Science Matters!

- Fundamentals -

Questions -

Q101 - A wave of light is commonly depicted as a squiggly line. What are the units of the X axis and the Y axis?
Answer provided by Lawrence Tuppen

Q102 - What are Quasars?
Answer provided by Kevin Brown

Q103 - What are Neutron Stars?
[No Answer Yet - Do You have a candidate answer?]

Q104 - What causes Supernovae?
[No Answer Yet - Do You have a candidate answer?]

Q105 - What's the difference between Fission and Fusion? How can they both give off energy?
[No Answer Yet - Do You have a candidate answer?]

Q106 - What are Pulsars?
Answer provided by Lawrence Tuppen

Answers -

Q 101
A wave of light is commonly depicted as a squiggly line. What are the units of the X axis and the Y axis?

A 101
There are two common squiggles. The y-axis is the QUANTITY of light and the x-axis is either TIME or DISTANCE.
  1. If you stand still and measure the quantity of light through time, the quantity grows and shrinks following a "circular" sine curve. You can graph this as a squiggle with TIME on the x-axis and QUANTITY on the y-axis.
  2. If you take a fixed moment in time, and at this moment you and a long line of friends measure the quantity of light at each point along the light beam, then you can make a squiggly graph of the QUANTITY on the y-axis and your friends DISTANCE from you on the x-axis. Note that the exciting thing about light and other electromagnetic waves is that you get the SAME squiggly line in both cases. Given a fixed speed of light, you can overlay the squiggles exactly if you use the right units of measurement.
12 May 96 - Lawrence Tuppen - rbd90@dial.pipex.com

Q 102
What are Quasars?

A 102
Quasars are extremely distant objects that are so far away they are significantly red-shifted due to the cosmological expansion of the universe. At least, that's the best current explanation. However, if they are as far away as their redshifts suggest, they are incredibly energetic, so some people have suggested other explanations for their redshifts.

12 May 96 - Kevin Brown - ksbrown@ksbrown.seanet.com

Q 103
What are Neutron stars?

A 103
[No answer yet - Do you have a candidate answer? See Below]

Q 104
What causes Supernovae?

A 104
[No answer yet - Do you have a candidate answer? See Below]
Q 105
What's the difference between Fission and Fusion? How can they both give off energy?

A 105
[No answer yet - Do you have a candidate answer? See Below]
Q 106
What are Pulsars?

A 106
Pulsars are remote stellar objects which emit more light in one direction than elsewhere, and which are spinning. From Earth they flash brightly every time they point at us. You can see this by hanging a torch so that it points sideways (not straight down) from a long string, twist the string a lot, retire to a distance and watch the flashing light. The speed at which a quasar flashes is very constant because angular momentum is conserved, so quasars act like stellar clocks.

12 May 96 - Lawrence Tuppen - rbd90@dial.pipex.com


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