ScienceIQ.com

Neutron Stars

Ordinary matter, or the stuff we and everything around us is made of, consists largely of empty space. Even a rock is mostly empty space. This is because matter is made of atoms. An atom is a cloud of electrons orbiting around a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons. The nucleus contains more than 99.9 percent of the mass of an atom, yet it has ...

Continue reading...

NeutronStars
Geology

Wetter not Necessarily Better in Amazon Basin

June through September is the dry season for the Amazon Basin of South America. Yet the basin's dry season may be getting uncharacteristically wetter, according to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ... Continue reading

AmazonBasin
Geology

Surprise! Lightning Has Big Effect On Atmospheric Chemistry

Scientists were surprised to learn summer lightning over the U.S. significantly increases regional ozone and other gases that affect air chemistry 3 to 8 miles above Earth's surface.The amounts of ... Continue reading

AtmosphericChemistry
Astronomy

Jumping Starlight

'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are,' says the song by Jane Taylor. But stars don’t really twinkle; their light reaches the earth in a steady way. Why then do we see them ... Continue reading

JumpingStarlight
Engineering

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

So, what, exactly, is the watch on your wrist, Big Ben in London, or the national atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado, actually measuring? The first definition of a second was 1/86,400 of the average ... Continue reading

TimeAnybody

The Weakest Force

WeakForceDid you know that gravity is the weakest force in the universe? Well, it's true! There are four fundamental forces (that we know of) in our universe: Strong Nuclear, Electromagnetic, Weak Nuclear and Gravitational. The strongest one is the Strong Nuclear force, which is responsible for keeping the nuclei of atoms together. About one hundred times weaker than the strong nuclear force is the electromagnetic one. This is the strongest force that we experience in our everyday lives. In fact, whenever we touch anything we experience the Electromagnetic force. The electrons in our skin repel electrons in whatever we touch through this force. The Weak Nuclear force is the one responsible for most decays of particles and nuclei - which is where radioactivity comes from. This force is about 10 billion times weaker than the Electromagnetic force.

The weakest of all is the Gravitational force. In fact, Gravitational force is 10 thousand billion billion billion billion times weaker than the Electromagnetic force. Well, it sort of makes sense because if the Gravitational force were stronger than the Electromagnetic one, we would fall right through the floor!