The Innovation of physics, Nuclear Physics.

Xavier Ortiz Olavarria

A tiny thing can change the world. How it transform it into something bigger than we thought. One of the significance journeys of life is about how the discovery of the atom turns and it importance. The nucleus took part of it. Someone’s calls it the heart of matter. In reference of Bohr-Rutherford model of the atom tells that electrons surround the central nucleus and it is organize by orbits. About that, it contains two main particles that are so fundamentals in chemistry and physics. These are protons and nucleus.

That is were the journey begins, in how talented scientist like Hendrik Lorentz and Pieter Zeeman started the Nuclear physics. It began one century ago, on the famous “miraculous decade”, between 1895 and 1905. In these years all-modern physics were established and practiced. Many events occurred and transform the Nuclear physics on what it is today. According to what say Jean-Louis Basdevant in his book “Fundamentals
In Nuclear Physics”, (2005, page III-V), “the period started with two unexpected spinoffs of the Crooke’s vacuum tube: Roentgen’s X-rays (1895) and Thomson’s electron (1897), the first elementary particle to be discovered. Lorentz and Zeemann developed the theory of the electron and the influence of magnetism on radiation. For nuclear physics, the critical discovery was that of radioactivity by Becquerel in 1896.”

Talented scientists, the Curies, Rutherford, Einstein, and many others, study the principles, observe and contributed in the innovation of radioactivity and constructed the ideas of what are todays Nuclear physics. Of course, the discovery of radioactivity it is much broader importance. Basdevant, as stated in his book, “it leads directly to quantum mechanics via Rutherford’s planetary atomic model and Bohr’s interpretation of the hydrogen spectrum. Nuclear physics has transformed astronomy from the study of planetary trajectories into the astrophysical study of stellar interiors.”

In Nuclear physic, tells that the nuclei can break into certain ways and reflecting the forces. This breakup occurs by the emission of certain cases, can be both or one particle. These particles are: β particles, and γrays. They are very energetic particles of light, and also can be electromagnetic waves, or rays, nevertheless. There are three types of emitted particles: Alpha (α), Beta (β), and Gamma (γ). The fun fact is that these particles can easily be distinguished by the way they are (or are not) deflected by a magnetic field. These decays occur in different types of nuclei, as follows: “Gamma decay occurs in nuclear isomers that have too much energy, Alpha decay occurs in nuclei that have too many protons. Beta decay occurs when a neutron decays into a proton, an electron (α, and β particle), and an antineutrino.” (Burcham, W.E. in Nuclear Physics, 1973, pages 3-7) 

In Physics Todays published an article: “1932, a watershed year in nuclear physics”, that also explain how amazing the Nuclear Physics became, and it importance in our days. In 1935, Chadwick received the Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the neutron” and how he does it. With the alpha particles, he used one element radiation, Beryllium. “From the alpha-bombarded Beryllium target could only be neutral particles with mass close to that of the proton. He had discovered the neutron, liberated on the reaction.” (Physics Todays, 2013) Later, two events released a big step in Nuclear Physic. The First was in 1936, when Carl David Anderson “was observing cosmic rays with a cloud chamber mounted vertically inside a magnetic field. Bisecting the chamber was a horizontal lead plate. From the curvatures and track lengths of cosmic-ray trajectories passing through the plate, Anderson concluded that about a dozen of them, collected over several months, represented positively charged electrons, which he called positrons.” (Physics Todays, 2013) The second was when Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann irradiated uranium with neutrons in Berlin, 1938, and they had produced nuclei with about half of uranium’s mass. An important event, because of that they discovered the nuclear fission.

Although Heisenberg suggested that nuclei would then consist only of nucleons. He proposed that the freedom of movement in the nucleon could individualize protons from neutrons, later named “isotopic spin or isospin. The Isospin remains an important organizing principle of nuclear and particle physics.

The deuterium nucleus, called the deuteron, became part of these events. “In 1934 Rutherford and Mark Oliphant bombarded deuterons with neutrons and thus created tritium, the third hydrogen isotope. It decays to 3He plus an electron with a half-life of 12 years.” (Physics Todays, 2013) This discovered helped at todays Nuclear Physics, because tritium is produced in the nuclear reactors, “in the heavy water used to slow down (moderate) the reactor neutrons. And tritium will have a key role in the fusion reactors of the future. It’s also the principal reaction in thermonuclear weapons.” (see the article by Joseph Reader and Charles W. Clark in Physics Today, March 2013, page 44). 

Nuclear physic you can see it in many campuses of physics. For example, applied antimatter (is a part of the applications of “PET scanning” is the detection of brain cancer and also help researchers study metabolic activity under various circumstances in different parts of the healthy brain.), nuclear reactor (for source energy), nuclear weapons, and astrophysics. The Nuclear Physic came to change our world and our perspective. It took time to be one of the greatest inventions, and is our better weapon to grow up. Only if is used wisely and for goodness.

References:

http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v66/i3/p44_s1?bypassSSO=1

http://www.stfc.ac.uk/Our+Research/4593.aspx

http://science.energy.gov/np/

http://gendocs.ru/docs/9/8570/conv_1/file1.pdf

W.E. Burcham Nuclear Physics 2nd.ed. Longman Group 1973 

http://archive.org/details/NuclearPhysics

http://www.cbs.nl/en-GB/menu/themas/macro-economie/publicaties/artikelen/archief/2009/2009-2716-wm.htm

How using physic’s helps the optimization of everyday life activities?

Ricardo J. Ares Juliá

There are many concepts of physics that people that haven’t taken any course of physics know but if they learn more about physics they would optimized the way they achieve their everyday life shores. For example themes like vector sum, inclines, potential energy, projectile motion and friction. The ways people can use physics in their lives are innumerable because physics is used to explain phenomenon’s that occurs trough the course of everyday. Just by stopping a moment and analyzing what it is happening people could figure out how to do some works in a more efficient way. This is what Newton did to develop all of his theories and law’s that helps humanity so much; he just waited, observes and analyzed what was happening.

With out going to deep into physics, how could some one be more efficient when passing a land mower on a patio? There are many conditions that can and will have an effect when dealing with this type of work but having two basics scenarios, the most efficient way to applied force trough a displacement on the land mower in a horizontal plane is to pull it because in this way the weight of the machine is reduce due to the force being applied to the handle that’s has an angle of inclination and it is easier to cut the grass faster. But when having and incline surface it is better to push down the incline plane the land mower due to most of the force exerted in the machine will be applied by gravity when going down and only a small force will be applied from the person to stop the machine from keep on going downhill. As when going up hill it is easier to pull, for the same reason’s when dealing with the land mower in a flat surface. Recently there have been many sports championships in the past year and most of these sports involve playing with balls and most of the efficient way to optimize the launch of the projectile (ball) is to have a good angle when dealing with an approximate constant force. For example a football quarterback that wants the most of his launch is to have a 45 degree angle from the horizontal at the point in which the ball was thrown but for a baseball pitcher is not how big it gets its angle of pitching but how fast he throws the ball and the batter needs the combination of the angle in which he hits the ball with how much normal force is applied from the baseball bat to the ball. In other words the normal force is a force with the same magnitude as the one applied by the ball but including and opposite direction to the one that travels by the ball. 

This examples of everyday life helps us to understand better how and why matter behaves the way it does. It could be ideal to teach every person the basics of physics to ensure the optimization when dealing with everyday situation, for instance how to just to past a land mower more efficiently.

Can they be laws for human behavior?

Rafael Perez Cedeno

I was a sunny day with a temperature of 98 Fahrenheit sitting in a park and saw people with their families, other with friends, other walking with dogs etc. The things that can be seen in family parks, most of person with positive energy. There was a couple talking, I kept watching they, and conversation of the couple became a fight and people ran and tried to separate them so they do not attack, in that the police arrived and arrested the couple they were fighting. I keep watching and people who stay and separate the couple to no fight, began to act differently; they were with bad attitude, walking and arguing with people. After the couple's fight the positive energy of the people happened to be negative energy. I'm studying physics and I am not an expert in physics, I had an idea that maybe could explain what happened, because physics is defined by the book Giacoli's "As the basic science that deals with the behavior and structure of matter ". And using this definition I could say that this couple who fought is equals to one matter which have a behavior. Then I wonder why these people fought in the park? What could be the reason?, Maybe there was a reason that I don’t know, but there is the law of conservation of energy, "which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transferred or converted."

I can suppose that sun's heat energy was transferred to the couple (thermodynamics), which did increase its potential energy, which is then converted into kinetic energy when they began to fight. Maybe if it had been very cold snow or perhaps these people had not fought? One could say that there may be laws that can predict the behavior of mankind and to know that certain energies can affect people. Perhaps in that park can operate the following law: 

Hunger + Heat + (external energy) + .... = Human Behavior 

this would be law of human behavior.

Now how can explain the behavior of people who separated the couple. Because people before the fight were positive at 98 Fahrenheit, but after the fight were negative and arguing. What happened to them? , Why were positive and then negative?

I could say that following happened: the couple receives energy by heat and then fight energy became kinetic. But through friction and touch the people involved in separate received negative energy which they continue to pass. This gives the following law: 

μ * E * p (Received) = Energy Total (internal) 

This would be law of human friction, (how much one can endure friction for energy) 

μ. = static coefficient of friction of the person 

E = energy received 

P = the power transferred by the energy

Total Energy = what the person will have acquired, whether positivism, negativism. Etc.

Well there are more formulas, maybe not my formulas are correct and not work in all cases, but perhaps in a future, human behavior can be predicted based on certain factors and perhaps with formulas that can predict whether Most people's behavior. "People are like stars, have a direction, a velocity, trajectory that awaits them, if physic can tell how long a star will move in space and when arrive to destination, we can also know when and how a human being achieved his path in life.”

*group of person happy, the couple is in conversation, but the thermal energy is raising up the potential energy.

*person gain energy from sun, the couple potential energy

*The energy of couple is converted to kinetic energy

*when person see the fight ran, and hold the couple, but receive negative energy.

*Later the person how stop the couple to fight became with negative energy.

Galileo Galilei 

Brenda Lee Vargas Pérez 

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564 in Pisa. He died at age 77 in Florence on January 8, 1642. Mr. Galileo has been considered the father of modern physics. Galileo also was related to her scientific revolution. One of the achievements of Galileo was the first law of motion. The work of Galileo is considered a breach of settled theories of Aristotelian physics. Even as a student Galileo discovered the law of isochrony of the pendulum that was the first stage of what will be the discovery of a new science considered mechanical. Galileo had great scientific curiosity and began to show many theorems about the center of gravity of circa Theoremata some solids gravitatis centrum solidum. This leads Galileo to the reconstitution of the hydrostatic balance. In addition continued his studies of gravitational pendulum swings and invents the heart rate monitor. Also began his studies of falling bodies. Between 1590 and 1591 experienced Galileo on falling bodies and wrote his first play mechanics, De motu. In October 1604 Galileo discovered the law of uniformly accelerated motion which he associated with erroneous speed law. Galileo resumed his studies of motion and show that projectiles follow parabolic trajectories. In 1606 Galileo built his first thermoscope. The thermoscope is the first device that allows story objectively compare the level of heat and cold. Other inventions of Galileo was in 1609 and he built his first telescope. This telescope does not deform objects and you increase 6 times. "It is also the only telescope of the time getting right to obtain an image through the use of a diverging lens in the eye." The invention of the telescope marks a turn in the life of Galileo. He made an instrument that increases twenty times and with this Galileo observed the phases of the moon and discovers that this star is not perfect as described by Aristotle's theory. Aristotelian physics was distinguished by two worlds. The first was the sublunary world comprising the earth and all that lies between Earth and the Moon. In this world everything is imperfect and changing. The second world was the world supralunar, which begins on the moon, and extends beyond. In this area, there are more than perfect geometric shapes and immutable regular movements. The evidence presented Galileo's heliocentric system caused a conflict between the Catholic Church and he. According to Bertrand Russell was the conflict of inductive and deductive reasoning. Galileo has always been based on data from experimental observations demonstrating the validity of their arguments. Furthermore it is argued that Galileo did not show the movement of the Earth. The father of modern physics going from success to success and convincing everyone that won so many enemies especially those who believed in the geocentric theory. Galileo summoned the February 16, 1616 by the Holy Office for consideration of the proposals of censorship which was a disaster for him. "The Copernican theory is condemned as foolish, absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical." So Galileo remains confined to his home in Florence from December 1633-1638, but still could receive visits which allowed some of his works could cross the border.

Physics in Spider-Man

Wanda L. Berrios Cerpa

Whenever watching a movie one does pay attention to the action sequences, the dialogue the characters have, the scenery used, and the score which in some cases determines the whole mood of the movie itself. But it never crosses our minds to think about the physics involved when making movie magic. This article approaches the scene in Spider-Man 2 in which our hero stops a train from running off of the tracks using his web (1). This is a time in a movie when you probably say to yourself “nah, that’s impossible” and it only leaves to answer: is this really possible?

A group of physicists at the United Kingdom's University of Leicester have done some research and say it is possible. Spiders produce silk to make their webs or other structures, which function as nets to catch other animals or as nests or cocoons for protection for their offspring and also use it to suspend themselves (2). The silk that spiders produce is five to six times stronger than high-grade steel by weight, and is stronger than any known natural or synthetic fiber on Earth (3).  Silks’ strength is comparable to that of high-grade alloy steel which is around 450 - 1970 MPa, and about half as strong as aramid filaments, such as Twaron or Kevlar, which are around 3000 MPa (2). Since spider silk can be  stronger than steel, these physicists were interested in knowing whether that scene in the movie could actually be possible due to the nature in films to exaggerate things like that. 

To determine if it was possible, they calculated that the force needed to stop four New York City subway cars packed with nearly 1,000 people total would be 300,000 N, after taking into account the momentum of the train at full speed, the time it takes the train to come to rest after the webs are attached, and the driving force of the subway car.  They estimated that Spider-Man’s silk would need to be almost 500 megajoules per cubic meter and while comparing and testing the strength of different types of silk, they found one that matched: silk from Darwin’s bark spider(4). Darwin's bark spider has the toughest silk ever seen, more than twice as tough as any previously described silk, and more than 10 times stronger than Kevlar (5). 

Another parameter used was the stiffness of the silk, which Spider-Man’s web was of 3.12 gigapascals and this is reasonable because real spider silk stiffness ranges from 1.5 gigapascals to 12 gigapascals. The conclusion of the research was that Spider-Man’s webbing is a proportional equivalent of a real life spider, specifically a weaker orb-weaver spider, but its toughness is more alike that of a stronger spider silk (4). The "typical" orb-weaver spiders are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields and forests. Their common name is taken from the round shape of this typical web (6). 

So after researching more about spiders, their silk, and what is it capable of doing, we are now ready to answer our question: is it possible for Spider-Man’s silk to stop a train? And the answer is yes, it is possible.

References

1- Spider-Man 2 scene in which he stops a train: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYOYewO_Veg

2- Spider silk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_silk

3- How do spiders make silk?: http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/523-how-do-spiders-make-silk.html

4- Spiderman’s silk really could stop a train: http://www.livescience.com/27430-spiderman-silk-could-stop-a-train.html

5- Itsy Bitsy Spider’s Web 10 Times Stronger Than Kevlar: http://www.livescience.com/8686-itsy-bitsy-spider-web-10-times-stronger-kevlar.html

6- Orb-weaver spider: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb-weaver_spider

The Amazing Brian Cox 

(Physicist, Band Member, Professor, Entertainer, Father)

Neysha Lopez Vazquez 

Physics have played a large role in humankind. This fascinating discipline has answered so many questions in the past hundred years. It has harbor vast amount usefulness to society and with every new fragment of knowledge that I gather in this course; I grow even more excited about the endless possibilities of this field. 

To further express my interest in physics I am compelled to disclose a story of a famous young physicist by the name of Brian Cox. This physicist was born on March 3, 1968 in Chaderton, England. I was looking for a different kind of physicist and happen to found possibly the coolest physicist yet. In 1993, he joined the UK pop band D: Ream, as keyboard player, which had several hits, including the number one "Things Can Only Get Better". Later in 1997 the band separated at  which at that  point Brian Cox (who had been studying physics all along and earned his PhD) went on to practicing physics full time (how amazing is that).  He received his doctorate in physics from the University of Manchester and completing his thesis “Double diffraction dissociation at large momentum transfer” in 1998. He was supervised by Robin Marshall and worked for the H1 experiment at the HERA particle accelerator at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, Germany. Currently he is a professor at the University of Manchester as well as researcher on one of the most ambitious experiment on earth, the ATLAS experiment(the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, and considered "one of the great engineering milestones of mankind”)on the large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Cox is better known now as the presenter of various science programs for BBC, increasing the popularity of topic such as physics and astronomy. He has written and co-authored books on physics including “Why does E=mc2?”, “Wonders of the Universe” and “Wonder of the Solar System”. This year he presents a series call “Wonder of life” will be release on BBC. 

Professor Brian Cox also has received many awards for his efforts to publicize science. In 2002 he was chosen as an International Fellow of The Explorers Club and later in 2006 he received the British Association's Lord Kelvin Award for his work. Also that year he was granted a Royal Society University Research Fellowship and in 2010 he won the Institute of Physics Kelvin Prize for his work in communicating the appeal and thrill of physics to the general public. He was also chosen as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) due to his services to science. On October 2012 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the Open University for his 'Exceptional contribution to Education and Culture' and also that same year he was awarded the Michael Faraday Prize of the Royal Society.

Furthermore, Brian Cox is an inspiring physicist that at such young age he has accomplished so many things. The most incredible things of all is that apart from being a physicist, entertainer, and ex-band member of a very successful band in the UK; he is father of two children and has a wife. Finally it is fulfilled that he demonstrates his love for physics in many different ways.