mental_floss Blog » 4 More Forgotten Founding Fathers This Saturday is July 4, a day when Americans of all shapes and sizes will come together to commemorate the founding of their country, and the noble pursuit of life, liberty, and overcooked hamburgers. Here's a quick quiz question "“ how many people signed the Declaration of Independence? We're betting that few of you, not including the people who compulsively Googled that question, knew the answer is 56. Fifty-six?! 1. Yes, it's true: not all of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were in favor of independence. At age 15, Read began studying the law, and he was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar in 1753, when he was only 19 years old. When he was elected to the first Continental Congress on behalf of Delaware, it looked as though his voice would be drowned out by two far more liberal delegates, Thomas McKean and Caesar Rodney. Once the revolution had begun, Read defended his state admirably, raising money, troops and supplies to assist the counter-invasion war effort. 2. 3. 4.
Brief Answers to Cosmic Questions Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Evolution of the Universe Did the Universe expand from a point? More about the Big Bang When they say "the universe is expanding," what exactly is expanding? Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? If you could suddenly freeze time everywhere in the universe, and magically survey all of creation, you would find galaxies extending out far beyond what we can see today. Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Today, the situation is reversed. Discovering the properties of space remains one of the deepest and most important problems in modern science.
The Burj Birdmen - Video Basejump video posted March 17, 2010 by Sonreal Insane illegal record breaking basejump off the worlds tallest building in Dubai from Buzz Films. 127475 Views The Labyrinth 10 Strange Things About The Universe Space The universe can be a very strange place. While groundbreaking ideas such as quantum theory, relativity and even the Earth going around the Sun might be commonly accepted now, science still continues to show that the universe contains things you might find it difficult to believe, and even more difficult to get your head around. Theoretically, the lowest temperature that can be achieved is absolute zero, exactly ?273.15°C, where the motion of all particles stops completely. One of the properties of a negative-energy vacuum is that light actually travels faster in it than it does in a normal vacuum, something that may one day allow people to travel faster than the speed of light in a kind of negative-energy vacuum bubble. One prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity is that when a large object moves, it drags the space-time around it, causing nearby objects to be pulled along as well. Relativity of Simultaneity This is similar to arranging tiles evenly on a floor.
This Is Luck This Is Luck Look at the top picture and you can see where this guy broke through the crash barrier (right side where the people are standing on the road). His truck left the road, traveling from right to left. He flipped end-over-end, across the culvert outlet and landed on the left side of it. Now look at the picture below. The Elegant Universe: Pt 1 The Elegant Universe: Part 3 PBS Airdate: November 4, 2003 NARRATOR: Now, on NOVA, take a thrill ride into a world stranger than science fiction, where you play the game by breaking some rules, where a new view of the universe pushes you beyond the limits of your wildest imagination. This is the world of "string theory," a way of describing every force and all matter from an atom to earth, to the end of the galaxies—from the birth of time to its final tick, in a single theory, a "Theory of Everything." Our guide to this brave new world is Brian Greene, the bestselling author and physicist. BRIAN GREENE (Columbia University): And no matter how many times I come here, I never seem to get used to it. NARRATOR: Can he help us solve the greatest puzzle of modern physics—that our understanding of the universe is based on two sets of laws that don't agree? NARRATOR: Resolving that contradiction eluded even Einstein, who made it his final quest. S. BRIAN GREENE:The atmosphere was electric. S.
Interactive 3D model of Solar System Planets and Night Sky Your Sky by John Walker Welcome to Your Sky, the interactive planetarium of the Web. You can produce maps in the forms described below for any time and date, viewpoint, and observing location. If you enter the orbital elements of an asteroid or comet, Your Sky will compute its current position and plot it on the map. Each map is accompanied by an ephemeris for the Sun, Moon, planets, and any tracked asteroid or comet. A control panel permits customisation of which objects are plotted, limiting magnitudes, colour scheme, image size, and other parameters; each control is linked to its description in the help file. Your Sky provides three ways to view the sky with links, where appropriate, among the various presentations. Sky Map The sky map shows the entire sky as viewed from a given location at a specified time and date. Horizon Views Horizon Views, showing the stars above the horizon as seen from a specified observing site at a given date and time. The Virtual Telescope Your Sky help Related Software
NASA Probe Successfully Orbiting Mercury—A First NASA made history tonight as the MESSENGER probe became the first spacecraft to orbit the tiny planet Mercury. Launched in 2004, the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging mission marks the first time a craft has gone near Mercury since 1975, when NASA's Mariner 10 probe conducted flybys. (Get MESSENGER facts and figures.) For the past six and a half years MESSENGER has been maneuvering itself into an orbital path via so-called gravity assists, using the tugs from flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself to speed up and alter course. At 8:45 p.m. The mission control team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland was monitoring MESSENGER's progress from 96 million miles (155 million kilometers) away. At 9:10 p.m. engineers confirmed that the burn had occurred. But the backup plans, he said, didn't involve an immedite retry and would have substantially changed the time line of the mission. Mercury Probe to Fill in Blanks
Neutron Stars, Neutron Stars Information Neutron stars are ancient remnants of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary journey through space and time. These interesting objects are born from once-large stars that grew to four to eight times the size of our own sun before exploding in catastrophic supernovae. After such an explosion blows a star's outer layers into space, the core remains—but it no longer produces nuclear fusion. Despite their small diameters—about 12.5 miles (20 kilometers)—neutron stars boast nearly 1.5 times the mass of our sun, and are thus incredibly dense. A neutron star's almost incomprehensible density causes protons and electrons to combine into neutrons—the process that gives such stars their name. Neutron stars pack an extremely strong gravitational pull, much greater than Earth's. When they are formed, neutron stars rotate in space. Pulsing Lights After spinning for several million years pulsars are drained of their energy and become normal neutron stars.