Earth
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The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most famous telescopes in the world. Oops, excuse me — one of the most famous telescopes built. Hubble, after all, is certainly not in this world. Unless you call the universe the “world,”…
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Einstein: General Relativity
Albert Einstein may have been the genius among physicists, but like all others before his time, he stood on the shoulders of giants. Einstein did not propose that the sun was the center of the solar system; that idea was…
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Einstein: Special Relativity
Albert Einstein’s name literally sends shivers down my spine. This is the man who discovered physics as we know it. This is the man who filled in the gaps where even Newton’s laws of motion went wrong and expanded our…
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Moving with the Tides
Have you ever been to the beach? If you’re from California like me, then I’m betting you have. If you’re from a place that’s not near an ocean and you’ve never been near the water all your life, then I’ll…
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Newton and Gravity
So, the moon stays in orbit around the Earth, right? Yeah, I thought so. But why? The moon’s orbit is not a straight line, which means it’s accelerated motion (using the physics definition, which is absolutely any change in speed or…
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Newton’s Laws of Motion
It’s said that Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, and that’s when all his discoveries began. Personally, I doubt that story — just as I doubt that Galileo Galilei ever dropped…
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Galileo and Motion
Before Galileo’s time, Aristotle was the god of gravity. Seriously. Before Galileo came along, the question of how gravity worked was answered with another question: “What would Aristotle say?” Obviously, this method was faulty, since Aristotle was actually wrong about…
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Galileo and the Telescope
When you hear the name “Galileo Galilei,” what immediately comes to mind? If you thought, “inventor of the telescope,” you’re not alone. I also wouldn’t be surprised if you thought “condemned by the Inquisition for believing the Earth orbited the…
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Johannes Kepler and Planetary Motion
Thales and Pythagoras suggested that the natural world could be understood. Aristotle dared to imagine what was beyond the Earth. Plato encouraged thought about the universe, even if he did take astronomy one step forward and two steps backward. Copernicus…
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Tycho Brahe, the Observer
It is surprisingly difficult to find a flattering image of Tycho Brahe. Honestly. Do me a favor and do a Google image search for the guy. It’ll come up with all sorts of disfigured images, mostly because his nose got…
