The Heat of the Moment

This one is very basic, but delves into one of the most fundamental concepts in all physics.

Energy.

We have all heard that word, but what does it mean, really?

For Physics fans, the word "energy" means "the ability to do something else".

For all others, it may mean "something to keep you going".

Both are correct.

To actually understand what "energy" is, though, a journey into how the word came about may be in order.

Way back when science was fairly young, but there were thinkers with labs (1800-1900 will do), they investigated heat and what it did. They discovered that in general, the hotter something was, the bigger it got (expansion) ( Due to something called the Lennard-Jones 6-12 potential, but that is beyond the scope of this post )

So, what was heat? Well, by careful experiments , a lot by Lord kelvin, they found out that if you cooled something down, the heat would go somewhere else. They also found that you could actually convert mechanical movement into heat AND BACK again. ]

They did a collective "Hmmmm", and the idea was born that there must be something that cannot be created or destroyed, but only converted. They called this the more general name of "energy".

There are many different types of energy, but all are equivalent and interchangeable. You have kinetic energy (from movement), potential energy (from position), but the most common one is known as heat. Heat comes about by something jiggling the atoms in a thing. The more hot it is, the bigger the jiggling, and if the jiggling is larger, the things expands because the atoms need more room to jiggle.

Ok, so that's heat. Movement in other words, but then again there are different types of movement. Travel in a car is one of the best examples. We say the car has "kinetic" energy because it is moving. Where does this energy come from? Again, the car is one of the best examples of energy conversion.

What makes it go? Why, the gas, of course. Gas has energy tied up in the long hydrocarbon molecules ( a molecule is simply two or more atoms bound together chemically )So what does the engine do?

Well, you put the gas in, and inside the car, a piston squashes the air/gas mix, and when done, a spark makes a bang in it. This bang is a small explosion and releases energy from the chemical bonds and this "internal combustion" is powerful enough to push the piston down very hard in it's tube. So now the piston has converted the energy of the bang into kinetic energy.

The piston is attached via a gudgeon pin and this pin converts the linear energy (straight line) to rotational energy of the crankshaft. The downward motion of the piston has now been converted to a spinning motion. But how does this spinning motion get to the wheels? Engines come in two basic types, depending on the relative orientation of the crankshaft (the spindle that gets the energy from the piston) and the drive shaft ( the spindle that drives the wheels). They can either be parallel or at right angles. The part that connects these two spindles is called the "differential".

So, we have now converted the piston energy to the crankshaft energy, and now the differential converts this energy to the drive shaft.

Not finished yet! The drive shaft turns the wheels and the wheels trundle the car along. However, the wheels only move the car because the rubber on the tyres stops the wheels slipping. This is called "friction" and is a major source of energy loss. Hang on! LOSS? But didn't I just say that energy cannot be destroyed? Yes, I did and when I say "lost" I really mean "lost from the source of the energy" ie the gasoline.

So where does it go? Well, as intimated, energy has lots of forms, and the lost energy is lost as sound energy, friction energy, and believe it or not, heating of the road, heating of the rubber, and worst of all, energy is even given to the earth to increase it's rotation! Ok, Ok, so that effect is very small, and may not even be measurable, but it is there.

In all, the internal Combustion Engine is very inefficient, in other words, you can never get all the energy from the gas, and in fact, it is impossible even in principle ( this is called the 2nd law of thermodynamics - see next post)At most, cars only get about 15% of the energy available from the gas. It's a bit like travel. You cannot convert ALL your cash to a different currency, because the exchange people take commission.

In a car, lots of processes take commission. Lets' list some places where energy is lost:

1. Friction inside the supply pipes that bring the gas to the piston.
2. Friction inside the piston.
3. Inefficiency of the combustion.
4. Friction between piston and crankshaft.
5. Friction between crankshaft and differential.
6. Friction between differential and driveshaft.
7. Friction between driveshaft and wheel.
8. Friction on the road.

As can be seen, energy is a complicated business.

As an exercise, try this. A light bulb is held at arms length and released. There are two main energy processes, what are they?

PLUS - how many more subsidiary energy processes can you figure out (hint - think of the car above)? There are at least four!

Super Energy Idea?

My ruminations have now led to this:

The uncertainty principle says that you can never know the exact momentum AND position of a particle at the same time.

This has been proven and the Fat Lady has sung.

It also led to the veneration of the third Law of thermodynamics, which says that "Absolute Zero can never be attained"

Why?

Because if it were, and because heat is defined as movement/vibration of atoms, they would all be still at Absolute Zero.

Since quantum mechanics rules all at microscopic levels, we have to conclude that the uncertainty principle says that atoms MUST vibrate no matter how cold it is. They can't do anything else, because if they were still (at Absolute Zero), it would violate the uncertainty principle.

Therefore all atoms must always vibrate.

At all times.

Forever.

Aside from the question as to where this energy came from, may it not be used to source an unlimited supply of free power? After all, it's there to be tapped.

Why has it not been done?


Is this limitless power from almost nothing?

Gedanken for the Memory part 3

There's more. IF a space station that big is ever built( and a couple of light days across is PRETTY big!), as was intimated, the broom would have to be at least a couple of dozen light-hours long to even feel the ceiling curving towards it.

The question now changes - would you be able to see this far such detail with the naked eye?

The answer is a resounding "No!", assuming it was of zero weight of course( is this assumption number 3 or just unrealistic?)

My first thought upon realising this was "Is this some sort of limiting principle, akin to the uncertainty principle, whereby in order to "see" the broom hit the ceiling, you'd be too far away that the resolution of the eye prevented the viewing?" But then I remembered telescopes. But then I also remembered that light would take up to 12-24 hours to reach you to tell you of the event. Is this relevant also? Had I hit upon an undiscovered principle here without knowing it?

I was right in the first place...there IS more to this than meets the eye...

Here's another one; What if the broom was curved just enough to allow for the curve of the station? then what?

Well, you would push it all the way around the station, and it would poke you in the back (or bum in my case) . Would you feel it or see it first?

And then there's the problem that the actual critical radius is along the middle of the corridor, ie, you are not actually looking along it.

More to come, I think!

ABYSS (Akiko's Black Hole Space Station)

Welcome to Akiko's Black Hole Space Station (or ABYSS), the result of the previous 2 Gedanken experiments.

The image is in 3 parts. (download and enlarge - I have given a lot of thought to this one so there is a lot on the image)

The Diagram (What is happening). A circular (torus or donut) shaped space station is constructed around a black hole. But not at just any old radius. A black hole pulls light into it like everything else, but there is a critical radius past which light escapes. The ABYSS is constructed around this. if you stand on the floor, your feet will point toward the center, making the ceiling, just above your head, the outer radius of the ABYSS.

1. The Action ( As you see it) Because the critical radius along which light orbits is in the middle of the corridor, if you stand there and say "Hello", you will see an infinitely long, but STRAIGHT ABYSS, with infinitely many views of the back of your head.

The dark area happens because light cannot escape from "below" the critical radius. You are now holding an extendable sweep's broom, pointed in front of you, and you push it forward.

2. The Reality (what actually happens). As you extend the broom, you know the broom is straight, and you know the ABYSS is curved, so you would expect the broom to "hit" the ceiling if you extend it parallel to the floor.

BUT what do you see, if you perceive the ABYSS to be "straight"?

My answer is that you will see the broom apparently curve upwards to meet the ceiling, even though it is straight.

Or do you? Since your head is NOT exactly in line with the critical radius, do you actually see the ABYSS at all, and is it straight or curved?

This thought experiment makes assumptions, two of the biggest are;

1. The feat of making the ABYSS is technically possible.

2. There are NO tidal effects.

Te last one bears a little thought. To reduce tidal effects to a negligible amount, you'd have to find a black hole at least (my guess) a few light-days across. This makes the perception that the curved ABYSS is curved or straight redundant, as it would be so big as to LOOK straight anyway. Thus you'd need a broom at least a dozen light-hours in length for it to hit the curved ceiling.

This is why it is called a thought experiment.

Aki LIVE on Boracay Island

The video on the front page here was done because I HATE CAMS!!!!

Added today at 1636 at hit count 8150. Up to now, the hit rate has been 34 per day. from April 6th.

In the past month, to July 7th, the hit rate has gone up to 39 per day.

Gedanken for the Memory Part 2

This thought experiment requires a lot more thought than at first meets the eye. Watch for part three for a set of diagrams IN MY HANDWRITING!!!

First you have to remember that the space station is built around a huge black hole so that tidal effects are minimal.

Remember that there is a light orbit, that is, at a certain radius from the center, light neither falls into nor out of the black hole. A little more thought tells you that this "orbit" is extremely thin, and let us further say that this radius is at the center of the station. Now, you are standing in the station with your feet pointing towards the center, and this "radius" goes right through your middle. Even without the broom, what would you see?

Well, since any light below the radius cannot get out, anything below your waist is completely black, and although you do not know it, you cannot get your legs back!

Also, the space station my be curved, but because the light in it is curved, all you will see is half a straight corridor.

Now, imagine your broom is one of the old-fashioned sweep's brooms, that is, is extendable. As you tacked on extensions, what would you see at the tip of the broom?

It gets weirder, as I have now worked it out!

How Old Are You? "I'm Twenteen"

Part of my repertoire is teaching English to Korean kids. I get the odd "How old are you?" - "I am fine" responses, but this clip is far funnier.

It is part of a TV show broadcast from Manila at 1300 daily called "Wowowee". It is very popular because it gives the poorer people a chance to earn some hard cash by "performing" on camera. Last time I was in Manila there was a stampede to get onto the show in the queue outside the TV station, several people being hurt.

Although English is widely understood in the Philippines, and is the official business language, the poorer people do not know the language as well as they should because education is expensive there. In this section, a young girl has to hold a conversation in English in order to earn her prize money.

It is very funny. Please note that ther presenter and the audience are not laughing AT her, but WITH her. Another presenter of nickname RR (the one in pink below), gives the line above, and is even less knowledgeable than the contestant! She also says " I have been there once. But not twice"

Whenever I am in Manila, this is the show I like to see, along with Who Wants to be a Millionaire (in Taglish).

Enjoy!




My thanks to Raquel for providing this feature. Coincidentally, the girl has the same birthday as Yuko, my cousin!

I Love You , Dad

This one is for my father, who introduced me to Mike Oldfield when I was ten and Tubular Bells II came out. I know you read this.

He got me TB I after I enjoyed TB II, and when when TB III came out I was entranced, and took it across the world with me.

This video is a very small pastiche of TB III.

"And the Man in the Rain picked up his bag of secrets, and journeyed up the mountainside, Far Above the Clouds, and nothing was ever heard of him again, except for the sound of Tube - You - Lah - Bells "....





The sight of Big Ben at the end is no accident, of course. Mr Oldfield wanted the last clang to be exactly at the same time as Big Ben chimed Ten ( Big Ben is the name of the Bell in the tower, not the tower!)

Mike Oldfield has such a distinctive style of guitar playing that I can now tell if it is him or not just by listening. The reason is that he uses his fingers sideways, not parallel, to the guitar arm. It is quite unique and no-one else does it.

And all this thanks to my Father, Yoshi.

Thank You Dad!

Gedanken for the Memory

A thought experiment.

A black hole is a place where light cannot escape from, that is, the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light.

But from the equations, there is a distance from the center of the Black Hole where light can "orbit". Light can literally "flow" around the Black Hole just like any other object in orbit.

Consider this: What would happen if a circular space station around this black hole were constructed at about the same distance as this critical distance?

What would happen?

More elaboration is needed. Ignoring any engineering problems, or tidal effects (the former can be conquered over time, the latter by finding an extremely large black hole), you will have this: a hoop-shaped space station with a black hole at it's center. The radius of this "hoop" is the same radius as the critical radius for light. That is, light at this radius neither enters or leaves the black hole, it just circulates around it.

And the space station is built around this critical radius.

The question is.....if you were "on" this exact critical radius, which is now inside the space station, what would you see?

Two things are clear:

First, the space station will look straight, and not curved in any way.

Second, since the light goes around the black hole and will actually hit you on the back of your head, the REAL effect (not illusion) will be that at some distance away along the "straight" corridor, you really will be looking at the back of your own head. Or rather, an infinite many of them at regularly spaced intervals.

It is a weird, but real, effect, caused by the equations of General Relativity.

Here is the rub, and a question for which I have no answer:

Knowing that the space station is circular, yet seen as straight, what would happen if a broomstick was slowly pointed forward along the "straight" corridor? What would you see as you pushed the long stick further out from you?

And the Winner is.....

Having recently taken another trip to Europe to personally oversee how my SSA project is continuing to grow in popularity, it prompts me to list some other inventions, that maybe didn't quite make it thus far.

1. The polystyrene anchor

2. The inflatable dartboard

3. Battery powered battery charger

4. Helicopter ejector seat

5. Re-usuable bathroom tissue

6. Black Highlighter

7. Fire-proof matches

8. Waterproof sponges

9. Solar-powered torch

10. Glow in the dark combat uniform

Permission to laugh is granted.


One of these ten is a viable invention that actually has a use (and has been made).

Can you guess which one?