We think a situation creates a paradox, but it really doesn’t. Host Henry Reich of minutephysics says the Grandfather Paradox is a good example. “What if you went back in time and killed your own grandfather?” he says. “Would you still be born? Or would you have thus killed yourself?” Reich explains the solution and tells us what physics, complexity theory and computer science have to say about this famous, murderous, time-travel paradox.
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The observable universe is jammed with billions of galaxies, which in turn are packed with trillions of stars and who knows how many planets. So wouldn’t you think the chances of intelligent life, other than ourselves, exists in one of these faraway places? Or are we looking in the wrong place?
Minutephysics host Henry Reich says, “Researchers have predicted that the population of most intelligent alien species should be below 20 million individuals; the majority of planets with intelligent life should have less than 80 percent the radius of the Earth; and the individuals of most intelligent alien species should be at least as massive as polar bears.” Where do we find these species? Reich explains in this edition of minutephysics.
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Have you ever wondered how we know what the air is like on other planets? “We can study the air on other planets, moons and exoplanets by looking at them. In particular, by looking at light that bounces off or passes through their atmospheres,” says host Henry Reich. He fills in the details in this edition of minutephysics.
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Physics tells us that the Earth spins eastward at 1,000 mph. So why can’t we fly faster when traveling west? Host Henry Reich says the phenomenon has to do with the Coriolis Effect, which is caused by different parts of the Earth moving east at different speeds. Reich explains why this happens in this edition of minutephysics.
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December has the longest solar days (noon-to-noon) because of the weird way a combination of the axial tilt of the Earth and a quirk in its elliptical orbit. Henry Reich clarifies the reasons in this edition of minutephysics.
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Well-traveled astrophysicist and author Neil deGrasse Tyson offers a concise and brief history of everything, including the rapid expansion of the universe following the big bang, in this edition of minutephysics. “We are not simply in the universe, we are part of it, we are born from it,” Tyson says. “One might even say we’ve been empowered by the universe to figure itself out, and we’ve only just begun.”
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Basic physics tells us that rain shouldn’t happen. It’s mathematically impossible. Henry Reich explains how cohesion, adhesion, air resistance and other factors play vital roles in one of nature’s comforts in this edition of minutephysics.
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Have you ever wondered how mega-ton airplanes stay airborne? A wonder of science, for sure. But more precisely, it’s a byproduct of Newton’s Laws of Physics.
“Airplanes stay in the air because of one simple fact,” says Henry Reich. “There is no net force on them. And with no net force, an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays that way.” Join Reich in this edition of minutephysics as he explains the phenomenon.
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Isaac Newton pegged it correctly when describing the colors in a rainbow. But terminology and technology changed drastically over the years, nearly eliminating the colors indigo and violet and re-introducing purple. Henry Reich explains in this fascinating edition of minutephysics.
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Shockingly, the sky is not blue and the sun isn’t yellow. “The sky is not really blue,” says Henry Reich of minutephysics. “It’s a stage upon which all colors dance. It’s mostly transparent air that, at best, is the color of what light it scatters.” Tune in as Reich explains the grand ballet of light in our universe.
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