Scale Model Solar System Drive
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This video was shot by two of my students, Mike Johnson and Ryan Lucido, for a project in last year's astronomy class. It uses the scale 1 AU = 93 million miles = 1 foot. First you see the solar system to scale, then they set off on a car trip in accelerated time to show how far the nearest star would be. This really drives home how far 4 light years is compared to the solar system.
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We know it wasn't a straight line; there are not many places where you could do a straight line anyway, and to compare the time of the trip it doesn't need to be straight anyway.
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I thought pissing off the religious nuts was the whole idea behind science. Signed, Galileo Galilei
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It's amazing that even as far as the stars are from the Earth that we can see them at all.
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This makes me way too happy. I love the idea of doing something like this.
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@Steveman27 I assume so but I can't check I sold the car 3 years ago :-( @mumblingmickey we brought the ball along.
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nearest start????? you mean star surely
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CONT. 3. However if light is taking longer to traverse the same distance then obviously time and space are in fact related.. They are spacetime... Spacetime is a measurement of the space and thus how time is affected within it from the point of view of an observer outside it, compared to that on and observer inside it! Applications of this include GPS satellites which compensate for the dent made by the earth in spacetime when the satellite (being less massive) does not create such a dent.
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CONT. 2. Now what was explained and demonstrated using relativity was that since the dent actually stretches space.... then it now takes longer for things to traverse the well. All matter, all energy now takes longer to go around or past the gravity well. If something is truly massive. like a quasar... then light traverses it, and is bent as it passes the well. This is referred to as a gravity lens. It explains how we can see objects directly behind some stars.
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CONT. However lets give that explanation a go. All matter in the universe takes up space. An object in space (say a planet) not only takes up the volume of space it contains...but it also bends that space in three dimensions, a little like a steel ball on a rubber mat. The heavier (more massive) an object is. the bigger the dent it makes in space. An object close to that 'dent' is attracted to it. We call that property 'gravity' and the dent is called a 'well' This is classical physics.
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@125RTY Erm.. nope thats incorrect...there are no galaxies speeding away at anywhere near light speed. I have no idea where you got that idea. Next the bending of space time is a key principle of special relativity. As a physicist I could explain it to you but I doubt since you think matter can exceed the speed of light without transforming into electromagnetic energy that you'd get it. I think you should read a science book (preferably one on basic physics) and lay off the Sci Fi!
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@MumblingMickey This bending of space/time is so much fantasy dreamed up by science fiction writers to get a space ship from point A to point B. However there are things going faster than light.. Yes, the galaxies furthest away from us are receding at faster than light speed. So it seems faster than light speeds are possible given enough energy.
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@Dip6Set6 Bill Nye did something like this? More than 3 years ago? Do you have a link to it so I can look at it?
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@MumblingMickey Oh, a year ago I didn't know that the nearest stars were only like just over four light years away.
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@Jasexxxxx Agreed... if he had started by using a grain of sand as the sun...then he might have been able to stand where he was and pissed on alpha centauri! Assuming he was absolutely bursting for a jimmy riddle!
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@hellomate639 What you are talking about there is the technological singularity... and yep... its on its way... you and I might get to live in that world... the first time in the earths history there will be an intelligence greater than our own... creepy.
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@jasonrroberts099 oddly enough rodenberry knew that when he wrote star trek... which is why in his sci-fi story the 'warp factor' was actaully a representation of how much the fabric of space and time was 'bent' around the traveling spececraft... basically the ship stood relatively still...and spacetime was bent around it... Which is bollox I know... I'm aware of that... but its a lot better than 'faster than light' crap.
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erm... I don't know how to break this to you...but you left your baseball (sun) on the pavement 50 km back..... d'ya think its worth going back to get it?
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wow crazy! good vid.
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@jasonrroberts099 Maybe a better understanding of the field the creates gravity is needed before we can overcome it. If we could manipulate that field then why would FTL be impossible. With our current understanding, we cannot theories a way to overcome it, but there is ALOT we do not know.
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Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but I believe that one day, perhaps thousands if not, millions of years from now, our technology will be so advanced that we can manipulate wormholes and space-time itself to travel vast distances. Of course, if we don't blow ourselves up first due to conflicting religions and ideologies...
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