Many people in school years They thought physics was a boring subject. But this is not at all the case, because in real life everything happens precisely thanks to this science. For this natural science you can look not only from the side of solving problems and creating formulas. Physics also studies the Universe in which a person lives, and therefore it becomes not interesting to live without knowing the rules of this Universe.
1. As you know from textbooks, water has no form, but water still has its own form. This is a ball.
2.Depending on weather conditions, the height of the Eiffel Tower may fluctuate by 12 centimeters. In hot weather, the beams heat up to 40 degrees and expand under the influence of high temperatures, which changes the height of this structure.
3. To feel weak currents, physicist Vasily Petrov had to remove the top layer of the epithelium at the tip of his finger.
4. To understand the nature of vision, Isaac Newton inserted a probe into his eye.
5. An ordinary shepherd's whip is considered the first device that broke the sound barrier.
6. You can see x-rays and visible glow if you unfold the tape in a vacuum space.
7. Known to everyone, Einstein was a loser.
8. The body is not a good current conductor.
9. Nuclear is considered the most serious section of physics.
10. The real nuclear reactor operated 2 billion years ago in Oklo. The reaction of the reactor continued for about 100,000 years, and only when the uranium vein was depleted did it end.
11. The temperature on the surface of the Sun is 5 times lower than the temperature of lightning.
12.More than a mosquito weighs a drop of rain.
13. Insects that fly are oriented during the flight only to the light of the Moon or the Sun.
14. The spectrum is formed at the moment when the sun's rays pass through the drops in the air.
15. The fluidity formed due to stress is characteristic of large ice glaciers.
16. Light travels more slowly in a transparent medium than in a vacuum.
17. There are no two snowflakes with the same pattern.
18. When ice forms, the crystal lattice begins to lose salt content, which causes ice and salt water to form at some points in downstreams.
19. For his experiments, physicist Jean-Antoine Nolle used people as material.
20. Without using a corkscrew, a bottle can be opened by leaning a newspaper against the wall.
21. To escape from a falling elevator, you need to take a “lying” position, while occupying the maximum floor area. So the impact force is evenly distributed throughout the body.
22. Air from the Sun does not heat up directly.
23. Due to the fact that the Sun emits light in all ranges, it has White color even though it looks yellow.
24. Sound travels faster where the medium is denser.
25. The noise of Niagara Falls is equivalent to the noise of a factory floor.
26. Water is capable of conducting electricity only with the help of ions that dissolve in it.
27. The maximum density of water is reached at a temperature of 4 degrees.
28. Almost all the oxygen in the atmosphere has a biogenic origin, but before the emergence of photosynthetic bacteria, the atmosphere was considered anoxic.
29. The first engine was a machine called aeolopyl, which was created by the Greek scientist Heron of Alexandria.
30. 100 years after the creation of the first radio-controlled ship by Nikola Tesla, similar toys appeared on sale.
31. The Nobel Prize was forbidden to receive in Nazi Germany.
32. The short-wave components of the solar spectrum propagate in the air more strongly than the long-wave ones.
33. At a temperature of 20 degrees, the water in the pipeline, which contains methane, can freeze.
34. The only freely encountered in natural environment the substance is water.
35. Most of the water is in the Sun. The water is in the form of steam.
36. The current is not conducted by the water molecule itself, but by the ions contained in it.
37. Only distilled water is a dielectric.
38. Each bowling ball has the same volume, but their mass is different.
39. In the water space, you can observe the process of "sonoluminescence" - the transformation of sound into light.
40. As a particle, the electron was discovered by English physicist Joseph John Thompson in 1897.
41.Speed electric current equates to the speed of light.
42. By connecting ordinary headphones to the microphone input, they can be used as a microphone.
43. Even with a very strong wind in the mountains, clouds can hang motionless. This is due to the fact that the wind moves the air masses in a certain stream or wave, but at the same time, various obstacles are flowed around.
44. There are no blue or green pigments in the shell of the human eye.
45. In order to be able to look through a glass that has a matte surface, it is worth sticking a piece of transparent tape on it.
46. At a temperature of 0 degrees, water in a normal state begins to turn into ice.
47. In a Guinness beer drink, you can see how the bubbles go down the walls of the glass instead of going up. This is because the bubbles rise faster in the center of the glass and push the liquid down at the edge with more viscous friction.
48. For the first time, the phenomenon of an electric arc was described by the Russian scientist Vasily Petrov in 1802.
49. The Newtonian viscosity of a liquid depends on the nature and temperature. But if the viscosity also depends on the velocity gradient, then it is called non-Newtonian.
50.V freezer hot water freezes faster than cold.
51. For 8.3 minutes, photons in outer space can reach the Earth.
52. About 3500 terrestrial planets have been discovered to date.
53. All items have the same falling speed.
54. If a mosquito is on the ground, then a drop of rain can kill it.
55. All objects that surround a person consist of atoms.
56. Glass is not considered a solid because it is a liquid.
57. Liquid, gaseous and solid bodies always expand when heated.
58. Lightning strikes about 6,000 times a minute.
59. If hydrogen burns in the air, water is formed.
60. Light has weight but no mass.
61. At the moment when a person strikes a match on the box, the temperature of the match head rises to 200 degrees.
62. In the process of boiling water, its molecules move at a speed of 650 meters per second.
63. At the tip of a needle in a sewing machine, pressure develops up to 5000 atmospheres.
64. In the world space there is a physicist who received an award for the most ridiculous discovery in science. This is Andrey Geim from Holland, who was awarded in 2000 for his study of frog levitation.
65. Gasoline has no specific freezing point.
66. Granite conducts sound 10 times faster than air.
67. White color reflects light, and black attracts it.
68. By adding sugar to water, the egg will not sink in it.
69. Clean snow will melt more slowly than dirty snow.
70. A magnet will not act on stainless steel because it does not have varying proportions of nickel that interfere with the action of the iron atoms.
A bird sitting on a wire of a high-voltage power line does not suffer from current, because its body is a poor conductor. Where the bird's paws touch the wire, a parallel connection is created, and since the wire conducts electricity much better, a very small current runs through the bird itself, which cannot cause harm.
However, if the bird on the wire touches another grounded object, for example, the metal part of the support, it immediately dies, because then the air resistance is already too high compared to the resistance of the body, and all the current goes through the bird.
What kind of memory can metal alloys have?
Some metal alloys, such as nitinol (55% nickel and 45% titanium), have a shape memory effect. It lies in the fact that a deformed product made of such a material, when heated to a certain temperature, returns to its original shape. This is due to the fact that these alloys have a special internal structure called martensite, which has the property of thermoelasticity.
In the deformed parts of the structure, internal stresses arise, which tend to return the structure to its original state. Shape-memory materials are widely used in production - for example, for connecting sleeves, which are compressed at very low temperatures, and straightened at room temperature, forming a connection that is much more reliable than welding.
How did the Pauli effect prevent Pauli from being played?
Scientists call the Pauli effect a failure in the operation of devices and an unplanned course of experiments when famous theoretical physicists appear - for example, Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli.
Once they decided to play him by connecting the wall clock in the hall where he was supposed to give a lecture, with front door using a relay so that when the door is opened, the clock stops. However, this did not happen - when Pauli entered, the relay suddenly failed.
What color noises are there besides white noise?
The concept of "white noise" is widely known - this is what they say about a signal with a uniform spectral density at all frequencies and a dispersion equal to infinity. An example of white noise is the sound of a waterfall. However, in addition to white, a large number of other colored noises are distinguished.
Pink noise is a signal whose density is inversely proportional to frequency, and for red noise, the density is inversely proportional to the square of frequency - they are perceived by ear as “warmer” than white. There are also concepts of blue, purple, gray noise and many others.
What elementary particles are named after the cry of ducks?
Murray Gell-Mann, who hypothesized that hadrons are composed of even smaller particles, decided to call these particles the sound that ducks make. The novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce helped him shape this sound into a suitable word, namely the line: “Three quarks for Muster Mark!”.
Hence particles are called quarks, although it is not at all clear what meaning this previously non-existent word had for Joyce.
Why is the sky blue during the day and red during sunset?
Shortwave components of the solar spectrum are scattered in the air more than longwave ones. That's why we see the sky blue blue color is at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum. For a similar reason, during sunset or dawn, the sky on the horizon turns red.
At this time, the light travels tangentially to the earth's surface, and its path in the atmosphere is much longer, as a result of which a significant part of the blue and green color due to scattering leaves direct sunlight.
What is the difference between the mechanism of lapping water in cats and dogs?
In the process of lapping, cats do not immerse their tongue in water, but, lightly touching the surface with a curved tip, immediately pull it back up. In this case, a column of liquid is formed due to the delicate balance of gravity, which pulls the water down, and the force of inertia, forcing the water to continue moving up.
Dogs use a similar lapping mechanism - although it may appear to the observer that the dog is scooping up liquid with a tongue folded into a shoulder blade, x-ray analysis showed that this “shoulder blade” unfolds inside the mouth, and the water column created by the dog is similar to that of a cat.
Who has both the Nobel and Ig Nobel Prizes?
The Dutch physicist of Russian origin Andrei Geim received the Nobel Prize in 2010 for experiments that helped to study the properties of graphene. And 10 years earlier, he received the ironic Ig Nobel Prize for an experiment on diamagnetic levitation of frogs.
Thus, Game became the first person in the world who owns both the Nobel Prize and the Ig Nobel Prize.
Why are ordinary city streets dangerous for racing cars?
When a racing car is driving on a track, very low pressure can be created between the bottom of the car and the road, enough to lift the manhole cover. This happened, for example, in Montreal in 1990 at the race of sports prototypes - the cover raised by one of the cars hit the car following it, which started a fire and the race was stopped.
Therefore, now in all racing cars on city streets, covers are welded to the rim of the hatch.
Why did Newton put a foreign object in his eye?
Isaac Newton was interested in many aspects of physics and other sciences and was not afraid to do some experiments on himself.
He checked his guess that we see the world around us due to the pressure of light on the retina of the eye: he cut out a thin curved probe from ivory, launched it into his eye and pressed it on the back of the eyeball. The resulting color flashes and circles confirmed his hypothesis.
Why is the unit of measurement for both temperature and the strength of alcoholic beverages called the same - a degree?
In the XVII-XVIII centuries, there was a physical theory about caloric - weightless matter that is in bodies and is the cause of thermal phenomena. According to this theory, more heated bodies contain more caloric than less heated bodies, so the temperature was defined as the strength of the mixture of the substance of the body and caloric.
That is why the unit of measurement for both temperature and the strength of alcoholic beverages is called the same - a degree.
Why were two German-American satellites named Tom and Jerry?
In 2002, Germany, together with the United States, launched a system of two space satellites to measure the Earth's gravity called GRACE. They fly in one orbit at an altitude of about 450 kilometers one after another, with an interval of 220 kilometers.
When the first satellite approaches an area with increased gravity, such as a large mountain range, it accelerates and moves away from the second satellite. And after some time, the second device also flies here, it also accelerates and thereby restores the original distance. For such a game of "catch-up" satellites were given the names Tom and Jerry.
Why can't the American SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft be fully refueled on the ground?
The American reconnaissance aircraft SR-71 Blackbird has gaps in its skin at normal temperatures. In flight, the skin heats up due to air friction, and the gaps disappear, and the fuel cools the skin. Because of this method, the plane cannot be refueled on the ground, because the fuel will flow out through those very cracks.
Therefore, at first, only a small amount of fuel is refueled into the aircraft, and refueling takes place already in the air.
Where can water freeze at +20 °C?
Water can freeze in the pipeline at +20 °C if methane is present in this water (to be more precise, gas hydrate is formed from water and methane). Methane molecules "push" water molecules, as they occupy a larger volume.
This leads to a decrease in the internal pressure of the water and an increase in the freezing point.
Whose Nobel medals were hidden from the Nazis in dissolved form?
In Nazi Germany, the acceptance of the Nobel Prize was banned after the 1935 Peace Prize was awarded to the opponent of National Socialism, Karl von Ossietzky. German physicists Max von Laue and James Frank entrusted the custody of their gold medals to Niels Bohr. When the Germans occupied Copenhagen in 1940, the chemist de Hevesy dissolved these medals in aqua regia.
After the end of the war, de Hevesy extracted the gold hidden in aqua regia and gave it to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. They made new medals and re-handed them to von Laue and Frank.
Which famous physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?
Ernest Rutherford did research mainly in the field of physics and once stated that "all sciences can be divided into two groups - physics and stamp collecting." However, the Nobel Prize was awarded to him in chemistry, which was a surprise both for him and for other scientists.
Subsequently, he noticed that of all the transformations that he managed to observe, "the most unexpected was his own transformation from a physicist into a chemist."
Why do insects hit lamps?
Insects navigate in flight around the world. They fix the source - the Sun or the Moon - and maintain a constant angle between it and their course, taking a position in which the rays always illuminate the same side.
However, if the rays from the heavenly bodies are almost parallel, then from an artificial light source the rays diverge radially. And when the insect chooses a lamp for its course, it moves in a spiral, gradually approaching it.
How to distinguish a boiled egg from a raw one?
If a boiled egg is spun on a smooth surface, it will quickly turn in the desired direction and will rotate for quite a long time, while the raw one will stop much earlier. This is because a hard-boiled egg rotates as a whole, while a raw egg has a liquid content that is loosely bound to the shell.
Therefore, when rotation begins, the liquid content, due to the inertia of rest, lags behind the rotation of the shell and slows down the movement. Also during rotation, you can briefly stop the rotation with your finger. For the same reasons, a boiled egg will stop immediately, while a raw one will continue to spin after you remove your finger.
Why is the rainbow shaped like an arc?
The sun's rays, passing through the raindrops in the air, are decomposed into a spectrum, since different colors of the spectrum are refracted in the drops at different angles.
As a result, a circle is formed - a rainbow, part of which we see from the ground in the form of an arc, and the center of the circle lies on the straight line "The Sun - the observer's eye". If the light in the drop is reflected twice, then a secondary rainbow can be seen.
How can ice flow?
Ice is subject to fluidity - the ability to deform under stress determines the movement of ice in huge glaciers.
Some Himalayan glaciers move at a speed of 2-3 meters per day.
Why can Asians and Africans wear heavy weights on their heads?
The inhabitants of Africa and Asia easily carry heavy loads on their heads. This is explained by the laws of physics. When walking, the human body rises and falls, thus expended forces to lift the load.
At the same time, the head rises and falls with a smaller vertical amplitude than the whole body, and this feature was developed by evolution: the brain was protected from concussion, while the springy spine with a double bend served as a spring.
Why is it possible to increase the rate of freezing of water by preheating it?
In 1963, Tanzanian schoolboy Erasto Mpemba discovered that hot water freezes faster in a freezer than cold water. In honor of him, this phenomenon was named the Mpemba effect.
Until now, scientists have not been able to accurately explain the cause of the phenomenon, and the experiment is not always successful: it requires certain conditions.
Why doesn't ice sink in water?
Water is the only naturally occurring substance on Earth that has a greater density in the liquid state than in the solid state. Therefore, ice does not sink in water.
It is thanks to this that reservoirs usually do not freeze to the bottom, although this is possible at extreme air temperatures.
What influences the direction of the swirl of a water funnel?
The Coriolis force, caused by the rotation of the Earth around its own axis, does not affect the torsion of the water funnel in the bathroom. Its effect can be seen in the twisting of air masses (clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the northern), but this force is too small to spin a small and fast funnel.
The direction of rotation of the water in it depends on other factors, such as the direction of the threads in the drain or the configuration of the pipes.
Who is considered the world's first programmer?
The first programmer in the world was a woman - Englishwoman Ada Lovelace.
In the middle of the 19th century, she drew up a plan of operations for the prototype of the modern computer - Charles Babbage's analytical engine, with the help of which it was possible to solve the Bernoulli equation, which expresses the law of conservation of energy in a moving fluid.
What particles can rise from the core of the Sun to its surface for a million years?
Light travels more slowly in a transparent medium than in a vacuum. For example, photons that experience many collisions on their way from the radiating solar core can take about a million years to reach the surface of the Sun.
However, moving in outer space, the same photons reach the Earth in just 8.3 minutes.
When was the Earth's gravitational field weakened?
On April 1, 1976, English astronomer Patrick Moore pranked listeners on BBC radio by announcing that a rare astronomical effect would happen at 9:47 a.m.: Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, enter into gravitational interaction with it and slightly weaken the Earth's gravitational field.
If the listeners jump at this point, they must experience a strange feeling. Starting at 9:47 a.m., the BBC received hundreds of calls reporting the strange feeling, with one woman even claiming she and her friends were up from their chairs and flying around the room.
Why are there 7 colors in the rainbow?
Although the multi-color spectrum of the rainbow is continuous, according to tradition, 7 colors are distinguished in it. It is believed that Isaac Newton was the first to choose this number. Moreover, initially he distinguished only five colors - red, yellow, green, blue and violet, which he wrote about in his Optics.
But later, in an effort to create a correspondence between the number of colors of the spectrum and the number of fundamental tones of the musical scale, Newton added two more colors.
Why did Dirac want to refuse the Nobel Prize?
When the English physicist Paul Dirac was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933, he wanted to refuse it because he hated advertising.
However, Rutherford still persuaded his colleague to receive the award, since the refusal would have become even more advertising.
What did the inventor of radar say when he speeded?
Scottish physicist Robert Watson-Watt was once stopped by a police officer for speeding, after which he said: "If I knew what you would do with it, I would never have invented radar!"
What is unique about snowflakes?
Due to the huge variety of snowflake shapes, it is believed that no two snowflakes with the same crystal structure exist.
According to some physicists, there are more variants of such forms than there are atoms in the observable universe.
How did maritime smugglers hide alcohol from US customs during Prohibition?
During Prohibition in the United States, most of the smuggled liquor came by sea. The smugglers prepared in advance for sudden customs inspections at sea.
They tied a bag of salt or sugar to each box, and when danger approached, they threw it into the water. After a certain time, the contents of the bags dissolved with water, and the loads floated up.
What did the Celsius scale originally look like?
In the original Celsius scale, the freezing point of water was taken as 100 degrees, and the boiling point of water was taken as 0.
This scale was inverted by Carl Linnaeus, and in this form is used to this day.
What Einstein discovery won the Nobel Prize?
About 60 Einstein nominations remain in the archives of the Nobel Committee in connection with the formulation of the theory of relativity, but the prize was awarded only for explaining the photoelectric effect.
As a rule, few of the students love the school science of natural science about the properties and structure of matter. And indeed - tedious problem solving, complex formulas, incomprehensible combinations of special characters, etc. In general, continuous gloom and melancholy. If you think so, then this article is definitely for you.
In the article we will tell the most Interesting Facts about physics, which will make even a person indifferent to it look at natural science in a different way. Without a doubt, physics is a very useful and interesting science, and there are a lot of interesting facts about the Universe related to it.
1. Why is the sun red in the morning and evening? A wonderful example of a fact from physical phenomena in nature. Actually, the light is hot celestial body- white. The white glow with its spectral change tends to acquire all the colors of the rainbow for itself.
In the mornings and evenings, the sun's rays pass through numerous atmospheric layers. Air molecules and the smallest dry dust particles are able to delay the passage of sunlight, best of all passing only red rays through them.
2. Why does time tend to stop at the speed of light? According to the general theory of relativity proposed by absolute value the speed of propagation of electromagnetic waves in a vacuum environment is constant and equals three hundred million meters per second. In fact, this is a unique phenomenon, given that nothing in our universe can exceed the speed of light, however, this is still a theoretical opinion.
In one of the theories, authored by Einstein, there is an interesting section that says that the more you gain speed, the slower time starts to move in comparison with the surrounding objects. For example, if you drive a car for an hour, you will age a little less than if you just lay on your bed at home watching television programs. Nanoseconds are unlikely to significantly affect your life, but the proven fact remains.
3. Why does a bird sitting on an electric wire not die from a current discharge? A bird sitting on a power line is not subjected to electric shock because its body has insufficient conductivity. In places where the bird comes into contact with the wire, a so-called parallel connection is created, and since. high-voltage wire is the best conductor of current, only a minimum power current moves through the body of the bird itself, which is not able to cause significant harm to the health of the bird.
But as soon as a vertebrate animal covered with feathers and down, standing on a wire, comes into contact with a grounded object, for example, with a metal part of a high-voltage power line, it instantly burns out, because the resistance in this case becomes too great, and all the electric current pierces the body of the unfortunate bird.
4. How much dark matter is there in the Universe? We live in the material world, and all that we can see around is matter. We have the opportunity to touch it by touch, sell it, buy it, we can dispose of matter at our discretion. However, in the Universe there is not only an objective reality in the form of matter, but also dark matter (physicists often talk about it as a “dark horse”) - this is a kind of matter that does not tend to radiate electromagnetic waves and interact with them.
For obvious reasons, no one was able to see or touch dark matter. Scientists have come to the conclusion that it is present in the universe, more than once observing indirect evidence of its existence. It is generally accepted that its share in the composition of the Universe is 22%, while the matter familiar to us takes only 5%.
5. Are there earth-like planets in the universe? Surely they exist! Taking into account the scale of the Universe, the probability of this is estimated by scientists quite high.
However, only recently, scientists from NASA began to actively discover such planets, located no further than 50 light-years from the Sun, called exoplanets. Exoplanets are terrestrial planets that revolve around the axis of other stars. To date, more than 3,500 terrestrial planets have been found, and scientists are discovering alternative places for the existence of people more and more often.
6. All items fall at the same speed. It may seem to some that objects with a large weight fall down much faster than light ones - this is a completely logical assumption. Surely a hockey puck falls at a much faster rate than a bird's feather. In fact, this is so, but not through the fault of universal gravitation - the main reason due to which we can observe this is that the gaseous shell surrounding the planet provides powerful resistance.
It has been 400 years since I first realized that universal gravitation applies to all objects equally, regardless of their gravity. If you had the opportunity to repeat the experiment with a hockey puck and a bird's feather in space (where there is no atmospheric pressure), they would fall down at the same speed.
7. How does the northern lights appear on Earth? Throughout their existence, people have watched one of the natural wonders of our planet - the northern lights, but at the same time they could not understand what it is and where it comes from. Ancient people, for example, had their own idea: a group of indigenous Eskimo peoples believed that this was a sacred light that radiated from the souls of deceased people, and in ancient European countries it was assumed that this was fighting who are eternally doomed to lead the defenders of their state who died in wars.
The first scientists came closer to unraveling the mysterious phenomenon - they put forward the theory for worldwide discussion that the glow arises as a result of the reflection of light rays from ice blocks. Modern researchers believe that the multi-colored light is provoked by the collision of millions of atoms and dust particles from our atmospheric shell. The fact that the phenomenon is widespread mainly at the poles is explained by the fact that in these regions the power of the Earth's magnetic field is especially strong.
8. Deep-sucking quicksand. The force of pulling a stuck leg out of the sands, supersaturated with air and moisture from ascending sources, at a speed of 0.1 m / s, is equal to the force of lifting an average passenger car. A noteworthy fact: quicksand refers to a non-Newtonian fluid, which is not able to absorb the human body in its entirety.
Therefore, people mired in quicksand die from exhaustion or dehydration of the body, excessive ultraviolet radiation, or for other reasons. God forbid, you are in such a situation, it is worth remembering that it is strictly forbidden to make sudden movements. Try to tilt your body back as high as possible, spread your arms wide and wait for the rescue team to help.
9. Why is the unit of measure for the strength of alcoholic beverages and temperature called the same - a degree? In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the generally accepted scientific principle of caloric - the so-called weightless matter, which was in physical bodies and was the cause of thermal phenomena.
According to this principle, more heated physical bodies contain many times more concentrated caloric than less heated ones, so the strength of alcoholic beverages was determined as the temperature of a mixture of substance and caloric.
10. Why doesn't a raindrop kill a mosquito? Physicists have managed to figure out how mosquitoes manage to fly in rainy weather and why raindrops do not kill bloodsuckers. The size of insects is the same as the size of a raindrop, only one droplet weighs 50 times more than a mosquito. The impact of a drop can be equated to a car or even a bus crashing into a human body.
Despite this, the rain does not disturb the insects. The question arises - why? The speed of a raindrop is about 9 meters per second. When an insect enters the shell of a drop, enormous pressure acts on it. For example, if a person were subjected to such pressure, his body would not have survived, but the mosquito is able to safely withstand such loads due to the specific structure of the skeleton. And in order to continue flying in a given direction, a mosquito just needs to shake off its hairs from a drop of rain.
Scientists say that the volume of the drop is enough to kill a mosquito if it is on the ground. And they attribute the absence of consequences after a raindrop hits a mosquito with the fact that the movement associated with the drop makes it possible to minimize the transfer of energy to the insect.
In this science there is still an unlimited number of facts. And if the scientists known today were not fond of physics, we would not know all the interesting things that are happening around us. Achievements of famous physicists have allowed us to understand the importance of substantiating the laws-prohibitions, laws-statements and absolute laws for the life of mankind.
Interesting facts about physics, natural school science, will allow you to learn the most ordinary, at first glance, processes from an unusual side.
- 1. The temperature of lightning is five times higher than the temperature on the surface of the Sun and is 30,000K.
- 2. A raindrop weighs more than a mosquito. But the hairs that are located on the surface of the body of the insect practically do not transmit momentum from the drop to the mosquito. Therefore, the insect survives even in heavy rain. Another factor contributes to this. The collision of water with a mosquito occurs on a loose surface. Therefore, if the blow hits the center of the insect, it falls for some time with a drop, and then quickly frees itself. If the rain falls off the center, the trajectory of the mosquito deviates slightly.
- 3. The force of pulling a leg out of quicksand at a speed of 0.1 m/s is equal to the force of lifting a car. An interesting fact: quicksand is a Newtonian fluid that cannot completely absorb a person. Therefore, people stuck in the sands die from dehydration, sun exposure or other reasons. If you find yourself in such a situation, it is better not to make sudden movements. Try to roll over on your back, spread your arms wide and wait for help.
- 4. Did you hear a click after a sharp swing of the whip? This is due to the fact that its tip moves at supersonic speeds. By the way, the whip is the first invention to break the supersonic barrier. And the same thing happens with an airplane that flies at a speed greater than sound. An explosion-like click is due to the aircraft's shock wave.
- 5. Interesting facts about physics also apply to living beings. For example, all insects during the flight are guided by the light of the Sun or the Moon. They maintain an angle at which the lighting is always on the same side. If the insect flies into the light of the lamp, then it moves in a spiral, since its rays diverge not in parallel, but radially.
- 6. The rays of the Sun, which pass through the droplets in the air, form a spectrum. And his different shades refracted at different angles. As a result of this phenomenon, a rainbow is formed - a circle, part of which people see from the ground. The center of the rainbow is always on a straight line drawn from the observer's eye to the Sun. A secondary rainbow can be seen when the light in the droplet is reflected exactly twice.
- 7. The ice of large glaciers is characterized by deformation, that is, fluidity due to stress. For this reason, the Himalayan glaciers are moving at a speed of two to three meters per day.
- 8. Do you know what the Mpemba effect is? This phenomenon was discovered in 1963 by a Tanzanian schoolboy named Erasto Mpemba. The boy noticed that hot water tends to freeze faster in the freezer than cold water. Until now, scientists cannot give an unambiguous explanation for this phenomenon.
- 9. In a transparent medium, light propagates more slowly than in a vacuum.
- 10. Scientists believe that there are no two identical snowflakes. There are even more options for their design than there are atoms in the universe.
Why does the train reverse before moving forward?
If the driver of a heavy freight train tries to start its movement sharply forward, then the train may not budge, since the total static friction force acting from the side of the rails on the wheels of the cars will exceed the sliding force of the driving wheels of the locomotive. Often, the operator must first back up to loosen the hitch tension. And only then go forward, setting the cars in motion one by one.
Which physicist failed to win the Nobel Prize despite being nominated 84 times?
The German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld, noted for his achievements in quantum theory, electron theory, electrodynamics and many other scientific fields, was nominated for the Nobel Prize 84 times from 1917 to 1951, but never received it. Sommerfeld to this day holds the record in this indicator. But the Nobel laureates were seven of his students: Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Peter Debye, Hans Albrecht Bethe, Linus Pauling, Isidor Isaac Rabi and Max von Laue.
Can two identical snowflakes exist?
The formation of snowflakes depends on the temperature and humidity of the air inside the ice cloud, as well as the trajectory of their movement, in which the outlines of their rays are constantly changing. Therefore, many sources state that identical snowflakes do not exist in nature. However, a targeted search by the US Center for Atmospheric Research in 1988 refuted this hypothesis - specialists managed to find two identical snow crystals. And in 2015, physicist Kenneth Libbrecht obtained them in the laboratory, providing them with identical initial growth conditions. It is worth noting that in both cases, despite the external similarity, the atomic structure of the crystals was still different.
What physical law helped to convict speculators of illegal insider trading?
In 2013, US authorities launched an investigation into certain players on the Chicago Stock Exchange. They were convicted of illegally using insider information when they started trading futures on completely different terms than before, just 2 milliseconds after an important announcement from the Federal Reserve. However, the simplest calculation showed that it would take 7 milliseconds for information to pass between Washington and Chicago, even at the speed of light.
Under what conditions can a fluid flow, "ignoring" the forces of friction and gravity?
In the state of superfluidity, the fluid has zero viscosity and can move with the effect of ignoring the forces of friction and attraction. This phenomenon has been best studied using the example of liquid helium at temperatures close to absolute zero. If you put such a liquid in a container, providing a microscopic layer of helium on the walls, it will rise along them and flow out over the edge.
Which famous scientist enjoyed working on his theories at a strip club?
American physicist Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize, sometimes went to work in a strip club. When he got tired of calculating the next theory, he looked at naked girls, which helped to clear his head.
What famous physical theory is named after its critic?
The term "Big Bang" was first used by the British astronomer Fred Hoyle to characterize the early development of the Universe in a lecture that was devoted to criticism of this model. Nevertheless, the term has taken root, coming into use and supporters of the Big Bang theory. By the way, from English “Big Bang” is more appropriate to translate as “Big Cotton”, which more accurately conveys the negative connotation implied by Hoyle.
In what area of space can a person see his back without the aid of instruments?
Light consists of elementary particles of photons that do not have mass and charge. Near black holes, there are so-called photon spheres - areas where gravity is so strong that photons begin to orbit. If an observer enters the photonic sphere, he can theoretically see his own back.
What scientists begged Kustodiev to paint their portrait, just about to become famous?
In 1921, two young scientists approached the artist Boris Kustodiev with a request to paint their portrait. Their argument was that Kustodiev draws only celebrities, and they are sure that they will also become famous, even if now they are not particularly known to anyone. These scientists were Pyotr Kapitsa and Nikolai Semyonov, future Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry, respectively. As a fee, they gave the artist a bag of millet and a rooster received for the repair of the mill.
Where are the largest reserves of water in the solar system?
The largest reserves of water in the solar system are, oddly enough, it may seem at first glance, on the sun. Water molecules in the form of vapor are concentrated in sunspots, where the temperature is one and a half thousand degrees lower than in the surrounding areas, as well as in the region of the temperature minimum - a narrow layer under the surface of the star.
What special state of matter was found in the chicken eye?
There is a special state of matter called "disordered superhomogeneity", in which the substance has the properties of a crystal and a liquid at the same time. It was first discovered by physicists in liquid helium and simple plasmas, but has recently been encountered by biologists while studying the chicken eye. Like other diurnal birds, chickens have five types of photoreceptors: red, blue, green, violet, and responsible for the perception of light. All of them are located on the retina in one layer at first glance randomly, however, a detailed study of the patterns revealed that around each cone there is a so-called forbidden zone, in which the appearance of other cones of the same type is excluded. As a result, the system cannot take a single ordered form, but tends to be as homogeneous as possible.
Under what conditions does unwinding a roll of duct tape create x-rays?
When unwinding a roll of adhesive tape in a vacuum, both visible light and X-rays are produced. Scientists believe that the reason for this is an effect similar to triboluminescence - the appearance of electromagnetic radiation when asymmetric bonds in a crystal are broken. However, the adhesive mass does not have a crystalline structure, so a different theoretical model is required to explain the glow created by adhesive tape. The power of the emerging X-rays is sufficient to take pictures of body parts, but this is only in a vacuum, and unwinding tape in the air is absolutely safe.
Under what conditions can sound be converted into light in water?
In the aquatic environment, sonoluminescence can be observed, that is, the transformation of sound into light. To do this, you need to lower a resonator into the water, which creates a standing spherical ultrasonic wave. In the rarefaction phase of the wave, due to very low pressure, a cavitation bubble appears, which grows for some time, and then quickly collapses in the compression phase. At this moment, a flash of light appears in the center of the bubble, and the observer sees a constant bluish glow, since the bubbles are born and collapse at a very high speed. According to the point of view prevailing in scientific circles, this radiation is of a thermal nature.
Is the discovery of the theory of gravity by Newton connected with the fall of an apple?
A popular legend explains Newton's discovery of the theory of gravity as an incident when an apple fell on his head. However, if a blow to the head really can be considered only a caricature myth, the very fact of observing the fall of an apple is described by at least two different authors. William Stukeley's biography of Newton tells of their conversation in an apple orchard in 1726 over a cup of tea - then the famous scientist recalled his thoughts about gravity, which arose in a similar setting. Newton's assistant John Conduit elaborates in his book that the incident with the falling apple took place in 1666 when the scientist was resting on his mother's estate. It is worth noting that the book "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", in which the law of universal gravitation is proved, was not published immediately after that, but twenty years later.
What mug did Pythagoras invent, wanting to protect people from excessive passion for wine?
In Greek souvenir shops, the so-called Pythagorean mug is very popular. This is a vessel into which liquid can only be poured up to a certain mark, but if you pour it higher, everything will flow out. This effect is achieved with a doubly curved channel in the center of the mug, one end of which is open from the bottom, and the other goes inward. The pouring out of liquid occurs in accordance with Pascal's law of communicating vessels. According to legend, Pythagoras invented this mug for the moderate consumption of wine and the punishment of those who are too greedy.
What causes the faint glow of water at depths where sunlight does not reach?
At depths of several hundred meters or more, complete darkness is not observed, as one might assume. Sunlight does not reach here, but isotopes of calcium and other elements dissolved in water emit fast electrons, which cause a faint glow due to the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect. Apparently, it is this circumstance that is the reason why deep-sea fish did not lose their eyes in the course of evolution.
Which father and son received Nobel Prizes for different research on the same particles?
The electron as a particle was discovered in 1897 by the English physicist Joseph John Thomson. After 9 years, he was given the Nobel Prize with the wording "for research on the conduction of electricity by gases." His son, George Paget Thomson, discovered the wave properties of the electron in 1927 and was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize "for his experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals."
How under the thick sea ice can there be icicles reaching the bottom of the sea?
Sometimes large icicles, similar to stalactites, can appear under the thickness of sea ice. When ice forms, there is no salt left in its crystal lattice, and downdrafts of very cold, very salty water form at some points. Under certain conditions, a layer of ice begins to grow downward around such a stream. If the sea is shallow in a given place, the icicle reaches the bottom and continues to grow in some horizontal direction.
How can water be used as a dielectric?
Many people know that water is a good conductor of electricity - that is why, for example, you should not swim during a thunderstorm, as you can become a victim of lightning that has fallen into the reservoir. However, the current is not conducted by the water molecules themselves, but by the impurities contained in it, ions of various mineral salts. Distilled water, in which there are almost no salts, is a dielectric.
Which planet has an almost regular hexagon at the north pole?
At the north pole of Saturn, there is a whirlwind of clouds in the shape of an almost regular hexagon. There is no rigorous scientific explanation for this phenomenon, but Oxford University scientists were able to create similar vortices in a laboratory experiment. Small rings were lowered into a water bottle on a rotating table, which rotated even faster. The resulting vortices created fluid flows of various shapes - not only hexagonal, but also square, triangular and oval.
What scientist measured the speed of electric current on living people connected in a circuit?
The speed of electric current is almost equal to the speed of light. In 1746, when this was not yet known, the French priest and physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet wanted to measure the speed of the current experimentally. He arranged 200 monks, connected to each other by iron wires, in a circle more than one and a half kilometers long, and then discharged a battery of Leiden cans, invented a year earlier, into this circuit. All the monks reacted to the current in an instant, which convinced Nolle of the very high value of the desired value.
How can you use a wall and a newspaper to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew?
To open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew, you will need a hard surface, such as a wall, as well as a softening object - a book, newspaper, or just a shoe. Leaning the newspaper against the wall, you need to take the bottle and hit it with the bottom strictly perpendicular to the wall one or more times until the cork comes out far enough to remove its rest with your hand. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that during a collision, the flow rate of the liquid inside the bottle changes dramatically, which causes a water hammer that affects the cork. It is worth noting that with inept handling, the bottle may break, so the experiment is best done by wrapping it with a towel.
Where and when did a spontaneous natural nuclear reactor operate?
On the territory of the Oklo uranium deposit in Gabon, ore bodies were discovered in which a spontaneous chain reaction of fission of uranium nuclei occurred almost 2 billion years ago. In other words, there was a natural nuclear reactor here, and it worked for several hundred thousand years. This discovery was made in 1972, when a mass spectrometric analysis of the rock was carried out at a French enrichment plant in Gabon and revealed a lower than usual concentration of the uranium isotope 235U, which indicated the presence of spent nuclear fuel.
What grades in mathematics did Einstein get in school?
In many sources, often with the aim of encouraging poorly performing students, there is an assertion that Einstein flunked mathematics at school or, moreover, studied badly in all subjects. In fact, this was not the case: Albert at an early age began to show talent in mathematics and knew it far beyond the school curriculum. Later, Einstein was unable to enter the ETH Zurich, showing the highest results in physics and mathematics, but not reaching right amount points in other disciplines. Pulling up these subjects, he became a student of this institution a year later at the age of 17.
How can you turn headphones into a microphone?
If you connect regular headphones to the microphone input, you can use them as a microphone. Simplified, the design of headphones and a microphone is the same: the membrane is connected to a coil with a wire located in the magnetic field of a permanent magnet. In headphones, during normal use, the current supplied to the coil is converted into membrane vibrations, and in a microphone, the opposite is true.
What should you do to maximize your chances of surviving a falling elevator?
If you find yourself in a falling elevator, the best strategy to increase your chances of survival is to lie on your back and try to take up as much floor space as possible. In this case, the impact force will be maximally distributed over the surface of the body. It is widely believed that you just need to jump during the impact, but this is a misconception - hardly anyone is able to accurately guess the time of the impact and jump at the same speed as the elevator falls.
What explains the immobility of some clouds even with very strong winds?
In mountainous areas, you can see clouds that can hang motionless even with very strong winds - they are called lenticular. This is explained by the fact that the wind moves the air masses in certain flows, or waves, flowing around various obstacles. Lenticular clouds form on the crests of such waves or between two layers of air. Their stability is due to the simultaneous processes of water vapor condensation at the dew point height and evaporation of water droplets during the downward movement of air. These clouds usually have round shape, so they are often mistaken for UFOs.
Why are human eyes blue and green even though they don't have these pigments?
There are no blue or green pigments in the iris of the human eye. The only coloring pigment in the eye is melanin: at certain concentrations, the color of the eyes becomes from light brown to almost black. However, with a low content of melanin, short waves of the light spectrum are not absorbed by the shell, but are reflected, as a result of which we fix blue, blue, green or gray eyes. This effect is due to Rayleigh scattering of light, which similarly explains the blue or gray color of the sky that we see.
Which of the inhabitants of our planet holds the record for time travel?
Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka spent a total of 878 days in orbit, a world record. At the same time, he can be considered the owner of another record - the longest time travel among the inhabitants of our planet. According to the theory of relativity, the greater the speed at which an object moves, the more time slows down for it. It is calculated that thanks to space flights, Padalka is 1/45 of a second younger than if he had remained on Earth all the time. In other words, the astronaut returned from orbit to a time point 1/45 of a second later than expected under normal conditions.
Why don't mosquitoes die in the rain?
The mass of a raindrop is many times greater than the mass of a mosquito. This factor, as well as hairs on the entire surface of the body, leads to very little momentum transfer from the drop to the mosquito, which gives the insects the ability to survive in the rain. Another important factor is that the collision takes place in the air and not on a fixed surface. When a drop hits a mosquito, two scenarios are possible: if the impact is not in the center, the insect rotates a little and flies further; otherwise, the drop drags the mosquito along for a short time, but it is released rather quickly.
What familiar object helps to see through opaque frosted glass?
To see through glass with a matte surface, just stick a piece of transparent tape on it. Due to the irregularities of the frosted glass, the light is scattered, but the adhesive side of the adhesive tape smooths out these irregularities, and as a result, the light passes as if through ordinary glass. I must add that if the surface is matte on both sides, this trick will no longer work.
To what temperature below zero can water remain liquid?
In the normal state, water begins to turn into ice at a temperature of 0 °C. The process of freezing of water occurs near the centers of crystallization, which are formed near the places of microscopic perturbations. However, if these perturbations are removed, water can remain liquid down to -43 ° C - this state is called supercooled water. One of the commercial applications of this effect is implemented by beverage manufacturers. Special batches of soda come with supercooled water, and when the bottle is opened, a mixture of drink and ice immediately forms inside.
Under what conditions does an inverted rainbow occur?
There is an optical phenomenon that can be called an inverted rainbow, although it happens very rarely. Such a rainbow appears only when several conditions are met. In the sky at an altitude of 7-8 km there should be a thin curtain of cirrus clouds consisting of ice crystals, and sunlight should fall on them at a certain angle in order to decompose into a spectrum and be reflected into the atmosphere. The colors in the upside down rainbow are also reversed, with purple at the top and red at the bottom.
Why is it colder in the mountains than in the lowlands, although they are closer to the sun?
The sun heats the earth's air indirectly. Its radiation passes through the layers of the atmosphere and is absorbed by land and water on the surface of the planet, and only then the air receives thermal energy from them. Therefore, although the mountains are closer to the sun, they are colder than on the plains, since on average, for each kilometer of elevation, the temperature decreases by 6 ° C due to the adiabatic expansion of air. But even at the highest altitudes, valleys can be found, which, due to the special relief and the reflection of the sun's rays from the snow, can heat up well. For example, in the so-called Western Circus, which is located on one of the routes to the peak of Everest at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters, on sunny, calm days, the temperature can rise to 35 ° C.
What is being investigated in the longest continuous laboratory experiment in history?
In 1927, Thomas Parnell, a professor at the Australian University of Queensland, set up an experiment to demonstrate to students the liquid properties of bituminous tar - a substance that is solid in its normal state. After heating the resin, he poured it into a stoppered glass funnel and closed the top, and three years later he cut off the bottom of the funnel, allowing droplets to form. The first drop fell in 1938, the next ones fell at about the same interval - a total of 9 drops have been recorded to date. This experience is considered the longest continuous laboratory experiment in history.
In what environment can light be completely stopped?
The maximum possible speed of particles is called the speed of light in vacuum and is a constant. Outside of a vacuum, however, light can travel at speeds well below this constant. There is a special aggregate state of matter, the Bose-Einstein condensate, in which light slows down most strongly. Experimentally, light has even been completely stopped in the Bose-Einstein condensate of rubidium by the formation of stationary, non-shifting solitons.
Why do bubbles in Guinness beer move down instead of up?
In Guinness beer, you can clearly see how the bubbles go down the walls of the glass instead of going up. This is due to the fact that in the central part of the glass, the bubbles rise rapidly, pushing the liquid down at the edges with stronger viscous friction. But this effect is typical not only for Guinness, but in general for any liquid, it is just more noticeable in this beer. This is primarily due to the fact that instead of carbon dioxide, Guinness is filled with nitrogen, which is less soluble in water. Secondly, light bubbles are simply more visible against a very dark beer background.
Which scientist and for what purpose cut the skin from his fingers?
The Russian scientist Vasily Petrov, who was the first in the world to describe the phenomenon of an electric arc in 1802, did not spare himself when conducting experiments. At that time, there were no such devices as an ammeter or voltmeter, and Petrov checked the quality of the batteries by feeling the electric current in his fingers. And in order to feel very weak currents, the scientist specially cut off the top layer of skin from the fingertips.
Can a person drown in quicksand?
To pull a foot out of quicksand at a speed of 0.1 m/s, you need to apply a force similar to the lifting force passenger car medium sizes. However, being a non-Newtonian fluid, quicksand cannot swallow a person whole. The death of the bogged down is caused by other causes, such as dehydration, hot flashes, or sun exposure. If you get into quicksand, it is better not to make sudden movements, but try to lie on your back and, arms outstretched, wait for help.
What physical effect has been proven in practice by musicians who played the same note two days in a row?
The Austrian physicist Christian Doppler in 1842 theoretically substantiated that the frequency of oscillations that an observer perceives depends on the speed and direction of movement of the wave source and the observer relative to each other. Three years later, the Dutch meteorologist Christopher Bais-Ballot undertook to prove this statement in practice. He hired a locomotive with a platform for a couple of days, putting two trumpeters on it holding the G note, and placed several musicians with perfect pitch on the platform. At the second stage of the experiment, the listeners moved while the musicians played motionless. All this time, observers noted that they heard different notes, as a result of which the truth of the Doppler effect was confirmed.
What was the first human invention to break the sound barrier?
The characteristic click after a whip is due to the fact that its tip moves at supersonic speed. A similar effect occurs when an airplane flies at a speed greater than the speed of sound: from the shock wave created by it, the observer can hear a loud sound, similar to an explosion. However, it is the whip that can be recognized as the first human invention to break the sound barrier.
Why does a bird sitting on a wire not die from electric shock?
A bird sitting on a wire of a high-voltage power line does not suffer from current, because its body is a poor conductor of current. Where the bird's paws touch the wire, a parallel connection is created, and since the wire conducts electricity much better, a very small current runs through the bird itself, which cannot cause harm. However, if the bird on the wire touches another grounded object, for example, the metal part of the support, it immediately dies, because then the air resistance is already too high compared to the resistance of the body, and all the current goes through the bird.
What kind of memory can metal alloys have?
Some metal alloys, such as nitinol (55% nickel and 45% titanium), have a shape memory effect. It lies in the fact that a deformed product made of such a material, when heated to a certain temperature, returns to its original shape. This is due to the fact that these alloys have a special internal structure called martensite, which has the property of thermoelasticity. In the deformed parts of the structure, internal stresses arise, which tend to return the structure to its original state. Shape-memory materials are widely used in production - for example, for connecting sleeves, which are compressed at very low temperatures, and straightened at room temperature, forming a connection that is much more reliable than welding.
How did the Pauli effect prevent Pauli from being played?
Scientists call the Pauli effect a failure in the operation of devices and an unplanned course of experiments when famous theoretical physicists appear - for example, Nobel laureate Wolfgang Pauli. Once they decided to play him by connecting the wall clock in the hall where he was supposed to give a lecture to the front door using a relay so that when the door was opened, the clock would stop. However, this did not happen - when Pauli entered, the relay suddenly failed.
What color noises are there besides white noise?
The concept of "white noise" is widely known - this is what they say about a signal with a uniform spectral density at all frequencies and a dispersion equal to infinity. An example of white noise is the sound of a waterfall. However, in addition to white, a large number of other colored noises are distinguished. Pink noise is a signal whose density is inversely proportional to frequency, and for red noise, the density is inversely proportional to the square of frequency - they are perceived by ear as “warmer” than white. There are also concepts of blue, purple, gray noise and many others.
What elementary particles are named after the cry of ducks?
Murray Gell-Mann, who hypothesized that hadrons are composed of even smaller particles, decided to call these particles the sound that ducks make. The novel Finnegans Wake by James Joyce helped him shape this sound into a suitable word, namely the line: “Three quarks for Muster Mark!”. Hence particles are called quarks, although it is not at all clear what meaning this previously non-existent word had for Joyce.
Why is the sky blue during the day and red during sunset?
Shortwave components of the solar spectrum are scattered in the air more than longwave ones. This is why we see the sky as blue, because blue is at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum. For a similar reason, during sunset or dawn, the sky on the horizon turns red. At this time, the light travels tangentially to the earth's surface, and its path in the atmosphere is much longer, as a result of which a significant part of the blue and green color due to scattering leaves direct sunlight.
What is the difference between the mechanism of lapping water in cats and dogs?
In the process of lapping, cats do not immerse their tongue in water, but, lightly touching the surface with a curved tip, immediately pull it back up. In this case, a column of liquid is formed due to the delicate balance of gravity, which pulls the water down, and the force of inertia, forcing the water to continue moving up. Dogs use a similar lapping mechanism - although it may appear to the observer that the dog is scooping up liquid with a tongue folded into a shoulder blade, x-ray analysis showed that this “shoulder blade” unfolds inside the mouth, and the water column created by the dog is similar to that of a cat.
Who has both the Nobel and Ig Nobel Prizes?
The Dutch physicist of Russian origin Andrei Geim received the Nobel Prize in 2010 for experiments that helped to study the properties of graphene. And 10 years earlier, he received the ironic Ig Nobel Prize for an experiment on diamagnetic levitation of frogs. Thus, Game became the first person in the world who owns both the Nobel Prize and the Ig Nobel Prize.
Why are ordinary city streets dangerous for racing cars?
When a racing car is driving on a track, very low pressure can be created between the bottom of the car and the road, enough to lift the manhole cover. This happened, for example, in Montreal in 1990 at the race of sports prototypes - a cover raised by one of the cars hit the next car, which started a fire, and the race was stopped. Therefore, now in all racing cars on city streets, covers are welded to the rim of the hatch.
Why did Newton put a foreign object in his eye?
Isaac Newton was interested in many aspects of physics and other sciences and was not afraid to do some experiments on himself. He tested his guess that we see the world around us due to the pressure of light on the retina of the eye as follows: he cut out a thin curved probe from ivory, let it into his eye and pressed on the back of the eyeball. The emerging color flashes and circles confirmed his hypothesis.
Why is the unit of measurement for both temperature and the strength of alcoholic beverages called the same - a degree?
In the 17-18 centuries, there was a physical theory about caloric - weightless matter that is in bodies and is the cause of thermal phenomena. According to this theory, more heated bodies contain more caloric than less heated bodies, so the temperature was defined as the strength of the mixture of the substance of the body and caloric. That is why the unit of measurement for both temperature and the strength of alcoholic beverages is called the same - a degree.
Why were two German-American satellites named Tom and Jerry?
In 2002, Germany, together with the United States, launched a system of two space satellites to measure the Earth's gravity called GRACE. They fly in one orbit at an altitude of about 450 kilometers one after another, with an interval of 220 kilometers. When the first satellite approaches an area with increased gravity, such as a large mountain range, it accelerates and moves away from the second satellite. And after some time, the second device also flies here, it also accelerates and thereby restores the original distance. For such a game of "catch-up" satellites were given the names Tom and Jerry.
Why can't the American SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft be fully refueled on the ground?
The American reconnaissance aircraft SR-71 Blackbird has gaps in its skin at normal temperatures. In flight, the skin heats up due to air friction, and the gaps disappear, and the fuel cools the skin. But in a normal state on the ground, the aircraft loses, albeit in small quantities, fuel through these slots. For this reason (and also to reduce takeoff speed by saving mass), only a small amount of fuel is initially refueled into the aircraft, and refueling occurs already in the air.
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