"To learn, think and listen, with a theme to ponder, of a time to reflect, in a quote a month, and then to wonder..."

cthisspace.com

C-this Countdown to the Quote of the Month archive page (now recent first) Read this intro about how this page works then sroll down to the current Quote of the Month - this page was updated October 2021. A new and recent 2014 -2015 Countdown to the Quote page is here

This site is about my favourite interests - Science (Physics, Astronomy) Space Art + Music which include some ideas in science and space art that I have created. Part of the site also contains an old magazine. This bit has a Monthly Quote and a few ideas thrown together. Read the bit of text below first to see what that means, then scroll down to read the latest quote.

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) on this page now goes:

The Quote

Every month, I put a 1st of the Month quote here (which I have done for years) but recently, since about mid to late 2011, I came up with a new idea to go along with this. As usual I put the quote here, then I say who the quote belongs to.

The Theme

Then I say what the theme of the month is that goes with the quote, mainly in a large title just below it.

The 'Twint'

If you look at my twitter page http://twitter.com/ClaireCSmith about 2,3 or 4 days before the 1st of the Month Quote, I tweet one hint a day, that I call Twints, so that each tweet means a countdown, which are really just tweet hints (twints) about what the theme is, that is about to come up in the next quote or subject.

The Explanation

Later I intergrate some text about a brief explanation of the quotes into the countdowns. I may extend, if necessary, any possible explainable connections of my own then embed (an education word for a method I used when I was a tutor) those ideas on top of that. The quote explanations are a way of getting some science fact, as well as inspiring, over to the masses and wider audience so I tend to use simple and direct terms to do just that. After all that I put the kettle on... or not, I am joking, I put a link on the last part, that is usually to some music video that might illustrate the theme that month and then I can assure you it does really go with the theme. So, it's all connected with my twitter page and this website and it is all supposed to go together. Some how.

C-This Quote Of The Month December 1st 2013

“As the centuries unfold, millions of artists will live on the moon and paint the moon and Mars as we go out into the universe.”

By Alan Bean a former NASA Astronaut and now artist and painter.

Teenage Wasteland (Humans on Mars)

Mars with Phobos (but Phobos looks like a skull, that's just silly) my pic

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: In evolution + nature a certain species from a time inherited this ability to access new pastures.

In evolution, from the beginning of time, humans have been explorers of their surroundings from the immediate environment on land in the natural world, then later to overseas toward other lands. It was only in the early 20th century that as a species, we developed the technological ability to probe and then explore other places on the edge of our world that we could not imagine then, like the Earth’s atmosphere by a Russian satellite called Sputnik 1 which was a USSR's technology, launched on 4th October 1957. Whether by sending satellites, probes or telescopes, or even launching people to the Moon by space craft, our ever increasing curiosity about space created a thirst for the unknown.

In the past, about 50 years ago, the very space from our local perspective i.e. the solar system was once the main vast arena for many unknowns beyond the Earth’s atmosphere but we knew we needed to go further and guess what? We went further! To think that we have probed much of the local space and beyond with the Voyager missions since the 70’s then collected information and data up to this day makes us see how such a small chunk that collective knowledge actually now is, compared to what we have accumulated since in our knowledge of a much larger universe. Now put away what humans have learnt up to this day into a vat of other smaller events in the history of humans of space exploration and its spin off technology, and something stands out quite literally….

We have not gone THAT far (yet).

Proper photo of Mars surface. NASA - photobucket.com

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: A stage in human technological development that is amplified by human history and its future outlook.

Whether by means of travel, or by our knowledge about it, I am not going to list all the space exploration programmes that explain what this means but I want to make the reader simply grasp how significant it is, that we as humans are once again, thrown into the deep end of our understanding of what it means to explore the Teenage Wasteland of our time, that is, with an example which has recently been taken into practice in the last few years - putting humans on Mars.

The reason why this suggests that the era of today’s space technology is relevant to how we understand our place in the timeline of our space exploration is, is because we often think that we have conquered the best thing we can do as a species but much opinion is, since collecting up all dates and history of space exploration whether in books or online, it suggests that we are certainly not in the old age of our understanding (not by a long shot) of space but rather, at a younger teenage stage, where our wasteland has yet to be explored and here, Mars is our wasteland.

Have you ever seen a load of teenagers playing in fields using their experience of what is left of their childhood combined with what they want to explore as an adult? It is incredible because they are at the brink of their most inquisitive time and the wasteland is their playground, but they are not yet an adult to do anything with it for real, but gone are the days of childhood that has kept their creative dreams alive that leave some just enough to do so. Unlike a child who would use objects, like trees or branches to make houses in a pretend world, teenagers will have gone beyond that stage but have the capacity to see vast new worlds upon a barren land and be ready take on young adult responsibility to make it a reality (with Mum and Dad’s encouragement) exactly like a Teenage would be in some barren Wasteland. The scenario here is that they are brimming with energy, they are on new land with fresh ideas; they can imagine the possibilities...

Now take the history of humans and how they develop over thousands of years and imagine all that has gone before including all the experiences of building the hypothetical trees out of houses, they or should I say, we have come a long way since, but we are still only at our teenage years in terms of technology, we have yet to explore vast arenas. There is one that will one day change the world forever but that is of course, if we want to come back to this world at all.

Humans on Mars.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: We developed a list of these events that back up our ability to achieve greater ones with us aboard.

It is unthinkable that the last time humans went to space to properly land and walk on a planet or Moon, was actually on the Moon about 40 years ago in 1969. A bit later, Alan Bean a NASA astronaut became part of Astronaut Group 3 that made him take his first flight into space which was aboard Apollo 12. This was the second manned mission to land on the Moon in November 1969. It is quite incredible that this is unthinkable considering all the technology we have created since, and even when we did put humans on the Moon the technology then was reasonably simple. It is now that is the great time to think about what and how we can approach the subject of putting humans on another planet called Mars because we have greater understanding about what is to be expected.

But let’s not stop there and planetary sling shot a little.

Although there is now the human hunger to explore another planet, before we start we cannot rush our planetary assist, in that Mars is a very hostile place with many dangers with the main one being radiation, much less the long journey that will bring about unknown physical and psychological problems with the crew. We have a lot to learn even to this day. Of course we have gathered our thoughts and great knowledge about how many achievements we have but sending humans to Mars will be like the biggest teenage exam we can pass; the biggest test yet to mark our place in human endeavour. If we get this right and use all our resources wisely, even if at a cost of a few lives to many (if supposing we end up living on another planet because something terrible happens on Earth) we can use these resources to pull us into the correct technological and psychological orbit that will then allow us to be propelled into the right position for sustaining our very life form on another planet and how great is that?

An amazing feat.

My pic of me stood on Phobos looking at Mars (easily achievable)

So far, along with three orbiters at the moment surveying Mars - Odyssey, Mars Express then the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and two probes or lab buggies, Opportunity and Curiosity, we know they have given us great insight into how the planet Mars behaves. We have gathered the data and even analysed the Martian soil. We have fantastic images of the surface of Mars that has inspired us to seek more. We know for now, our curiosity will take us to that planet at some point, we just have to find the right one.

The ESA (European Space Agency) is thinking of putting humans on Mars in around the year 2030 with a sample return mission. NASA on the other hand, is on the board with a manned mission in about 2037 called Mars Direct event. The idea is that it is cheaper sending people and not returning them. There is still a lot to learn from not returning because of our great communication abilities that will be improved by that time.

A more recent American non-profit organisation called Inspiration Mars Foundation that was founded by Dennis Tito is to put a manned mission on a fly-by to Mars. Initially this event is to use the way the planets are aligned and maximise energy in order to use less fuel and that year is good because we get the most cost effective method for a Mars fly by. This is a reasonable step in my opinion because it will focus on the travel 1st to as opposed to the stay on the planet itself, which could be premature. The need to take things step at a time is a good strategy at least and we can learn a lot from a fly by, then hopefully the next step, not in the too distant future, is to land there one day, to live out our teenage dreams and explore the once barren but exciting potential wasteland of Mars.

The music I have chosen to illustrate this month’s subject is the track ‘Teenage Wasteland’ by one of my favourite groups, The Who. This track shows how the teenage times are the events that let us explore life and new worlds exemplifying our understanding of the cosmic wasteland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr6aQDxj7D8

C-This Quote Of The Month November 1st 2013

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

By Albert Einstein the theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity.

Imagination

The Pink Star (on this website in space art section and my twitter background image - my pic)

Countdown to The Quote of the Month 3: This function is a precursor + part of suggested explanations needed before finalising and verifying. In science there is a process called hypothesis where theories are created that are later proven. Imagination and inductive thinking, is part of a large part of hypothesis used in science. Hypothesis is the start of a theory that the scientist uses to make assumptions about a theory before it is proven, using deductive logic. Later a hypo deductive technique is often used. The same process of hypothesis can be achieved in art, especially in astronomy and space art. An example is creating a picture to represent a world on another planet that we might not be able to see in our current time.

Science meets Art

Space art is a valid way of creating those imaginary worlds where the space artists is responsible for making the worlds come alive – they are creating a hypothetical world. This is very important in science and astronomy because it can illustrate an idea in a visual way to suggest how something could be. The subjects of exoplanets and the processes of distant stars in astrophysics are often explained using space art, so in this sense imagination plays an important part in both science and art. The study of art enables the mind to produce 3 Dimensional rotations, detail and analysis of objects surface and their place in space. This link to a BBC article gives an example of how art supports and illustrates the world of astronomy that we cannot capture using photographs alone http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24748601 Art also enables the mind to create visual holistic representations of scientific ideas. Later is explained in more detail here.

Phenomena - my own pic on my website here in space art section

Countdown to The Quote of the Month 2: In maths and physics this function aided a greater description of a topic changing our way of thinking. Imagination forms the basis of thinking in pictures and 3 dimensional shapes allowing many new ideas to form. In art and science, imagination has played and still plays a great part in the thinking up and reasoning of three-dimensional spaces. 3 D thinking is about what our real world is made up of and tells us about its height, depth and length. 3 D thinking in technical terms is a geometric Euclidean space using the 3 parameters which are the three axes x,y and z that describe the form of space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coord_planes_color.svg

These three axes are based on the Cartesian coordinate system and form the basis of our reality and mental structure about it and are used in mathematics and ultimately physics and astronomy. In mathematics in particular, linear algebra deals with three dimensional spaces that are represented by these 3 separate vectors. When adding another vector, it begins to sum up the non-Euclidean spaces once used by one of the most famous physicists of our time, Albert Einstein his theory of general relativity.

PHYSICS FOR DUMMIES and/or http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=275226.0

Adding the 4th vector to Geometric Euclidean space co-ordinates represents time, which later becomes the curved space-time geometry known in the theory of general relativity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spacetime_curvature.png

Today we use general relativity for earth-orbiting satellites clocks. General relativity that includes time, as extra co-ordinate, goes into the realm of gravitational time dilation of satellites clocks. Part of the physics used in satellites clock positioning and time lag difference also incorporates special relativistic time dilation, were special relativity also played a big part in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Interestingly, going back to the original subject of imagination when referring to some of my tweets on twitter about using imagination to understand how things work, I mention its use in astronomy. This next excerpt in straight brackets is a tweet from my twitter feed:

[When imagining objects in space e.g. stars + planets, it's like creating a 3D map in the mind. Trajectory of a planet is start of #astronomy]

Not that hard…seriously!

I go onto say that thinking about interstellar space is good for (4) the brain. I subtly used the number 4 for the word ‘for’ but to also represent the extra dimension mentioned in the last paragraph about time. This later would be included in the next set of tweets about reasoning out - how to use imagination to the best of its ability in order to ‘get’ the subject at hand (Oh, the irony). It is easy if you have a mind that can grasp 3D space for a start; the next becomes more complex because not everybody can grasp anything other than 3 D space which could leave a large gap in understanding about how time is part of space in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, but there is nothing wrong with that because we all have different ways of thinking and learning and evolution makes sure that there is an array of different minds diverse enough to grasp and understand our universe around us. I later say that the first astronomers didn't have animated diagrams online but had to use their heads. This was suggesting a way of them using their primitive imagination to grasp the subject of planet orbits. For example, before we had the use of animated diagrams online and pictures in books along with mathematical symbols and words to describe ideas and theories, in those days people had no other choice but to use their imaginations along with symbols used in maths and words to learn about science. After that I tweeted that I tweeted:

[Visualisation of process of star formation creates an accurate 3D diagram in time and space and the imaginary observer can orbit it to rotate.]

This is a very good example of how utilise your imagination but not only to think about how things are in 3 D (looking at the star for example) but to also how to imagine your orbiting the star and then imagining how it would rotate (if supposing the star is that type of star that would rotate, like a Neutron star that rotates very quickly - new Neutron stars can rotate up to a hundred times a second, eek!) and that you as an observer would then have to see (imagine) all of its sides if you were to orbit it too. If you did imagine a Neutron star rotating that fast, to see (imagine) any detail you would have to slow down the process in your mind to get it right anyway but it depends on how good your imagination is. Later you could,

[try imagining you are a planet orbiting a star in space].

Star FTL - was used for FTL magazine. My own pic. On my site here.

I then tweeted:

[Think about how you would see the other objects positions, trajectories and behaviour.]

After that I tweeted this lot:

[Go back about 14 hrs on this pg here 2 c my tweets about how astronomers visualise in 3D the objects to place + map events in space + time -]

[- then compare how to do that with the maths function s used in probability, it's more abstract like #algebra. Stats has upside c/b applied.]

[now combine the abstract thinking of objects in space + rotation, as b4 + the Lorentz transformations in special relativity become less so.]

[that is, now rotating objects in an abstract way using the lorentz transformations. If kids can get the 1st bit then they can get the second]

[This is what u end up with, a #Lorentz transform world line http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Lorentz_transform_of_world_line.gif …]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lorentz_transform_of_world_line.gif

and I finally tweeted:

[Nutshell: 3D rotations+events easy 2 c in mind (GR) ltr a'get' abstract', place same event, but in linear form -> Lorentz theory (SR).]

Back to easy peasy

My own pic Flying Geoms - on this website here.

Referring back to non-Geometric Euclidean space co-ordinates mentioned in the second paragraph, the next few tweets after this one then refer to how to ‘get’ the abstract before imagining the next part, that is, Special Relativity after ‘getting’ General Relativity and the well-known Lorentz transformation equations used in Special Relativity. I was an attempting in tweets, how to describe, how to learn abstract thinking (Lorentz transformations) used in the equations in linear algebra that form the Lorentz transformations, but from the angle of…..would you guess, statistical thinking used in distributions in maths and probability. It was a big jump but it got my imagination going. Talking of going, go back to the part of the thinking of Special Relativity but from a massive jump from the thinking used in General Relativity, then from further still, back to how to imagine interstellar space and my tweets about visualising planets etc… this makes some sense, apart from the fact that my tweets went forward on my twitter page and had hoped that without people knowing, they were to grasp the general ideas I have put here.

Countdown to The Quote of The Month 1:This function is the basis of another subject and when combined with science creates a noetic balance. The imagination is a big part of the subject of art, if not the main one. Art uses the visual part of processing to represent our reality. Mental pictures describing detail and our abstract thinking of form and shape, hence geometric space, are later realised using a medium like paint on a flat surface of a piece of paper. Art creates this basis of how we grasp the word, which when combined with visual memory, are all to do with our imagination. The imagination can also include combining ideas that are remote to create new ideas and theories – this method is similar to that used in science to create theories just like Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Albert Einstein did say that he used a more muscular thinking that was lacking in words and symbols. This suggests that he used a large part of his visual faculty, as well as symbolic thinking, to sum up and plan out his scientific theories, hence the famous quote, ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’.

Imagination in other things

Imagination is the basis of creativity because it enables the human mind to combine and change structures of ways of knowing to create new ideas. This means that imagination can be used in any subject or area of life, for example, business to create new enterprise and in engineering and industry to create innovation.

Imagination is just as important as knowledge

Although the quote ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’ is very true, I have always thought on a personal level, that some degree of knowledge, which is the collection of knowing things, whether in depth or breadth (or both) along with imagination, plays an important part in the general arena of our cognitive thinking because we need to have knowledge, whether visual, 3D, symbolic or practical, in order to imagine anything. Knowledge then helps balance out our understanding and results in a brilliant 3 Dimensional stereoscopic view of life. If imagining it this way, then imagination does become one of the most important parts of our understanding of the universe.

Jector version 2 - my own pic. On this website.

There are two choices of songs. The 1st is John Lennon’s – world famous track ‘Imagine’ because he was well known for his imagination in his music and his world. Because this song, although brilliant and timeless, is on the side of sounding sad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRhq-yO1KN8 I also added a second track that made me think of imagination, but this time in a completely different way. This track is from the film called Xanadu that I remember watching as a child. I had no idea what it was about but loved the music and still do. I still don’t what the film is about to this day but it makes me think of another world created using the imagination which in the film I’m assuming is called Xanadu – along with John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ ‘Xanadu’ is almost perfect for this month’s theme. The song is sung by Olivia Newton John and produced by the Electric Light Orchestra - so Xanadu (1980). It is also a bit more cheerful and zany, sort of zana-du-y perhaps... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsr4Onkkitc

C-This Quote Of The Month Oct 1st 2013

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”

By Albert Camus who was a French author and Absurdist philosopher.

The Leaf of Ages – Autumn

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: In the presence of a level of energy, whilst breaking down 3 elements, this effect is created. Whilst breaking down the 3 elements of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen content that make up the leaf sugars inside the cells within the sap, within the presence of the energy of the bright sunlight, the warm colours of reds, purples and oranges of the beautiful loose fallen autumn leaves lying undisturbed, are due to chemicals called Anthocyanins and low levels of phosphates

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: 2 ways interpret this changing state, from 1 phase to another, where 1 interpretation lags behind. The equinox happens twice a year and later in the year when watching the birds fly south across the autumn sky, the plane of the Earth's equator passes the centre of the Sun and the tilting of the Earth's axis and its inclination are neither away from nor towards the Sun. At the end of each Earth year, when the equinoctial point is reached, and the summer sun fades as the year grows old, the days and nights are the same lengths. The part where the line of shade covers the Earth is called the terminator and is perpendicular to the Earth's Equator at the time of equinox. Lagging behind refers to the changes and state in the complex systems of weather pattern and its seasons, continuing to heat large bodies like the sea and after the predicted cooling time.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: A later counter intuitive time, changes its inner structure along with radius to create this phase. Our bright yellow and white Sun which locally produces a lot of heat and light, will not live forever because at some point in the future it will become a red giant in about 5 billion years’ time.

Dr. Sten Odenwald http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q2958.html

A red giant is a large, modestly bright star, although not as bright as it was as at star phase, that is generally low in mass. The red giant phase is that of a late star system and its eventual evolution after using up all its hydrogen to a phase called thermonuclear fusion. As these processes occur its radius expands and our Sun, when changing to this state, is expected to expand so much that it will be at, or past the point of the Earth and we will all be shaking like a leaf! The Sun during this phase won’t be hotter, its winter winds will be much colder, but it will be brighter in terms of luminosity, than what it is today. After this it will turn into a planetary nebula and like a leaf on a breeze it will blow away, and then end will end its ages to turn its central core into a white dwarf.

Ice Age

The ice age is a glacial age during a phase where the Earth's surface and atmosphere are reduced dramatically, which in turn creates continental expansion affecting the polar ice areas and glaciers. We are still at the latter end of a 2 .6 million year Pleistocene epoch because of ice sheets still existing in the Arctic and Antarctic. The concrete theories and methods that are used to produce a pattern of ices ages, that explain about 5 phases of ice ages already having existed in the past, are backed up by geological, paleontological and chemical proof.

The Age of Global Warming

Global warming is the definite proof of devised patterns from recent data, about the rise and average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere, which includes our oceans. Earth warming is estimated to have occurred since the late 19th century during man made industry and is predicted to continue if man made industry and technology remains a continuous variable, along with any other reasons that may suggest global warming exits.

Axis and Procession

Take a leaf out of my book, as I have devised a couple of simple but interesting ideas that could support the reasons for global warming. Just by leafing through and glancing at graphs, the way that patterns can be deduced from those graphs on Ice age phases, and comparing them along with patterns deduced from the graphs on phases of Global Warming, combined with patterns deduced from the way the Earth’s axis and its orbit of the Sun occur over the same time, it could be observed that, if including the behaviour of the Earth’s axis as a constant set, that there may be certain anomalies within the way we predict those orbits and axis that rule in position and time perturbations. These may have some significance with global warming - a complex longitudal problem.

http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/students/iceage/iceage2.htm Precession of the rotational axis.
(©1997 Wadsworth Publishing Company/ITP)

A term called Precession is a change in the orientation in the rotational axis of a rotating body. So as our Earth rotates, which is like spinning, it also has a changing axis and this is its orientation. Over time Precession completes one cycle over 26,000 years to create a movement of rotational axis as the axis gradually creates a cone shape. This is also the reason why stars change their rock solid position slightly in the night sky.

Procession Perturbation

If combining devised patterns that are from a time context graph of Procession, along with the same method on Axial precession, which is when the Earth’s elliptical orbit precesses within its orbital plane so its orbit shape is not exactly an ellipse but a flower petal shape, the occurrence of alignment of these two events together, along with an axis and position (object position) so the Earth is nearer to the Sun, could suggest a part of the reason in the change in the Earth’s temperature within global warming.

The Ages of the Red Giant – The Sun

Much like the red phase of the autumn leaf, in the later stages going toward the Red Giant, our Sun’s behaviour tells us this will occur a long way off into the future, but also like the perturbations of a planets axis (like our Earths) the Sun might also be affected by events outside our field of knowledge as well as outside our solar system, that we might not know about. These affects could mean that the Sun, currently as it is starting to change into this behaviour, though subtly, is allowing room to complete the gaps that go towards the reasons for Global warming occurring on Earth.

Turning Over a New Leaf (Of Ages)

Going back to the warm reds of the expanded Sun phase, much like our autumns and their part of the phases throughout the ages of the Earth year, the Sun’s expansion phase in time, will have its own autumn and affect the Earth but we will not be around long enough to experience this but the preceding effects might produce new ideas about how the sun affects our Earth. If so it means more research will be needed over a longer period of time because this is a complex longitudal problem that might want to tell us its complete history as well as new future events, otherwise its life will be forever autumn…

This month I chose the obviously brilliant music classic, the song from Jeff Wayne's ‘The War of The Worlds’ musical album, taken from 1898’s science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. This song beautifully sung by Justin Hayward and narrated by Richard Burton, called ‘Forever Autumn’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QAf5aE-YMw

C-This Quote Of The Month Sep 1st 2013

“Pluto will always be a planet in my book. That’s because my book was published before Pluto was blacklisted by planetary scientists”

By Jarod Kintz Author of Humor, Literature & Fiction.

Pluto

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: From major to minor, a change in status 2 2nd of them now as was 1 in 9 of the same around some other.

‘...and long ago, I lost my soul

To some forgotten dream

And how was I supposed to know

It wasn't what it seemed’

- lyrics from "Life Got Cold" music track by Girls Aloud

From a major planet to a minor planet, Pluto was relegated and lost its soul, having got to minor planet status, all because it didn’t meet the 3rd of 3 conditions that define a planet. They are 1) The planet must orbit around the Sun 2) The planet must have enough mass to create a spherical type shape, like a football, and be formed from its own gravitational effect. The next bit is weird. 3) Must ‘clear the neighbourhood of its orbit’, like sweeping up objects, so it then creates its own clear orbit. Effectively it needed to ‘Biggit out and properly kick ass’ but Pluto does not do this apparently. Whilst the thermically challenged and heated up debate by planetary scientists occured, about whether Pluto should be a planet or not, Pluto was cooling down its expectations and the astronomical relegation tactics said, because Pluto’s status was changed to 2nd largest of the ‘dwarfs’ (as of about 2006) it lost its Premier League standing, that is, once being 9th in last proper planet list of the solar system, (which with the other that I defined as the Sun - Pluto still orbits the Sun). It's like a football score by a great goal and worst still, having actually got in the net (in my opinion), or in this sense, got the others out of the net, via ‘clearing the neighbourhood of its orbit’, it perceived to have behaved in such a way, that according to referee enforcement and Laws solar systems of the game, ended up in a worse state on the pitch after being 9th, than off, even if it had qualified as a decent planet.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: This object along with another was later found to be a large part of the behaviour of a 3rd object. I feel sorry for Pluto. It was only accidently found because the orbit of another planet was acting odd. Urbain Le Verrier, a then French mathematician whose specialism was celestial mechanics and known for his part in the discovery of Neptune, discovered perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, but it didn’t make, he wanted to know what else was creating planet Uranus’s off beat behaviour and it was found to be Pluto.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: It's got 1 of the less thermally challenged surfaces making its surface 1 of the most unusual ones.

‘My life got cold

It happened many years ago

When summer slipped away’

- lyrics from "Life Got Cold" music track by Girls Aloud

The thermally challenged surface Pluto is a cold harsh place. With its surface gases of nitrogen, methane and some carbon monoxide, we are talking below absolute zero at a temperature of 43 to about 44 K or −230 °C.

‘So chill now whoa

We've gotten many years to go

So take it day by day’

- lyrics from "Life Got Cold" music track by Girls Aloud

Pluto has an unusual surface as seen by images of its contrasting colour and shade, namely ranging from soft blacks, warmer oranges to cool whites. Our understanding of Pluto will increase; we've gotten many years to go to find out what its inner core is like and if it can give us more surprises that will help us find about other events occurring in the solar system and beyond…

I liked some of the lyrics from the "Life Got Cold" music track by Girls Aloud (they had good song writers then) because they reminded me of aspects of Pluto... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wurjnwmtrqk

C-This Quote Of The Month August 1st 2013

“For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai”

By Primo Michele Levi who was an Italian chemist and writer.

Indefinite

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: On the smallest scales, only here do the certainties run and uncertainties hide to make it. It’s very difficult to put in a small block of text but imagine the smallest scales in quantum mechanics, in physics and chemistry where generally there are about two different subjects. One is a specific discreet uncertain event about the behaviour of a particle, and whilst staying with the quantum scale, two about there being a continuous certain aspect of behaviour that resembles a field of events. These two ideas can also be interchanged as there is no reason why we cannot say continuous events are uncertain and discreet, hidden, events to be certain, but as Field theory can be seen as almost a merged set of particles, then in all ‘certainty’ the two are very blurred depending on what is required of the experiment, or observer. Because condensed matter physics is a good example of continuous running behaviour, one of the next best theoretical ideas thought up is the qubit idea that David Deutsch created, which although suggests a bit as an particle event, or hiding discreet event, if flipped, could be turned into a continuous field too. Current quantum mechanics also plays with infinites, in that there are lots of mathematical loose ends that need tying up, and at the moment String Theory seems good at removing these infinites or indefinite events. I think the best measure of an event on small scales that mix the two terms, continuous and discreet, is called the Planck constant. As a term, I have used it here to describe a scale or a point of the mixing of these two defining terms and as part of the indefinite world of physics

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: From top to bottom it is here that the collected affects theorised of this are really fuzzy. Supervenience is a top to bottom system, whereby higher systems affect lower systems. Economics affecting human behaviour is one good example of supervenience, which affects living systems right down to small quantum systems and more if we want to. It is actually a term used in philosophy that delves with ontological connections from one level to another, usually top to bottom. The idea here is that the term supervenience for me is really the indefinite angle of where the actual parts affect one another, because we don’t really know.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: The notation that suggesting an edge creating a constant here is less so when imagined as changeable. The edge of the universe is expanding and it was a surprise that we had not thought of. Later a new theory for this was discovered called Dark Energy. Dark matter didn’t give us enough to go on about why the universe is expanding so Dark Energy was to explain why the edges of our universe where not only expanding but also accelerating at massive speeds. Not only this, it was a constant acceleration. If you can imagine, better still, grab an entry level physics book explaining the differences between speed, acceleration, and constant acceleration. If you can’t visualise this universe expansion, be really brave and read this easy analogy about scalars and vectors as it might get you thinking better. You know when you go on a fairground roller coaster ride and it makes you feel sick, it is because you are experiencing the most formidable forces ever created by the person who designed the ride, but it is the physics that enables those forces to occur but as the artificially induced forces are introduced, in order create the most inertia and drag against natural ones, you are left with a series of changing forms and inertia fields that can make for great analogy for what occurs in the outer regions of our universe. An example is you are 1st, zooming at speed, a scalar, means size, going very fast on the ride. 2nd you are being accelerated, means rate of change of speed over time, a vector, means direction and you are being forcefully chucked from one state to another over time. Whilst being accelerated at a constant rate (rememberthat last part), you later realise you are accelerating but this time instead of being at a constant rate of acceleration, you are now changing your rate of acceleration. This is what makes you feel sick too. The hilarious scientific terms used, are the jerk and the jounce. You’re a Jerk if the rate of change of acceleration (on a theme park ride they even change your rate of acceleration – just for fun) is starting and then they do something else with it, they make it another constant which is called the Jounce - a constant for the rate of change of acceleration.

Break down (a hypothetical sick bag will be provided at the end of the journey):

Speed – size - scalar (uniformly very, very, very fast)

Acceleration – direction - vector (rate of change of speed over time and getting uniformly faster. A constant)

Jerk – say no more. Loads more mixed up together (rate of change of acceleration over time)

Jounce – even more mixed up than before (back to a constant again but -->for the rate of change of acceleration and uniform)

To sum up - a uniform and constant state of complete and utter change. Sick yet?

Being chucked about with the most optimum level of inertia possible which why you feel like throwing up is what that analogy is. Now imagine that the edges of the universe, Dark Energy all being considered, had decided to change its rate of acceleration, from an constant to a changing one, this is Quintessence. In my terms, it is because it decided not to be constant, a bit like the roller coaster ride after the feeling of acceleration; I think it is really just another area of astrophysics called the indefinite.

I chose the simple but effective Travis song called, just listen to the lyrics – Indefinitely http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4yGh8C0fWQ

C-This Quote Of The Month July 1st 2013

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.”

From the book, ‘Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space’ by astronomer Carl Sagan

Earth (from an even rarer perspective)

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: The rocket Saturn V launched an event on Jul 16, 1969 which marked this significant occasion. A rocket called Saturn V, or Saturn 5, was launched on Jul 16 in 1969 by Nasa’s Apollo 11 programme. The Skylab programs also used the same rocket, along with Nasa from 1967 – 1973. The event was to get two humans onto the Moon and when these two humans or astronauts, that being Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, did step onto the Moon, it was a very unique time because Neil Armstrong was the very 1st human to step onto the surface of the Moon itself, which lasted for about 2 and a half hours. Neil Armstrong also went outside the Lunar module and they both collected lunar material to take back to Earth. About 3 years before the first humans landing on the lunar surface, another significant occasion was to capture the 1st ever picture of the Earth but from the perspective form the Moon, called Earthrise. NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 got this significant shot on its Apollo 8 mission on the Moons horizon on August 23, in 1966. The fact that the craft got a shot of our Earth from the Moon and then three years later having humans actually walk on the Moon itself, made the former more significant. It was actual proof that we could be that far away from our planet in space and the fact that we could change our perspective of ourselves, that in such a way, it was be the most unique perspective we could ever wish for. Not only that, at first it was just in a photo it was later to become a reality.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: A 2nd unique perspective occurred, when captured by Voyager 1 from 1 of the rarest views ever. On September the 5th 1977 a space probe by Nasa was launched that was to look into the Solar System and eventually the outer regions called, the interstellar medium. Still in use for over 35 years (to date) it is now entering an unknown zone. This probe is the farthest object from us, which is man-made and studying the Solar System boundaries, as well as areas of space called the ‘Kuiper belt’ which is a very large belt filled with small objects. It is also probing an area of charged particles, that have been blow out by the solar wind, called the heliosphere and eventually interstellar space, with all its unusual spacey surprises.

When I was a kid I actually remember reading about Voyager 1 in a science magazine or two, some which I still have, and the thing that struck me was the images and data sent onto the gold disk it had away sent with it, or what we sent with it, on its way. The gold disk was an emblem of humnakind and a marker for how far we had got in technological space exploration back then. It has stuck in my mind forever and even that was incredible enough on its own. In 1990, when Voyager 1 was around 6 billion kilometres away from us, it took a unique picture of us all on Earth, as it captured us a tiny blue coloured dot shape in the dark surrounding space. At around that time, a famous American astronomer and astrophysicist called Carl Sagan coined the expression, ‘The Pale Blue Dot’ for his new book then, ‘A Vision of the Human Future in Space’. This event was much like the previous one from the Moon, but the vast distance made it all the more amazing. It was the University of Arizona, between Feb to June 1990, that the probe sent us the picture that was based on a wide angle image inset with two narrow angle pictures, mainly to capture Earth and Venus. The camera used the darkest filter it could, which was a methane absorption band, with the shortest exposure possible. The result was that the size of the Earth ended taking less than a single pixel! A small step for man, a large pixel for mankind…

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: The next jewel of a moment for us in space will be captured 19th Jul 2013 near a planet close to us. This month on 19th Jul 2013, we will encounter an almost double unique perspective - our very own Earth, as the Cassini craft will use its camera on us, but not only that, on the planet Saturn and with its incredible rings during its eclipse of the Sun. It is expected that we will be in the lower right hand region, near to outside more fuzzy rings of Saturn where we will be a mere speck of light once again. Please remember, we won’t suddenly be very near Saturn, it is just that we will be captured to look like we are near its rings, because we are still much further away than any of Saturn’s Moons and satellites, but that it will look like we are part of the picture. Much like the previous mission by Voyager 1, this next event will be headed by Dr Carolyn Porco who is leader of the Cassini Imaging Team. The planet Saturn is to be expected to show us it in shadow, which means we will see, from the point of view of the Cassini craft, the Sun’s light behind Saturn, capturing its rings along with us. If we can get this right, it will be like our first very own the family photo of the cosmos, were not only have we been seen with the Moon, but now combined with one of the most unusual planets of our solar system, Saturn, together with one of the most rarest of events so far only to be seen on the Earth, a solar eclipse, we can again dazzle in its glory. It is here that we will become the rarest of jewels, a place within the crown of Saturn’s rings, dazzling and shining bright, against the darkest night...

This month, as we await the next amazing image of our planet Earth, along with Saturn's Solar eclipse, I'll have a go at updating this page with info about just that and if I can, I will put a picture of it here.

(Update July 26th 2013)

The full Cassini images are going to take a few weeks to process according to Dr Carolyn Porco, who is leader of the Cassini Imaging Team, so in the meantime I have put one of the 1st images here of the view from Cassini with us (arrow points to Earth) in shot:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

An iconic song this month by singer songwriter Kate Bush called – ‘Hello Earth’ . It is meant to portray the unique image of our very own Earth, as seen from outer space… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyd6AXIOlbM

C-This Quote Of The Month June 1st 2013

“Time and space are finite in extent, but they don't have any boundary or edge. They would be like the surface of the earth, but with two more dimensions.”

By British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author, Stephen Hawking

Out of Time (part 2) The Twist.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: It was written about last month with a general explanation. Last month I wrote about the Feynman diagrams, Everett's Many Worlds theory and M-theory that tied in with String Theory and ultimately its founder, the physicist Brian Greene. Also, just to make something clear, I was Joking <- about the idea that, the only way you can distinguish a good physicist from a bad physicist was down to how they leave their utensils on an empty plate, after eating a meal (see last month’s Quote explanation).

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: It takes both or many ways, to make a physicist (as in everything). A more unruly physicist who leaves their utensils on an empty plate all loosely strewn is just as important, in that they may be more creative and random in their thinking. Just before the next bit, it’s important to know that ‘time’ itself, always ties into the concept of ‘space’ and no more so, than one of the most well-known theories in science and physics, which is Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. I’ll go into this sort of ‘time ‘at a later time.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: There needs some different types of participation and learning in order to get the idea. The 1st twist this Month, is where I have enabled you to actually participate in this month’s theme of ‘time’, but more importantly, with a simple advancement of also introducing ‘space’ where you can get its feel, but 1st read these next few instructions, in order to do that. What I get you to do next will simply break down each step, so you can image what they are (if you didn’t last month). I have put the theme ‘out of time’ in one context only here (there are many but I have chosen this to make it clearer).

If you have a square or rectangular room with a door in your house (I’m sure most of us do) stand outside the room next to the open door and get a pen or pencil, and a square piece of blank paper (or you can print this page out and read it, use this as part of this participation experiment - any size paper will do) and pull it out flat and hold it horizontally as if you were to read the page, but specifically, keep hold of the BOTTOM LEFT hand corner in your fingers using your left hand.

Now write the letter ‘t’ in that same LEFT hand side BOTTOM corner. All I want you to do now is stand in front of the door for a minute, holding the paper in the correct place. It would be handy that the door is open 1st because, all you are about to do, is simply walk into the room!

Now, walk slowly into the middle of the room and keep the paper in place in front of you (do NOT rotate the paper) and whilst doing so, run your fingers across the papers LEFT edge, still keeping along its left, run them towards the TOP LEFT CORNER and STOP! (you and your fingers that is). You should now be stood holding a piece of paper at its top left hand corner and stood in the middle of a room (probably looking a bit confused). No worries. From you standing still to the little walk into the room to stopping, just simply means representing the start of 1 time axis that is the linear part of the Feynman diagram. Simply meaning, normal time that you experience in your day to day life but with ‘space’ because you walked from one place to another.

You should now be stood in the middle of a room, with a blank piece of paper (or this text printed out on one), held horizontally, preferably NOW holding its TOP LEFT hand corner with your left hand. Just to explain this again, that little edge of paper that you dragged your hand or fingers across towards the corner, represented the linear time that it took you to walk into the room and stop. Basically, you just walked into a room and pulled your fingers across the edge of the paper and stopped at its top left hand corner when you stopped in the room. That’s it. But we have not finished yet.

With your pencil or pen, write the letter F in that same TOP LEFT hand corner. This is a VERY general way to represent the boundary in a Feynman’s diagram where I suggest as an idea to represent linear time. Your very act of moving into the room is a way of making you walk along this space axis.

Stay where you are and this time (ahem) write the letter ‘E’ on the TOP RIGHT hand corner of your paper. Gently place the paper KEEPING it at the SAME angle, on a table next to you or just simply put it on the floor at the same angle WITHOUT rotating OR turning it around.

I have often thought and said for years (apart from knowing it’s about the study of energy and how things really work) that physics is just a simple way of explaining inverse square laws and things that are right angle to other things. In this next bit you are going to be at right angles and you will know that non-linear ‘out of time’ is at right angles to linear time just by reading through.

Stand back up and now, YOU yourself rotate on the spot to turn to your right, at a 90 degree angle and stop. You should be parallel and looking towards one of your wall (that was on your right) and be able to read the paper where the letter E is as it is now on your LEFT. Stay there and now imagine where the room next to you is, or imagine you are looking through the walls at another copy of yourself, into the next room (if you have another room, then you can imagine that room next door, if you don’t, imagine there is another room next door to it) This imaginary room (or real, if you have one) is meant to represent another world, and you are in that too, as mentioned as a geometric lattice, where the room is a section of that lattice from Everett’s Many Worlds Theory, from last month’s quote theme. Simply put, the room next door is meant to represent in part, some of that lattice, where each room is a little world in Everett’s interpretation. Where Feynman uses time at a right angle to space, the right angle idea explains ‘out of time’ quite well for his Feynman Diagrams but the room idea, because it is next to you, and because it is parallel to you, makes for a representation of Everett’s Many Worlds Theory. Are we ok so far?

The next step is to keep where you are and keep your paper in place and write the letter ‘M’ in your ‘NEW’ TOP RIGHT hand corner. You should now have a letter in each corner of your paper. The letter M means the ‘M’ in M-theory, referring to last month’s general explanation of what that meant, which was like a sheet that we lived on that could be moulded anyway round. Remember I said that time can be linear (you walked from 1 spot to the middle of a room and stopped) well now imagine that the WHOLE of the papers thinness is another step in a time axis, that is spread out from each theory, but this time you only live or exist on that thin part of the paper. The paper itself is now another time axis - it is out of time from the last one. We are now in M-theory, Branes and String Theory territory.

Still imagining you are thin enough to live in the flat dimension of the papers surface, you are flat like the paper but you now want to see how things are on another part of the paper. Simple solution, bend or fold the paper so it touches those other parts.

Here’s what you do next for the theories to gel. Get the paper and fold it up in any way in order to make any edge or corner where the theories are, in order to touch any other part so even the theories are now touching other theories – weird! More importantly, you are now effectively folding time itself into unusual shapes because you are still looking from the inside of that time, on the paper.

The next bit is simply taking you out of that time manifold, or axis, and looking at the paper in any way that it is. You are looking from the outside of time, just by looking at the paper – you are now, in theory, ‘out of’ ALL of time! Want to twist time? Here’s what you do:

Twist the paper!

For this Month’s theme music I chose Rez (High Contrast Remix) by Underworld that was on the Olympic Games, Opening Ceremony in London 2012. This music piece has an instrument overylaying the general rhythm that appears to be, in some parts, ‘out of time’ with the music base but actually works quite well. I wonder if you can guess which part… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRLNyyD0sf8

C-This Quote Of The Month May 1st 2013

"Time moves in one direction, memory in another.”

By William Gibson American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist.

Out of Time

I have Broken my rule a bit because this month is more a phrase than a word.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: The interpretation of the time axis in 1 theory, for the event of this, suggests it is common place. Physics ace Richard Feynman came up with the idea of a pictorial representation of a theory in physics of how he thought things worked on smaller levels for an idea called quantum electro dynamics where he uses pathways for events that followed time and space using 2 axes: Time is horizontal and space is vertical in this image:

http://tap.iop.org/

The wiggle line is a photon produced when an electron and a positron annihilate that later turn into a pair as quark-antiquark. The positron in this theory, in which he suggests it showing it going backward in time, is like the behaviour of an electron. Mr Feynman used 2 simple axes to explain its behaviour; simply, one is space, the other time. What goes forward in space is the anti-particle but backward in time. Referring to 1st angle of the paragraph here, the context of time and to some degree space then, is shown as non-linear, unlike that which we use on a daily basis, but it still works and makes you think about time differently. The Feynman diagrams are clever and simple graphs telling us trajectories of particle behaviour from the start, in between, and end stages of the events of particle scattering in quantum electro dynamics.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: It goes beyond something we know, in the world of physics, to 11 of them. M-theory, or topological and dimensional membranes, or just Branes, is an extension of a well-known theory in physics called String Theory. String Theory as devised by theoretical physicist Brian Greene, says there can be a combining of classical events and quantum events like quantum mechanics and general relativity as an example, so that to some degree, they end up resembling string shapes (and time causality is sorted out too and it’s tied up quite nicely because he also gets rid of infinites things that don’t end or go on forever on quantum levels are a problem – more on this later, as it also ties in to someone’s plate on a dinner table*). M Theory on the other hand, takes this one step forward and challenges our assumptions of causality and time so that Strings and thus time itself might not be the answer overall. It means a step ahead and says simply, we are living in one brane, but there could be others that we do not know about but they are right next to our noses as thin sheets that are tightly tied up inot knot shapes. So even more simply put, there may be another dimension that is right next to us, in physical proximity (the theory can be explained as being near us but beyond our topological reach), but we are not aware if it due to restrictions based on our experiences and knowledge of how the universe works so far, according to the laws of classical physics and its use of time.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: This idea gives weight to a popular theme that can be grasped if you use many of them. Hugh Everett created the theory called The Many-Worlds Interpretation. The idea that events in outside of our time but can interact with our time, at some point in time, but cannot affect each other initially, is a hard one to grasp. Many worlds are about classical and quantum events that have their own structure of linear and non-linear time which unlike the tied up knot of Branes are perhaps more like a lattice with separate areas of worlds. Often these events are referred to as worlds or universes. This theory is like a tree branch that accepts every path or event possible until realisation of a collapse (like observing a particle). This makes it possible that time within each of those worlds, also has their own time structure which, even though not easy to conceive of, can be proven theoretically as existing outside of our understanding, or out of our understanding of time.

Science has many theories that explain the amazing subject of time, here are just a few. To explain this very generally, every day, we use a system that enables us to perceive events and arrange our lives through linear classical time. An example is the consecutive logic that 1 o clock will always be before 2 o clock and the next hours follow later. Without these markers for events that are a fundamental way that we rely on time, all dates and experiences, for any moments or stretch of time, no matter how short or long a duration, are always ruled by the way linear time works. The problem begins when our perceptions of this type of time, but on a smaller scale, are challenged. On the smaller quantum scale of time, surprisingly there is an opportunity to realise that events there can happen outside our view of classical time. At 1st this idea seems hard to grasp but science (at least the scientist about to be mentioned) has a few ways of making this easier.

*Just after theoretical physicist Professor Brian Greene, came up with the well-known theory String Theory in his book, I had a thought that made me refer to his way of using maths to round up and get rid of infinites (things that go on forever) and that was he was a very ‘tidy thinker’ by that he polished off his problem consuming the most profound maths possible. Not long after I saw a picture of Prof Greene with a friend online where they had just eaten a meal (probably University campus?) and I had noticed that at their dinner table, Brain’s friend had left half his food on his plate with his knife and fork askew. Brian on the other hand had ‘polished off’ all his food and tidied is plate thereby placing his knife and fork in perfect alignment. With this info, I’ll leave you with the moral of the story, that is:

*You should always find out how good a physicist is, not by how many theories they do, nor how good looking a physicist guy he is, or how popular her theories are, but by how, when in a restaurant, any and all of them leave their plate finished after a meal.

The song is by United Nations called ‘Out of Touch’ where it refers to the statement ‘Out of Time’ a lot, as it’s almost drummed into you on a hypnotic level if you listen to the whole of the dynamic (extended) CD single that I have got. The other 5 are variations of the same theme with super base tones and rhythms. One of the tracks creates a an effect of being ‘out of time’ with rhythms phasing in and out at odd times which brilliantly illustrates, via sound, how there can be such as thing as ‘Out of Time’ The normal version is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtZs6bPfrZE just as a warning though, a bit like Marmite (I promise to stop referring to food from now on in the quotes) you will either love or hate these other tracks. I like all the tracks on this CD single. Just another one here to get you going - Uniting Nations - Out Of Touch (Extended Mix) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmr3vWRfc6o

C-This Quote Of The Month April 1st 2013

"Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.”

By Polish-born, French and American mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot.

Fractals

Don’t worry, there will be no equations used to explain this subject, but you might need to eat the main example.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: It's a self similar pattern found in nature. If you look at some of the lovely mathematician Professor Ian Stewart’s work (please have a look at his other stuff on my site too that has been there for years) and maybe refer to his book even, ‘The Colours of Infinity: The Beauty and Power of Fractals’ you will get a complete introduction about what they are about and their relevance to the universe we know. In a nutshell of self similarity, Stewart says in the book that they are more or less everywhere, in fact on the online Wiki it says they are found in technology, art and even law! The self similarity idea is about how each time you look deeper into the pattern of a fractal, it actually repeats itself with a type of infinite regression not seen in other forms and which cannot be easily thought of, unless using a type of complex, complicated and extremely sought after, if not very rare, and unique mathematical analogy, a vegetable. A good example is a cauliflower. This is not saying that the "Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”, is based on a cauliflower, otherwise ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’ would use cauliflowers instead of the number 42, and we know how difficult a mathematical conundrum that one turned out to be, didn’t we?

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: They generally break topological boundaries. Topology is about the properties of space and dimension and how they are transformed, usually using geometric forms, whether abstract or real, or both. The fractal plays about with both in the most magical way ever. The idea that topology comes into fractals suggest that maths using this fractal theory, has to succumb to breaking a boundary of dimension once thought unbreakable under general geometric rules. This is that fractal dimensions break their own topological dimension in structure – their fractal dimension is greater than their topological dimension. Although this seems hard to grasp, it is not and generally means, unlike an ordinary line that is 1 dimensional, if a fractal line is broken up, it brings about more parts per area (on the same line) than if it would, if was to be split into fewer parts, an example is to start as 1/3. This is counter intuitive at best, but looking more closely (if excusing the pun) you see more of that problem repeated, it’s almost so immediate and stunning that you cannot get out of it and you get to see why the patterns of fractal topological breaking are so infinite so on and dos forth. This also means jokes or fractal puns behave under the same topological conditions too.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: About 3 main mathematicians generally formed the history of this theory. To break a topological type of, what maths guys had a go at the problem, type of rule, Topology actually started with a guy called Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician and physicist bloke, who did a paper called the Seven Bridges of Königsberg. This was about how to get across a city via a bridge by only going through once (they didn’t have cars then but it would have been easier). Later Gottfried Leibniz, a German mathematician and philosopher came along and did stuff about politics, philosophy, law, theology, ethics, philology and history and thought about recursive self-similarity and infinities and the geometry of why that wasn’t there yet. After Karl Weierstrass, another German mathematician, who did a graph, came along Georg Cantor, another German mathematician, who overruled the whole lot, by saying that in a roundabout way, things are just subsets that are really called Cantor Sets. It was only later that Felix Klein, yet another German mathematician along with Henri Poincaré, a French mathematician, that came about with the self inverse theory of fractals. And so that is what they all thought, all rounded up nicely as a lovely set of mathematicians, talking all about fractals, until you split them all up into 1/3...

Benoit Mandelbrot was a clever bloke, a Polish-born, French and American mathematician, who said that the Mandelbrot set, which he devised, is a mathematical set of points where its own boundary is a sort of two-dimensional fractal shape. If you don’t get that last sentence, unfortunately your later understanding of fractals, by Mandelbrot, is going to be rough going. I said it first! No actually, he did.

I reckon that fractals are like abstract Black Holes because they break the boundaries of abstract mathematical topology like a Black Hole breaks down the laws of physics of GR.

Professor Brian Cox was on the BBC One Show a while ago holding a piece of broccoli. He explained why and the camera moved in. If you looked closely (at the broccoli, not Brian Cox, although you might want to try that too, if that’s your thing) you saw recursive fractal patterns in its centre. This applies to lots of things in nature. Some of which are as follows:

Coastlines, rocks and plants. An example is the geometric shapes of rocks on the planet Mars.

A joke I did about fractals years ago:

Have Fractal Problems? Don’t Fret! We have Fractal Solutions! Please enquire within, within, within, within…

The music I chose by the Lightning Seeds - song 'Why, Why, Why,' made me think of philosophers asking questions using, how, what, and why, but more the point here, with the emphasis on asking questions using why. Then much like the real investigation in asking questions in science, which is supposed to close the topological knowledge boundary, actually results in an open ended answer that ends up asking questions bigger than the answer itself… like fractal geometry perhaps? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7VOVag-WQo

C-This Quote Of The Month March 1st 2013

"The investigation into the possible effects of cosmic rays on living organisms will also offer great interest.”

By Victor Francis Hess - an Austrian-American physicist, and Nobel laureate in physics, who discovered cosmic rays.

Cosmic Rays

“You can't find the feeling
All is the same in the pouring rain, you know, you know
Coming out of the ceiling
Falling from above, falling in and out of love”
- Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Lyrics from the track ‘Everybody's on The Run’

Did you just see a flash in your eyes?

No? Never mind, you will one day when you realise this rare event doesn’t happen very often, maybe once every couple or more years (by me), but you are already bombard by them and some can go through you, and the Earth and often unnoticed, as they manifest as a bright flash on your retina. I am talking about the weird but real phenomenon called cosmic rays, or in this case high energy particles that shower down on Earth like pouring cosmic rain.

I have often witnessed them just simply sat at the computer or watching TV. They will even pass through your walls and ceilings without so much as a look back, because they are immune to magnetic fields including yourself. They are a form of ionizing radiation first discovered by Austrian-American physicist, Victor Francis Hess. There is one thing you need to know about these rays, they come from outer space and although space appears to be a safe place, if we were to spend a lot of time living there, it could get dangerous, not just because we might get hit by an asteroid or not be able to breath because of lack of atmosphere, but because our bodies will be bombarded by these really high energy particles that can literally damage DNA and even put your computer electronic equipment at risk. Astronauts get them often and can be a menace to their health. The damage to DNA is a life changing course of events, that include some origins of environmental mutation. Of course the Earth’s atmosphere forms a safe barrier from these rays but as usual, when it comes to being 100% safe from harm on Earth, cosmic ray detection here suggests some of these ultra high energy ones get through and make their way into your home and then eventually to you.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: This object of physics almost borrows a surprising effect to kick start its existence. Whereas a known cosmic effect originates from the explosions of Black Holes at the highest of all energies, if looking from outside our Solar System, we find a class of particles that are also very high energy particles called cosmic rays, but come from an unusual part of an explosion. First of all most of these cosmic rays or particles come with a positive charge and are known as protons.

“You've been drifting and stealing, trying to walk in my shoes
But they don't belong to you, no they don't” - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Lyrics from the track ‘Everybody's on The Run’

But what is surprising is that these protons are not actually accelerated in the supernova explosion, as a galactic body, but get their acceleration in a remnant, which is an effect that happens in a shockwave that is created within the stars explosion, which then moves away piercing the interstellar medium. In this respect they drift outward from the supernova explosion practically borrowing or even stealing what energy is left in the remnant, just enough to be accelerated to gain a bit more energy. So just when you thought you knew about what an explosion means in a supernova, think again because it becomes more interesting as exchanges and new particles are created in the most unusual part of it. Another way to put it is, the cosmic ray tries to walk in the supernova’s shoes, cheeky or what...?

“Cause everybody's on the run, everybody's on the run
Hang in there love, you gotta hold on
Hang in there love, you gotta hold on” - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds Lyrics from the track ‘Everybody's on The Run’

Because of events outside a supernova, cosmic rays that are made by it are still on the run, even after the shock wave. But you gotta hold on, a minute…

So we know a supernova as a galactic body, is an event that is created from the explosion that is on the run from the star itself, but a supernova remnant part is the expanding shock wave which contains ejected material expanding out from the explosion which is also on the run from the same star. While it does this, it whips up interstellar material with it and this creates an interesting mix of new particles and effects, of which most are unknown.

A shock wave is what happens when an objects velocity, or speed, is greater than the disturbance of what it is in. An aeroplane, for example, travelling faster than the speed of sound, creates a shock wave by the change in air pressure around it. As its speed overrides the speed of sound, the speed of sound catches up with it, that produces a shock or boom effect. Unlike the aeroplane, a supernova is omnidirectional, so a shock wave there occurs in all directions away from the explosion. This type of galactic shock blast actually travels through an interstellar medium and creates some interesting particles, of which one is the utra fast cosmic ray, the Pion. The whole of this lot is always on the run, as the sound catches up with the visual effect to create the shock wave, if you were ever to see it first, then hear it after…

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: This object goes through about 2 general phases before arriving in a way we know it. A cosmic ray and its decay happen in collisions between the cosmic rays and the slower-moving protons that exist in the gas and the dust around a supernova to produce subatomic particles, or referring to the object, of objects called neutral pions. These pions decay quickly into very high-energy light or what we call gamma rays. The rays here are not fussed by magnetic fields so travel in straight lines and being also on the run from thier origins end up bombarding Earth as ultra-high energy cosmic rays.

As they evolve, they create an effect of secondary particles where they penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. Most are high-energy protons along with atomic nuclei of various forms. The Fermi space telescope recently collected data about cosmic rays originating from the supernovae area of massive stars.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: More energetic forms of this object come from a well-known event already perplexing many. This is the highest of all known cosmic ray energy levels, that we know of, that originate from Black Hole Jets, the furthest away ever…

Did you notice the lyrics interjecting the text? It was less obvious but better to use a track by brilliant ex Oasis singer song writer, Noel Gallagher (just after the Noel and Liam brothers of Oasis fell out with each other and got divorced, Noel did this album), taken from his album called, ‘High Flying Birds’ with referring to track, ‘Everybody's on The Run’ than say, Oasis’s ‘Champagne Supernova’ track. You got that yeah? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpqQJfdLO14

C-This Quote Of The Month Feb 2013

"The mystery is why the storms last so long. By comparison, storms on Earth last a week, then break up, and are replaced by other storms. On the other hand, the better question might be why storms on Earth are short lived. Aftar all. astronomers claim Earth weather is the least predictable in the Solar System.”

From the website  http://www.spacetoday.org/

Jupiter’s Atmosphere

The other day I got my Hoover hoover out to vacuum my carpet but it broke, so this means I’ll be buying a new hoover. A Dyson. This unsurprising event made me think of a theme for this month’s quote, one of our largest hoovers of the solar system, that being the planet Jupiter.

Mopping up fragments of the well-known Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in July 1994, Jupiter has to be the best hoover since Dyson, or maybe that is the other way round? Any Comets or asteroids would have been and will be sucked up by Jupiter, that would otherwise hit us, but just to be completely clear here, the forces used to suck up dirt from a vacuum, which are about air currents and differences in air pressure, are not the same as the ones created by Jupiter, which on a macro scale, uses gravitational force to suck up cosmic 'dirt', so don't get these confused, unless you want to be a sucker for punishment, although on a micro scale, air pressure and currents do come into play on Jupiter's wazzy atmosphere. But before that congratulations are in order for this beautiful and complex gas giant hoover planet of the solar system, so yes indeed, ho hail to you, Almighty, Sucker-Upper of the First Cosmic Hoover Order, but I suppose just saying the word Dyson might be a bit easier.

Jupiter being the largest planet in the solar system and the fifth planet from the Sun, is classed as a gas giant with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but it must be highlighted here, that it is indeed, it's atmosphere that is one of the most amazing things about it.

On October 18 1989, an orbiter Galileo, named after Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei, and entry probe for Jupiter and unmanned NASA spacecraft, carried by Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-3, studied the planet Jupiter and its moons. The intention was to measure the Jovian atmosphere by launching a probe as it arrived on Jupiter on December 7, 1995. It was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter. The probe descended through 97 miles, covering top layers of the atmosphere and collected 58 minutes of data on the local weather there but after going through severe pressure changes it stopped transmitting signals. This probe would have descended into its complex atmosphere that lacks a clear low boundary but gradually merges into a fluid interior. All this would have been enough to halt transmission but we did learn a lot along the way and that was how amazing all the atmospheric systems on Jupiter work and how they might lead us to more exploration of the science of dynamics and how they interact with gasses, jets, and storm systems, of which some could be unheard of on planet Earth!

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: There are 9 sections plus 1 very significant oddity making up an uncharted system here. The atmosphere of Jupiter is made up of various features concentrated around three main components: composition, temperature and height. These are put into belts and zones respectively. There are about 9 different bands or sections making these belts and zones. The first two are 1) the North at the top and 2) South Polar Region at the bottom tips of the planet. 3) The North North Temperate Region is the next level down that is quite dark in appearance, next to 4) the North-North Temperate Belt that is slightly more distinctive in the northern area of the planet, because this belt can sometimes disappear. 5) The North-North Temperate Zone has been the easiest to see from Earth overall, because it has the most immense jet stream system. The North Tropical Region contains the North Tropical Zone and 6) the North Equatorial Belt. Around this area are vague occurrences of miniature versions of the famous Red Spot, which is one of the defining features of Jupiter’s atmosphere and is the oddity within the systems of jet streams and dynamics that occur on the planet’s surface. The North Equatorial Belt contains anticyclonic ovals that are white coloured along with barges or brown ovals. 7) The Equatorial Region is quite stable apart from its northern area, where large southwest plumes occur, surrounded by warmer and darker areas, called festoons. This area changes its coloration from pale to ochre, then to more copper or red tones. This part is often separated by an Equatorial Band. The South Tropical Region contains the 8) South Equatorial Belt, as a dark and broad area along with the South Tropical Zone. This area is the most active on the planet and has the greatest retrograde jet stream of all.  It can be split by another zone which can fade completely every 3 to 15 years, then reappears as a revival cycle. When this belt goes away, often after weeks to months, there is a formation of a white spot that erupts dark brownish material that gets merged into a new belt, usually by Jupiter's immense winds too. Here there is a long train of cyclonic disturbance that follows the Great Red Spot. This area also hosts a South Tropical Disturbance creating a long lasting zone that can last for decades or more. The South Temperate Region as the 9) South Temperate Belt, is a prominent dark area that contains ovals, usually white in colour, that have recently merged, forming a system called Oval BA, which is just a smaller version of the Great Red Spot.

The Great Red Spot sits in the South Equatorial Belt and is the oddity of the planet’s atmosphere. Persistent in its dynamic, and different in its behaviour to the belts, it is a system that is called an anticyclonic storm, that can last form 180 years to about 350 years. Rotating counterclockwise, with a period of around six Earth days, which is 14 Jovian days, the size of this Red Spot ranges from a massive 24–40,000 km west to east and 12–14,000 km south to north. An easier way to look at its scale is to imagine getting about 2 or three planet Earths inside. This Red Spot is cold, although the redder areas are warmer and higher up in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Complex organic molecules make up its red colour, where the red is made up of the compounds phosphorus and some sulphur.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: The largest amounts of these two substances everywhere, are also there the most. The largest amounts of constituents anywhere are hydrogen and helium. They make up most of the planet Jupiter, where Hydrogen is the main one. It also has other chemical compounds but only in small amounts.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: Every 16 years and at a rate of 170 m/s, cyclonic disturbances engulf as high as 100 km. The way the storms occur on Jupiter are similar to Earth but are much larger in size. These storms appear in the cyclonic regions of the planet inside retrograde jets. Its storms are tall convective columns or plumes that bring wet air from the depths to the upper areas of the troposphere where they condense as clouds. These storms can be as high as 100km and very powerful ones appear about every 16 years or so.

'Disappearing World' from the/my album 'Life in Slow Motion' by brilliant singer songwriter David Gray http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr-RoQ24lLg is my song choice for this month’s quote. Obviously David Gray was talking about snow in this song, but it’s great to change that around, just to be completely awkward. Refer to the lyrics and take out the word ‘snow’ and replace with ‘sludge’ then replace ‘city’ with ‘planet’ and refer to ‘disappearing’ with the probe falling into its atmosphere when it hits a certain level and the music says so along the way. Also note the lyrics, ‘We're threading hope like fire’ which I liken to the probe descending dangerously down, and its other reference is, ‘Down through the desperate blood’ as the red colour is the blood denoting the great Red Spot. The next reference is to David’s lyric about, ‘I'll be sticking right there with it, I'll be by your side, Sailing like a silver bullet, Hit 'em 'tween the eyes, Through the smoke and rising water.. .’ very appropriate with smoke, as the atmosphere looks smokey from the outside. Last but not least, the reference to ‘Sparkling red and gold’ lyric that encapsulates the whole of what Jupiter is about, a mass of red and gold colour, with some yellow tones like an artist’s oil paint pallet, creating its unique and wonderful hues.

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C-This Quote Of The Month Jan 2013

"If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.”

by Danish physicist who founded atomic structure and quantum mechanics

Reality

From a distance you see the flying swan take off using Bernoulli's principle of flight. The swan uses forward momentum and the air under its wings to give lift – the air pressure on the surface of its wings is lower that below the wing as it moves forward, this reduces drag and the swan takes flight. The wings are using all available energy to keep the swan in the air and eventually it becomes almost effortless for the swan to fly, how amazing is that? If you think that is amazing have a go at reading the next bit.

Now, look closer as the swan flies higher and you can see the structure of the swan’s feathers, nest down to its molecular levels, then further and smaller to its atomic level. What goes on beyond that is anyone’s reality…

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 3: Some scientists devised a theory combining more than 1 level of abstraction resulting in a conversion. Quantum Collapse or Vector Reduction. When referring to physics on very small scales at the 1st level of reailty, within the level of quantum mechanics, it is called the quantum level. Here all events are fuzzy because, firstly we cannot see the atom or electron behaviour, as they are too small and move around very quickly creating a cloud of fuzzy mess, so we have to make theoretical models about their behaviour, so for e.g. their position and momentumWerner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr sorted this problem by saying that the wave function collapsed when it was observed.

The wave function is our best method of interpretation of that reality so far and it work well, but there is a problem, the areas where we want to find where an atom or an electron falls, or stops, is just not very well defined, se we use probabilities and various maths functions to do it. One thing that is interesting is if we try to find out where an electron actually is, this is an event in where the wave function, which is in a superposition of various differing possible outcomes, called eigenstates, appears to reduce to a single one of those events, but only when interaction with an observer occurs, is we can’t at the very same time know its momentum. This in itself suggests some funny business going on at quantum and classical levels, which will be explained in a bit. It is as if, by calculating the outcome, you are changing the structure of that very reality. This is the bit where the cloud of probability is reduced by deciding where the collapse will fall. It’s like freezing a moving 3 dimensional moving mass then flattening it still, to see what it’s made of, because any other way wouldn’t help the intervention, but by doing that, it’s also changing the mass itself. This can be done on two levels, 1 by calculating it by using the maths and 2 by actual experiment. The second level of reality, physics goes to the large. This can include Newton’s Laws using objects, like a swan flying through the air, a chair, a cup or anything in your normal realm of existence! The behaviour of atoms when looking at classical reality is very different, so there is a contradiction with the small scale compared to the large. The large has a logical set of circumstances that in contrast, makes the small seem totally weird. In fact, if you are new to physics, it is often joked, if you do not understand quantum physics, then it’s quite ok and you are only mocked by the opposite – that you can understand quantum physics -, yeah, right, then you don’t REALLY understand quantum physics!

Now clean all that away for a bit, and read this. Referring to the famous and historical physics thought experiment, called Schrödinger's Cat, which was devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, this shows a very good example of what effect of observation has on a quantum event, but even better, in this case, its results are proven via a classical outcome, so the cat is either dead or alive. Simply put, a live cat is placed in a box (poor cat) with a vat of poison (oh heck) that is attached to a Geiger counter (gulp), that is attached to a bit of radioactive substance (I have already fainted, but that’s in another world or reality). The radioactive substance gives off decaying atoms BUT this is where it gets interesting. Going back to the quantum world, there is an almost 50/50 chance that one atom will decay and then set these chain of events off: the Geiger counter detects this then opens the poison vat and the cat is dead, but there is a third element to consider here, the observation when you open the box to see if this is true. The superposition that I mentioned before is then questioned. So what is really going on in this quantum reality? What you have to remember is what I have thought about here, being, this is just one interpretation of an event. The experiment could even be set up differently; we could even perceive it differently! because we exist in a non-linear reality, but this is also questionable, because, if you consider the outcome and if it is the same (what does that mean?) is that actual experiment the same, or not? Jumping ahead now, this brings us to what it means to perceive.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 2: It plays tricks with perception depending on where all is not what it seems. Perception Systems. The brain and the eye are connected so that we can, firstly, see things in our world with our eyes and then our brains interpret that information so we can make sense of it. The interesting part here, is the change from, we can all see a chair, (if considering there are a few people sat in room, looking at the same chair) BUT we might not perceive the chair in the same way. Our individual reality is changed by our experiences and the way our perception patterns are arranged. There are studies to suggest that the act of thinking it self, can change our perception of our reality. This is very powerful and must be considered within any cognitive realm, whether, in education, psychology, ethics, or physics, or the like. The connections are important to consider.

Countdown to the Quote of the Month 1: One way someone looked at it was to say that there were many ways to look at it. Many Worlds Theory. The many-worlds theory is an interpretation, by Hugh Everett, of quantum mechanics, as I mentioned before, but suggests an objective reality of many universal wavefunctions which is in contradiction to a single wavefunction collapse. Many worlds say that all possible, or probable alternative histories (including future events) are real and that each has its own world or reality. The branches are determined by changes in which to take so this also covers the subjects of determinism and free will.

The question now is: has physics put these to two theories together yet? The answer is, there have been attempts to do this, but not with great success but it seems that keeps our curious minds working to find out what we can do to solve this great problem. So, when using quantum physics, what is reality?

Going back to collapse of the wave function, being cheeky, here it is good to question, what would happen if the combination of Everett’s many worlds was considered for a number of either consecutive, or parallel experiments for Schrödinger's Cat? That’s got you thinking about reality, hasn’t it? Even more so, imagine if you opened the box and you found that the cat had turned into a swan.

The music I chose is in 3 parts. The 1st part represents the looking deeper into how reality might be, so it’s a journey into the small and quantum. The 2nd part is about the classical reality as we see it, appears to be straight forward, then suddenly, there is a 3rd level where the two are combined with a type of resolution. Elena Kats-Chernin - Wild Swans Ballet Suite - Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llTU538pA5g
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C-This Quote Of The Month 1st December 2012

"I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes.”

by physicist Edward Witten an American theoretical with a focus on mathematical physics

Black Hole Radiation - or Pop!

Countdown to The Quote of the Month 3: 1 of the 2 main theories for this paradoxical event relies only upon angular momentum, charge + mass. According to Hawking’s theory, the terms here are used to denote the use of an outside or classical perspective point of view of Black Hole radiation, or the No-hair theorem.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: The other 1 of 2 main theories for this paradox relies upon information about what emitted it. Thermal radiation theory suggests that radiation is emitted from a black body and takes with it information in accordance to Planck's law of black body radiation. Where particles pop in and out of existence involving a virtual pair, being separated by the gravity of the hole and one is being sucked into the hole and the other is being emitted, is likened to emitted information about the Black Hole.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: 1 problem creates wavelength shortening much shorter than Planck length at a certain critical point. The trans-Planckian problem explains that if you are far away from the Black Hole horizon, time appears to stop and the theory of quantum particle wavelength results in being shorter than the Planck length when near that black hole. If you measure a particle from further away, time is changed than if measuring within the events frame. In this sense, when a particle is emitted from a black hole with a finite frequency, and it is traced back to the horizon, it must have had an infinite frequency there, or a trans-Planckian wavelength.

In astrophysics, General Relativity theory predicts that a load of dense mass will deform spacetime, forming a black hole because of its immense gravitational field. This idea was first discovered by John Michell, an English natural philosopher and geologist and Pierre-Simon Laplace, a French mathematician and astronomer.

A Black Hole is a place where absolutely nothing, or so it seems, is supposed to escape, even light, hence the term Black Hole, but also hence the term ‘so it seems’. A surprising fact is that at a certain point, just on the surface of the Black Hole, there is a place called the Event Horizon was things might not be what they seem. This is where it gets interesting. From the outside observer’s point of view, it appears that everything is absorbed into a black hole, well ok it is, but at the quantum point of view, it is all quite different and it’s here, at a place called the event horizon, where it all happens. The event horizon is a point of no return on the surface of a Black Hole. There is a theory, or two that say, that some form of energy is actually emitted from a Black Hole, which is in the form of radiation. This radiation is classed as being in the black-body spectrum. To put this simply, any emissions are to do with vacuum fluctuations, or particles popping in and out of existence, that involve a virtual pair of these particles being separated by the gravity of the hole - one is being sucked into the hole and the other is being emitted. In reality, Black Body radiation is within the spectrum that is described only by temperature, or thermal markers, as opposed to other ways, like composition or its shape for example. When Stephen Hawking, a talented British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author came along, he took us all away from the situation and said a more outside view, not a quantum interior view of the thermal radiation theory, would be best relied upon. Here he uses angular momentum, charge + mass instead of the statistical method. This classical thinking leads to, in Hawking’s world, a Black Hole having no hair - the No-hair theorem. This theory says that anything other than, angular momentum, charge + mass that falls into it literally disappears behind the black-hole event horizon, hmm.

When I was a kid about age 7, I got and kept since (in a drawer somewhere) a paper copy of the superb, Scientific American magazine that at the time covered two very interesting topics. The 1st was about light and lasers, where light is my favourite subject in physics and the second was about Black Hole radiation - in astrophysics terms, my second favourite subject and it was at about that time when Professor Stephen Hawking showed us all with his grand theory of Black Hole radiation. I remember reading the actual page that showed a caption saying what the radiation was and immediately I was in scientific wonderland! There is more to this story about my adventure into science from a young age here, in an October 2012 issue I was in. Here is a link to some of it http://en.calameo.com/books/001319831951dafab4469 http://en.calameo.com/books/001319831951dafab4469 It contains great articles about astronomy – and called ‘Astronomy Wise Online Magazine’; its co-writer is David Bood and the magazine contains all sorts from professional and specialist to amateur and armchair astronomy - but look at the second to last page!

The Pop!

I have chosen a Techno - Popcorn remix (best version) from the original song by Hot Butter. So we are having a high volume (voltage) techno sound this time. You will notice the word ‘pop’ in the title. I think this illustrates the theme this month quite well where the popping sound in the track can be likened to an observer, who is accelerating, to stop from falling inside a Black Hole, views a thermal flow of particles that pop out of the local acceleration horizon and then turn back around to free fall back into it, so in a sense they pop! In the Black Hole event horizon, particles are supposed to ‘pop’ in and out of existence involving a virtual pair, being separated by the gravity of the hole, where one is being sucked into the hole and the other is being emitted, hence they Pop! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK4y2ejNsnc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN8iRqAFQQo&feature=fvwrel

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st November 2012

"Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you are”

by Felix Baumgartner - Austrian skydiver and daredevil who recently set the world record for skydiving at an estimated 39 kilometres (24 mi)

Atmosphere

Listen to this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK4y2ejNsnc as you read the to the end of this paragraph and onto the next... play it in the background... it's gentle melody is called - Fullmetal Alchemist Brothers Violin... but before that imagine you are a migrating bird, a goose maybe, flying at an altitude of 8,000 m, which is above extreme attitude for humans, but just about fine for birds… an amazing altitude considering that at 5,000 metres, the atmosphere is 63% less dense than at sea level… you are free… gliding... all calm on the thermals… listen to it and now imagine that you could go gently all the way up towards space.. all the way to the... Exosphere.

Countdown to The Quote of the Month 3: There are five general areas that make up this natural but important phenomenon. 1: No one ever thinks about how interesting the atmosphere is, it's either the Earth or Space, but not much in between, but the atmosphere, I have always thought, is one of the most interesting subjects in science invloving physics, chemistry and lots more. The main division of atmosphere is by temperature and generally atmospheric density decreases as altitude increases. Starting with the Exosphere, here you are going to be taken on a journey of loops, altitude loops and temperature loops. The Exosphere is the part of the Earth’s atmosphere that extends from the exobase, the lower boundary of the exosphere upward. The Exosphere’s main composition is hydrogen and helium. An interesting fact is that at this altitude, the particles here can travel hundreds of kilometers without colliding with one another because they are very far apart, and because the particles hardly collide, in this part of the atmosphere they no longer behave like a fluid. Although these free-moving particles follow a route of a ballistic trajectory, they sometimes go into and out of the magnetosphere or the solar wind area, which is the beginning of outer space. 2: The Thermosphere temperature, from the mesopause up to the thermopause, increases with height, until it is constant with height. In the thermosphere the temperature inversion is a result of the extremely low density of molecules, unlike the stratosphere. The temperature increase is also by absorption of highly energetic solar radiation and can rise to 1,500 °C (2,700 °F). As the gas molecules are far apart, the term temperature in this context does not have the same meaning when used generally. Here the air is unusual because individual molecules of oxygen can travels at speed of 1 kilometer between collisions. The International Space Station or the ISS, orbits in this layer, which is between 320 and 380 km (200 and 240 mi). The air above the mesopause hardly mixes because of the lack of molecular collisions compared with the air below. The composition from the troposphere to the mesosphere is quite constant, apart from a certain point where air doesn’t mix only to arrange itself by stratification. The point dividing these two regions is known as the turbopause where chemical composition remains constant more or less. Below this area is the homosphere and above is the heterosphere. The exobase is the top area of the thermosphere to the bottom of the exosphere, where its height can change due to solar activity. The range is from about 350–800 km (220–500 mi; 1,100,000–2,600,000 ft) 3: The Mesosphere is the area from the stratopause to 80–85 km (50–53 mi; 260,000–280,000 ft) being the layer that is unique to a lot of meteors burning up when entering the atmosphere. In this instance, and unlike as before in the Thermosphere, its temperature decreases with height. Just at the very top of the mesopause, the temperature is very cold; in fact it is the coldest place on Earth! at an average of -85 °C (-120 °F; 190 K) and can drop to -100 °C (-150 °F; 170 K). Because the temperature drops this much, water vapor becomes frozen then forms ice clouds that we call Noctilucent clouds. There is also a type of lightning called ‘sprites’ that form many miles above thunderclouds in the troposphere. Meteors are also seen in this layer. 4: The Stratosphere extends from the tropopause to about 51 km (32 mi; 170,000 ft). In another completely barmy twist yet again, the temperature actually increases with height because of increased absorption of ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer so restricting mixing and turbulence and to make things even more completely loopy- at this point from reading all this lot, it’s like an even loopier version of the cartoon character, Loopy De Loop, but of atmospheres - Here We Go Loopty Looping of atmospheric temperatures. Back to the top of the stratosphere which is much warmer to the point of freezing, unlike the temperature being at about -60 °C (-76 °F; 210 K) at tropopause. The stratopause is the level of atmosphere which is the boundary between two layers being the stratosphere and the mesosphere. Amazingly this also occurs on other planets with an atmosphere too. The Earths stratopause is 50 to 55 kilometres (31–34 mi) high above the Earth's surface at atmospheric pressure of about 1/1000 of the pressure at sea level. Now, fall all the way down to the middle to lower Stratosphere again,

..."and the man in the rain picked up his bag of secrets, and journeyed up the mountainside, far above the clouds, and nothing was ever heard from him again, except for the sound of Tubular Bells"

... but this time like Felix Baumgartner, imagine you are amongst a turbulence and fear so strong, you are scared of the next moment, as you spin and swirl round and down, Loopy De Looping... dropping, falling, swirling, now play the next brilliant track and read on again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpIQHWN_cUU illustrating this dangerous drop or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7gNvx20FKI - a song played at the 2012 Opening Olympics Ceremony and from one of my older albums by the superb, multi-instrumentalist musician and composer - Mike Oldfield - called 'Far Above The Clouds (Tubular Bells III)'. Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver and daredevil who recently set the world record for skydiving at an estimated 39 kilometres (24 mi) and achieved an estimated speed of 1,342 kilometres per hour (834 mph) or Mach 1.24, on 14 October 2012, setting an altitude record for a manned balloon flight, a parachute jump from the highest altitude and the most amazing free fall velocity or speed, had to negotiate all these changes. As well as the thermal space suit that he wore, the restrictions in this caused a psychological fear, and an unexpected event happened - his visor fogged up when he exhaled. So all this and then the spinning out of control and going Loopy De Loop due to some forces that sometimes cannot be tamed, unless trained at jumping that is, from 39,045 metres (128,100 ft) or just over 39 kilometres (24 mi) were he was said to have broken the speed of sound on the way down, which in this sense, really depends upon temperature, not on the gas pressure or density, as it would normally. Still amazing and scary though. He was in the area that is below Thermospheric and Exospheric space, but just as intimidating due to changeing gradients of temperature, solar radiation, molecular composition and gravity, although baring in mind, Felix Baumgartner did jump from a relatively low height within the Stratosphere, but it was non the less a very brave thing to do. 5: The Troposphere starts at the surface extending between 9 km (30,000 ft) at the poles and 17 km (56,000 ft) at the equator but the weather can vary this. This is where the clouds are. Heat in the troposphere is mainly due to transfer of energy from the surface. Generally the lowest part of the troposphere is warm and its temperature decreases with altitude. The temperature changes here, due to altitude creating vertical mixing and turbulence starts. The troposphere is generally 80% of the mass of the atmosphere, being the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: One of the major sciences is literally situated in one of the biggest of these five areas. As mentioned just before here, the ISS or the International Space Station, is a manned and man made space lab, doing all sorts of science experiments, that orbits the main largest area, the Thermosphere, were it is protected from the space environment, by the Earth's magnetic field - the magnetosphere. The magnetosphere is from a general distance of 70,000 km but this depends on Solar activity because the magnetosphere deflects solar wind around the ISS, as well as the Earth. Sometimes solar flares can still be a hazard to the ISS, as the crew aboard might only get a few minutes warning for a serious proton storm, as a example, so that can leave it quite vulnerable.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: Whilst the last 5 are generally denoted by 1 variable, 4 others are involved to complete it. The other main layers of atmosphere are generally categorised by a temperature variable, whereas the next list of 4 more that complete it, are not:

1) The ozone layer is contained within the stratosphere (no 4) where ozone concentrations here are around 2 to 8 parts per million being a lot more than in the lower atmosphere. This area is generally located in the lower part of the stratosphere from about 15–35 km (9.3–22 mi; 49,000–110,000 ft) but its thickness can vary by seasons and geography. Most ozone at about 90% is in our atmosphere within the stratosphere.

2) The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation stretching from 50 to 1,000 km (31 to 620 mi; 160,000 to 3,300,000 ft) that overlaps the exosphere and the thermosphere, forming the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It influences radio propagation on the Earth and is responsible for auroras.

3) Well mixed gasses are defined by the homosphere and the heterosphere. The chemical composition in the homosphere does not depend on molecular weight because the gases are mixed by turbulence. The homosphere involves the troposphere, stratosphere, and the mesosphere. At about 100 km (62 mi; 330,000 ft) above the turbopause, the composition varies with altitude because the distance that particles can move without colliding with one another is big compared with the size of motions that cause mixing. This makes the gases stratify by molecular weight, where the heavier ones, like oxygen and nitrogen, occur at the bottom of the heterosphere. The top area of the heterosphere is made up of mainly hydrogen, which is the lightest element.

4) The planetary boundary layer makes up the part of the troposphere, that is nearest to the Earth's surface, which is directly affected by turbulent diffusion. In the day, the planetary boundary layer is often mixed but at night it becomes more stratified and stable. The depth of the planetary boundary layer is generally from as little as about 100 m to 3000 m or more. The levels of atmosphere from the top are:

The Magnetosphere

1: The Exosphere - The Ionosphere – Space

The Ionosphere

2: The Thermosphere – Aurora - ISS

The Turbopause

The Mesopause

3: The Mesosphere - The Homosphere – Meteors

The Stratopause

4: The Stratosphere – The Homosphere – Weather Balloon - Felix Baumgartner

The Ozone Layer

The Tropopause

5: The Troposphere - The Homosphere – Mount Everest - Jets - Clouds

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st October 2012

"We will never be an advanced civilization as long as rain showers can delay the launching of a space rocket”

by George Carlin, an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor and writer/author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums

Up!^ (Rocket Propulsion)

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 3: Applying a high speed method intrinsically by expelling then functions due 2 a conservation law. The Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation

where: 
Δv = the change of velocity of the vehicle
v  sub e = the effective velocity of exhaust gases
M = the initial total mass of the vehicle
m = the final total mass of the vehicle

explains a motion that follows a basic principle. In this case, a rocket engine that applies acceleration back toward itself, by the effect of a thrust, from expelling part of its own mass and at high speed, which makes it move due to the law of conservation of momentum. Good that innit?

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: It works by using Newton's third law of motion which works around air density and airspeed. Well it would , because one of the main types of engine used in a rocket to thrust it upward is called a reaction engine! This type of engine produces propulsion from expelling reaction mass which works with the principles of Newton's third law of motion, which states that,

"For every action force there is an equal, but opposite, reaction force".

In order for the engine to be efficient, for high a delta-v mission, for example, which means exhausting the whole rockets propellant, via the engines, in a straight line and in free space, then producing a net velocity change to the vehicle,  the majority of the spacecraft's mass would need to be ‘reaction mass’ and any gravitational attraction and any atmospheric drag it propels itself from MUST be overcome by using fuel that can create enough energy to expel its own reaction mass and at a speed, equalling the exhaust speed. Its kinetic energy gain by the rocket and payload is an important part of how its reaction mass works, as a ratio to its own kinetic energy, whereby adding less kinetic energy to the reaction mass, makes it move and accelerate, being the main component of upward thrust. The density and air speed come into the forces because the rocket has to take into account drag, which changes its speed, rocket load and mass.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: There are about 5 new, other proven techniques that can achieve similar efficiency for same result. As well as reaction engine technique, there is the Hybrid rocket, which uses propellants in two different states of matter, the 1st  a solid and the other, which can be gas or liquid. Monopropellant rocket uses a chemical reaction by a method of chemical bonds within the chemical molecules to create a force. Liquid-fuel rockets using pumps and pressure with liquid hydrogen or a hydrocarbon fuel. Electrostatic ion thrusters are high efficiency but low thrust, so they use electrical power for their force. The Hall effect thruster (HET) is an ion thruster that is accelerated by an electric field by trapping electrons in a magnetic field then using the electrons to ionize the propellant. The Resistojet rocket provides thrust by heating a fluid that is non-reactive. Here electricity is through a resistor which is a hot incandescent filament, with expanded gas expelled through a nozzle. There are many other types of theories that could work to create upward thrust but have not yet been proven.

T minus 3 Countdowns to the Quote of the Month and 140 twitter seconds, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Lift off!

Mission Elapsed Time (MET) 0/03:2:1

In order to go up! which is a word that is an adverb, meaning toward the sky, or a postion that is higher, if it is via propulsion, the future might hold a possibility of the use of the exciting physics of antimatter. Antimatter is material composed of antiparticles that have the same mass as ordinary particles but have opposite charge and quantum spin, that when binded with each other, form antimatter. This is similar to normal particles that bind to form normal matter in that respect. An example is a positron, which is the antiparticle of the electron, and an antiproton that form an antihydrogen atom.

By mixing matter and antimatter it can lead to the annihilation of both. This is similar to mixing antiparticles and particles which creates gamma rays as high-energy photons and other particle–antiparticle pairs. When antimatter meets matter, they release energy proportional to the mass as the well-known Einstein mass-energy equivalence equation, E=mc2 which means that a much larger portion of rest mass of a matter/antimatter mixture may be converted to energy. By using this type of matter it means it is very efficient due to it having higher energy density. A great human achievement.

The next easy step is to get Rocket Propulsion science ready in order for us to get to a futuristic cafe on an Exo Planet somewhere in outer space, so we can have a decent cup of tea, and why not, I mean gee, it's not going to be Rocket Science is it?

This month I chose this simple but ace song to illustrate the theme of Up! It's very catchy I am warning you, so you will be singing it all week after hearing it. Just make sure you remember how Rocket Propulsion works while you do so. It is by the group 'The Saturdays' and it's called, well, Up! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf2vwAp2XVU

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Sepetmber 2012

"I would prefer an intelligent hell to a stupid paradise.”

by Blaise Pascal who was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer.

Paradise (as a Utopia)

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 3: It is a system that is often associated with abundance, beauty and perfection. Paradise is often referred to a perfect world of abundance of good things and beauty as a form of perfection.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: An ornithological creature took its name. This is referring to the unusual crow like bird-of-paradise,
of the family Paradisaeidae, often found on the island of New Guinea.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: It probably won't ever be achieved because of certain scientific principles. Paradise as a system might be hard to achieve because of laws only accepted using scientific principles.

Don't be fooled

You might think it’s easy to achieve a state of paradise but, to be honest, after reading and then thinking about the whole idea from, even at its best, as a scientific endeavour, it’s probably best not to even bother, unless you like picking things apart using general good thinking. But before I start generally explaining the reasons why this is so, I just want to make clear that it is the Utopian type of paradise I am concerned with here and nothing else.

Paradise Lost (ish)

Beautiful sunshine, endlessly beautiful surroundings, abundant perfection... it's just the mirage of Paradise your dreaming about, isn't it? The reason why I chose paradise was, I was inpsired why it would seem an achievable state even though fundamentally is very flawed, but thinking that part which is flawed, is the most interesting part of the problem with paradise.

If breaking down areas of paradise into simple sections, it becomes clear that each one, when used as a building block to support the idea of paradise, would not have much staying power, but the thing to remember is, we can still learn from those parts that say why it might never be possible to achieve a state of paradise in Utopian form.

Maths:  Looking at a couple of example of some maths terms, you would think it impossible to achieve a type of Paradise of answers and formal logic, in terms of mathematical completeness at least.

Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems: The first one is about problems with formal logic - deduction and induction, which are used all the time in science, although they are often underrepresented and misunderstood. Verifying a formal proof from a finite set of axioms, well this is like using deduction but with a finite set, so its proving has to end because there is a limit. The problem is, in the real wold we have to deal with infinite axioms that might not be that clear cut. When introducing infinite axioms the logic changes more or less to induction. Although exciting to add on new axioms, this creates new problems because; everything has to be proven again using the same set of rules and it just keeps going on. In a nutshell it’s like this:

A recursive loop of logical consistency that has to include some illogical inconsistency and some illogical loops in order to work proper, otherwise it doesn’t work as a recursive loop.

In a smaller nut shell:

It uses its own faults, in order for it to work out how to prove, how it can’t work without its faults (using a non-fault method).

Quite clever that but can’t be a good way of getting rid of faults that might occur in paradise, if that paradise says that any logical problem cannot include some type of fault in its logic, so paradise in that sense is impossible.

Pi: A mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter and an irrational number, meaning its representation by decimal never ends and never repeats. This is like the first problem here, in that it has an infinite quality and unbound logic. Trying to round off this number in paradise would prove difficult.

Physics: Physics is king when it comes to working out if paradise can be obtained. The laws of physics are usually, if not totally, impossible to break. But you can dream…

First law of thermodynamics: Have you ever heard of perpetual motion machines? Well if you have they don’t exist. They say that you can create more energy that you put in but this is really, REALLY, dodgy thinking in the world of physics, if not completely irresponsible. This first law says that apart from changing form, which is a completely different issue, energy can be neither created nor destroyed. Paradise would have a big job trying to create more energy if it knew it wasn’t going to get any more than what it put in but being paradise it’ll always think otherwise.

Earth: What would paradise on Earth look like? Beautiful green fields where it never rains etc...  The scenery might be very deceiving because each system, like the weather as an example, has to rely on ‘some’ unruly behaviour in order to get the job done. We can’t have water without rain, which might include some storms as a by-product, which will brings me round to the next few topics about by products and what’s right and wrong, and with them.

Standard Deviation: Statistics and probability theory is a general rule about the variation of EVERYTHING that exists (within reason)and where everything is about variation. If you look at a graph of it, it tells you what this is and tends to show a larger bulk in the middle. You get the good bits, the medium bits and the bad bits, but what if I told you, you could only get the good bits as long as you have the bad bits too? A by-product of what's good creates some not so good. In paradise, we just want loads of good, but that can't be acheived because it needs other bits with it too for the system to work properly. The reason for this is, most things behave, the same but for some reason or other, a smaller number always doesn’t, which is another form of variation. This smaller number of ‘don’ts’ are shown at the ends that fade out at each side of the shape. Distribution curves are used in education to find out ability and are a good way of saying, if you get a random group of people to take a test on a subject, most that will do average show up in the middle of the mount shape and the rest, not so good and very good, will show up at ether ends, so again a variation. Variation exists in objects, systems and living things - infact it's everywhere. Now put distribution curves with humans on a general scale. Paradise might not cope with these distribution curves, if it means that what goes on at either ends of those curves, not just the ends that show up the good results, also have some function to play within a paradise type society and life itself - or in other words, it would have to include the bads with the goods. This brings me to the next point as I will explain.

Biology: According to the laws of evolution and science, when humans and animals are born some will deviate from the norm (see probability theory above), whether it means physically or in terms of behaviour:

What's wrong about right?

Generally, good behaved humans don’t like getting rid of life, an example, not liking war. I don't like war and I think most people don't like war either, but we might need some humans that can go to war in order to protect life. Now ask, are these types of behaviour good are bad? Although wars are not good, they never seem to go away so are a fact of human behaviour. There has to be a reason for this. For the same reason heat is a by-product of light, it could be said, the elimination of life is a by-product of good human behaviour, in that it protects other life, so in this context, subjectively trying to achieve a utopian paradise where no evil exists, like preseving life in one context, could be seen as difficult to achieve and these more objective and scientific systems must explain these phenomena. Whether it’s uncomfortable or not, they still go, on this Earth, on and on, so there must be scientific reasons.

What's right about wrong?

The immune system is another by-product effect. When you get a cold, you are feeling ill because it’s your immune system making you ill, not the virus directly. The virus makes your body’s immune system react and that reaction in turn affects you. Although this isn’t very pleasant, it saves your life. The not very pleasant part is the by-product of your natural defence system against illness, which in itself isn't good either, but in paradise we wouldn't need an immune system because there would no diseases to fight off, but for some reason, diseases as viruses and like exist. Modern medicine might be going the way towards paradise but then the immune system would die out due to lack of use. Sometimes viruses can help kick our immunity into action, although they are often thought about as not good and in paradise they wouldn't be accepted at all. In paradise we would not really like viruses because they would kill us, but with immunity, they would work for us to a certain degree. Another ethical line here that's an interesting one.

Exoplanets: Planets outside our Solar System. How many planets are there, outside Earth that are like Earth? Now add on chances of a utopian paradise on them.  A perfect planet outside our solar system might exist but life would be part of the utopia of that planet. Use the Drake equation, which calculates a general estimate detecting extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way, and add on a bit of the Femi Paradox, which tells you the contradiction between the high chances of existence of extraterrestrial civilization with humanity's lack of being able to contact those civilizations. Before we have even started with how paradise, in terms of a utopia, can be achieved on another planet AND are outside our own Solar System…. I tell you what; I’ll let you think about that one…

     Paradise Found (but not as you know it Gov)

What you have read here are just a few examples that can trigger some thought but there are endless more to think about. What can we learn from achieving an imperfect state, which would be a better option than the one appearing to be the best one (which we thought would make us all happy)? Quite a lot, because we learn that everything in the universe can’t be perfect. Sometimes it's to do with the striving of the journey not the destination and it’s more about the idea that we can achieve perfection of a utopian paradise that is more realistic than the reality of doing so. The scientific Paradise is that we will have an infinite loads of science to accomplish if real paradise doesn't really exist because then not all questions can be answered. Besides, it would be a bit boring if everything was perfect in Paradise where we knew all the answers and that was the end of it all in the field of science, the universe and everything as we knew it… wouldn’t it?

I was listening to a Coldplay track called Paradise in August, from their new(ish) album I have had for a while, called Mylo Xyloto, when I was inspired to think about the implications of Paradise. At first I ditched the idea because I thought it was silly but then thought about its serious scientific implications which made it become one of the most interesting topics around (oh, and then Coldplay where on the Paralympics closing ceremony and sang the track really well). A bit fitting really, like what would happen in the context of Paradise. Ok, I'll shut up now. The is link is track here is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ZWlDks0nQ

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st August 2012

"I don't go along with going to Moon first to build a launch pad to go to Mars. We should go to Mars from Earth orbit. We have already been to the Moon; we've already practiced."

--by Wally Schirra (Walter Marty Schirra)  American test pilot, United States Navy officer, and one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts chosen for the Project Mercury, America's effort to put humans in space.

Mars

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 3: Light and dark areas were thought 2 predict an already abundant substance in a familiar form we know. Apart from being described as the Red Planet because of iron oxide on its surface, allowing a reddish appearance, Mars hosts volcanoes, impact craters, deserts and valleys, but more interestingly polar ice caps. This is where the light and dark areas caused speculation and interest in the planet hosting water, mainly via channels and valleys. Up until 1965, by Mariner 4, which was the first successful fly-by and the fourth in a series of spacecraft, it was speculated that Mars had water on its surface in those light and dark areas, but it was in 2005, when some radar gave us the data to say there actually was a presence of large quantities of water in ice form, especially abundant at its poles and along its mid-latitudes. More theories about the presence of liquid water on the planet's surface did later come about as a result of the Mars rover Spirit, which in March 2007, sampled chemical compounds that contained water molecules. Much later, on July 31, 2008, the Phoenix lander sampled water ice in its shallow Martian soil. Although we know about the presence of what was water on Mars in its past, as ice encapsulated in its surface, we cannot be sure that life itself existed there too. A recent probe into this will occur with the recent MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) progamme involving Mars Curiosity which will tell us more about it structure and as a result effect what could happen in our future exploration of it.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2:The largest labyrinth of intersecting canyons in a local sense is hosted there. Between the Valles Marineris and the Tharsis upland, Mars has a region on its surface called Noctis Labyrinthus, or as commonly termed "the labyrinth of the night" that is located in the Phoenicis Lacus quadrangle. It is apparently very maze-like and filled with deep and steep-walled valleys where volcanic activity caused faults. One of the features is called grabens, which is a block of land depressed bordered by parallel faults. This mainly occurs as upland and is preserved on its valley floor.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: Its largest satellite orbits faster than its own rotation rate, rising + setting twice each day. Mars has two natural satellites, or Moons. One of them, its largest, is called Phobos, which has slightly ludicrous behaviour, orbiting very closely to it. What is often not known about this, is that because it is very close to the center of Mars, it actually orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates itself. So, imagine being able to see that! But it gets more interesting. Phobos’s behaviour may appear really weird from the surface of Mars, because it rises in the west, then moves across the Martian sky in about 4 hours and under 15 minutes, to then set in the east, but its rising and setting events, as a result of its speed around Mars, means they happen twice in each Martian day. So Phobos has a short orbital period which means, when combined with being close to the Mars surface and getting nearer as time passes, it might actually crash into Mars at a later date. So, if we do go to Mars, it is best not going around then, unless we want to get a very big headache.

So it's all about Mars which, in our Solar System, is the fourth planet from the Sun that has a thin atmosphere. But don't let all that that put you/us off one day being able to get there, especially after a long search for how the science of space travel will improve. Mars, though, is one of the most iconic planets known to us humans, having an almost magical effect on our life, that lives in our solar system but has been a big thing in more ways than one, from starring in films, to appearing in music. Here is one track that takes me back to a time when space travel was a new adventure and the human races quest to discover new worlds was one of the main agendas of the day. Ahh, what ever happened to all that then?

This month I have chosen music by David Bowie 'Life On Mars?' ... oh I wonder why that could be...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v--IqqusnNQ or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C0RmRGTePw

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st July 2012

" All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue."

--by Plato, who was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician.

Gold

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 3: A warm hue with a surprising texture that is least reactive under standard conditions. Gold is a malleable, shiniy and soft metal with the chemical element that is represented by the symbol Au and with the atomic number 79. Its colour is bright yellow, especially if it is to be pure Gold, ooooh lovely, you think, yeah well, there's probably a very good reason to this and its to do with its unique makeup. This color is determined by the density of loosely bound or valence electrons that oscillate as a collective plasma behvaiour or quasiparticle described in terms of a plasmon. Apart from being rather beautiful in hue, it doesn't react to standard conditions, as in, air or water. To be precise, Gold doesn't oxidize with air and water, that is, it doesn't change its state when exposed to them, so indeed this makes it very unique compared to other metals.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: It is valuable and highly sought-after with constant monetary and symbolic functions. Gold is a precious metal that is highly sought-after and valuable in many objects, for example,  jewelry, coinage and it is used in electronics as it is resistant to corrosion and a lot of other chemical reactions. Gold standards have been used for monetary policies throuought time in human history. It is also conductive which means it is used in electric wiring and gold leaf.    

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: It is a transition substance and often occurs in free elemental or native form. The term transition substance (I used that instead of metal because it seemed to give the puzzle away too soon) means an element whos atom has an incomplete d sub-shell or which can give rise to cations with an incomplete d sub-shell, it also means, as an  element, it is in the section of the d-block in the periodic table. Because gold is one of the least reactive chemical elements as a solid under standard conditions it stays put, as it where, it often globulates into nuggets, grains or rocks when found naturally.

Most heavy chemical elements are formed in nuclear fusion reactions in stars, so in terms of gold in astronomy, as spectral analysis mainly gives data for the main common elements, there are suggestions that it might be created in supernovas, much like other heavy elements. There are recent theories that neutron-rich heavy elements, like gold, are made in rare neutron rich events, like collisions of neutron stars. As it happens some scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) and affiliated to the Excellence Cluster Universe and of the Free University of Brussels (ULB) verified relevant reactions of atomic nuclei that take place in this sort of rare environment, whereby it actually produces a good amount of these heaviest elements. There are other theories that gold could have been implanted by asteroid impact, but this is still uncertain. It is just a matter of time to find the spectral signature of stars to see if they contain gold and of course there is the mining asteroids malarky just recently, that could tell us a lot more about all of this.

I chose Gold as a theme this month because I like the colour gold as it reminds me of the colour yellow, which is my favourite colour, along with its associations with warmth, the Sun and sunshine.

I have chosen the song that is in my top ten music tracks, which is 'Heart Of Gold' that is by Boney M and it is superb to say the least http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47jiJBPYaU4 you can also listen to the original artist's version, Neil Young, who wrote the track first. Personally I prefer the Boney M version as it's got backing and full arrangement etc.. but here's the other track ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st June 2012

"I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it, and why immediately on its creation the lightning becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel."

-- Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist etc.

Thunder

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: The sound created by it, is from increased pressure + temperature, by rapid expansion of air. Thunder is the sound that is created by lightening, which is mainly a massive discharge of electricity in the sky (mainly in the clouds). Lightning strikes creating a massive amount of electricity, that creates light, that then shoots through the air causing a couple of things to happen. First, the electricity hits the air and makes it vibrate, which creates a sound, and describes the sudden increase in temperature and pressure of the air that is surrounding it and in it. Secondly, this event happens at a very rapid speed, which also explains the bolt effect or crack sound. Put more simply, when the air expands, it creates a sonic shock wave producing the sound of thunder. Some of the words to describe this shock wave sound are crack, clap, and peal.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: Its heat causes expansion into cooler air faster than sound would travel in the same cool air. The temperature inside a lightning channel is measured by spectral analysis and can vary in its short existence, which means it can rise rapidly from a temperature of around 20,000 K to around 30,000 K, then in turn can drop gradually to around 10,000 K. It is worked out that its average temperature is around 20,400 K, which is 20,100 °C; 36,300 °F. The immense heat by this causes its system to rapidly expand outwards, effectively punching into its surrounding cooler air and at speeds that are faster than sound would travel in that same cooler air, which is pretty nifty. The pulse moving outwards that creates a shock wave, is similar to a degree, to that of a shock wave created by an explosion and ones created by the front of a supersonic aircraft. There are many other theories that suggest what thunder is. Recently there has been a general consensus about the cause of the shock wave that has been overtaken by a simulated theory, that says that the measured overpressures in lightning are much greater than could be created by the amount of heating already found. Other theories suggest an electrodynamic effect, that is about the enormous current acting on the plasma in the bolt of lightning itself. If the distance of lightning needs to be calculated, then all you have to do is to take the time interval from when the lightning is seen to when the sound of thunder is heard, in other words, in order to calculate the distance, it's best to consider that a lightening flash that arrives after a few seconds by a rumble of thunder, fully explains the first fact that sound travels slower through the air at about 1100-1200 feet or 330-350 meters per second than the speed of light, which is 983,571,058 feet or 299,792,458 meters per second - this explains why we see the flash before we hear the thunder. So, if lightning strikes at a place 1 mile away, the strike will be seen about .00000536 seconds after the strike but you will hear it about 4.72 seconds after the actual strike. By calculating the difference between these two events, you will hear a strike at about 4.71999 seconds after the strike occurred. So, five seconds per mile is a good approximation to use. So a bit of simple arithmetic is in order. Just using the difference you can estimate how far away the bolt of lightning is by timing the interval between seeing the flash and hearing the thunder - count how many seconds are between each one, so from flash to thunder, then divide by five.

I always find thunder (and lightening) fascinating to watch and experience and wonder how much more its effect has on our world. I am sure we do not know enough about it, which means there is always immense wonder in the science of the weather and thunder.

I have chosen the newer remix, from his original track, 'Thunder In My Heart' again? by Leo Sayer (the lyrics in this song, by the way, this month, can seem s bit rude. The song mentions the word thunder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGVuqOzG-TM . If you prefer something more dramatic, then an alternative music track to listen for this months quote, is one my favourites, Jeff Wayne's brilliant, 'The War of the Worlds' - Thunderchild http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkjKQmjLLxY

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st May 2012

""This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind... let it be something good."

-- Author Unknown (for a change!)

Day (time)

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 3: A unit of time, that explains a passage of time, based on an objects position.The unit of time is the day or the length of daytime that is calculated by the position of the object in the sky that is called the Sun.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 2: There are two types of definitions for this, one being apparent, the other mean. So if solar time is the calculation of the passage of time based on the Sun's position in the sky the unit of solar time is the day itself. There are two types of solar time, one called apparent solar time which is 'sundial time' and the other is mean solar time which is what we use most as 'clock time'.

Countdown To The Quote Of The Month 1: The mean is grtr than apparent by 14 mins nr Feb 6 + less than by 6 min nr Nov 3.Mean solar time is the hour angle of a fictitious mean Sun. At the moment it is used with the UT1 time scale which is constructed mathematically. Also, long baseline interferometry observations of the diurnal motions of radio sources located in other galaxies, are used to determine this. Daylight duration varies during the year but the length of a mean solar day is generally consistant, unlike an apparent solar day, which can be up to 20 seconds shorter, or 30 seconds longer than a mean solar day. Over a longer period of time, say within a year, these discrepancies build up so that mean time is then greater than the apparent time by about 14 minutes near February 6 and mean time becomes less than apparent time by about 16 minutes near November 3. This relationship is seen using an analemma graph. These periods are cyclical so don't accumulate from year to year.

The length of the day itself is also the precurser to all life forms on the planet. All biological rythms depend upon the daytime hours and not just the Solar effects on life itself, like photo synthesis in plants as an example. The day is something we take for granted as humans and each part of the day (and night) is broken down into sections or events, in almost a rythm pattern, for actvities that keep us alive. For example, teatime or meal times - three meals a day! The rising Sun in the morning, wakes us up and enables us to take on the days challenges ahead, as it gives us that biological and psychological lift. The garden comes alive with bird song and the day begins...

The superb music track, which I often play from my music collection, I chose is called, 'Lovely Day' by The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. - (music only) . If they had removed the 'U' and put an '.A.R' on the end of their first name it would be very apt. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOQBJ6jqoFE

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st April 2012

"A string of excited, fugitive, miscellaneous pleasures is not happiness; happiness resides in imaginative reflection and judgment, when the picture of one's life, or of human life, as it truly has been or is, satisfies the will, and is gladly accepted."

George Santayana - was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist.

Reflection

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 2: In planes, at an angle a, from the sector at the intersection of 2 half spaces rotated via 2a.In the case of two mirrors, in planes at an angle, if you look through both from the sector or the intersection of the two half spaces it's like a version of the world rotated by an angle of 2. This just covers the points of direction looking for when this applies, meaning it corresponds to those who look through a frame, but like the first mirror, and a frame at the mirror image, which is then related to the first plane but of the second mirror.

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 1: Specular at a change in direction of wavefront at an interface between 2 different media + returning to.A reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Examples of this type of reflection are light, sound and sometimes water waves. Specular reflection is almost a mirror like reflection of light from a surface but which the light from a single incoming direction or a ray is reflected into a single outgoing direction as apposed to a dispersed one. The incoming ray and outcoming ray create the same angle which is then called the angle of incidence.

Reflections are the appearance of an image seen on surfaces caused by the light of an object to bounce of them , or there abouts.

The idea of reflection came about when I was sat in the bedroom the other week, and saw something quite unique when looking at the glass shower door. It was closed and I could see the reflection of the tiled wall in it. So what? You may ask, well, I then noticed that the reflection of the tiled wall was behind the real tiled wall because the real wall as nearer to me than the reflection. Now back to the shower door - it was at a 90 degree angle to the real tiled wall and the door was closed, so the reflection of the tiled wall was parallel to the real tiled wall. This time I noticed that the reflection of the tiled wall (that was parallel to the real tiled wall, but set behind it) also had its own reflection which was the bathroom window, which was at another 90 degree angle to the real tiled wall. So in all this there were 4 events going on at the same time. 1) The reflection of the tiled wall in the glass shower door. 2) The reflection was behind the real tiled wall of the shower. 3) The refection was parallel with the real tiled wall. 4) The reflection of the tiled wall had its own reflection of the bathroom window. I thought this was ace and I still think it is now and when I was a kid I thought this was:

but just before you read the next part ..... to reflect is about looking back on something or to look back on a time or something done in the past as the other meaning, so talking of reflecting back in time....... when reflecting on my time when I was a kid, apart from the usual ways in which a kid occupies time for example, like reading books (which I did as a kid but the internet these days take over books), watching TV etc…I had an unusual interest which was messing about with mirrors. I would often collect all sized mirrors and with the small mirrors, I would turn them face up and attach them, either by using my hands or some other contraption, to my face just under each of my eyes. I would then proceed to walk about the house and create an effect that was, if seeing anything (if indoors) that was on the ceiling, it then appeared to be seen on the floor instead. I thought this was great. So instead of seeing an item of furniture on the floor, I would see the ceiling lamp stuck out from the ground and often walk around this imaginary object as if not to trip up over it. So in a nutshell, unlike most other kids just playing with cards or games, I would walk around with upturned mirrors stuck under my eyes. Later this would progress onto walking over the imaginary wall above all the doors because in the mirror, that image would be inverted into a small wall about calf height, so at every doorway the idea was to see this bit of wall above each door and walk over its imaginary height. So depending on how high up I was, like if I was standing on the floor at any one area, at some point if I remember, I was also able to make the ceiling the same distance as where the floor would be, but only if I stood on a chair at the same time to match the distance. With both these elements in place, it would actually feel like I was stood on the ceiling and I thought this was absolutely great but I also remember tripping over real objects on the floor that would obviously be obscured by the mirrors, and landing flat on my face and mirror, but I didn't really care about that, it was just a love of walking around playing with mirrors and how light behaved in them and the reflections they made after falling over but then getting up because that's what you do (it's what I did).

This clever song (which I haven't yet got on CD) has a clever and unique video that splits its screen or looks like reflection and reminds me of the idea of reflections, which is what I have just said (as another reflection) and .....the video is very clever on its own anyway - Cheryl Cole featuring Will.i.am - 3 Words http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfiWXIQ85ho

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st March 2012

" It is impossible to trap modern physics into predicting anything with perfect determinism because it deals with probabilities from the outset."

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington was a British astrophysicist of the early 20th century. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science.

Superposition

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 2:It is a linear sum of a net response, at a given place and time caused by two or more stimuli. Generally, superposition is a spread of a particle that may occupy the same state at the same time, but not necessarily in the way that it is thought about at first. This cannot happen with large things, like chairs of cups, but has some meaning in some physical systems on a smaller scale. The superposition principle says that for all linear systems, the net response at a given place and time caused by two or more stimuli, is the sum of the responses, which would have been caused by each stimulus individually. Physics and engineering uses this and is defined as an additive system and it is an approximation of the true physical behavior of everything. Superposition gives operational regions so the systems can be worked out and it forms the basis of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and other areas of physics. All the electrical components in the goods in your house were thought about using similar ideas, yet it's all taken for granted. Look and study the Schrödinger equation, as another example, and see how it is developed much like a piece of classical sheet music, holding the secrets of its symphony in its elegance.

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 1: It's a physical system existing partly in all its possible states until measured. Generally it means a roundabout load of solutions to the Schrödinger equation which is linear. Any combination, in a linear sense, of solutions to an equation, end up becoming a solution of it. The solutions are orthogonal, like vectors at right angles to each other. This makes a nullified result because of an overlap of energy of the states. Its expectation value of an operator is also the expectation value of the operator in the individual states. This is multiplied by the fraction of the superposition state that is in the actual state. Probability theory says that the probability of an event can be described by a combination of the probabilities of certain specific other events, this includes the oberver, so this explains why measuring affects the states and the results when dealing with particles in superposition.

I don't know why but this song has always made me think of superposition. Sarah Brightman - Anytime, Anywherehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMT35uFpSK8

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Feb 2012

" Life is a ticket to the greatest show on earth "

Martin H. Fischer - is a Swiss American biochemist

Life

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 3:Its a process that is self sustaining combined with a system of opportunity and its environment. A biological process is a process of a living organism. The organism is reliant on internal regulation combined with external or environmental opportunist systems, to maintain its structure.

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 2:Its internal environment is in a constant state of regulation by organization of units. Homeostasis is the regulation needed in the internal environment maintaining a constant state, for example, temperature. This system can be either open or closed. The units refer to the structure of cells which are the most basic parts of life.

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 1:Its a mix of regulatory inferior negative feedbacks to a potential superior positive feedback. This is the only time on my site I cannot get what a sentence actually means, apart from, it could be that the system cleverly discriminates what it needs to keep itself turning over. It could be that the feedbacks that are inferior to the system make a negative response towards it, because it hinders its chances of surviving and the opposite with a potential positive, or maybe it means the system learns, over time from experience, what to discriminate in order to achieve its most positive or optimum potential in order survive.

It's that nebulous but most complex of all things in our scientific understanding of the universe, but some of its complexity evades us even now. We know lots about life, and can even model it on a computer, but that doesn't mean we know its most fundamental tricks.

The theme is life so any two of these tracks with the words life in them sort of go with this months topic. Well sort of. One of my favourtie singers, Amy Macdonald - This Is The Lifehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRYvuS9OxdA Another of my favourites by Amy Macdonald - An ordinary life. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvDdAkXpmBQ

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Jan 2012

" Everything's got space between it, the planets, trees, your eyes. Your eyes get too close together, it's a whole different world. You can lose perspective. "

By Mos Def - an American actor and emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul

Perspective

Countdown to the Quote (of The Month) 3: Subjects size of dimension along this being shorter than dimensions across it. Change your perspective on perspective! The line of sight was the missing part for 'it' - a main term used in perspective. The size of an object's dimensions along the line of sight, which was the part, is relatively shorter than dimensions across the line of sight again. Perspective is a method of drawing using lines, co-ordinates and points, that create a three dimensional scene on a flat plane, like paper or on a computer screen.

Countdown to The Quote of the Month 2: Has similarities to S and G Relativity by Cartesian coordinates but for its planes, scenes and axes. A Cartesian coordinate system is a branch of geometry specifying each point uniquely in a plane by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are signed distances from the point to two fixed perpendicular directed lines, that are measured in the same unit of length. Each reference line is a coordinate axis or an axis of the system. The point where they meet is called its origin. The coordinates can also be used as the positions of the perpendicular projections of the point onto the two axes or called signed distances from the origin. In physics they are a set of axes were, orientation, position and object properties are measured. It's also the state of motion of the observer. To some degree the Cartesian co-ordinate system used in perspective has some similarities with the co-ordinate system used in classical mechanics, where Special Relativity is integrated with classical mechanics and general relativity. Were space-time and space are flat in Newtonian mechanics and special relativity, the shape of space-time in General relativity, using this system here means in general relativity, that the same restrictions on the shape of space-time and the coordinate system to be used are gone. If involving inertia, a different definition of motion is used that is a type of geodesic. This is where it all goes into form. As it's assumed that General relativity is four dimensional, this works with the use of four systems that describe a co-ordinate to include proper time but... as the Cartesian co-ordinate system is flat, the combined form using this is reduced to Special Relativity. Another way is of seeing this is the use of Lorentz transformations used in Special R. On a separate note, it could be that perspective relate to both Special Relativity and General Relativity in a more of a roundabout way, were Special Relativity, like perspective, is like motion as a relative view with no absolute state of rest, and all reference frames are viable. The perspective view is the observer in a frame - whether at rest in that frame, is an interesting point to consider. Also a view of the planes and axes, to the vanishing point, is relative to the observer depending on where they are in the frame, and not one plane, scene or axis in perspective, as nether one could be seen as any more viable than the other - but only when the observer has to re-create the scene again from the same image. An expample is saying that in graphical perspective, there is one-point -were it's plane is parallel is parallel to two axes of a rectilinear, or Cartesian, scene. Two-point perspective exists when the plane is parallel to a Cartesian scene in one axis but not to the other two axes. Three-point perspective exists when the perspective is a view of a Cartesian scene where the picture plane is not parallel to any of the scene's three axes This goes to four-pionts, then there is zero. In General Relativity it is the geometrical molding of points and the intervention of Euclidean geometry etc, that defines its own perspective of points or scenes. The vanishing points, lines, scenes and axes, in the use of perspective in this respect, are in some ways similar....but they need not be too complicated to think about, but if they are, just go and have a walk up to the top of a mountain instead.

Countdown to The Quote of the Month 1: We are often told to get a perception in it and it's used in a form. We are often told to get a sense, which is a form of perception, of perspective. The form it's used in is an art form like, computer graphics, computer-aided geometric design, geometry-related systems, 3-D computer games, ray-tracers and CAD engineering drawing. Thsi creates a sense of dimension in a drawing using, a vanashing point, lines, scenes and axes.

It is often said that if you can't change your surroundings in life, you can change your sense of perspective towards them -which could be just as important. The link to the music and video of Vangelis - Ask The Mountains. This video here shows how a walk to the mountain tops is a good way of creating a new sense of perspective, not just on life, but the universe and everything about it. At 4mins 2 secs into the video, you can see (I think the best camera work I have ever seen on TV) the spectacular camera angle moves right above the mountain, but then, in a twist of genius, it rotates (and makes you very dizzy!) only to leave two contrasting shots of the same mountain range - one, the cold and blue shady side, and then two, the contrasting warm sunny side - absolutely brilliant! Please expand the video picture to maximize and play the whole lot with speaker sound on max - and what a great start to the New Year! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUBACTi7ezA

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st December 2011

" Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause."

Voltaire - writer, historian and philosopher

Chance

Countdown to the Quote 2: It could be probability or not as post hoc ergo propter hoc. Chance events happen that can be worked out, to a degree, by using the rules of probability and are generally predictable within reason. An example is randomness. It could be argued that randomness under certain situations, like the micro quantumn world, isn't random at all, and that chaos, as another unpredictable theory that is similar, is actually more unpredictable than randomness itself. There is a possibility that one day a powerfull computer, or insight, will predict chance events. The post hoc ergo propter hoc is a term used to describe a logical fallacy. It's a fallacy of a particular type of deduction and can make the theory of chance (in a reptrospective way) quite often misunderstood. An example is that if two events happen at the same time, the human response is to make logical deductions or related connections, based on a temporal sequence in time about those events, as apposed to any underyling cause for each separate event, so they appear connected. To put it simply, when seen together or even separate, are often refered to be happening by chance.

Countdown to the Quote 1: Is often attributed by something but not its own co-occurrence.Leading on from happening by chance, the two events that appear connected, are often not, so they have causes that are disconnected and pre-determined - they are not often attributed to something in common in the squence of time. However, they may have a common co-ocurrance - an example is that two quantum events might not be connected but they are both measured as quantum states, which when you think about it, is the only thing that they do have in common. The Pauli Exclusion Principle is an unusual way of looking at chance on the particle scale. Two particles with the same value can not occupy the same state or, they have different values, but in this way, can then occupy tthe same state. All physics and chemistry is based on this system. There are many others on a classical scale, like clouds, traffic, birds and even human beahviour that follow similar rules. Chance has it's reasons to happen but it is not often the reasons that are thought... amazing, but I would say that.

No not Abba, Take A Chance On Me....if two people ever meet again, will it be by chance? Timbaland - If We Ever Meet Again ft. Katy Perryhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDKva-s_khY

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st November 2011

"I think it shows our sphere of inlfuence, if you like, our sphere of knowledge expanding beyond the Earth, our machines have put their foot on the surface of Titan. We've shown that we can do it. It's part of that process of exploration, that I think we have always done. I think it's part of what defines us as human beings. "

John C. Zarnecki is an English Sir Arthur Clarke Award winning professor and researcher in space science, who has taken part in several high profile space probe missions and is an expert on space debris, space dust and impacts. This is quoted from the BBC programme 'Destination Titan' that was directed by Stephen Slater. See below for info.

Space Exploration

Countdown to the Quote 3: It was marked by the 1st orbital launch in a man made object in 1957Sputnik 1 is part of the answer but I intended that the term space exploration was the proper one. This space race was bweteen the Soviet Union and the United States who had their soace exploration really.

Countdown to the Quote 2: The nearest planet was featured in one of its journeys in 1969It is Apllo 11 that landed on the Moon in July 1969 and I was in my mum's tummy so can't remember that much about it, but the answer is still space exploration.

Countdown to the Quote 1: Orbitors, landsliders and rovers went to a cold planet to achieve this in the 1960s This is the, again, space exploration of the planet Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan that occured after the 1960's. We haven't done that well at getting data back form Mars because of all the technical problems that kept going on - a bit like buying a cheap toaster from Tesco, they went up, but unlike a toaster, they didn't go up in smoke.

I chose the music, Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMXaE9NtQgg, that is used in the BBC space exploration progamme Destination Titan, that was directed by Stephen Slater. I had been tweeting to Stephen breifly in October http://twitter.com/#!/steveslater1987and watched this programme, so chose a second peice of music that was more cheerful that is about how space exploration was once someones dream that became real. Electric Light Orchestra - Hold on Tight.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TLmpL2AzLs

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st October 2011

"Geometry has two great treasures: one is the Theorem of Pythagoras; the other, the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold; the second we may name a precious jewel "

Johannes Kepler - was a German mathematician and astronomer.

The Golden Ratio - 1.61803399

Countdown to the Quote 3: Two quantities that are compatible but not symmetrical that when combined become beautiful. The unusual properties of the Golden Ratio, which is based on the The Fibonacci series of numbers, is the two quantities, were one is larger than the other and when combined in the golden ratio that is, if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. This ratio, or proportion as it is often called in art, is supposed to be really beautifully aesthetic where it is more often called the Golden Section and it's also found in science and nature.

Countdown to the Quote 2: Its effect can be found in organic form right under your nose or non organic form up above your head.Somewhere a few years ago I was reading some of mathematician Ian Stewart's work, whos work is also on my site, and came across pictures of natures plants, like broccoli, flowers and shells which, at least in the first two, explained the properties of the golden ratio which also included to some extent, the idea of fractals. The other areas it can be found is in the human forms created in architecture.

Countdown to the Quote 1: Artists, mathematicians and architects use this proportion that is also universal in other areas. As explained in the other two countdowns, the Golden Ratio is found in quite a few places - it's really good to get kids into this to see if they can spot it.

I chose the music Grease - We Go Together (Film Version) because of the lyric "We go together..." meaning the two proportions in the Golden Ratio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pyA6jAM3_I

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st September 2011

" “If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?” "

Stephen Wright an American comedian, Actor and Writer

To recap Count Down To The Quote on this page: I put a First 1st of the Month Quote here, who quote belongs to, now with link to music, and a brief explanation of its connection. Now with my twitter page, about 3 to 4 days before 1st of the Month Quote I tweet a hint a day, as a countdown but called a Twint, about what the next months quote subject is about. It's like a little puzzle. It all goes togther:

This month I couldn't find a good quote about ...

Trajectory

Count Down To The Quote 3: Its position over time is the difference between being here and not here.Asteroid travel path along a trajectory toward Earth could mean hit or miss. Its motion is the trajectory pr path it takes to do that.

Count Down To The Quote 2: It is down to kinematics that include the forces of orbital mechanics.kinematics is the motion of objects like planets but without the causes of such forces. However, Tthere are forces included in orbits of planetary trajectories. Space ships are a different kettle of fish.

Count Down To The Quote 1: Its not so obvious but it can be curved in a sport involving a ball. Curvball - Curved pahts occur in Baseball as the trajectories can be curved sideways (horizontal) with the right throwing technique. This effect can be an optical illusion because we are often unaware of how the real forces act upon the ball, so assume what postion in space and time the ball is, which may or may not reveal the real physical event. There is a whole subject on this that can make for an interesting read. The same effect can also be found in football like Leeds United if they are good enough.

Song to go with quote: Eminem - Space Bound. Take the swear words out and its a good song. WARNING: Contains swear words and some violence in video. Not for the under 6yrs.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JByDbPn6A1o&ob=av2e

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st August 2011

"Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality. "

Hermann Minkowski - a German mathematician who created the geometry of numbers and methods to solve difficult problems in number theory, mathematical physics, and the theory of relativity.

Shadows

Don't believe in them but old tales say they where there behind somewhere. In the olden days some people in certain cultures thought shadows where ghosts that lurked in dark corners so they were often referred to ghostly shadows.

The magnitude of the object equal to and no higher than -4 makes them visible. Light emitting astronomical objects such as the Sun, Moon and sometimes Venus emit light bright enough to create shadows on Earth. Lamps and torches also create the same effect.

The only real event were its cross section becomes a two dimensional effect. A shadow is the result of an obstruction from an opaque object when a light is in front of the object and the shadow is behind the object. A shadows size corresponds to the distance of the light source and its angle to the obstructing object.

On the recent tragedy of singer song writer Amy Whinehouse's death, I must admit I have never liked Amy Whinehouse's music, but thought she was very talented. It was a sad waist of talent when she died so young and troubled. I chose the subject of shadows because it goes with the brilliant Oasis song 'Cast No Shadow' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6thmKcSRwcthat I have always loved. The words in this song also remind me of the recent tragedy of Amy Whinehouse and it's as if they where what she thought about in her life, they were written for her or they remind me of some writer who thinks about life and their predicament. Try changing the lyrics in the song from the 'his' and 'him' parts to 'her' and 'she' and see what it sounds like. Is Amy the lyric where it says, "As he (she) faced the Sun he (she) cast no shadow" - Icarus - did Amy fly too close to the Sun?

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st July 2011

"I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application"

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who expanded the electromagnetic theory of light and was the first to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic waves with VHF or UHF radio waves.

Waves…out of phase.

Referring to my twitter page, about two weeks ago, I tweeted that I woke up at 3 am in the morning sneezing severely. As I was half asleep at the time of sneezing, it occurred to me that maybe the brain could be jolted by way of a sneeze and therefore change our thought processes. Later I needed an idea for Countdown To The Quote and thought of something that could go out of phase or synch, much like being half asleep and then be jolted awake by a sneeze. The first thing that came to mind was that the sneezing event might have caused my brain waves to change from one state to another or become out of phase temporarily which would produce a new shift of mind.

The idea I chose was that waves are specific to many occurrences, whether they represent brain waves which are based on electrical pulses, light, water or sound. They have a beauty and have simple deterministic effects. The behavior of wave physics underlies how they change or merge depending on the source and their medium and the type of wave.

Waves Out Of Phase

They can stand being cancelled but can't stand being the same. Standing waves. Waves caused by the combination of waves when combining their opposites. A standing wave is a stationary wave that occurs when two opposing waves create a third wave by canceling out each other. In power lines, where voltage and current are opposite to one another, the combination of the type of these waves, whether frequency and wave length, affect how the forces are transformed.

Not by chance but repeat local meaning over larger. Interference pattern. Waves are consistent from their source, have rhythm and when two in similar structure are combined and out of phase, they produce a local effect of zero - vice versa in phase producing a sinusoidal wave pattern.

A normal variation of the brain and suppressed by expert dance. Brain waves. The brain creates 5 various different waves depending on what it is doing. The 5th wave state is called Mu which occurs at rest. Physical actions reduce Mu states. It was discovered that expert dancers who dance or watch dance on film are very good at suppressing the Mu wave state. It is also produced when brain waves are out of synch before stabilizing to another state.

One result of two opposing effects out of a double standard enigma. The double-slit experiment. A physics experiment that says, whether light is either a particle or wave, when passed through two slits simultaneously, it produces an enigmatic interference pattern. One of the two effects of this is an out of phase behavior that produces a net effect of dark bands which make up the overall pattern.

A Little Bit Of Physics In A Madonna Song.

Still on the theme of Madonna, I chose this song by Madonna called 'Love Profusion' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtvUFsPA6Y to go with this months theme and quote. When I first played it in my lounge a few years ago, I was stood in the next room but with the central door open. As I listened to the song, about just before half way through (about 1 min 43 secs in), I heard a 'wozzy splag' sound that appeared closer to my ear, which I thought was coming from another source outside. Later I realised it was from this song. Then I thought that if the 'wozzy splag' sound was from this song, then who ever mixed it (not Madonna, nothing against her expertise) must have cleverly sound engineered it to be specific and stand out from a background of groups of other sounds that were similar in structure. More simply, from the lounge, the main sound waves coming from this track appeared farther away anyway, as they would, but as I was in the next room, I figured that the different sound wave that produced the 'wozzy splag' was also bouncing off the door - it was at a 45 degree angle to the speakers. So my theory goes, the door could have enhanced any out of phase waves that were already making the 'wozzy splag' sound nearer to my ear, even when standing directly opposite and between the speakers when I heard it before. So the door in between the rooms must have amplified the 'wozzy splag' effect. If you notice the 'wozzy splag' it sounds like it's nearer to your ears and its specific wave properties seem separated out, maybe to be 'out of phase' with the other sound waves.

I might move the quote info every month (like the text above to show the coundown theme) to the Random Thougths page, with a link or else the quotes here will get swamped!

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st June 2011

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast-you also miss the sense of where you are going and why "

--Eddie Cantor - was an American illustrated song performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter on Broadway, radio, movie and early television.

Refering to all future quotes I will put here, I have created a new idea called 'Count Down To The Quote' see on twitter http://twitter.com/ClaireCSmith. The idea is that about 4 to 5 days before putting the quote here, I will tweet a hint every day about the quote so as the day gets nearer to the quote, the more relevant the hinting tweet to the quote. I am calling a tweeting hint a (twint).

The theme here that the quote is refering to is about the slowing of time. Ever wondered what you pick up if you slow down a film of a simple walk down a street, for example. There could be a large amount of information at normal speed that is missed. Read next paragraph to say what they each tweeting hint (twint) meant:

So here goes....slow!

Cats and Dogs licking up water. A new discovery, of a recent film, that is slowed down to reveal how cats and dogs use the forces of physics to drink water with their tongues. Something missed when time is at normal speed.

The bullet scene in the film The Matrix. A modern film editing sequence technique, that combines a collage of shots taken from separate angles from a sequence of separate cameras, all of one subject, but are such that, the same time frame of frozen time, in which the different reference frames the cameras are positioned, create an appearance of movement and dependence of an apparent time frame when played back. This bullet filming technique is not the same as, but I think it has some similarities with Special Relativity, an established physics theory about the paradoxical, yet true aspect of time and space, inertia, frames of reference and the observer.

Change the rate for micro expressions. When slowing down a film of the human facial expressions, its micro expressions become more apparent. These are often missed at normal time rates but sometimes the onlooker picks them up subconsciously.

It's The End of Something for Julian. Julian Barbour is a British physicist, with research interests in quantum gravity. His book 'The End of Time' is about time on a small scale which suggests that on quantum time scales, time is an illusion because it is based on more than traditional theory of position and momentum as snapshots. Barbour's quantum snapshots explain a re-working of configuration space, which is a breakdown of how quantum physical systems fit into a possible framework. His theory is also based on Ernst Mach, an Austrian physicist and philosopher.

The music I chose for thei months Quote is from the original Abba Swedish pop group track, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" ...(ahem). Here are various versions, the main one is called "Hung Up" by Madonna. The 1st one is instrumental which was my 1st choice. Notice in one of them, how the lyrics repeat 'time goes by...so slowly...' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVHQK6LGOE0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPM4YkaETXA&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDwb9jOVRtU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB_C4zJ4zHM&feature=related

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st May 2011

" Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars - mere globs of gas atoms. I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination - stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one - million - year - old light. A vast pattern - of which I am a part... What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?"

Physicist Richard P. Feynman on Beauty in science. Iv'e chosen a song by Akon - Beautiful ft. Colby O'Donis, Kardinal Offishall, great melodic song but listen to the part where the rap and electic guitar kicks in, beautiful?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSOzN0eihsE&feature=fvst

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st April 2011

"....The notion that all these fragments is separately existent is evidently an illusion, and this illusion cannot do other than lead to endless conflict and confusion. Indeed, the attempt to live according to the notion that the fragments are really separate is, in essence, what has led to the growing series of extremely urgent crises that is confronting us today. Thus, as is now well known, this way of life has brought about pollution, destruction of the balance of nature, over-population, world-wide economic and political disorder and the creation of an overall environment that is neither physically nor mentally healthy for most of the people who live in it. Individually there has developed a widespread feeling of helplessness and despair, in the face of what seems to be an overwhelming mass of disparate social forces, going beyond the control and even the comprehension of the human beings who are caught up in it. ... "

David Bohm from 'Wholeness and the Implicate Order', American-born British quantum physicist who made contributions in the fields of theoretical physics, philosophy and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project. The link here to the music, reminds me of the war between the conquest of opposites. VANGELIS - Conquest Of Paradise (Special Version)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIRQStKU2PE&feature=related

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st March 2011

"Aeroplanes are not designed by science, but by art in spite of some pretence and humbug to the contrary. I do not mean to suggest that engineering can do without science, on the contrary, it stands on scientific foundations, but there is a big gap between scientific research and the engineering product which has to be bridged by the art of the engineer. "

From Funny Engineering Quotes, by Walter G Vincenti - Professor Emeritus of Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering at Stanford University. Link to 2001 A Space Odyssey - Space Sequences Tribute Part 1of4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAWszeZtNg&feature=related

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Feb 2011

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

by Scott Adams (American Cartoonist, 1957)........Creativity is Honey. Link to Abba http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=honey+honey+abba&aq=2

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Jan 2011

"Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars."

Henry Van Dyke quotes (American short-story Writer, Poet and Essayist)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyXmp-FiPJo

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st December 2010

"If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars. "

by Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, novelist, musician, painter and playwright. This months quote and music links are here in loving memory of Andrew Elliott, who was a superb inspirational friend and to all of us alike at our Astronomy Club, who passed away from cancer on 28th Nov 2010http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul14FkRLhoYby Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent) and for something a bit different, I don't know why, but Andrew reminded me of Elton John (even though Elton John is is a musician not an Astronomer - and vice versa and Andrew was only a few years older than Elton) so I've put another link here. But just before that, you will notice that the video shows Justin Timberlake superbly playing a young Elton John:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsuHAn54wPsElton John - This Train Don't Stop There Anymore

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st November 2010

"Science and art sometimes can touch one another, like two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle which is our human life, and that contact may be made across the boderline between the two respective domains "

Maurits Cornelis Escher, as M. C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist. He is known for his often mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations of infinity, architecture, and tessellations. Ref Wikipedia. Link to my favourite classical track by a a Czech composer Bedrich Smetana - Má Vlast Moldau: by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Later I'll be adding to this section about why I chose this music (it might go on for a bit - it might take a week).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdtLuyWuPDs

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st October 2010

"Before we go there and set up greenhouses, dance clubs, and falafel stands, let's make sure that, in some subtle form that could be harmed by the human hubbub, life does not already exist there. If not, then by all means build cities, plant forests and fill lakes and streams with trout -- bring life to Mars and Mars to life. We'll then be the Martians we've been dreaming about for all these years. "

By David Grinspoon an American astrobiologist who studies surface and atmospheric evolution of Earthlike planets elsewhere in the universe, with a focus on possible environments for extraterrestrial life. He is a frequent advisor to NASA on space exploration strategy. The theme/story by which the music I chose this month goes the other way. The link is Justin Hayward's Forever Autumn track, referenced from Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds concept album. Superb track - I like the string section part that starts at 2:20 seconds in. This track is in my top 5 music best - I play this often when driving through countyr lanes in Autumn.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO9Qx7Kp_I8

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st September 2010

"Mathematical physics represents the purest image that the view of nature may generate in the human mind; this image presents all the character of the product of art; it begets some unity, it is true and has the quality of sublimity; this image is to physical nature what music is to the thousand noises of which the air is full... "

Théophile Ernest de Donder, was a Belgian mathematician and physicist famous for his 1923 work in developing correlations between the Newtonian concept of chemical affinity and the Gibbsian concept of free energy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmTmJebn_ks Link to Girls Aloud - Untouchable (Full Album Version Official Video). Just imagine the superb and rather lovely to look at Chris Martin from Coldplay singing the vocals for this song, just up to 1.14secs, instead of the girls. When I first heard that bit of the song, it reminded me of Coldplay. The song writers for Girls Aloud knew what they were doing though. I bet that if any of their vocals were sung by a bloke, the music would get more credit(not meant in a bad way - I think guys have more authority) also I want to zoom around in one of those space pods in the video (videos aren't real of course) but just imaging entering the Earths atmosphere in one. If they ever wanted an extra girl in Girls Aloud...

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st August 2010

" The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases. "

Werner Heisenberg - German Physicist. This month I chose music by Jan Hammer - Crockett's Theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2TmOpcBxYYto go with quote because the pulse at the start reminded me of particles, the first synthesiser represent waves, second synth is the quantum world observed and finally the electric guitar overlay represents its collective towards classical physics and life itself (you might have to use your imagination for the visuals - perhaps close your eyes to the music, to visualise the principles here).

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st July 2010

"What we call here a Black Swan (and capitalize it) is an event with the following three attributes. First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable. I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective (though not prospective) predictability. A small number of Black Swans explains almost everything in our world, from the success of ideas and religions, to the dynamics of historical events, to elements of our own personal lives. "

Writing in the New York Times, Lebanese-born essayist, scholar and former practitioner of mathematical finance, Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains The Black Swan Theory or "Theory of Black Swan Events" from his book - ref Wikipedia. His claim is that almost all consequential events in history come from the unexpected—yet humans later convince themselves that these events are explainable in hindsight (bias) - ref Wikipedia. My thoughts are that human nature must wise up to future risks (bad or good) because they happen and are a part of life, but we still seem to behave like they are not, so the best we can do is reduce the chances or probability of them (bad) occuring. Even then, some might be beyond our control. But what Nassim is talking about here is the very opposite, he talks about how we react and behave with our use of stats methods to reason out rare events after they occur - so Nassim is also right about the symbiosis of the events that include our human reactions and theories towards them. When rare events have happened we make theories for them - we could use the same method of logic to predict other events - but from reading about this, that would be about taking variations in statistical methods we already have. So it appears that our statistical methods are not scrutinised enough and this is important for the world economy and of science. The link I put here is to illustrate what it would be like if a mistake, in itself as a rare event, was a person as apposed to a mathematical event - and where a line would be drawn between its human behaviour and the physics of rare events. James Blunt - Same Mistake-> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3c32wBYdU0&feature=channel

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st June 2010

" Our time is just a point along a line. That runs forever with no end "

By Al Stewart - From Lord Grenville on 'The Year of the Cat' album . Great ship, sea and portrait art pictures in this link- maybe a Turner...This is already the HQ Stereo version so you don't<- need to click on link below video.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv7GoySiO_0&fmt=18

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st May 2010

" Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked why"

Bernard Baruch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-LkApti4Y4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuZj_MQ5a6Ehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o3uLrKduS0&feature=related. Explanation for these links with quote( probably not really to do with the songs here, but just makes them interesting): 1st video, Gravity refers to Art (the music Gravity by Embrace, written by Chris Martin from Coldplay, (added Coldplay version o f Gravity here, 4th May http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIXFW0UznVc&feature=related What do you think?) Physics. 2nd video, Gravity refers to love not really Physics, but hey, Physics. 3rd video, refers to Biology or Psychology. Embrace lead singer studied psychology at Uni then left to play in band. He has super eyes and lovely floaty hair (not sure what's going on with his pic on his twitter page though) but Danny Mcnamara is very good looking - works well as front man. Embrace music is good. I am trying to find the Embrace website to put a link from here. (Next bit also added 4th May)- Iv'e only got 2 Embrace CD's - got more Coldplay and Oasis CD's than Embrace - something's got to be done about that, rapid!

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st April 2010

" The earth is simply too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in."

Arthur C. Clarke- this video has nothing to do with this quote and everything to do with this quote.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st March 2010

"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it in himself. "

Galileo Galilei (video link here is great and music super. Has iyt got anything to do with this months quote? Well yes.)http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/ken-block-slo-mo-directors-cut?VideoBrowserMode=this-week

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Feb 2010

".“The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.”"

Tom Bodett

C-This Quote Of The Month 1st Jan 2010

"...so as I go by, I look over and on the ground over here, there's a big piece of foil, and so I said boy, this foil would be even more fun and I watched it go up and up and up, more than anybody could ever throw a ball, even an olympic athlete couldn't throw anything as high as I could on the Moon..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_BeanBy Alan Bean, a former NASA astronaut and engineer, who became the fourth person to walk on the moon in November 1969. Alan Bean resigned from NASA in June 1981 to devote his full time to paintinghttp://www.alanbeangallery.com/. Quote taken from 'James May On The Moon', Part 5 (see link below). (This quote has inspired me to write about what it means to throw a piece of foil up in the air, on the Moon. See Harvard page for that quite soon.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Kngxv-gtI&feature=related

C-This Quote Of The Month December 1st 2009

" They say a restless body can hide a peaceful soul. A voyager, ad a settler, they both have a distant goal. If I explore the heavens, or if I search inside. Well, it really doesn't matter as long as I can tell myself I've always tried"

By Abba - very lovely words in this song, and the song is really good. In the video for it (see link below) you can see a couple of planets in it too. Very fitting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc7b_cEE7ys&feature=related

C-This Quote Of The Month November 1st 2009

"Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. "

By Henri Frédéric Amiel (September 27, 1821 – May 11, 1881) was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic.

C-This Quote Of The Month October 1st 2009

"Statistical and applied probabilistic knowledge is the core of knowledge; statistics is what tells you if something is true, false, or merely anecdotal; it is the "logic of science"; it is the instrument of risk-taking; it is the applied tools of epistemology; you can't be a modern intellectual and not think probabilistically — but...let's not be suckers. The problem is much more complicated than it seems to the casual, mechanistic user who picked it up in graduate school. Statistics can fool you. In fact it is fooling your government right now."

By Nassim Nicholas Taleb - a literary essayist, epistemologist, researcher, and former practitioner of mathematical finance. Taken from "Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics"

C-This Quote Of The Month September 1st 2009

"The most difficult subjects can be explained to most slow-witted man if he hasn't formed any idea of them already but the simplest can't be made clear to most intelligent man if he's firmly persuaded that he knows already."

From Tolstoy - a Russian writer

C-This Quote Of The Month August 1st 2009

"Most books now say our sun is a star. But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the daytime. "

From Kid's ideas about science

C-This Quote Of The Month July 1st 2009

"Bayesian decision theory points to subjective utility functions and subjective prior probabilities that cannot be avoided when making decisions in the face of uncertainty"

By Stephen P. Smith PhD from joint idea with Stephen and myselfhttp://www.emergentmind.org/smith.htm

C-This Quote Of The Month June 1st 2009

"I guess a blind man will intuitively choose a quantum-mechanical description with states whose phase varies with time and location, with probabilities, with uncertainties, with interference patterns, etc. Teaching him to describe the world classically would be counter-intuitive because he cannot continuously know the position of the objects. He has to infer it with square state (blind stick projected on detected object) probabilities. Paradoxically, we could say that quantum mechanics is best understood when you're blind... "

Common sense quantum Physicist and Engineer, Arjen Dijksman. The link here provides the correct context for Arjen's thinking.http://commonsensequantum.blogspot.com/2009/04/quantum-mechanics-is-best-understood.html

C-This Quote Of The Month May 1st 2009

"Cars have become safer in many ways, but airbags can hurt you anyway"

Can we predict logical problems? Anders Sandberg's in quote here about 'Memory modifiction', taken from his distributed brain essays on technology, science and the human condition.http://www.aleph.se/andart/archives/2009/04/index.html

C-This Quote Of The Month April 1st 2009

"Change your thoughts and you change your world. "

Norman Vincent Peale - US clergyman; wrote "The Power of Positive Thinking" 1952

C-This Quote Of The Month March 1st 2009

" To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. "

Copernicus. Polish Astronomer, 1473-1543

C-This Quote Of The Month February 1st 2009

"Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards. "

Astronomer Fred Hoyle

C-This Quote Of The Month Jan 1st 2009

" That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there - on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Dr. Carl Sagan quotes (American Astronomer, Writer and Scientist, 1934-1996)

C-This Quote Of The Month December 1st 2008

"Now there is one outstandingly important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it. "

Buckminster Fuller

C-This Quote Of The Month November 1st 2008

"Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor. "

Benjamin Franklin on Happiness

C-This Quote Of The Month October 1st 2008

"Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they're there."

Kid's Ideas About Science

C-This Quote Of The Month September 1st 2008

"It shows there is nothing nerdy about people who study astronomy and physics. In fact, the motivation for making music and for studying science both come from the same thing - a kind of emotional curiosity about the world and what makes it, and you, work."

- Brian Cox, a physics professor at Manchester University, on Brian May's PhD on space dust, Astronomy-from the timesonline wesbsite.

C-This Quote Of The Month August 1st 2008

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it."

Henry Ford

C-This Quote Of The Month July 1st 2008

"Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun. But I have never been able to make out the numbers."

From -Kid's ideas about science-

C-This Quote Of The Month June 1st 2008

"He worries cosmologists are creating theories based on a very limited observations and mathematics because they don't, and may never, understand the big picture"

From the Radio Times, what Jane Fletcher, BBC producer of The Sky at Night, said about Sir Patrick Moore's angle on modern theories, on his recent celebration of the BBC programme The Sky at Night (this one I attended, see intro page)

C-This Quote Of The Month May 1st 2008

"You're in this world where you're in your head but you're connected to something wonderful around you. They're both indescribable experiences. I remember thinking, when I was quite young, if all there is to life is just staying alive, then why would we bother? Life has to be about more than just being. There has to be something higher. And to me the higher things are exactly these; music and art, beautiful images, and thoughts of the way things work. I love that. Moments of discovery."

Brian May (ex band member of Queen) on Astronomy being interviewed by THE GUARDIAN

C-This Quote Of The Month April 1st 2008

"I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing. "

A answer from a child in a science test

C-This Quote Of The Month March 1st 2008

"The picture looks very complicated, but with a little practice one can make free-hand sketches which are quite accurate. "

From the book, Electromagnetism For Engineers - An Introductory Course, by P. Hammond, pages 56-57 subject, 3.10 THE METHOD OF CURVILINEAR SQUARES (I have been reading this book the last few years, and so far, my favourite out of a collection of 81 elementary and higher text books I own on the subject of physics.)

C-This Quote Of The Month Feb 1st 2008

"Animals speak more wisely with their eyes than people do with their mouths"

Ludovic Halevy

C-This Quote Of The Month Jan 1st 2008

"There is nothing that cannot be explained, but there are wrong insights that can lead to explanations that are identical to the explanation for a correct but rather subtle insight."

PIET HUT, Professor of Astrophysics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (from Edge Magazine Jan 2008)

C-This Quote Of The Month December 1st

"Clouds just keep circling the earth around and around. And around. There is not much else to do."

From -Kid's ideas about science-(I had previously mistakenly referenced these two last quotes by Discover Magazine which I often read. ) I can't find the source.

C-This Quote Of The Month November 1st

"When people run around and around in circles we say they are crazy. When planets do it we say they are orbiting. "

From -Kid's ideas about science-

C-This Quote Of The Month October 1st

" ...you may wish to know that Oppenheimer, upon learning that two of his friends were reading Dante in the original, also spent a month to learn enough Italian to read Dante outloud to them. Dirac was unimpressed, and told him he was wasting his time. Indeed, Dirac one time refused a couple of books that Oppenheimer offered him since “reading books interfered with thought”."

Commentor LDM, replied on 'Not Even Wrong' Blog by Peter Woit

C-This Quote Of The Month September 1st

"The large-scale homogeneity of the universe makes it very difficult to believe that the structure of the universe is determined by anything so peripheral as some complicated molecular structure on a minor planet orbiting a very average star in the outer suburbs of a fairly typical galaxy"

Steven Hawking

C-This Quote Of The Month August 1st

"If we live to-day in the midst of worlds full of wonder, it is because men of science have taken for their own different things to study. They have been a team working upon many subjects"

From my book called "The Wonder Book of Science"

C-This Quote Of The Month July 1st

"The trouble with all investigations into zoology is that we have only one standard, and that is our own. We are unable to apprectiate how far other animals think and how they feel when they react to stimuli"

From my "The Wonder Book of Science" book, section Instinct and Reasoning. (This book was my first introduction to science age 7). I will quote more from it in August.

C-This Quote Of The Month June 1st

"I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book."

Groucho Marx

C-This Quote Of The Month May 1st

"you cant change the wind but you can ajust your sail"

anonymous

C-This Quote Of The Month April 1st

"Whatever you can do or dream, begin it."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

C-This Quote Of The Month March 1st 2007

"."...................................................................... "

by blank space

C-This Quote Of The Month Feb 1st 2007

"We have to think to and build together new connections between thought and intuition, exactness and imagination, research and creativity, art and science, which are together (and only together) the driving forces behind a new Humanism. A more educated, open-minded and pluralistic Humanism. The beauty and the depth of our thought have to become unavoidable elements of our life. Science should speak a language which is understandable and "beautiful" and has to come nearer and nearer to Arts."

VITTORIO BO - Director, Festival Della Scienzia, Genova, on "WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?" from edge.org

C-This Quote Of The Month Jan 1st 2007 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"00100100111100010010001010100010010 "

A computer

C-This Quote Of The Month December 1st 2006

""In chaos theory, the edge is the meeting point between order and chaos, between the known and the unknown. In nature it is where creativity and self-organizing happen. It is where new information is created." "

Dana Zohar & Ian Marshall

C-This Quote Of The Month November 1st 2006

" “Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking”"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

C-This Quote Of The Month October 1st 2006

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. "

Buckminster Fuller

C-This Quote Of The Month September 1st 2006

"Both science and art form in the course of the centuries a human language by which we can speak about the more remote parts of reality "

Werner Heisenberg

C-This Quote Of The Month August 1st 2006

"I wish I knew how these elements combined to create anew idea. It would be wonderful to produce some kind of scientific formula that reliably resulted in a best selling product or breathtaking invention. However, given that so much of the process seems to take place in the unconscious, and somewhat mysterious, way, I suspect that a formula will forever be beyond our grasp. "

By Professor Richard Wiseman on creativity, who holds Britain’s only chair in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. From www.spaceforideas site

C-This Quote Of The Month July 1st 2006

"Here is the shadow of a dream

Ideas possess the creativity team

Silhouettes dance in a fire,

A single thought can never tire. "

By © Dennis Perrin & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1999

C-This Quote Of The Month June1st 2006

"A computer isn't smart enough to make a mistake"

Unknown

C-This Quote Of The Month May 1st 2006

""What do scientists and artists have in common? They see reality in new ways. While everyone else saw a pendulum swinging back and forth, Galileo saw it falling and rising."

New Scientist, 29th Oct 05

C-This Quote Of The Month April 1st 2006

"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties."

Erich Fromm

C-This Quote Of The Month March 1st 2006

"The human mind treats a new idea the same way the body treats a strange protein; it rejects it. "

P. B. Medawar (1915 - )

C-This Quote Of The Month Feb 1st 2006

"In my own work I have to say that I work completely on the basis of intuition. It's totally irrational. In creating a new field of mathematics you have to work completely on instinct. You're looking for new concepts. You are working with unconscious emotions and it's a magic, mysterious process. Once you come up with an idea, a new idea on which to base a new field of mathematics, then there is, I agree, a rational element in mathematics which is that you have to verify that the idea works. But the act of creation in mathematics is just as magical and mysterious as the act of artistic creation. I would also say that mathematics and art are much more similar than people realize, in that I would say that mathematics is an art. I would say that good mathematical ideas have to be beautiful'"

-transcript of a talk given July 2001 at a meeting to Bridge the Gap between the sciences and the arts by Gregory J. Chaitin who is a mathematician at the IBM Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Buenos Aires and at the University of Auckland

C-This Quote Of The Month Jan 1st 2006

"'Some people would rather die than think."

Bertrand Russell

C-This Quote Of The Month December 1st 2005

"Mistakes are an important part of the thought process"

- New Scientist's Special Issue article (Oct 29th 05, page 45) "Creative Minds", on Timothy Gowers, Rouse Ball professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge

C-This Quote Of The Month November 1st 2005

"Science and art sometimes can touch one another, like two pieces of the jigsaw puzzle which is our human life, and that contact may be made across the boderline between the two respective domains. "

M.C. Escher

C-This Quote Of The Month October 1st 2005

"Archimedes then showed them his method (BOX 1), which depended upon cutting solids into infinitely thin slices and hanging the slices on a balance. "Hmmph," said Kink. "Doesn't seem very logical to me." "Definitely fallacious," admitted Pox. "Yet it works," said Archimedes. "Funny old world, isn't it?" "

Professor IAN STEWART from "Do Mathematicians Think Logically?" (Ian is featured on this site)

C-This Quote Of The Month September 1st 2005

"Take a look around you, at the world we've come to know. Does it seem to be much more, than a crazy circus show? But maybe from the madness, something beautiful will grow..."

from War Of the Worlds

C-This Quote Of The Month August 1st 2005

"The future's for discovering. The space in which we're travelling "

by lead singer Chris Martin from the track Square One from the X+Y album by Coldplay

C-This Quote Of The Month July 1st 2005

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

Theodore Roosevelt

C-This Quote Of The Month June 1st 2005

"People only get lost in thought because it is unfamiliar territory"

Paul Fix

C-This Quote Of The Month May 1st 2005

"Nature tends to be more creative than we are"

Alvaro de Rújula from CERN the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the world's largest particle physics centre.

C-This Quote Of The Month April 1st 2005

"So many of us start off dreaming about a wonderfull life that is wild and free, but that's usually a long way from where we actually end up"

By Bradley Trevor Greive from - The Meaning of Life

C-This Quote Of The Month March 1st 2005

"If you don't think, you can stay alive only by being a parasite on the thinking of others"

It's actually David King (oops the last name I put was wrong!)

C-This Quote Of The Month Feb 2005

"In spite of our feelings of invincibility and immortality our existence is far more tenuous than we might think"

Bradley Trevor Greive from - The Meaning of Life

C-This Quote Of The Month Jan 2005

(I looked for a quote for about half an hour or more, to reflect the recent tsunami tragedy that occured. Whether this quote is appropriate I am not sure, but it seemd calming to read, so I hope it's ok)

"It is a quiet and peaceful place - and a fitting place for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to rest. "

Robert D. Ballard

(With an archive of an old magazine copy thrown in) all original artwork and ideas written or otherwise on this cthisspace.com site are Copyright Claire C Smith © 1999-2021, (updated October 2021) except specific content on FTL Magazine archive (sub-section) that is Copyright of its ---> contributors, for example, if you are wanting to use work by the math and geometry Professor Ian Stewart, it is better to let him know first. Before using material from cthisspace.com it would be a preference that you ask for permission via e-mail. It would be good if a credit note was included and my name and this web address, if you do ask for permission, which you probably will get. The same applies for FTL Magazine and its contributors.