In this installment of the Laws You Should Know is Mendelev's Periodic Law. Elements are the essential blocks to our world microcosm and macrocosm worlds. Each element has its own spirit entity. Every substance in the universe has a composition of individual elements. We are merely saying elements have their own character
The elements have atoms that can be the same but different from the atoms of every other element. What creates the difference is that each element have their own particular atomic weight as John Dalton showed, and that each element has its own unique set of properties. Chemists in 1860 identified and studied sixty-plus different elements. They noticed each element has similarities to some of the other elements.
How are elements similar? There are elements that are gases, and others are metals. Some are extremely reactive like hydrogen, oxygen, sodium, and chlorine. They have a rapid chemical reaction when combined. You would not find some of these on earth in their uncombined pure form. We have gold, platinum, and nitrogen that are more inert. They don't combine as easily with other elements. The aforementioned elements are found here on earth in their elemental form like gold nuggets or nitrogen gas.
Nature has its patterns. As more elements being discovered it looks as if the elements would have some sort of pattern. First we looked at the atomic weight. Remember Dalton showed the atoms of different elements are different in weight? We calculated the atomic weight of each element. Thank God for oxygen being a very common element that combines with most other elements, and it became the standard measure of weight. All elements were weighed by comparing them to the weight of oxygen. Now it became easy for all the known chemical elements could then be arranged in order by weight. Now chemists were able with confidence to examine the physical and chemical properties of the elements, hoping to find a pattern. The chemical properties were paramount in the search for patterns. At that time of the known elements they react with other elements to form compounds. We found each element combines with others only in certain ways.
Now chemists gave each element a particular combining number, or valence, passed on how it joins with other elements. The following examples are one oxygen will combine with two hydrogen atoms to form water. Each hydrogen atom has a valence of 1 and the oxygen atom has a valence of 2. The result is one oxygen atom can combine with two hydrogen. One atom of oxygen will combine with one atom of calcium to form calcium oxide. You can visualize the picture of the calcium atom , like the oxygen, must have a valence of 2.
How do we form ammonia? We will put one nitrogen atom combine it with three hydrogen atoms, and "Whaa La!" We know each hydrogen atom has a combining power of 1, then nitrogen's valence must be 3. Here are the 18 elements known in 1860 by weight, and their valence.
Element - Valence
Hydrogen - 1
Lithium - 1
Beryllium - 2
Boron - 3
Carbon - 4
Nitrogen - 3
Oxygen - 2
Fluorine - 1
Sodium - 1
Magnesium - 2
Aluminum - 3
Silicon - 4
Phosphorus - 3
Sulfur - 2
Chlorine - 1
Potassium - 1
Calcium - 2
Titanium - 3
The valence is only one of many properties each element has. Finely all properties found a fit into a simple pattern. Our great minds thought of different numerical arrangements to form a pattern. Some elements didn't fit the pattern properly. By 1866, John Newlands thought the elements should follow a pattern like a musical scale. The combining numbers, or valences, seemed to repeat themselves in groups of seven. Newland's published chart of elements arranged in this pattern worked well for the lighter elements, but fell apart with the heavier elements. Newland came close but no cigar!
In 1869, a Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev, at last won the honor of discovering the pattern of the elements. He realized the valence of the elements are the most important chemical property. The valences shows exactly how each element reacts with all other elements. Mendeleyev arranged the elements according to their atomic weight, followed by their valences. when he group the elements this way he discovered that their chemical and physical properties showed a periodic or repeating pattern.
The other great minds were looking for a "magic number" like the magic number of 9* (which will be explained latter) the elements that repeated again and again through the list of known elements. Mendeleyev didn't try to force the issue into a regular numerical pattern. He got to the fourth repetition of the periodic cycle and found a large number of elements in the list having a valence of 3. Now he made the period longer. The "extra" elements all had to be included before the cycle continued. The same thing occurred for the fifth period, and the sixth period. Mendeleyev reasoned by grouping the elements by their properties, rather than any particular number, he simply widened his chart to make room for the additional elements that belonged in those groups. This discovery is now Mendeleyev's Period Law:arrangement in order of atomic weight, the elements periodically repeat similar physical and chemical properties.This is known as the periodic law. Mendeleyev's chart of the elements, shows this repetition of the properties, is known as the periodic law. The chart is the most complete statement of Mendeleyev's law.
Move from left to right and down the page, the elements are in order by atomic weight. Each row across the page is called a period. Each period is one complete repetition of similar chemical and physical properties. Each column of elements in the table is a group of elements with similar properties. We call these groups of elements families of elements. The elements in the left most column are the alkali metals family. The family members are hydrogen, lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. They are metallic. Hydrogen acts like a metal at very low temperatures. They all have a valence of 1. these elements are chemically active, except for hydrogen gas, and are never found on earth in their pure form. Note these elements are always combined with other elements in compounds. the second column has another group of metals, known as the alkaline earth metals. They have a valence of 2. these are also reactive, but not so reactive as the elements in the first column.
The last column, has a family of elements known as halogens. The halogens are non metals that are very chemically active. Fluorine is the most reactive element of all. It is so reactive and almost impossible to produce and keep in its elemental form. It will react with glass! The halogens include the elements chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Their valence is 1 and react strongly with metals. They have strong, unpleasant odors, and are quite poisonous.
Mendeleyev arranged the elements by their properties, and found several places where an element seemed to be missing. He knew where the missing elements belonged. So he mad a prediction that the four new elements would be found. If found, they would prove that Mendeleyev's periodic law was correct.
In 1874, five years after Mendeleyev first published his periodic table, the first discovery was made. A French chemist found a missing element. It was named gallium. Its atomic weight and physical and chemical properties matched Mendeleyev's prediction.
The second and the third soon followed, but the fourth element wasn't found until 1937. It was named technetium, because it was produced in a laboratory. Technetium is radioactive and quickly decays into other elements. It's lifetime is short and no longer exists naturally on the earth. It does exist. Mendeleyev's prediction had all proved true.
How did the elements follow this periodic pattern, after fifty years of Mendeleyev's discovery? The laws that describe the structure of atoms is known as the principles of quantum mechanics, explain why the elements form groups with similar properties. The family of gases was found in the late 1800s. these gases were difficult to find because they didn't react at all with other elements. The family consists of Helium, argon, neon, krypton, xenon, and radon.
Other large groups were found and they fit nicely into the pattern that Mendeleyev found. Mendeleyev found his niche with the chemical properties of elements. The current periodic table includes 115 elements. They all follow Mendeleyev's periodic law. Mendeleyev found the niche for others to complete the periodic table.
*This can go up to 9 digits: take any three digit number, now reverse that number then add and subtract it. Now reverse the number and add. You will always get 1089.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Star Trek Voyager and Planet X and Mu-Mesons and the Global Positioning System
Fiction: Star Trek Voyager Finds Earth-like Planet X:
Star Trek Voyager discovers a planet very much like our Earth - the astronauts check it out before landing: gaseous atmosphere, water, mountains, no visible life forms but vegetation - however it is massive, with an extremely high gravitational pull, and enormous orbital and rotational speeds. They report their findings to Communication HQ and their plans for a brief exploratory walk-around, staying close to the ship - they would report again in twelve hours. Then, gingerly, they retro-rocket their craft down to the ground, landing on a large flat plain.
An exploratory team dons oxygen equipment, protective clothing, boots, and carefully descends the ladder to ground level. The powerful gravity force makes locomotion, even arm movements difficult, but they collect samples of the atmosphere, soil and rocks, even water from a nearby stream. Physically tired on returning to the ship, they shower, change clothing, have some refreshments, check the time and take an hour's rest.
At the appointed hour, the crew gathers in the main cabin. Half have voyaged before and know what to expect; first-timers have all been briefed and eagerly await the contact from home. A tone sounds, and on the screen, letters and numbers sequence quickly, as from a keyboard - hour and date.
While they had been under the influence of the giant planet for the twelve hours since the prior communication - on Earth - and for everyone and everything on it - the elapsed time has been two years.
Time Dilation - the Brilliance of Einstein:
Probably the most "accepted" of all human intuitions is that the "passage of time" is a constant - everywhere. All space science fiction, e.g. Star Trek, is based upon such constancy, the complexity of relationships, otherwise, being impossible. However, in the world of true reality - of our universe and the age of Earth - it is not so. In the real world, every space-time-reference-frame location in the universe is perceived and experienced as - unique in its passage of time - dependent upon the local force of gravity and velocity. Time passage on Earth is different than on the moon, than on any other planet, or solar system, or galaxy, or location in the universe. Our watches would keep a different time, our hearts would beat differently. That was the brilliant deduction of Albert Einstein, from a "thought experiment", laid out in his 1905 and 1915 Field Equations.
From the scientific fact that the speed of light is a universal constant - the identicle specific value when light passes an observer, whether the light source speeds toward or away - Einstein theorized (subsequently proven) that, although the beam of light (its speed a constant), traverses a longer distance (mirror reflection and triangulated path) in the same instant-event,it would be the "amount of time experienced" that had to be different; that "time" is what would vary as a function of the gravity field and velocity for individual locations. Since then, scientists have proven his theory and measured those differences.
Einstein's "thought experiment" was brilliant, revolutionary (even magical), yet simple: Time (seconds) = Distance (miles) divided by Speed (miles per second); thus a flash of light viewed by two observers: one moving, one stationary; the distance traveled by the angle-reflected light beam being longer to the stationary observer - as the speed of light is a constant, the "perception" of the observed passage of time for the moving observer (witnessing the single event) had to be less. The difference in "perceived time" is called relativistic time dilation, and the concept was thoroughly proved by the Haefele-Keating experiment in 1972, atomic clocks on Boeing 707 and Concorde SST aircraft, being flown at different speeds, altitudes and directions.
World-class Cosmologists Views:
World-class Cosmologists G. L. Schroeder ("Genesis and the Big Bang", "The Science of God") and N. Aviezer ("In the Beginning") - explain relativity in terms of the Big Bang's aftermath - the experience of "time passage" differs to observers at different locations - due to differing gravity and velocity parameters: "million-million factor - average difference between the perceptions of Earth time and Cosmic time .. stretching of light waves .. [due to] universe's expansion .. slowed the 'perceived time' - on what would become Earth - by a million-million."
Schroeder further explains: "we can experience differences in time passage only when comparing events across a boundary of (space-time) reference-frames .. and even then, only when the gravity and speeds are vastly different"; also, "Within a reference frame, all will seem perfectly normal (or Newtonian), regardless of gravity and speed."
Solid-Science Example - Mu-mesons:
The mu-meson provides a clear example of dramatic time dilation - how 200 micro-seconds to one observer are the same as 4.5 micro-seconds to another. Mu-mesons are not only found in high-energy physics labs, but also result when cosmic rays from outer space slam into nuclei of atmospheric gases 60 kilometers above Earth. The energy released is so great that speeds almost that of light result. An established factor of mu-mesons is the 50% decay rate in 1.5 micro-seconds. To an observer on Earth, the 60 kilometers altitude-distance, with the mu-mesons traveling at near light-speed, should take about 200 micro-seconds. At 1.5 micro-second half-life periods, there should, therefore, be 133 such "halvings" during the 60 kilometer descent, and at the established decay rate, the number of mu-mesons surviving the trip to ground (.5 to the 133th power) should be less than one out of billions of billions. Yet, fully one-eighth of the mu-mesons do reach ground level. By logic, therefore, the elapsed time for the mu-mesons to reach Earth had to be only 4.5 microseconds (three periods of half-decay).
Despite explanations and examples, the concept of two vastly differing time-passages - of the same event - by two observers (in differing gravity and speed domains across a space-time-reference) remains difficult to grasp. More examples of time-dilation, however, may help:
Time-Dilation in our Daily Lives - GPS - Global Positioning System:
Developed by the Department Of Defense, then extended to civilian navigation, then to automobiles and hand-held devices, the GPS has been fully operational since 1993. With 24 satellites circling Earth at 12,000 miles altitude and 8,400 miles per hour (not geo-synchronous or geo-stationary orbits), four satellites, as a minimum, are always visible to (and can see) any spot on Earth. The atomic clocks aboard, as on Earth, are accurate to a billionth of a second. As a "slight" but significant aspect of Einstein's time-dilation laws, the differences in parameters of gravity (one-sixth of Earth's) and velocity (also different than on Earth's surface), necessitate periodic synchronization with Earth-based atomic clocks. The difference is 38 micro-seconds per day: Einstein's General Relativity = +45; Special Relativity = -7; Total adjustment = 38 millionths of a second per day.
Unusual Aspects of Time Dilation:
In the expanding Universe, "space" is expanding, not "matter" - galaxies and solar systems retain their size - the distances between galaxies increase;
A moving atomic clock ticks more slowly than a stationary one;
At speeds of 1/10 that of light, time dilation is less than 1 percent (however, as the speed of light (c) is neared - the dilation effect increases dramatically):
If traveling at 0.99c, a 24 hour day = seven Earth-days;
If traveling @ 0.9997c, 24 hours = 40 Earth-days;
If @ 0.999 999 999 95c, one day = 550 Earth-years;
If @ 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 995c = 457 Million Earth-years.
The shocker, of course, is at the beginning of our Universe - when what would become Earth was a tiny speck of matter - adding Big Bang's gravity, an unimaginable force - while also traveling at an incredible speed - in an expanding Universe. The smartest cosmologists calculated it: 13.7 Billion Earth-years, the scientifically established age of our Universe - but to a Cosmos observer, it was only six days of Cosmic Time (24 hour days) - on what would become Earth.
Six Days Cosmic Time and 13.7 Billion Years:
Cosmologists like Gerald L. Schroeder do not engage in philosophical explanations to reconcile science and theology - of a "day" being an allegorical epoch - stating clearly that "the same single sequence of events that encompasses the time period from the beginning of the universe to the appearance of mankind - did take six days - and also 15 billion years - simultaneously - starting at the same instant and finishing at the same instant." (Note: Since the writing of his book in 1992, the age of the Universe has now been more precisely established from his "about 15" to 13.7 billion years.) Thus, by Einstein's time-dilation equations, there were truly only six 24 hour days from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to the appearance of Mankind; and yet, Cosmic Day 5 (24 hours) also, truly included the hundreds of millions of years of the dinosaurs (if an observer were on Earth).
Reference point for a Cosmic-Clock-Calendar:
The two times above are both "real" (vouchsafed and interpreted by world-class scientists) - 13.7 billion years from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to human-kind, and six (24 hour) days of Cosmic time - each being correct in its own time-reference plane. For the Cosmic-Clock-Calendar" there is but one realistic reference consideration, unchanging since the Big Bang and the creation of the Universe - the "cosmic background radiation" (CBR). Says Schroeder, "The radiation remnant of the Big Bang fills the entire universe, unrelated to any particular source," Discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1965, it is the only source of radiation that has been present and ubiquitous since creation. "CBR frequency forms the basis of cosmic proper time, the biblical clock of Genesis." In his "Genesis and the Big Bang", Schroeder comments on the six days or about 14 billion years to the differing observers in differing reference planes: "Which understanding is correct? Both are - literally - with no allegorical modifications of these two, simultaneous, yet different time periods. "It is unequivocal, six 24 hour-days elapsed between .. the start of the Big Bang and the appearance of mankind - and simultaneously, it took [also and almost] 14 billion - 365 day-years, to get from .. the Big bang .. to mankind."
Note 1: A comparison between Cosmic time (per Astronomy and Earth science) to Genesis (Bible), shows remarkable sequence and day-by-day correlation: formation of galaxies, solar system, Earth, water, vegetation, aquatic and flying creatures, mammals and man - different words - not a single disparity.
Note 2: A time-dilation triviality - a cross-country flight will result in the passengers and crew "aging" less than groundlings - by about one forty-billionth of a second.
Aaron Kolom qualifies as a "rocket scientist" with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant
Star Trek Voyager discovers a planet very much like our Earth - the astronauts check it out before landing: gaseous atmosphere, water, mountains, no visible life forms but vegetation - however it is massive, with an extremely high gravitational pull, and enormous orbital and rotational speeds. They report their findings to Communication HQ and their plans for a brief exploratory walk-around, staying close to the ship - they would report again in twelve hours. Then, gingerly, they retro-rocket their craft down to the ground, landing on a large flat plain.
An exploratory team dons oxygen equipment, protective clothing, boots, and carefully descends the ladder to ground level. The powerful gravity force makes locomotion, even arm movements difficult, but they collect samples of the atmosphere, soil and rocks, even water from a nearby stream. Physically tired on returning to the ship, they shower, change clothing, have some refreshments, check the time and take an hour's rest.
At the appointed hour, the crew gathers in the main cabin. Half have voyaged before and know what to expect; first-timers have all been briefed and eagerly await the contact from home. A tone sounds, and on the screen, letters and numbers sequence quickly, as from a keyboard - hour and date.
While they had been under the influence of the giant planet for the twelve hours since the prior communication - on Earth - and for everyone and everything on it - the elapsed time has been two years.
Time Dilation - the Brilliance of Einstein:
Probably the most "accepted" of all human intuitions is that the "passage of time" is a constant - everywhere. All space science fiction, e.g. Star Trek, is based upon such constancy, the complexity of relationships, otherwise, being impossible. However, in the world of true reality - of our universe and the age of Earth - it is not so. In the real world, every space-time-reference-frame location in the universe is perceived and experienced as - unique in its passage of time - dependent upon the local force of gravity and velocity. Time passage on Earth is different than on the moon, than on any other planet, or solar system, or galaxy, or location in the universe. Our watches would keep a different time, our hearts would beat differently. That was the brilliant deduction of Albert Einstein, from a "thought experiment", laid out in his 1905 and 1915 Field Equations.
From the scientific fact that the speed of light is a universal constant - the identicle specific value when light passes an observer, whether the light source speeds toward or away - Einstein theorized (subsequently proven) that, although the beam of light (its speed a constant), traverses a longer distance (mirror reflection and triangulated path) in the same instant-event,it would be the "amount of time experienced" that had to be different; that "time" is what would vary as a function of the gravity field and velocity for individual locations. Since then, scientists have proven his theory and measured those differences.
Einstein's "thought experiment" was brilliant, revolutionary (even magical), yet simple: Time (seconds) = Distance (miles) divided by Speed (miles per second); thus a flash of light viewed by two observers: one moving, one stationary; the distance traveled by the angle-reflected light beam being longer to the stationary observer - as the speed of light is a constant, the "perception" of the observed passage of time for the moving observer (witnessing the single event) had to be less. The difference in "perceived time" is called relativistic time dilation, and the concept was thoroughly proved by the Haefele-Keating experiment in 1972, atomic clocks on Boeing 707 and Concorde SST aircraft, being flown at different speeds, altitudes and directions.
World-class Cosmologists Views:
World-class Cosmologists G. L. Schroeder ("Genesis and the Big Bang", "The Science of God") and N. Aviezer ("In the Beginning") - explain relativity in terms of the Big Bang's aftermath - the experience of "time passage" differs to observers at different locations - due to differing gravity and velocity parameters: "million-million factor - average difference between the perceptions of Earth time and Cosmic time .. stretching of light waves .. [due to] universe's expansion .. slowed the 'perceived time' - on what would become Earth - by a million-million."
Schroeder further explains: "we can experience differences in time passage only when comparing events across a boundary of (space-time) reference-frames .. and even then, only when the gravity and speeds are vastly different"; also, "Within a reference frame, all will seem perfectly normal (or Newtonian), regardless of gravity and speed."
Solid-Science Example - Mu-mesons:
The mu-meson provides a clear example of dramatic time dilation - how 200 micro-seconds to one observer are the same as 4.5 micro-seconds to another. Mu-mesons are not only found in high-energy physics labs, but also result when cosmic rays from outer space slam into nuclei of atmospheric gases 60 kilometers above Earth. The energy released is so great that speeds almost that of light result. An established factor of mu-mesons is the 50% decay rate in 1.5 micro-seconds. To an observer on Earth, the 60 kilometers altitude-distance, with the mu-mesons traveling at near light-speed, should take about 200 micro-seconds. At 1.5 micro-second half-life periods, there should, therefore, be 133 such "halvings" during the 60 kilometer descent, and at the established decay rate, the number of mu-mesons surviving the trip to ground (.5 to the 133th power) should be less than one out of billions of billions. Yet, fully one-eighth of the mu-mesons do reach ground level. By logic, therefore, the elapsed time for the mu-mesons to reach Earth had to be only 4.5 microseconds (three periods of half-decay).
Despite explanations and examples, the concept of two vastly differing time-passages - of the same event - by two observers (in differing gravity and speed domains across a space-time-reference) remains difficult to grasp. More examples of time-dilation, however, may help:
Time-Dilation in our Daily Lives - GPS - Global Positioning System:
Developed by the Department Of Defense, then extended to civilian navigation, then to automobiles and hand-held devices, the GPS has been fully operational since 1993. With 24 satellites circling Earth at 12,000 miles altitude and 8,400 miles per hour (not geo-synchronous or geo-stationary orbits), four satellites, as a minimum, are always visible to (and can see) any spot on Earth. The atomic clocks aboard, as on Earth, are accurate to a billionth of a second. As a "slight" but significant aspect of Einstein's time-dilation laws, the differences in parameters of gravity (one-sixth of Earth's) and velocity (also different than on Earth's surface), necessitate periodic synchronization with Earth-based atomic clocks. The difference is 38 micro-seconds per day: Einstein's General Relativity = +45; Special Relativity = -7; Total adjustment = 38 millionths of a second per day.
Unusual Aspects of Time Dilation:
In the expanding Universe, "space" is expanding, not "matter" - galaxies and solar systems retain their size - the distances between galaxies increase;
A moving atomic clock ticks more slowly than a stationary one;
At speeds of 1/10 that of light, time dilation is less than 1 percent (however, as the speed of light (c) is neared - the dilation effect increases dramatically):
If traveling at 0.99c, a 24 hour day = seven Earth-days;
If traveling @ 0.9997c, 24 hours = 40 Earth-days;
If @ 0.999 999 999 95c, one day = 550 Earth-years;
If @ 0.999 999 999 999 999 999 999 995c = 457 Million Earth-years.
The shocker, of course, is at the beginning of our Universe - when what would become Earth was a tiny speck of matter - adding Big Bang's gravity, an unimaginable force - while also traveling at an incredible speed - in an expanding Universe. The smartest cosmologists calculated it: 13.7 Billion Earth-years, the scientifically established age of our Universe - but to a Cosmos observer, it was only six days of Cosmic Time (24 hour days) - on what would become Earth.
Six Days Cosmic Time and 13.7 Billion Years:
Cosmologists like Gerald L. Schroeder do not engage in philosophical explanations to reconcile science and theology - of a "day" being an allegorical epoch - stating clearly that "the same single sequence of events that encompasses the time period from the beginning of the universe to the appearance of mankind - did take six days - and also 15 billion years - simultaneously - starting at the same instant and finishing at the same instant." (Note: Since the writing of his book in 1992, the age of the Universe has now been more precisely established from his "about 15" to 13.7 billion years.) Thus, by Einstein's time-dilation equations, there were truly only six 24 hour days from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to the appearance of Mankind; and yet, Cosmic Day 5 (24 hours) also, truly included the hundreds of millions of years of the dinosaurs (if an observer were on Earth).
Reference point for a Cosmic-Clock-Calendar:
The two times above are both "real" (vouchsafed and interpreted by world-class scientists) - 13.7 billion years from the Big Bang's creation of our Universe to human-kind, and six (24 hour) days of Cosmic time - each being correct in its own time-reference plane. For the Cosmic-Clock-Calendar" there is but one realistic reference consideration, unchanging since the Big Bang and the creation of the Universe - the "cosmic background radiation" (CBR). Says Schroeder, "The radiation remnant of the Big Bang fills the entire universe, unrelated to any particular source," Discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1965, it is the only source of radiation that has been present and ubiquitous since creation. "CBR frequency forms the basis of cosmic proper time, the biblical clock of Genesis." In his "Genesis and the Big Bang", Schroeder comments on the six days or about 14 billion years to the differing observers in differing reference planes: "Which understanding is correct? Both are - literally - with no allegorical modifications of these two, simultaneous, yet different time periods. "It is unequivocal, six 24 hour-days elapsed between .. the start of the Big Bang and the appearance of mankind - and simultaneously, it took [also and almost] 14 billion - 365 day-years, to get from .. the Big bang .. to mankind."
Note 1: A comparison between Cosmic time (per Astronomy and Earth science) to Genesis (Bible), shows remarkable sequence and day-by-day correlation: formation of galaxies, solar system, Earth, water, vegetation, aquatic and flying creatures, mammals and man - different words - not a single disparity.
Note 2: A time-dilation triviality - a cross-country flight will result in the passengers and crew "aging" less than groundlings - by about one forty-billionth of a second.
Aaron Kolom qualifies as a "rocket scientist" with over 50 years aerospace engineering: Stress Analyst to Chief of Structural Sciences on numerous military aircraft, to Corp. Director Structures and Materials, Asst. Chief Engineer Space Shuttle Program through first three flights (awarded NASA Public Service Medal), Rockwell International Corp.; Program Manager Concorde SST, VP Engineering TRE Corp.; Aerospace Consultant
The Brain and How We Learn
Sleep - What is its importance?
You might be surprised to learn that when we are awake there's a section of the brain that wants us to sleep and when we are asleep there's a section of the brain that wants us to be awake. We understand that we learn when we are awake; however, did you know that when we sleep we are still learning.
Our brain plays reruns of what we learned during the day thousands and thousands of times during our sleeping hours. We grasp the concept that we are less effective without sleep. There is a loss of working memory, we have mood swings, our reasoning is altered, our motor skills and responses change in a negative manner. It is not determined the amount of sleep that each individual requires. Many factors such as our age and our gender need to be taken into account. Research shows that about mid-day or around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we flat line, which is about mid point from your sleeping time and your waking time.A short nap can positively affect productivity.
Exercise
We talk about the brain and the body are two separate entities. They are not. We know that the body needs exercise. Then why do we not stop to recognize that exercise is additionally important to development and learning for the brain? Exercise diminishes the risks for dementia, it reduces stress, it will enhance problem solving skills and it promotes skills necessary for attention. Research additionally demonstrates that people who exercise out will out-perform couch potatoes every time. When exercise ceases, brain function is lessened.
Years ago we were more active physically. We have now become sedimentary. With technological improvements we sit more than ever.
What happens when we move? Why is cognition increased? The answer is really quite obvious. Exercise improves the oxygen flow to all parts of the body, including the brain, which directly leads to mental alertness. The molecular structure of the brain is impacted in a positive manner. Thirty minutes of aerobic exercises, even just two times per week increases the brains productivity much more effectively than weight lifting exercises alone. The brain additionally requires glucose.
It takes as much oxygen from food as possible. We need extra blood vessels to get more oxygen. The way that we get more blood vessels is to increase exercise. Exercise is like Miracle Grow for the brain. There are so many benefits from exercise. It reduces the risk factors for diabetes, it supports memory formation, it strengthens muscles and bones, it helps to control appetite, it aides to improve fluid intelligence, it reduces heart disease and it helps to minimize depression. As always before beginning any exercise regimen see your doctor. The brain craves exercise. So, what are you waiting for?
Why is the brain so complex?
Some scientists believe that our ancestors walked on all fours. If their theory is correct, it was through evolution that we began to walk upright in order that we could function more efficiently. While this freed up our hands, we were no longer building up as many of our muscles. Instead, we were building up our brains. The brain is centered around survival. Because we were in the great outdoors and encountering many dangers, the brain adapted and evolved over time.
As a teacher, I am often reaching out to students to help them feel a sense of pride in regards to their thinking abilities. Athletes are celebrated. Brainiacs are often squelched. Students need to become aware that it is not the strongest body that survives; it is the strongest brain which survives. Humans have never been the strongest physically among the creatures; however, they have the strongest brains. As the climate changed over time, only those with the strongest brains adapted and survived.
It is important to brain development to feel safe. As an educator I see this often. A student is stressed over a test and they do not perform to potential, which is why I work very hard to create an environment where my students feel safe. This is a focus right from the beginning of the year.
Information overload
With cell phones, emails and texting going on in vehicles, there have been an increasing amount of automobile accidents. That is because the brain is not set up for such multi-tasking. The brain has to turn away from one focus for a few seconds to perform another task. Even a fraction of second can make the difference if we need to stop suddenly. Were you aware that statistically texting and the use of cell phones has been shown to be more dangerous than driving with excessive alcohol in our systems.
Education
Unfortunately, the classroom environment has not caught up with the research. Students are still being expected to sit for long periods of time. This is true even though we are becoming increasingly aware of the need for movement. We also know now that each of us have the ability to pay attention for a mere ten minutes at a time. Beyond that the presenter must do something to get the attention of his or her audience. Yet, we often have long lectures structured in the school day. Our brains ignore boring information. It is because our experiences tell us what we should pay attention to, which is why cultural influences our decisions also. It is simply the way our brain is structured. Thus, if we expect our students to pay attention, we need to incorporate movement or music into our day every ten minutes or so.
Our brains forget 90 percent of what is learned within 45 days. It is what happens in the first few seconds that will determine whether we will remember it or not. The human brain is only able to retain seven bits of information for thirty seconds or less. The only way to remember something longer is repetition.
We have several forms of memory. We have automatic memory, which encompasses events that will be recalled even if it is not repeated. Then we have effort processing. This is something that we determine that we want to remember and we repeat it a number of times in order that we might recall it at a later time. We also have working memory. This is memory that will remain with us for a period of time while we need it. It later becomes information that is lost to us. We also have long term memory which is information that we commit to memory through repetition. This is why educators know that spiral education is important.
It makes sense then why multi-sensory classrooms have more effective learners. It is also important to note that the brain will retain more while watching a movie if the smell of lemon or other food in introduced. Just walk into a bakery. Trust me those great smells are not an accident. Also, if two senses are stimulated then mor learning occurs. Three odors are better than two and so on. Research shows that problem solving improves when two or more senses are incorporated. The sense of sight trumps all. If you only hear bits of information, you will remember it for only a short time. If you see the information, you will remember it for a longer period of time. Thus if a presenter effectively combines both the visual and the auditory senses, the brain will remember the information six times more effectively.
Males and females also differ in their brains. There is much research being done presently to understand the differences.
Babies are wonderful to study to learn more about the brain and how it develops, as they are a clean slate. They show how human beings have a natural inclination for learning. It all stems on the need for survival, which is how the human brain evolved initially.
I hope this information will help you to better understand how humans learn.
You might be surprised to learn that when we are awake there's a section of the brain that wants us to sleep and when we are asleep there's a section of the brain that wants us to be awake. We understand that we learn when we are awake; however, did you know that when we sleep we are still learning.
Our brain plays reruns of what we learned during the day thousands and thousands of times during our sleeping hours. We grasp the concept that we are less effective without sleep. There is a loss of working memory, we have mood swings, our reasoning is altered, our motor skills and responses change in a negative manner. It is not determined the amount of sleep that each individual requires. Many factors such as our age and our gender need to be taken into account. Research shows that about mid-day or around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, we flat line, which is about mid point from your sleeping time and your waking time.A short nap can positively affect productivity.
Exercise
We talk about the brain and the body are two separate entities. They are not. We know that the body needs exercise. Then why do we not stop to recognize that exercise is additionally important to development and learning for the brain? Exercise diminishes the risks for dementia, it reduces stress, it will enhance problem solving skills and it promotes skills necessary for attention. Research additionally demonstrates that people who exercise out will out-perform couch potatoes every time. When exercise ceases, brain function is lessened.
Years ago we were more active physically. We have now become sedimentary. With technological improvements we sit more than ever.
What happens when we move? Why is cognition increased? The answer is really quite obvious. Exercise improves the oxygen flow to all parts of the body, including the brain, which directly leads to mental alertness. The molecular structure of the brain is impacted in a positive manner. Thirty minutes of aerobic exercises, even just two times per week increases the brains productivity much more effectively than weight lifting exercises alone. The brain additionally requires glucose.
It takes as much oxygen from food as possible. We need extra blood vessels to get more oxygen. The way that we get more blood vessels is to increase exercise. Exercise is like Miracle Grow for the brain. There are so many benefits from exercise. It reduces the risk factors for diabetes, it supports memory formation, it strengthens muscles and bones, it helps to control appetite, it aides to improve fluid intelligence, it reduces heart disease and it helps to minimize depression. As always before beginning any exercise regimen see your doctor. The brain craves exercise. So, what are you waiting for?
Why is the brain so complex?
Some scientists believe that our ancestors walked on all fours. If their theory is correct, it was through evolution that we began to walk upright in order that we could function more efficiently. While this freed up our hands, we were no longer building up as many of our muscles. Instead, we were building up our brains. The brain is centered around survival. Because we were in the great outdoors and encountering many dangers, the brain adapted and evolved over time.
As a teacher, I am often reaching out to students to help them feel a sense of pride in regards to their thinking abilities. Athletes are celebrated. Brainiacs are often squelched. Students need to become aware that it is not the strongest body that survives; it is the strongest brain which survives. Humans have never been the strongest physically among the creatures; however, they have the strongest brains. As the climate changed over time, only those with the strongest brains adapted and survived.
It is important to brain development to feel safe. As an educator I see this often. A student is stressed over a test and they do not perform to potential, which is why I work very hard to create an environment where my students feel safe. This is a focus right from the beginning of the year.
Information overload
With cell phones, emails and texting going on in vehicles, there have been an increasing amount of automobile accidents. That is because the brain is not set up for such multi-tasking. The brain has to turn away from one focus for a few seconds to perform another task. Even a fraction of second can make the difference if we need to stop suddenly. Were you aware that statistically texting and the use of cell phones has been shown to be more dangerous than driving with excessive alcohol in our systems.
Education
Unfortunately, the classroom environment has not caught up with the research. Students are still being expected to sit for long periods of time. This is true even though we are becoming increasingly aware of the need for movement. We also know now that each of us have the ability to pay attention for a mere ten minutes at a time. Beyond that the presenter must do something to get the attention of his or her audience. Yet, we often have long lectures structured in the school day. Our brains ignore boring information. It is because our experiences tell us what we should pay attention to, which is why cultural influences our decisions also. It is simply the way our brain is structured. Thus, if we expect our students to pay attention, we need to incorporate movement or music into our day every ten minutes or so.
Our brains forget 90 percent of what is learned within 45 days. It is what happens in the first few seconds that will determine whether we will remember it or not. The human brain is only able to retain seven bits of information for thirty seconds or less. The only way to remember something longer is repetition.
We have several forms of memory. We have automatic memory, which encompasses events that will be recalled even if it is not repeated. Then we have effort processing. This is something that we determine that we want to remember and we repeat it a number of times in order that we might recall it at a later time. We also have working memory. This is memory that will remain with us for a period of time while we need it. It later becomes information that is lost to us. We also have long term memory which is information that we commit to memory through repetition. This is why educators know that spiral education is important.
It makes sense then why multi-sensory classrooms have more effective learners. It is also important to note that the brain will retain more while watching a movie if the smell of lemon or other food in introduced. Just walk into a bakery. Trust me those great smells are not an accident. Also, if two senses are stimulated then mor learning occurs. Three odors are better than two and so on. Research shows that problem solving improves when two or more senses are incorporated. The sense of sight trumps all. If you only hear bits of information, you will remember it for only a short time. If you see the information, you will remember it for a longer period of time. Thus if a presenter effectively combines both the visual and the auditory senses, the brain will remember the information six times more effectively.
Males and females also differ in their brains. There is much research being done presently to understand the differences.
Babies are wonderful to study to learn more about the brain and how it develops, as they are a clean slate. They show how human beings have a natural inclination for learning. It all stems on the need for survival, which is how the human brain evolved initially.
I hope this information will help you to better understand how humans learn.
Middle School Science Fair Projects - Brainstorming Ideas For Science Fair Success
There many topics that can be used for middle school science fair projects, covering a range of scientific disciplines. Below is a list of scientific questions that can be adapted for use by the middle school students:
• What kinds of single cell animals live in the water? How are they different from viruses and bacteria? How do they reproduce?
• What is the life cycle of the common butterfly? Name the stages that it goes through from egg to mature adult.
• Explain what DNA is. What is a chromosome? What is a gene? What is inheritance?
• Name four major glands in the body. Make diagrams for them and explain what their function is.
• Name the major classifications for different animal species. How are they different from one another? What are the names of some of the animals in each classification?
• What are the main classifications for rocks? How are they differentiated and what are the different characteristics that make them unique? How was each type formed?
• Using edible ingredients make a sample aquifer. Show how pollutants can get into the water. Show how the water table can be reduced by pumping.
• Get a telescope and observe the night sky. Draw the constellations that you see and explain which time of the year it is based on what ones you see in the night sky.
• Pick a favorite dinosaur and research what kind of environment it was likely to live in. What kinds of food did it most likely eat? What geologic period in time did it come from?
• Research how much goes into our landfills each year that can be recycled or composted. What kinds of environmental advantages could be gained if every American could be convinced to do his part and stopped throwing away reusable items?
• What is a carbon footprint? What are some things that the average person could do to reduce the carbon footprint he makes in a year? How are these changes likely to benefit the environment?
• What kinds of renewable energy sources are being investigated currently? How will these alternatives help the environment? What can be powered using these alternatives?
• Yeast are single celled animals that are used in baking and brewing. What function do they serve? How do they perform their work?
• What are the different cells found in blood? What function does each kind of cell perform for the body?
• What are the four blood types found in humans? What is an Rh factor? Which blood type is the most common? Which is the least common? What is an allele?
• What is lightening? What conditions in the atmosphere are necessary for it to form? Why is it so dangerous?
• What is wind? What causes it to move across the face of the earth?
These are just a few of the many questions you can base your middle school science fair projects on. Choosing a category of interest by which to base your hypothesis is a good starting point. Finding a topic interesting to you is the key to a winning science
• What kinds of single cell animals live in the water? How are they different from viruses and bacteria? How do they reproduce?
• What is the life cycle of the common butterfly? Name the stages that it goes through from egg to mature adult.
• Explain what DNA is. What is a chromosome? What is a gene? What is inheritance?
• Name four major glands in the body. Make diagrams for them and explain what their function is.
• Name the major classifications for different animal species. How are they different from one another? What are the names of some of the animals in each classification?
• What are the main classifications for rocks? How are they differentiated and what are the different characteristics that make them unique? How was each type formed?
• Using edible ingredients make a sample aquifer. Show how pollutants can get into the water. Show how the water table can be reduced by pumping.
• Get a telescope and observe the night sky. Draw the constellations that you see and explain which time of the year it is based on what ones you see in the night sky.
• Pick a favorite dinosaur and research what kind of environment it was likely to live in. What kinds of food did it most likely eat? What geologic period in time did it come from?
• Research how much goes into our landfills each year that can be recycled or composted. What kinds of environmental advantages could be gained if every American could be convinced to do his part and stopped throwing away reusable items?
• What is a carbon footprint? What are some things that the average person could do to reduce the carbon footprint he makes in a year? How are these changes likely to benefit the environment?
• What kinds of renewable energy sources are being investigated currently? How will these alternatives help the environment? What can be powered using these alternatives?
• Yeast are single celled animals that are used in baking and brewing. What function do they serve? How do they perform their work?
• What are the different cells found in blood? What function does each kind of cell perform for the body?
• What are the four blood types found in humans? What is an Rh factor? Which blood type is the most common? Which is the least common? What is an allele?
• What is lightening? What conditions in the atmosphere are necessary for it to form? Why is it so dangerous?
• What is wind? What causes it to move across the face of the earth?
These are just a few of the many questions you can base your middle school science fair projects on. Choosing a category of interest by which to base your hypothesis is a good starting point. Finding a topic interesting to you is the key to a winning science
Making Waves With Sound
Hey kids, have you ever wondered why you hear thunder after you see lightning? Or why the horn on a car sounds different when it's coming toward you than when it's moving away? Or why things sound different under water? It all has to do with sound waves!
Anything that vibrates makes a sound. Try this: put your hand gently against your throat and hum. Can you feel those vibrations? That's your voice!
The faster something vibrates, the higher the sound is. And the bigger the vibrations, the louder the sound is. When something vibrates, it smashes into the particles of air, liquid, or solid around it. These particles then smash into the particles next to them, and send the sound along in a wave.
You can see the way sound travels by filling up a tub or sink with water. Put your hand in the water and give it a quick wave. See how the wave your hand made travels through the water? Sound travels in just the same way!
Sound also travels differently depending on what it's moving through. If you had a microscope more powerful than anything on the planet, you would be able to see that everything around us is made up of tiny particles called atoms. The atoms in a gas, like air, are far apart and whizzing around. The atoms in a liquid are closer together, but slosh past each other. The atoms in a solid are packed tightly together and locked into one shape.
When sound waves travel through air, the atoms are spaced so far apart that it's hard for one group of atoms to reach the next group to pass the sound wave along. Sound waves in air fade away very fast.
Because the atoms in liquid are much closer together, it's much easier for them to bump into each other and pass the sound wave along. But the best thing for sending sound waves along is a solid. Have you ever seen a movie where someone puts their ear to the ground to see if someone is following them? That's because solid rock carries sounds faster and farther than air!
You can try this experiment with a friend. Find a long metal fence, and stand at either end of it. Put your ear to the fence, and have your friend tap the other end with a rock or stick. You should be able to hear the sound twice - once through the fence, and again through the air!
You can also hear that sounds are much louder in solids than in air. That's why spies in movies will listen to a conversation though a wall by putting their ear against a glass. The solid glass makes the sound louder!
You can have some learning fun of your own with this simple experiment: Get in a bathtub (or something you can swim in), and tap the side of the tub with something hard. Then put your head underwater and tap again. The sound should be louder in the water! Now put your ear against the side of the tub and tap a third time. The sound will be even louder!
So remember next time you're dancing to your favourite songs to take a look at the speakers and watch the vibrations. Those simple smashing atoms can make some really amazing beats!
Discover more kids science articles, look up amazing fun facts, do animated science quizzes with talking characters, meet friends in virtual worlds, play games and do fun science activities at Science Score - the world's most fun online elearning product for kids.
Anything that vibrates makes a sound. Try this: put your hand gently against your throat and hum. Can you feel those vibrations? That's your voice!
The faster something vibrates, the higher the sound is. And the bigger the vibrations, the louder the sound is. When something vibrates, it smashes into the particles of air, liquid, or solid around it. These particles then smash into the particles next to them, and send the sound along in a wave.
You can see the way sound travels by filling up a tub or sink with water. Put your hand in the water and give it a quick wave. See how the wave your hand made travels through the water? Sound travels in just the same way!
Sound also travels differently depending on what it's moving through. If you had a microscope more powerful than anything on the planet, you would be able to see that everything around us is made up of tiny particles called atoms. The atoms in a gas, like air, are far apart and whizzing around. The atoms in a liquid are closer together, but slosh past each other. The atoms in a solid are packed tightly together and locked into one shape.
When sound waves travel through air, the atoms are spaced so far apart that it's hard for one group of atoms to reach the next group to pass the sound wave along. Sound waves in air fade away very fast.
Because the atoms in liquid are much closer together, it's much easier for them to bump into each other and pass the sound wave along. But the best thing for sending sound waves along is a solid. Have you ever seen a movie where someone puts their ear to the ground to see if someone is following them? That's because solid rock carries sounds faster and farther than air!
You can try this experiment with a friend. Find a long metal fence, and stand at either end of it. Put your ear to the fence, and have your friend tap the other end with a rock or stick. You should be able to hear the sound twice - once through the fence, and again through the air!
You can also hear that sounds are much louder in solids than in air. That's why spies in movies will listen to a conversation though a wall by putting their ear against a glass. The solid glass makes the sound louder!
You can have some learning fun of your own with this simple experiment: Get in a bathtub (or something you can swim in), and tap the side of the tub with something hard. Then put your head underwater and tap again. The sound should be louder in the water! Now put your ear against the side of the tub and tap a third time. The sound will be even louder!
So remember next time you're dancing to your favourite songs to take a look at the speakers and watch the vibrations. Those simple smashing atoms can make some really amazing beats!
Discover more kids science articles, look up amazing fun facts, do animated science quizzes with talking characters, meet friends in virtual worlds, play games and do fun science activities at Science Score - the world's most fun online elearning product for kids.
Time, Consciousness, and Modern Physics
The message from Quantum Mechanics is very clear: man and nature are intimately connected in mutual participation. Man's presence is in fact indispensable when it comes to the existence of natural phenomena and there is no way to interpret quantum theory without encountering consciousness. All this runs counter to our ordinary experience of the world, which is still that of Galileo and Newton. We still see the world as existing "out there", quite separate from us and with a separate history of its own. This separate history goes back to the beginning of the planet, when it was formed between four and five billion years ago. At a very late period in this history man appeared and took his place in the unfolding drama, but there is no evidence that this appearance in its early stages caused any changes in the drama of nature. It is only in the last few hundred years, as far as we know, that man has become powerful enough to disturb the processes and the balance of nature. This disturbance is caused by what he does not by what he is.
This view of the relationship between man and nature can no longer be defended by science. If man is now considered to participate in natural processes, even to the extent of causing their existence, the whole past history of the earth before the advent of man must come under new scrutiny. Evolutionary theory requires very long periods of time for changes to take place, such as adapting the bodies of aquatic animals to life on land. The processes involve millions of largely undisturbed years, where very small, incremental changes can gradually add up to major changes in the evolutionary ladder of being. That is the view of traditional science, based on classical Newtonian physics. If this is now no longer valid and we must take man into consideration when it comes to natural processes, we will have to look at how man has perceived earth's history from his own point of view. It is true that man cannot look very far into the past of the planet, but the little he can see does not indicate vast stretches of time where very little happens and the evolutionary process is allowed to operate undisturbed. What man has any knowledge of regarding the past of the earth indicates great drama and upheaval in a very short period of time, speaking in terms of evolutionary time.
It seems that even the few thousand years that we can look at of the earth's history are filled with sudden changes and catastrophes. The mammoths that were dug out of the frozen tundra of Siberia were so well preserved that their last meal, which they were in the process of eating when they were struck down, was seen to consist of semi-tropical herbs and grasses. To instantly deep-freeze a very large animal, covered with thick fur, so that there is still identifiable meat on the bones some 10,000 years later, would require a process of nature which can only be guessed at, perhaps a sudden reversal of the poles. Whatever it was, it was very sudden and catastrophic. The same can be said of the universal legends of the Flood: whatever it was and whenever it really took place, it was something very sudden and catastrophic. The latest ice age, apparently one of several in our recent past, represents another sudden change in climate, flora and fauna.
The times involved in all these happenings is also very short, compared to what the evolutionary processes require. There were several early cultures that studied the stars and felt that there was some connection between human fate and history and the cyclic movements they could perceive in the heavens. The longest of these cycles was the time it took for the equinox to move westward along the ecliptic through the entire zodiac circle of fixed stars, a process known as the precession of the equinoxes because it moved in a direction opposite that of the sun. This time is approximately 26,000 years, known as a Great or Platonic Year, a very time long indeed in human historical terms but a mere blink of the evolutionary time needed to make significant changes in animals.
Is there simply a huge disconnect between human cultural evolution and human biological evolution in terms of time? Human technology might be said to have started when someone found out that copper could be alloyed with tin to give bronze, about 6,000 BCE. Technology advanced to the point of being able to destroy the world in 1945, less than 8,000 years later. What are 8,000 years in biological evolutionary time? Did the human brain perhaps evolve more than anything else in these 8,000 years? In that case, what happened to this same brain during the vastly longer Stone Age that preceded the Bronze Age? But perhaps there is something else going on. Our own human tally of orally transmitted and written records, legends and race memories makes no mention of ever more primitive societies in remote pre-history. On the contrary, from Plato's Dialogues to the histories of Berosus and Alexander Polyhistor, such records are full of ancient, very advanced civilizations and races, as well as various cataclysms going back in time beyond Atlantis to the destruction of a great continent in the Pacific Ocean. But is would be very surprising if all these human legends and histories of higher civilizations and violent upheavals go back more than a single Great Year of 26,000 years. In terms of human culture, that is a very long time indeed. Whatever "really" happened in all those years, we can relate to the stories coming out of our prehistory, we feel some kinship, however remote, with Atlanteans and others beyond written records.
The same cannot be said about what science tells us. Hundreds of thousands of years, or even millions and tens of millions, are lengths of time we can do nothing with. What happened "really" during all these freezing wastes of time? Yes, we can speculate that a giant meteor, landing near the Yucatan peninsula, finished off the dinosaurs. But that was 65 million years ago! Our legends and prehistorical musings have more than one cataclysm within 26,000 years and huge changes in humanity's culture in less than 8,000 years. If the latest physics now tells us that the traditional scientific picture of an independently evolving nature cannot translate into an account of what really happened historically speaking, the question of time becomes important. Geological records must of course be accepted, but at the moment geological times and evolutionary times are on one scale and our cultural time is on another scale completely. We have always assumed that the geological and evolutionary time clock must be the right one because it was scientific, whereas our memories and legends were not. What we are now being told is that this history of the world, quite independent of mankind, is not a true picture of what actually happened, so that the time frame, associated with this picture, must also be newly suspect.
Our measurement of time depends on assumptions of invariability of certain natural processes, like the rate of radioactive decay and some microscopic vibrations. We assume that, because measurements of these processes give us very accurate time intervals today, that they have always done so in exactly the same way. We also assume that the land, the sea, the rocks, the air and so on that exist in our world today were fundamentally the same about 3.8 billion years ago, when our planet first cooled down enough to start supporting some very primitive life forms in the ancient seas of that remote epoch. It seems that there might be some fundamental flaw in this entire picture of our ancient earth history, that any events before the presence of man might not be so easy to visualize as we had thought.
Physics now tells us that what we perceive through our senses is a highly subjective appearance and not an independent, objective reality. Such appearances, on a large scale, obey the classical laws of physics. On a microscopic scale, they elude us to the extent that some physicists deny the reality of their existence. It looks as though we must now start also to rethink some conventional positions relating to the evolutionary history of the earth. If we could get into one of those Wellsian time machines and go backwards in time, we now know that we cannot expect to see the changing earth unfold before us, like watching it on film, where we are quite separate from the picture. We know that we participate in this picture at every turn. So what would we see, especially when we pass the point when man first made his appearance on earth? What would the dinosaurs "really" have looked like then, when they inhabited the earth, not as we now reconstruct them from their fossil bones? Such records changed together with everything else on earth from what they were 65 million years ago to what they are now. Today they form part of our present-day set of appearances, perceived with our present-day senses and interpreted by our present-day consciousness. All that was missing 65 million years ago. Something supported the dinosaurs and the rest of that world then, long before the existence of man, so that their entire world was objective to man, that is it did not depend on man's existence. That objectivity must clearly still exist today. The Southern Seas existed before Captain Cook was the first man to see them, or so we must suppose if we think rationally. But this objectivity is missing in science today. It certainly does not appear in quantum mechanics. Perhaps the time has come to take another look at this traditional Platonic principle.
Werner Thurau was born in December, 1927, in Havana, Cuba. In 1929, his family returned to his father's native Germany. He spent the entire 1930s in Berlin, but came to England in 1939 and was then further educated in that country, ending with an engineering degree from London University. His further career took him all over the world on technical projects, moving first to Mexico and then to the United States, where he lives now. At school in England, he was exposed early in life to the world of ideas. Some of his teachers were friends of C.S. Lewis and Lewis's Oxford group, the Inklings, and his father was a philosophical bookworm. Werner combined this background with a lifelong interest in physics, especially modern physics after it breached the atomic barrier. This interest extended to Galileo, the founder of our age, and what made him so different from others of his time, as well as to the effect physics has had on other related sciences, such as evolutionary theory (and its polar opposite, creationism). He came to see that the latest developments in physics bring in subjects not normally associated with a book on that science, such as consciousness, subjective, and objective reality concepts and even ethics.
This view of the relationship between man and nature can no longer be defended by science. If man is now considered to participate in natural processes, even to the extent of causing their existence, the whole past history of the earth before the advent of man must come under new scrutiny. Evolutionary theory requires very long periods of time for changes to take place, such as adapting the bodies of aquatic animals to life on land. The processes involve millions of largely undisturbed years, where very small, incremental changes can gradually add up to major changes in the evolutionary ladder of being. That is the view of traditional science, based on classical Newtonian physics. If this is now no longer valid and we must take man into consideration when it comes to natural processes, we will have to look at how man has perceived earth's history from his own point of view. It is true that man cannot look very far into the past of the planet, but the little he can see does not indicate vast stretches of time where very little happens and the evolutionary process is allowed to operate undisturbed. What man has any knowledge of regarding the past of the earth indicates great drama and upheaval in a very short period of time, speaking in terms of evolutionary time.
It seems that even the few thousand years that we can look at of the earth's history are filled with sudden changes and catastrophes. The mammoths that were dug out of the frozen tundra of Siberia were so well preserved that their last meal, which they were in the process of eating when they were struck down, was seen to consist of semi-tropical herbs and grasses. To instantly deep-freeze a very large animal, covered with thick fur, so that there is still identifiable meat on the bones some 10,000 years later, would require a process of nature which can only be guessed at, perhaps a sudden reversal of the poles. Whatever it was, it was very sudden and catastrophic. The same can be said of the universal legends of the Flood: whatever it was and whenever it really took place, it was something very sudden and catastrophic. The latest ice age, apparently one of several in our recent past, represents another sudden change in climate, flora and fauna.
The times involved in all these happenings is also very short, compared to what the evolutionary processes require. There were several early cultures that studied the stars and felt that there was some connection between human fate and history and the cyclic movements they could perceive in the heavens. The longest of these cycles was the time it took for the equinox to move westward along the ecliptic through the entire zodiac circle of fixed stars, a process known as the precession of the equinoxes because it moved in a direction opposite that of the sun. This time is approximately 26,000 years, known as a Great or Platonic Year, a very time long indeed in human historical terms but a mere blink of the evolutionary time needed to make significant changes in animals.
Is there simply a huge disconnect between human cultural evolution and human biological evolution in terms of time? Human technology might be said to have started when someone found out that copper could be alloyed with tin to give bronze, about 6,000 BCE. Technology advanced to the point of being able to destroy the world in 1945, less than 8,000 years later. What are 8,000 years in biological evolutionary time? Did the human brain perhaps evolve more than anything else in these 8,000 years? In that case, what happened to this same brain during the vastly longer Stone Age that preceded the Bronze Age? But perhaps there is something else going on. Our own human tally of orally transmitted and written records, legends and race memories makes no mention of ever more primitive societies in remote pre-history. On the contrary, from Plato's Dialogues to the histories of Berosus and Alexander Polyhistor, such records are full of ancient, very advanced civilizations and races, as well as various cataclysms going back in time beyond Atlantis to the destruction of a great continent in the Pacific Ocean. But is would be very surprising if all these human legends and histories of higher civilizations and violent upheavals go back more than a single Great Year of 26,000 years. In terms of human culture, that is a very long time indeed. Whatever "really" happened in all those years, we can relate to the stories coming out of our prehistory, we feel some kinship, however remote, with Atlanteans and others beyond written records.
The same cannot be said about what science tells us. Hundreds of thousands of years, or even millions and tens of millions, are lengths of time we can do nothing with. What happened "really" during all these freezing wastes of time? Yes, we can speculate that a giant meteor, landing near the Yucatan peninsula, finished off the dinosaurs. But that was 65 million years ago! Our legends and prehistorical musings have more than one cataclysm within 26,000 years and huge changes in humanity's culture in less than 8,000 years. If the latest physics now tells us that the traditional scientific picture of an independently evolving nature cannot translate into an account of what really happened historically speaking, the question of time becomes important. Geological records must of course be accepted, but at the moment geological times and evolutionary times are on one scale and our cultural time is on another scale completely. We have always assumed that the geological and evolutionary time clock must be the right one because it was scientific, whereas our memories and legends were not. What we are now being told is that this history of the world, quite independent of mankind, is not a true picture of what actually happened, so that the time frame, associated with this picture, must also be newly suspect.
Our measurement of time depends on assumptions of invariability of certain natural processes, like the rate of radioactive decay and some microscopic vibrations. We assume that, because measurements of these processes give us very accurate time intervals today, that they have always done so in exactly the same way. We also assume that the land, the sea, the rocks, the air and so on that exist in our world today were fundamentally the same about 3.8 billion years ago, when our planet first cooled down enough to start supporting some very primitive life forms in the ancient seas of that remote epoch. It seems that there might be some fundamental flaw in this entire picture of our ancient earth history, that any events before the presence of man might not be so easy to visualize as we had thought.
Physics now tells us that what we perceive through our senses is a highly subjective appearance and not an independent, objective reality. Such appearances, on a large scale, obey the classical laws of physics. On a microscopic scale, they elude us to the extent that some physicists deny the reality of their existence. It looks as though we must now start also to rethink some conventional positions relating to the evolutionary history of the earth. If we could get into one of those Wellsian time machines and go backwards in time, we now know that we cannot expect to see the changing earth unfold before us, like watching it on film, where we are quite separate from the picture. We know that we participate in this picture at every turn. So what would we see, especially when we pass the point when man first made his appearance on earth? What would the dinosaurs "really" have looked like then, when they inhabited the earth, not as we now reconstruct them from their fossil bones? Such records changed together with everything else on earth from what they were 65 million years ago to what they are now. Today they form part of our present-day set of appearances, perceived with our present-day senses and interpreted by our present-day consciousness. All that was missing 65 million years ago. Something supported the dinosaurs and the rest of that world then, long before the existence of man, so that their entire world was objective to man, that is it did not depend on man's existence. That objectivity must clearly still exist today. The Southern Seas existed before Captain Cook was the first man to see them, or so we must suppose if we think rationally. But this objectivity is missing in science today. It certainly does not appear in quantum mechanics. Perhaps the time has come to take another look at this traditional Platonic principle.
Werner Thurau was born in December, 1927, in Havana, Cuba. In 1929, his family returned to his father's native Germany. He spent the entire 1930s in Berlin, but came to England in 1939 and was then further educated in that country, ending with an engineering degree from London University. His further career took him all over the world on technical projects, moving first to Mexico and then to the United States, where he lives now. At school in England, he was exposed early in life to the world of ideas. Some of his teachers were friends of C.S. Lewis and Lewis's Oxford group, the Inklings, and his father was a philosophical bookworm. Werner combined this background with a lifelong interest in physics, especially modern physics after it breached the atomic barrier. This interest extended to Galileo, the founder of our age, and what made him so different from others of his time, as well as to the effect physics has had on other related sciences, such as evolutionary theory (and its polar opposite, creationism). He came to see that the latest developments in physics bring in subjects not normally associated with a book on that science, such as consciousness, subjective, and objective reality concepts and even ethics.
Playing With Electricity - Fun Experiments to Do at Home
Everyone knows it's dangerous to play with electricity. If a strong enough electrical current runs through your body, it can overpower the electrical messages your body sends to your brain, or even stop your heart! Fortunately, kid's science has some easy elementary science experiments you can do that are safe to try at home.
Experiment 1: Dancing dots
1. Tear up a few pieces of paper (tissue paper works best) into little dots and spread them out in a pile.
2. Wet a plastic comb or brush and run it several times through your hair.
3. Bring the comb close to the paper dots. If you brushed your hair enough, the dots should dance!
What's Happening?
Everything in the world, including your hair, is made up of tiny particles called atoms. An atom is made up of a hard clump of positive (+) protons, surrounded by whizzing negative (-) electrons. There are usually the same number of protons and electrons in an atom, so they cancel each other out.
When you run the comb through your hair, the comb starts grabbing electrons from the atoms in your hair.
When there are more electrons than protons on the comb, you create a negative electrical charge.
The paper dots are attracted to the negative charge, and the paper is light enough that you can use the comb to pick them up.
Try touching the comb with a finger of your other hand. What happens? The dots all fall off! This is because the extra electrons in the comb move into your finger. If there's no negative charge on the comb anymore, there's nothing to hold the dots on, and they will fall.
Experiment 2: Water Wizard
1. Turn on a faucet until you have a very thin stream of water. The thinner the better.
2. Run a plastic comb through your hair several times.
3. Hold the comb near the water. The water should bend toward it!
What's Happening?
The neutral particles in the water are attracted to the negative charge you built up on the comb.
Experiment 3: Build a Battery
This experiment is a little more complicated, but the things you need should be available at a hardware store. You will need:
citrus fruit (like oranges or lemons) or a potato
something copper (like a nail or coin or metal strip)
a piece of zinc (about the same size as your piece of copper)
2 wires with crocodile clamps
a small LED light or a voltmeter
1. Press down on the fruit and roll it around on a hard surface to break open the juice inside.
2. Get an adult to help you make a small cut into the skin of the fruit and push the copper in. Leave the end of it sticking out.
3. Make a small cut into the other side of the fruit and push the zinc in.
4. Connect the end of your first wire to the copper, and the end of your second wire to the zinc.
5. Connect the other ends of both wires to the LED or voltmeter. You should see an electric charge!
What's Happening?
Combining metal with acid (like lemon juice) causes a chemical reaction that creates positive and negative particles around each piece of metal. The negative particles will move through the wires from one piece of metal to the other, which causes an electric current. If the reaction is strong enough, it can even power a light bulb!
Experiment 1: Dancing dots
1. Tear up a few pieces of paper (tissue paper works best) into little dots and spread them out in a pile.
2. Wet a plastic comb or brush and run it several times through your hair.
3. Bring the comb close to the paper dots. If you brushed your hair enough, the dots should dance!
What's Happening?
Everything in the world, including your hair, is made up of tiny particles called atoms. An atom is made up of a hard clump of positive (+) protons, surrounded by whizzing negative (-) electrons. There are usually the same number of protons and electrons in an atom, so they cancel each other out.
When you run the comb through your hair, the comb starts grabbing electrons from the atoms in your hair.
When there are more electrons than protons on the comb, you create a negative electrical charge.
The paper dots are attracted to the negative charge, and the paper is light enough that you can use the comb to pick them up.
Try touching the comb with a finger of your other hand. What happens? The dots all fall off! This is because the extra electrons in the comb move into your finger. If there's no negative charge on the comb anymore, there's nothing to hold the dots on, and they will fall.
Experiment 2: Water Wizard
1. Turn on a faucet until you have a very thin stream of water. The thinner the better.
2. Run a plastic comb through your hair several times.
3. Hold the comb near the water. The water should bend toward it!
What's Happening?
The neutral particles in the water are attracted to the negative charge you built up on the comb.
Experiment 3: Build a Battery
This experiment is a little more complicated, but the things you need should be available at a hardware store. You will need:
citrus fruit (like oranges or lemons) or a potato
something copper (like a nail or coin or metal strip)
a piece of zinc (about the same size as your piece of copper)
2 wires with crocodile clamps
a small LED light or a voltmeter
1. Press down on the fruit and roll it around on a hard surface to break open the juice inside.
2. Get an adult to help you make a small cut into the skin of the fruit and push the copper in. Leave the end of it sticking out.
3. Make a small cut into the other side of the fruit and push the zinc in.
4. Connect the end of your first wire to the copper, and the end of your second wire to the zinc.
5. Connect the other ends of both wires to the LED or voltmeter. You should see an electric charge!
What's Happening?
Combining metal with acid (like lemon juice) causes a chemical reaction that creates positive and negative particles around each piece of metal. The negative particles will move through the wires from one piece of metal to the other, which causes an electric current. If the reaction is strong enough, it can even power a light bulb!
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