science

I hope you all found these posts informative and humorous? As it took me 4 months to understand 4 chapters enough to write posts on them, I have yet to finish this book, but am looking forward to the insights provided. (Only about 1/5 of the way in, long way to go). Thanks to all of you who put up with my odd topic and read through all of these posts. Remember to keep questioning things and not let popular opinion get the best of your ideas.

Did you find these posts informative? Please comment in the box below.




Tyson, Neil DeGrasse and Goldsmith, Donald. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. Norton & co. Inc.(USA)2005, reissued 2014. Print

Gamma Rays and their Place in Our Lives

By now, you're probably getting more and more excited about the universe right?... right? If not, bear with me as we go through another popular element of science, gamma rays. While reading through Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (First 3 chapters) by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, Gamma rays was mentioned quite a few times when researching for my previous posts.

Firstly, gamma rays are a type of radiation present in our universe, charged with many times more energy than the photons we can see as light. In my second post, Dr.'s Tyson and Goldsmith mentioned how your body'd react if exposed to this radiation. You'd get sick and die of cancer, but get a glimpse of particles freaking out in the radiation, or you'd turn into the Hulk if your lucky(Tyson and Goldsmith 37)

Above is a visual depiction of the radiation scale, gamma rays have the highest energy, frequency and shortest wavelength than any other electromagnetic radiation (Tyson and Goldsmith 306). Translation, they are capable of twisting space on an atomic level, literally shaking your existence.

To give you something to relate the magnitude of gamma rays to, this picture shows a light bulb and the radiation associated with it when turned on.

I won't say much more because I don't want to spoil my next and final post. I find it amazing how we can go on with our lives, unaware of so many cool things around us, each of us is simply bathing in millions of charge less energized particles of pure light and we hardly take time out of our day to think about it.

Gamma rays are extremely hard to come by, if you got the chance to be exposed to gamma radiation on the off chance you'd grow huge muscles when angry, would you do it? What kid of information would you like to know before signing the waiver? ^_^

Tyson, Neil DeGrasse and Goldsmith, Donald. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. Norton & co. Inc.(USA)2005, reissued 2014. Print

Antimatter and Explosions

We've now covered the situations at the beginning of the universe and the Theory of Relativity, keep in mind that this is all in the course of 2 chapters. Now Dr.'s Tyson and Goldsmith introduce us to a subject that's on everyone's minds, inter dimensional sci-fi and other stuff, "...particle physicists must contend with a parallel universe of antiparticles, collectively known as antimatter. Despite its persistent appearance in science fiction stories, antimatter is real... it does tend to annihilate upon contact with ordinary matter" (Tyson and Goldsmith 46).

The discovery of antimatter was made in 1932 when Carl David Anderson discovered the anti-electron (Tyson and Goldsmith 46), in theory, every particle has an opposite version with an opposite charge, positive or negative, and through the use of the giant particle accelerator (CERN supercollider, whatever you want to call it) in Switzerland, scientists have been able to make these antiparticles a reality. When I make enough money, that's where I'm going to go for vacation, who needs Hawaii?

The idea of using these reverse particles in our own world faces a major issue, when scientists created antimatter themselves, they started with the easiest element to create, antihydrogen, each of the 9 atoms created annihilated within the first 40 nanoseconds of creation (Tyson and Goldsmith 47), it'd help to keep this in mind if you were thinking of creating your own element any time soon. In the meantime, please enjoy this picturesque graphic of a particle meeting an antiparticle. (Please read from left to right)

Antimatter is very unstable, but when paired with its own kind, it's near impossible to tell the difference between it and normal matter... until it explodes in an enormous release of energy. Modern physics we know of dictates that everything in the universe be balanced, with this idea, where are our anti atoms? I like to question myself and stuff around me a lot and this question gets to me since I read it in Dr.'s Tyson and Goldsmith's book, if our universe is full of normal particles, where are the opposites?

Here's my own question for you, do you believe that, with the existence of antimatter, there are other dimensions where they confide? If so, how do you think we'd be able to travel there, if at all, when everything from our dimension (us included) would disintegrate upon contact with their particles?

(Does this post ruin your image of a perfect interdimensional vacation?)

Tyson, Neil DeGrasse and Goldsmith, Donald. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. Norton & co. Inc.(USA)2005, reissued 2014. Print

On the subject of a German scientists' tongue and brilliant theory

In my last post, I went over the conditions Dr.'s Tyson and Goldsmith showed were present at the beginning of the universe including the size, time, and temperature. To understand even a bit more of what happened, Tyson and Goldsmith refer us to one of the most famous equations known around the world. E=mc^2. "E = mc^2-- energy equals mass times the square of the speed of light-- gives us a supremely powerful computational tool..." (Tyson and Goldsmith 36)


What's in the top-right corner isn't part of the work

This equation was declared in 1923 in Albert Einsteins' The Principle of Relativity (which is cited in this book, I would like to point out) This equation allows us to calculate things impossible to see with the naked eye, such as radiation and photons(particles of visible light, you decide if you want to qualify it as visible or invisible). Luckily, there isn't a lot of energy in these particles of light, and we aren't compatible with the equation, Tyson and Goldsmith give a very... imaginative description of what were to happen if we were, "Start hanging around gamma-ray photons that have some real energy---at least 200,000 times more than visible photons. You'll get sick and die of cancer...As you watch, you'll also see matter-antimatter pairs of electrons collide, annihilating each other and creating gamma-ray photons...Increase by a factor of 2,000, and now you have enough energy to turn susceptible people into the Hulk."(Tyson and Goldsmith 37)


If I'm gonna give him credit, might as well include a picture of the genius himself right?

As with high school physics, the knowledge of the formula is the easy part, I commend all the physicists out there who take time out of their day to apply these formulas to our world. The idea to work deciphering the theory and equations like it sounds appealing to me. Have you ever heard of the theory of relativity before this and if so, what did you think of it?





Tyson, Neil DeGrasse and Goldsmith, Donald. Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. Norton & co. Inc.(USA)2005, reissued 2014. Print