Ben's Math & Science Pages
Weather * Physics * Logical Thinking * Probability * Useful Links * Did you know? * Books
One of my interests is science - I'm really an amateur/hobbyist when it comes to science, but it fascinates me and I love to learn about it. These pages will feature a random collection of thoughts, information and ideas. Hopefully you'll find some of this interesting and/or educational.
Weather
Can tornadoes cross rivers?
You bet they can. In fact, more than 30 significant tornadoes have been recorded to have crossed the Mississippi River. It's not even unheard of for a river boat on the Mississippi to be sunk by a tornado.
What's the difference between a typhoon and a hurricane?
Just where they're located. A hurricane is a storm with 74MPH+ sustained winds that is located in the Atlantic or in the Pacific east of the International Dateline. A typhoon is basically the same storm, west of the International Dateline.
Physics
Gravity
Did you know that gravity, on the Earth's surface, is slightly stronger at the poles than at the equator?
Do you know why? Because the Earth is not a perfect sphere - it's slightly oblong and it's thicker at the middle (the equator) than it is at the top. Gravity originates from the center of mass and the further you get from the center of mass the weaker the force becomes. The Earth being oblong, the equator is further from the center of the planet than the poles are. Hence the force of gravity is slightly weaker there!
How much weaker? I'm told that a man who weighs 200 pounds at the poles would weigh about 199 pounds on the equator. Not a great difference, but measurable.
Black Holes
What is a black hole? It's a star so dense that its gravity is strong enough to prevent light from escaping from it. Light consists of particles, not entirely unlike a rock (at a very basic level) and thus it is affected by gravity.
If you throw a rock up into the air, gravity will eventually overcome the force you imparted to that rock and pull it back down to earth. Light, typically, moves far too fast for gravity to actually stop it and bring it back to earth. In some, rare, cases, however...a super dense star has a gravitational field strong enough to actually pull the light back down to it. Thus you can't see it. That's a black hole.
Did you know?
Sir Issac Newton was born on Christmas Day in 1642?
Louis Pasteur was described by one of his college professors as "mediocre" in chemistry?
A new Hawaiian Island, Loihi, is being formed even as we speak?
Useful Links
John Allen Paulos Home page - The official site for mathematician and author John Allen Paulos. A number of his essays are published or linked from here; well worth a visit.
NPR's Science Friday - an excellent radio program and website. You can listen to past broadcasts in RealAudio here as well.
The NASA Science site - Nothing like going right to the source for the latest information on space exploration and theory.
Scientific American - The website of one of the most popular science magazines. Good content, good search tool.
More to come...soon...