Innit

Hi,

I was wondering if it is possible to relate the position of an element on the periodic table to the electrical resistance in a wire composed of that element.

I have found lots of information on factors affecting resistance, but it's all very basic stuff about length, cross sectional area etc. I would like to know what microscopic properties of wires affect its resistance (e.g. number of valence electrons, atomic mass) and how these properties affect the resistance. Would it be possible to conduct an experiment using wires of different materials to see the impact of these different properties?

Thanks

See bold. Pop science will certainly not make you 'learn in more detail', if that's what you want to do. Hunt around for old text books, and look up and ask questions on problems you come across.

 

I'm taking a break between courses, I could read Bohm, Smolin or Greene, but I've decided to read / study 'Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences' 2nd edition, which is a good bridge between what I've studied over the last two years and my next course.

 

The point of pop science or any layman book, is that it's accessible, and lacking detail. If you're really serious about learning in more detail, start with an introductory book...Griffiths springs to mind, and get some applied math text books, so you can cross reference.

Sorry about the confusion, but when I said "on my own", I didn't mean to say that I would try to learn everything without anyone else's help. I meant to say that I wanted a book that would help me work individually, but I would ask occasional questions when I felt it necessary. I would like to learn it "properly", not as "pop science" (although I might have a go at the layman books just for more casual reading), but also won't have loads of time to study these books, seeing as I've got school work to tackle.

By the way, I'm a high school student, for those who asked.

Thanks

I've not read the elegant universe or Imagining the Tenth Dimension so can't really comment on them...

 

But a question I think many would like to know before recommending books is, what level of education have you already had?

Good question indeed. I'm currently a student at school (completing my last years), and I'm around that level, however, I am trying to advance ahead of that level because it's a little too simple for my liking at the moment., and I would therefore like to learn in more detail, on my own...

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a/some good books(s) to get me started on quantum physics, relativity and string theory. Preferable a book that I can just read rather than a study text book.

I also wanted to ask whether any of you have read the book "Imagining the Tenth Dimension", and whether or not it was good, because I plan on reading it some time soon...

Thanks,

Innit

Sorry 'bout the double post, but here's a book that I found, which looks quite interesting:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensions-Ultimate/dp/009928992X/

Any ideas?

Ooh! I have a Mac, but I'm not using it at the moment. Macs depend on what you would like to use it for. They can be used for some good multimedia, and can have any OS installed on it, however, they are not the most suitable for gaming...

Last time I got to level 24, this time I played it I only got to 15

just because i don't use proper grammar in posts on a forum doesn't mean i don't use proper grammar elsewhere. jeez. you think i'm stupid or what?

Lol, I hate it when people make these misconceptions about me by the way I write on the internet, even though most of the time I do use propper grammar and punctuation...

I would help out, but I have my own blog and forums to take care of

Here's how you can do it:

Go to Javimoya.com

Get the youtube link.

Enter the link into the correct field, and select youtube as the video hoster.

Click on the download button and wait for the download to begin.

You will need an FLV player to play the videos.

Alternatively you can download a plugin for Firefox that can download the video when you are viewing it. Just search firefox video downloader on Google and you should find the plugin...

Hope that helps

^ Is see. Yes, I hear that they no longer allow subliminal advertising, but they say that it was partially due to the fact that it was against our freedom, due to the fact that we could have been "wanting" to buy these drinks for reasons that we didn't know.

I don't know if I've heard wrong, but this is what I heard of it...

In my recent citizenship class, we were discussing the nature and use of subliminal advertising. The teacher gave us a common example of subliminal advertising in movie screens, in which a flash of an image appears for a tiny proportion of a second in a number of intervals.

Here's a little extract from Wikipedia:

In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks. Vicary coined the term subliminal advertising and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test. Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words "Drink Coca-Cola" and "Hungry? Eat popcorn" for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals. Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57.8 percent and 18.1 percent respectively.

It is clear that this strategy works, but it is in our subconscious mind that we notice these messages hidden within the movies, and our eyes pick it up, without us realizing it. Is there any sort of scientific reasoning for how this works? How our brain works in these situations?

true it would mean existence cannot have a beginning, but time did. there is not an infinite amount of time before us.

 

this thread is about entropy and time and morphs into exactly what we're talking about here if you're interested.

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=28323&highlight=entropy

Thanks for that, I'll be reading this...

Sounds like you're asking about a first cause

 

Existence can't have a first cause because the cause would have to exist

 

The negation of existence is meaningless without existence

 

Therefore, we're left with a simple explanation: existence is, because nothing else makes sense

You're quite right. But then that means that existence cannot have a beginning. There has been an infinite amount of "time" before us. I suppose that human beings are so adapted to the idea of "starts" and "ends", that they don't come across the idea of infinity. Perhaps this could even suggest the idea of afterlife.

I was sitting down some time back, and was pondering over the idea of reality, and how it incorporates itself with science.

The primary question of reality is, why is there the universe? Of course there was the big bang theory, but why are there all these "things" around us - planets, galaxies, our universe. Why are they here. Go back before the big bang theory. Before all events prior to that, too. What was of our universe then?

Obviously science may be able to explain this, but why is there science in the first place? Why is there anything in the first place? Why do things exist, rather than there being no reality, and no universe - nothing at all?

It's just a big string of "Why's" but it just kind of popped into my mind and I thought I'd share it with you. It might seem a bit absurd to some, but perhaps there can be a discussion about it...

Don't know if this is in the right forum... Maybe it could go in the General Discussion section, but I wasn't sure where to put it...

^ I see. And what kind of technology is used to view these tiny electrons, or other subatomic particles? What instruments are used?

yea it's possible although that during the time when the earth was created everything and everything was balanced. A little bit too much of something and there would be no life. Say do much heat, or too little heat or too much methane or too much carbon.

 

so yes, its possible but the odds are stacked against it. Cause if there are any intelligent life around they surley would have replyed to our radio signals (SETI.)

You're right. But do you suppose that organisms would be able to adapt to their environment as they evolved? Perhaps if there was naturally high methane levels, then it would be a problem at first, but through time and evolution, they could possibly adapt?

^ Yes, I heard about that when they were explaining that it would be very difficult to state the exact location and speed of an electron because it would change speed in the process of finding its location.

Thanks.

Any other explanations?

^ Oh, and by the way, you were asking if my username was ``Inuit'' with an upside down `u'. Actually, my username is another form of the commonly known slang phrase "In it" that many people use in Britain. Inuit, on the other hand, would mean "a person from the arctic - an eskimo, in other words", if I'm not mistaken...

Could someone explain to me the basic idea of quantum physics and quantum theory. I tend to find complex analysis's of the subject on the internet, and what I have understood, is that it is the physics of atomic and subatomic particles. In other words, very small particles - which have a very different physics from the normal physics we learn about of normal large objects. Basically, it shows that most of the stuff we learn in school about atoms etc. is not true, and we are introduced to quarks, mesons, baryons and the like. I'm still in 10th Grade, so I still in the "learning the wrong stuff" stage, but I would like to understand the concept of quantum physics, and what exactly quarks, mesons and baryons are.

Could someone explain it to me in a way that I can understand it? It would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Here's my view, and it's mainly based on black holes, as they are one possibility of time travel.

As a law of physics, it is said that "information can never be lost". There are theories that black holes are capable of "losing information", as it is never able to return. In addition, it is said that if one were to enter a black hole at the speed of light, or faster, they would be able to warp - to another place and time, I think.

Can someone validate what I have just said, as I am not sure that it is correct.

no, it isn`t ferromagnetic.

it needs to be either Iron, Nickel or Cobalt based (as the free metal not a compound), a mixture will work though.

This doesn't really help answer the question, but -

JayUK, notice the word ferromagnetic. Ferro, means iron in Italian (and I suppose also Latin), which is where Fe came from, as the element's symbol.

Also, it is orbiting the sun. It's just also orbiting the Earth.

I was more under the impression that the moon was orbiting around the Earth, which was orbiting around the sun. So in theory, the moon was just going around the sun because it was attracted to the Earth.

But would it be possible, if the moon were to break loose of this circumnavigating orbit around the Earth (which wouldn't happen), that it would orbit around the sun (or could it crash into the sun?).

^ Ooh! That was an interesting article! Thanks for sharing it!

Do you believe that it is possible that there may be life on other planets, in other galaxies elsewhere in the universe?

I believe that this may be possible. The Earth is a planet with the characteristics of having life - Good distance from the sun, good composition of atmosphere etc... I'm sure there are other planets out there with these characteristics.

In addition, do you believe it will ever be possible for humans to be able to prove life on other planets, seeing as they are so far away, and technology may not reach such a level?

It is said that the Milky Way Galaxy will soon merge with the Andromeda galaxy in 5 billion years. By this time, civilization on Earth may have ceased, and if it were to live up to that point, it would most probably not live through the merge. If this were to happen, however, then perhaps new civilization would emerge on newly discovered planets etc...

It's all a bit of a dream right now, but it could become a reality, and may already be one...

^ So that whole 5th dimension thing was just a theory that is now proved wrong?

And thanks for explaining the circles thing again. I get it now

And another thanks for replying so quickly. You're very efficient!

Just to expand on this - The type of orbit that the moon has around the Earth is known as a non-interrupted or a circumnavigating orbit, as it also states in the Wikipedia page.

What I don't understand, however, is - Why doesn't the moon just "ditch" the earth, and go in orbit around the sun, like a planet? I suppose that it is already "stuck" in orbit around the Earth, but would it be possible, somehow?