Cosmology - Dr S Hawking programme

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Seeing as my incorrectly named quantum physics thread was so popular!

I watched the Stephen Hawking prog last night, but didn't catch his ureka moment (I was holding a bowl full of s*ck at the time for my youngest - bless her!).

I didn't grasp the diagram he sketched on the railway station floor? (like a fattened rugby ball?)

I heard 'time' but missed everything else.

I understood the basic expansion of the singularity theory (I think? big bang is formation of black hole in reverse - but for everything in existence (inc time).

Ok, correct me in a way I can understand if I'm wrong!

Did anyone else enjoy the prog??

I liked the way they tied in the story of the Nobel scientists during the programme which kept me trying to work out how their story was connected.

Ok, one last question, were they were using a radio telescope? If so, they were reffering to 'heat', does temperature (above kelvin?) give off electromagnetic radiation?

Help me out on the last one cos I'm waaaaayyy out of my depth!

 

[fitter]

He may be able to explain time & the universe but a true measure of a man's genius, can he work out a MFI kitchen plan.

 

[waran]

I'm afraid I didn't see the programme but perhaps I can help with the temperature question.

We usually think of temperature on a large scale in terms of heat.

But temperature can be thought of as a measure of the random motion of a group of particles. Their energy if you like.

Part of the way this energy is disipated is through electromagnetic radiation which can be through a whole spectrum of waves. Some of this may be visible to the eye as light and can be picked up by optical telescopes.

However for the emissions from objects with really low energies, the emitted waves have really long wavelengths and can only be seen by radio telescopes.

Given that any object emits electromagnetic radiation so long as they have a temperature above 0K then each will have a spectrum of radiation and knowledge of this helps those astronomers piece together the universe.

Hope that helps -

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Thanx Waran!

very clear explanation, you should be a teacher! (or are you!)

BTW, personal passion, educated or other???

 

[waran]

Physics........a personal passion....Arghhh.....I definately have to get out more!

educated? Not so much in DIY! But I think I'm getting better.

I'm a scientist of sorts and have a strong background in the life sciences but am not too bad in maths and physics too. And what I don't know about laminate flooring............

Sorry I'm not a teacher. Although always thought it would be quite a noble profession. Quite maligned these days though. I do teach as part of my job but mostly informally. Requires considerable patience which I'm not sure I possess in sufficient quantities.

How about you mild? A janitor with a penchant for particle theory Reminds me of 'Good Will Hunting'...........

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Not so much a janitor - but mild mannered! I often get told if I was any more laid back I'd fall over!!!

When I joined the forum the handle of 'mildmanneredjanitor' just came to me in a moment of inspiration (from Hong Kong Phooey - 'Could it be Penre, the mild mannered janitor - could be!, sort of seemed to cover most angles, also I tend to flap when it comes to creating usernames/passwords on the net so I just went with it!

As for my (very general) interest in physics, cosmology etc. probably stems from two things, insomnia and my favourite author Michael Crichton. He writes some facinating fiction which has firm roots in science fact/theory. He usually lists about five pages of books from which he has based his research on!

Timeline (just been made into a film I think) is based on time travel made permissable by miniturisation to a quantum level and passing through worm holes in the quantum foam. (if I remember correctly!)

Prey, is all about nanotechnolgy and AI, and (can't remember the term but group collective thinking/problem solving).

And his most famous book - jurrasic Park. All good stuff!

Can you think of any science books that may be of interest to me without being to much hard work??? I am not Mr Acedemia

Regards
MMJ

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

I was hoping for some input from FWL and Ban etc...

Where are you guys???

 

[waran]

Actually I quite enjoy Crichton too although I haven't read Timeline and Prey - at least I can't remember them. Must be getting old

To be honest I haven't read a lot of cosmology books lately. Most of my reading tends to be journals and referrence books which are a guaranteed cure for insomnia!

However if you haven't already read them Hawkings books - A brief history of time and the universe in a nutshell are great easy reads especially the second one. A brief history of time can be a little heavy going in parts but the universe in a nutshell is much more riveting.

Can I also recommend The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It's excellent - a little arduous in the middle - but worth persevering with. It's about evolution,DNA, the reason for life etc and will give you answers to a lot of common questions. Not quite cosmology but enjoyable none the less. And great for explaining to the missus why you checked out that blonde the other day

The last science book I read was Reckoning with Risk by Gerd Gigerenzer, which is an enlightening look at applied statistics especially in medicine and written in lay terms. Probably not one that is particularly your cup of tea MMJ but it is amazing how even very intelligent people are confused with statistics. Probably not one to start with but if you ever had to look at the evidence (much quoted in the scientific literature) for certain things then I would definately recommend it. Indeed if anyone ever quotes you a figure for something e.g. your risk for a particular disease, do you really know what they mean? - Do they? This book will definately open your eyes.

There are a few more that come to mind that I have been meaning to read but I haven't read them yet. I have a long beach holiday coming up so I'll let you know how it goes.

FYI the list goes something like this:

Right Hand, Left Hand - Chris McManus

How to Clone the Perfect Blonde - Sue Nelson & Richard Hollingham

Galileo's finger - Peter Atkins

The extravagant universe - Robert Kirshner

That should last me a few days!

Right well get on with MMJ - There will be a quiz later