Science 101 (and sometimes 201) - Page 4

**MSFixR** · 07-18-2008, 06:10 PM

I don't see why not sense the trigger was in the scent of female mouse urine.

**Jocasta** · 07-19-2008, 02:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSFixR

I hear frog legs taste like chicken.

True. You haven't had them?

**MSFixR** · 07-19-2008, 07:52 AM

No, I generally eat a bit higher on the food chain.

**Jocasta** · 07-19-2008, 08:21 AM

I can't say that's ever a consideration for me. So why not go straight to the top?

**MSFixR** · 07-19-2008, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jocasta

I can't say that's ever a consideration for me. So why not go straight to the top?

You and Hannibal Lecter, eh, Jo?

**Jocasta** · 07-19-2008, 08:53 AM

I'm not the one who ranks their food by where it was (when alive) in the food chain... I like snails too.

**MSFixR** · 07-19-2008, 10:10 AM

I like snails also, with a little garlic butter, but we should return to basics. Only eat what you can catch and what doesn't eat you first. So snails would qualify but where's the sport?

**Jocasta** · 07-19-2008, 10:44 AM

How about sea snails?
I'm not sure the sporting fun involved should be that important, I like beef but cow catching doesn't strike me as very taxing.

**Plastic Flute** · 07-19-2008, 11:02 AM

Cow tipping. Now thats what I call a real spectator sport.

Jim Halpert · 07-19-2008, 01:48 PM

One of these days the cows are going to get even, and it won't be pretty.

**Plastic Flute** · 07-19-2008, 01:50 PM

Mad Cow Disease = Epic Failure

**andrew r** · 07-20-2008, 02:51 PM

Which is BSC = Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. It's Mad Cow disease in humans. Not pleasent.

I can't say I've had any exoctic meat. Well I had a bit of shark when I was a kid.

**MSFixR** · 07-21-2008, 11:11 AM

The Big Bang

The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the universe that is best supported by all lines of scientific evidence and observation. The essential idea is that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past and continues to expand to this day. Georges Lemaître proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe, although he called it his 'hypothesis of the primeval atom'. The framework for the model relies on Albert Einstein's General Relativity as formulated by Alexander Friedmann. After Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 that the distances to far away galaxies were generally proportional to their redshifts, this observation was taken to indicate that all very distant galaxies and clusters have an apparent velocity directly away from our vantage point. The farther away, the higher the apparent velocity. If the distance between galaxy clusters is increasing today, everything must have been closer together in the past. This idea has been considered in detail back in time to extreme densities and temperatures, and large particle accelerators have been built to experiment on and test such conditions, resulting in significant confirmation of the theory. But these accelerators can only probe so far into such high energy regimes. Without any evidence associated with the earliest instant of the expansion, the Big Bang theory cannot and does not provide any explanation for such an initial condition. The theory accurately explains the general evolution of the universe since that instant.
A major success of the theory is its ability to account for the comparative abundance of the elements we find around us, which if you look beyond Earth is mostly hydrogen and helium. The observed abundances of the light elements throughout the cosmos closely match the calculated predictions for the formation of these elements from nuclear processes in the rapidly expanding and cooling first minutes of the universe, as logically and quantitatively detailed according to Big Bang nucleosynthesis and well described in Steven Weinberg's classic The First Three Minutes.
The term 'Big Bang' was apparently first coined by Fred Hoyle in a derisory statement seeking to belittle the credibility of the theory that he did not believe to be true. Ironically, Hoyle helped considerably in the effort to figure out the nuclear pathway for building certain heavier elements from lighter ones. At any rate, after the discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1964, and especially when its collective frequencies sketched out a blackbody curve, most scientists were fairly convinced by the evidence that some Big Bang scenario must have occurred.

According to the Big Bang model, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand today. A common and useful analogy explains that space itself is expanding, carrying galaxies with it, like raisins in a rising loaf of bread. General relativistic cosmologies, however, do not actually ascribe any 'physicality' to space.

For more Information, see Wikipedia

Hubble Deep Field

**andrew r** · 07-22-2008, 01:51 PM

I liked the Family Guy explanation.

Seriously, thanks for this MSFixR. Do you think there's a possibility of a 'Big Crunch'? Or will the universe just keep on expanding? Also how do we know what we're expanding into, looks like?

**MSFixR** · 07-22-2008, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrew r

I liked the Family Guy explanation.

Seriously, thanks for this MSFixR. Do you think there's a possibility of a 'Big Crunch'? Or will the universe just keep on expanding? Also how do we know what we're expanding into, looks like?

I'm not familiar with the Family Guy so I cannot comment on that.

The consensus right now is that the expansion of the universe will continue to slow down but not stop, ie., no big crunch. Eventually, billions and billions of year from now, each gravitationally bound galaxy will be isolated from each other and entropy will increase to the point where no organized form of energy could be extracted from it. This scenario is known as heat death.

The universe is not expanding into anything. This is a frequent misconception. Space itself is expanding carrying all matter, light and dark, and all energy with it. Think of the balloon analogy. Nothing outside of the balloon exists but as the balloon fills with gas it expands. If we make marks on the balloon which represent galaxies, the galaxies move further and further apart as the balloon expands. Actually this is an imperfect analogy since the marks will grow larger as the balloon inflates. Gravitationally bound objects such as galaxies do not grow larger as space expands, it is the distance between them that is increasing.

**Plastic Flute** · 07-22-2008, 02:26 PM

Heathen. GOD made the world.

**andrew r** · 07-23-2008, 01:59 PM

So this heat death you speak of, would this then cause galaxies to be cooler than they are now?

**MSFixR** · 07-23-2008, 02:13 PM

This "Heat Death" means that there would be no thermodynamic free energy left to support any type of motion. No motion = no collisions of atomic particles = no radiation of any kind - heat, light, etc. Everything would be stone-cold dead. Entropy would be maximized. See Heat Death

07-21-2008, 11:11 AM	#73 (permalink)
MSFixR Science Boy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dante's Inferno, Circle 4 Posts: 9,590 My Profile	The Big Bang The Big Bang The Big Bang is the cosmological model of the universe that is best supported by all lines of scientific evidence and observation. The essential idea is that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past and continues to expand to this day. Georges Lemaître proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory of the origin of the Universe, although he called it his 'hypothesis of the primeval atom'. The framework for the model relies on Albert Einstein's General Relativity as formulated by Alexander Friedmann. After Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 that the distances to far away galaxies were generally proportional to their redshifts, this observation was taken to indicate that all very distant galaxies and clusters have an apparent velocity directly away from our vantage point. The farther away, the higher the apparent velocity. If the distance between galaxy clusters is increasing today, everything must have been closer together in the past. This idea has been considered in detail back in time to extreme densities and temperatures, and large particle accelerators have been built to experiment on and test such conditions, resulting in significant confirmation of the theory. But these accelerators can only probe so far into such high energy regimes. Without any evidence associated with the earliest instant of the expansion, the Big Bang theory cannot and does not provide any explanation for such an initial condition. The theory accurately explains the general evolution of the universe since that instant. A major success of the theory is its ability to account for the comparative abundance of the elements we find around us, which if you look beyond Earth is mostly hydrogen and helium. The observed abundances of the light elements throughout the cosmos closely match the calculated predictions for the formation of these elements from nuclear processes in the rapidly expanding and cooling first minutes of the universe, as logically and quantitatively detailed according to Big Bang nucleosynthesis and well described in Steven Weinberg's classic The First Three Minutes. The term 'Big Bang' was apparently first coined by Fred Hoyle in a derisory statement seeking to belittle the credibility of the theory that he did not believe to be true. Ironically, Hoyle helped considerably in the effort to figure out the nuclear pathway for building certain heavier elements from lighter ones. At any rate, after the discovery of the cosmic microwave background in 1964, and especially when its collective frequencies sketched out a blackbody curve, most scientists were fairly convinced by the evidence that some Big Bang scenario must have occurred. According to the Big Bang model, the universe expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand today. A common and useful analogy explains that space itself is expanding, carrying galaxies with it, like raisins in a rising loaf of bread. General relativistic cosmologies, however, do not actually ascribe any 'physicality' to space. For more Information, see Wikipedia Hubble Deep Field Last edited by MSFixR : 07-21-2008 at 02:20 PM. Reason: Added Video

07-23-2008, 02:13 PM	#78 (permalink)
MSFixR Science Boy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dante's Inferno, Circle 4 Posts: 9,590 My Profile	This "Heat Death" means that there would be no thermodynamic free energy left to support any type of motion. No motion = no collisions of atomic particles = no radiation of any kind - heat, light, etc. Everything would be stone-cold dead. Entropy would be maximized. See Heat Death Last edited by MSFixR : 07-23-2008 at 02:15 PM.

07-18-2008, 06:10 PM	#61 (permalink)
MSFixR Science Boy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dante's Inferno, Circle 4 Posts: 9,590 My Profile	I don't see why not sense the trigger was in the scent of female mouse urine.

07-19-2008, 07:52 AM	#63 (permalink)
MSFixR Science Boy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dante's Inferno, Circle 4 Posts: 9,590 My Profile	No, I generally eat a bit higher on the food chain.

07-19-2008, 08:21 AM	#64 (permalink)
Jocasta Love Charlie Babbitt Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Shaftesbury Avenue Posts: 18,617 My Profile	I can't say that's ever a consideration for me. So why not go straight to the top?

07-19-2008, 08:53 AM	#66 (permalink)
Jocasta Love Charlie Babbitt Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Shaftesbury Avenue Posts: 18,617 My Profile	I'm not the one who ranks their food by where it was (when alive) in the food chain... I like snails too.

07-19-2008, 10:10 AM	#67 (permalink)
MSFixR Science Boy Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Dante's Inferno, Circle 4 Posts: 9,590 My Profile	I like snails also, with a little garlic butter, but we should return to basics. Only eat what you can catch and what doesn't eat you first. So snails would qualify but where's the sport?

07-19-2008, 10:44 AM	#68 (permalink)
Jocasta Love Charlie Babbitt Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Shaftesbury Avenue Posts: 18,617 My Profile	How about sea snails? I'm not sure the sporting fun involved should be that important, I like beef but cow catching doesn't strike me as very taxing.

07-19-2008, 11:02 AM	#69 (permalink)
Plastic Flute ICHiBAN HoOT Join Date: May 2006 Location: New Jersey Posts: 13,843 My Profile	Cow tipping. Now thats what I call a real spectator sport.

07-19-2008, 01:48 PM	#70 (permalink)
Jim Halpert Asistnt. Regional Manager Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Scranton, PA Posts: 248 My Profile	One of these days the cows are going to get even, and it won't be pretty.

07-19-2008, 01:50 PM	#71 (permalink)
Plastic Flute ICHiBAN HoOT Join Date: May 2006 Location: New Jersey Posts: 13,843 My Profile	Mad Cow Disease = Epic Failure

07-20-2008, 02:51 PM	#72 (permalink)
andrew r Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: England Posts: 31,548 My Profile	Which is BSC = Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. It's Mad Cow disease in humans. Not pleasent. I can't say I've had any exoctic meat. Well I had a bit of shark when I was a kid.

07-22-2008, 01:51 PM	#74 (permalink)
andrew r Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: England Posts: 31,548 My Profile	I liked the Family Guy explanation. Seriously, thanks for this MSFixR. Do you think there's a possibility of a 'Big Crunch'? Or will the universe just keep on expanding? Also how do we know what we're expanding into, looks like?

07-22-2008, 02:26 PM	#76 (permalink)
Plastic Flute ICHiBAN HoOT Join Date: May 2006 Location: New Jersey Posts: 13,843 My Profile	Heathen. GOD made the world.

07-23-2008, 01:59 PM	#77 (permalink)
andrew r Moderator Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: England Posts: 31,548 My Profile	So this heat death you speak of, would this then cause galaxies to be cooler than they are now?

07-25-2008, 02:56 PM	#79 (permalink)
andrew r Moderator