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Sunday, February 21, 2010

Reflection: Energy - The Fuel of the Universe

"Hubble Ultra Deep Field"
A look back in time nearer to the "Big Bang" 

According to the commonly accepted theory of the big bang, approximately 13.73 ± 0.12 billion years ago, the universe started expanding from an infinitesimally small point into the visible universe that we know of today, over 93 billion light years wide. After one Planck time (about 5.39124*10^(-44) seconds), gravity separated from the electronuclear force. After one picosecond (1.00*10^(-12) seconds), the “weak” force separated from the electromagnetic force resulting in the four forces we know today. By one hour, helium nuclei formed. In 370,000 years, hydrogen and helium nuclei captured electrons and formed stable atoms. By 100 million years after the big bang, the first stars began to shine. It may seem surprising, but all of the energy in our universe at this moment, was present from the very beginning. Some of what I have learned during this unit about energy is explained in the following "Glog":

Energy - The Fuel of the Universe

Attributions:
Big Bang Technical Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_timeline_of_the_Big_Bang
Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hubble_ultra_deep_field_high_rez_edit1.jpg

3 comments:

  1. Amazing Job, I feel like you've covered everything that we studied. Not only that you have explained to me and to others the detailed descriptions of each storage of energy and each equation. I think looking at your glog would be an excellent way to review as well as study an overview of this Unit. Great job Chris, as usual!

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  2. Outstanding!!!! I particularly liked how you extended your learning by investigating into the Big bang!

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  3. Thanks for the kind words!! I really enjoy making "glogs" and researching and learning about cosmology and particle physics/quantum mechanics. It is very interesting to me how we can further connect what we are learning in class to other concepts in everyday life.

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