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The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation is the radiant heat left over from the Big Bang. It was first observed in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The properties of the radiation contain a wealth of information about physical conditions in the early universe and a great ...

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WilkinsonMicrowaveAnisotropyProbe
Physics

Bizarre Boiling

The next time you're watching a pot of water boil, perhaps for coffee or a cup of soup, pause for a moment and consider: what would this look like in space? Would the turbulent bubbles rise or fall? ... Continue reading

BizarreBoiling
Astronomy

Backyard Telescopes for New Planets. Is it Possible?

Fifteen years ago, the largest telescopes in the world had yet to locate a planet orbiting another star. Today telescopes no larger than those available in department stores are proving capable of ... Continue reading

BackyardTelescopes
Mathematics

What Is The Pythagorean Theorem?

Pythagoras was a famous Greek mathematician. He was particularly interested in the properties of triangles, and discovered a simple, fundamental relationship between the lengths of the sides of right ... Continue reading

PythagoreanTheorem
Medicine

Smallpox, Chickenpox . . . Monkeypox?

This past summer a few people in the midwest came down with monkeypox, a viral disease related to smallpox but less infectious and a lot less deadly to humans. Oddly they all seem to have caught the ... Continue reading

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The Weakest Force

WeakForceDid you know that gravity is the weakest force in the universe? Well, it's true! There are four fundamental forces (that we know of) in our universe: Strong Nuclear, Electromagnetic, Weak Nuclear and Gravitational. The strongest one is the Strong Nuclear force, which is responsible for keeping the nuclei of atoms together. About one hundred times weaker than the strong nuclear force is the electromagnetic one. This is the strongest force that we experience in our everyday lives. In fact, whenever we touch anything we experience the Electromagnetic force. The electrons in our skin repel electrons in whatever we touch through this force. The Weak Nuclear force is the one responsible for most decays of particles and nuclei - which is where radioactivity comes from. This force is about 10 billion times weaker than the Electromagnetic force.

The weakest of all is the Gravitational force. In fact, Gravitational force is 10 thousand billion billion billion billion times weaker than the Electromagnetic force. Well, it sort of makes sense because if the Gravitational force were stronger than the Electromagnetic one, we would fall right through the floor!