Physical

Cosma / Communication / Knowledge / Realm / Physical

There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be, but we have done various things over intellectual history to slowly correct some of our misapprehensions. — Douglas Adams

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Introduction¹

Physics (Free Animated Education, YouTube Playlist)
Free Animated Education (Facebook)

Dictionary

Physical : (a) of or relating to physics (b) characterized or produced by the forces and operations of physics (c) having material existence : perceptible especially through the senses and subject to the laws of nature — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Realm : kingdom, sphere, domain — Merriam-Webster See also OneLook

Physical Realm : kingdom, sphere, or domain of things that have material existence and are perceptible, especially those things perceptible through the senses and subject to the laws of nature — Mary Hopper

Encyclopedia

Physical universe or “material universe” is terminology used to distinguish the physical matter of the universe from a spiritual or supernatural essence. — Wikipedia

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Adventures

Explore related posts on Cosma …

Umbraphiles Rejoice! - umbraphile : One who loves eclipses, often travelling to see them. You are probably hearing a lot about the August 12th solar eclipse. It’s path of totality will pass over the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, Iceland, Atlantic Ocean, Portugal, and northern Spain. The National Solar Observatory has created a neat eclipse map that shows the path. … Continue reading Umbraphiles Rejoice!
Umbraphiles - umbraphile : One who loves eclipses, often travelling to see them. You’ve probably heard about the April 8th solar eclipse (Wikipedia), and if you live near the path of totality, then you’ve probably also seen news stories like this one. Party in the Path of Totality at These Solar Eclipse Getaways Across New England (Kristi … Continue reading Umbraphiles
TRAPPIST-1 - You’ve probably heard that NASA has found a trove of “Earth-like” planets circling the TRAPPIST-1 system roughly 40 light years away, but just in case you haven’t, here’s a short video from NASA/JPL about the discovery. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website) Most entertainingly, here’s a 360° YouTube video … Continue reading TRAPPIST-1
Touch the Sun - Remember how Icarus wanted to touch the Sun, but met his demise instead? Well, scientists at NASA wanted to touch the Sun too, but unlike Icarus, they succeeded! Better yet, they are beginning to share what they learned by doing it! Before we get into all of that, let’s go back and start at the … Continue reading Touch the Sun
The Waves Won! - Gravitational waves that is! It has been announced that Rainer Weiss (MIT), Barry Barish (Caltech) and Kip Thorne (Caltech) have won the 2017 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for their decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the first observation of gravitational waves in 2015. Here are links to a one minute video from Newsy … Continue reading The Waves Won!
Space Rocks! - NASA engineers had quite a New Years celebration in 2019 when New Horizons successfully executed a flyby of a tiny object named 2014 MU69 while moving at 32,000 miles per hour. The planetesimal 2014 MU69 is better known by it’s nickname Ultima Thule, and it’s located way out past Pluto in a region of the … Continue reading Space Rocks!
Space Cadet Academy - Confession — I’m a major space cadet! I mean this in an older, positive sense of the word, which is that I’m a “space enthusiast.” That’s why I really get into updating the pages on Cosma having to do with space. Things got a little out of hand this time, though. I began just like … Continue reading Space Cadet Academy
Space Art & Junk - In certain circles it is not uncommon to trip across the debate “Is graffiti art?” You can also find scads about it online if you are so inclined (Google). However, the debate doesn’t come up all that often in the context of conversations about satellites or space… until now. In 2018 a company named Rocket … Continue reading Space Art & Junk
RIP Rossetta! - The “Little Mission that Could” has come to an end, but what a mission it was to watch! In honor of the success, here are some videos and articles about the many, many accomplishments. Euronews (YouTube Channel) Euronews (Official Website) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (YouTube Channel) NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Official Website) Rosetta Mission Ends … Continue reading RIP Rossetta!
Perspectives on Earth - Last week NASA released this fascinating video entitled Our Living Planet based upon 20 years of data from satellites that observe all plant life at the surface of the land and ocean. NASA Goddard (YouTube Channel) Goddard Space Flight Center (Official Website) You can find out more about the video from this article. The Changing … Continue reading Perspectives on Earth
Octopuses from Space! - Did you hear the one about the octopuses from space? It sounds like the title of a cheesy sci-fi movie, doesn’t it? But it isn’t, this time, or at least, yet. Instead, it’s actually an oddball theory that’s been put forth in a recently published “scientific” article that’s getting quite a lot of buzz in … Continue reading Octopuses from Space!
Moon+H2O=Moonbase? - One of the big science stories in the news now is that Earth’s Moon has more water than scientists expected. Here is a link to just one of the hundreds of stories flooding news feeds. The Moon Has More Water Than Originally Thought (Scripps News, YouTube) This round of stories has been inspired by this … Continue reading Moon+H2O=Moonbase?
Moon’scapes - There’s no denying that it’s been a rough week for many Earthlings. On the other hand, it’s been a great week for anyone who spends their time more preoccupied with the Moon than with more earthly concerns. That’s because there’s a treasure trove of news about our lunar realm. For example, NASA’s Goddard Media Studios … Continue reading Moon’scapes
Molecular Machines - Molecular machines have been around for a while, but these little wonders are getting the public’s attention today because a trio of scientists were just awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their progress in the area. Here’s a link to a video and other resources about this neat development. Mini Machines Win 2016 Nobel … Continue reading Molecular Machines
Milky Way Lost & Found - Have you seen the Milky Way? You may think that you have, but are you sure? Unless you live in an extremely remote area, or you’ve visited one, then you probably haven’t seen our own galaxy, the Milky Way, very well, or at all. Worse yet, you may not even realize that it’s missing. The … Continue reading Milky Way Lost & Found
Lunar Landings - Saturday, July 20th is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, and there’s a massive media blitz surrounding the occasion. Pretty much every major news outlet is covering it in some way, and it’s no surprise that NASA is leading the publicity frenzy. On Friday at 1 p.m. (EDT) NASA is broadcasting 50 … Continue reading Lunar Landings
Great Views of Earth - April 22nd is Earth Day! In honor of that, here are some great ways to see the honoree. First, you can get a nice view from this neat 360° video from Seeker. It essentially shows you what it would feel like if you could just fly straight up and see the Earth from space. Watch … Continue reading Great Views of Earth
Exoplanet Junket - This week NASA released a new project that they’ve dubbed the Exoplanet Travel Bureau. The core of the project consists of a set of interactive 360° images that show “imagined” surfaces of five exoplanets (TRAPPIST-1e, Kepler-16b, Kepler-186f, PSO J318.5-22 and HD 40307 g). Here are three articles about the experience. This Brilliant Interactive From NASA … Continue reading Exoplanet Junket
Dark, Deep & Spooky… - Today’s physics is “probably” not the kind of thing that you, or at least your parents and grandparents, learned about in school (unless you happen to be a Physicist). Even the most casual science buff knows that today it’s all about exotic stuff like dark matter (NASA), ghost particles (FermiLab) and “spooky action at a … Continue reading Dark, Deep & Spooky…
Bubblephilia - Pretty much everyone loves bubbles when they are kids, but some grown-ups elevate their passion for them to a whole ’nother level. For example, a physicist at Emory University named Justin Burton and his team made news by publishing an article in a scientific journal about the ideal recipe for blowing giant soap bubbles. Here … Continue reading Bubblephilia
Bird’s-Eye Views - Humans tend to interact with animals as if they see the world in pretty much the same way that we do. However, the more scientists study animal vision, the more they tell us that is just not the way that it is. Furthermore, what scientists know about animal vision goes way beyond the fact that … Continue reading Bird’s-Eye Views
A Golden Gift - If you’re looking for a perfect gift for your favorite geek, look no further. Now you can give them a copy of the Voyager Golden Record. Up until 2016, you couldn’t buy a copy, but then Ozma Records ran a brilliant Kickstarter campaign to issue a limited vinyl edition. Here’s a link to a video … Continue reading A Golden Gift

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Inspiration²

3 Physics Experiments that Changed the World (SciShow, YouTube Video)
The (Arguably) Most Important Instrument in Physics (SciShow, YouTube Video)

Talks about the Physical Universe (TED: Ideas Worth Spreading)
Articles about the Physical Universe (Big Think)

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Innovation

In our time, there has been unloosed a cataclysm which has swept away space, time, and matter hitherto regarded as the firmest pillars of natural science, but only to make place for a view of things of wider scope, and entailing a deeper vision. — Hermann Weyl, Space, Time, Matter

Science

Physics is the science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. Physics is one of the most fundamental scientific disciplines, with its goal being to understand how the universe behaves. — Wikipedia

Physics (Encyclopædia Britannica)
Physics Portal (Encyclopædia Britannica)

Outline of Physical Science (Wikipedia)
Outline of Physics (Wikipedia)

Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics (ScienceWorld, Wolfram Research)
Physical Effects (Wolfram Alpha)

Classical physics is a group of theories that predate more modern and complete theories. Classical physical concepts are often used when modern theories are unnecessarily complex for a particular situation. Most often classical physics refers to pre-1900 physics, while modern physics refers to post-1900 physics which incorporates elements of quantum mechanics and relativity. Classical physics is typically concerned with everyday conditions: speeds are much lower than the speed of light, sizes are much greater than that of atoms, and energies are relatively small. — Wikipedia

The matter which we suppose to be the main constituent of the universe is built out of small self-contained building-blocks, the chemical atoms. It cannot be repeated too often that the word “atom” is nowadays detached from any of the old philosophical speculations: we know precisely that the atoms with which we are dealing are in no sense the simplest conceivable components of the universe. On the contrary, a number of phenomena, especially in the area of spectroscopy, lead to the conclusion that atoms are very complicated structures. So far as modern science is concerned, we have to abandon completely the idea that by going into the realm of the small we shall reach the ultimate foundation of the universe. I believe we can abandon this idea without any regret. The universe is infinite in all directions, not only above us in the large but also below us in the small. If we start from our human scale of existence and explore the content of the universe further and further, we finally arrive, both in the large and in the small, at misty distances where first our senses and then even our concepts fail us. — Emil Wiechert

Modern physics is concerned with extreme conditions, such as high velocities that are comparable to the speed of light (special relativity), small distances comparable to the atomic radius (quantum mechanics), and very high energies (relativity). Quantum and relativistic effects are believed to exist across all scales, although these effects may be very small at human scale. Quantum mechanical effects tend to appear when dealing with “lows” (low temperatures, small distances), while relativistic effects tend to appear when dealing with “highs” (high velocities, large distances), the “middles” being classical behavior.
Very often, it is possible to find – or “retrieve” – the classical behavior from the modern description by analyzing the modern description at low speeds and large distances (by taking a limit, or by making an approximation). When doing so, the result is called the classical limit. — Wikipedia

Modern Physics (Eric Weisstein’s World of Physics, Wolfram Research)

SciShow Physics (YouTube Channel)

Entrepreneurship

Physics Campaigns (Kickstarter)

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Preservation

History

Center for History of Physics (American Institute of Physics)

The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Richard Veynman, Michael Gottlieb, and Rudolf Pfeiffer, California Institute of Technology)
Feynman’s Lectures (Walter Lewin, YouTube Playlist)
The Feynman Lectures on Physics (Wikipedia)

Library

DDC: 530 Physics (Library Thing)
Subject: Physics (Library Thing)

Subject: Physics (Open Library)

LCC: QC Physics (UPenn Online Books)

LCC: QC Physics (Library of Congress)
Subject: Physics (Library of Congress)

Subject: Physics (WorldCat)

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Participation

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Expression

NASAJPL Edu (YouTube Channel)
NASA JPL Edu (Official Website)

Humor

Physics and Astronomy Jokes (Kevin A. Boudreaux, Angelo State University)
Cool Science Jokes (Cool Science)

Poem

OEDILF: The Omnificent English Dictionary In Limerick Form

Music

A Capella Science (YouTube Channel)
A Capella Science (Official Website)
Tim Blais (Wikipedia)

Recent News from Nature Physics …

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Related

Here are links to pages about closely related subjects.

Knowledge Realm

Physical

“Fundamentals”
Law (Constant) Relativity
Force Gravity, Electromagnetism (Light, Color)
Matter (Microscope) Molecule, Atom (Periodic Table), Particle

“Space”
Universe (Astronomical Instrument)
Galaxy Milky Way, Andromeda
Planetary System Star, Brown Dwarf, Planet, Moon

Our Neighborhood
Solar System Sun
Terrestrial Planet Mercury, Venus, Earth (Moon), Mars
Asteroid Belt Ceres, Vesta
Jovian Planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Trans-Neptunian Object
Kuiper Belt Pluto, Haumea, Makemake
Scattered Disc Eris, Sedna, Planet X
Oort Cloud Etc. Scholz’s Star
Small Body Comet, Centaur, Asteroid

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Notes

1. The resources on this page are are organized by a classification scheme developed exclusively for Cosma.

2. The initial inspiration for these “physics” related pages was content encountered in the course PHYS 160 Exploring the Astrophysical World (taught by Thomas J. Moffett) at Purdue University. More content was added while designing and teaching Astronomy and Young Astronauts for gifted students in the Super Saturday/Summer program offered through the Purdue Gifted Education Resource Institute. The content has then been updated regularly since then.

Physical

Introduction¹

Dictionary

Encyclopedia

Adventures

Inspiration²

Innovation

Science

Commerce

Entrepreneurship

Preservation

History

Library

Participation

Education

Course

Community

Occupation

Organization

News

Book

Expression

Humor

Game

Poem

Music

Recent News from Nature Physics …