What is the biggest star in the universe?

I don't know actualy, since I haven't had the time to see them all. No-one has. But in case you were wondering, here is a scale animation of the largest star we have ever discovered. Hope you found it as amazing as I did :)

Philosophy is awkward

Don't get me wrong, I love philosophy because it's full of the most interesting and probably unaswerable questions that man kind has ever asked. But I find that the content of philosophy has a direct positive correlation with being REALLY awkward. For example this conversation with a teacher in RS:

"How do you know this room won't dissapear when you leave?"

"Because I can see it on CCTV at the office?"

"Yes, but that may just be an image created by your mind. Or it really could be this room, which reappears so that you can see it on CCTV"

"What if I took a picture of this room, then left... that way I would have physical proof that this room has existed"

"Yes, but it doesn't exist when you look away"

"Well if, as shown by fundamental laws of physics, matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed; how can this room dissappear?" - Thought I'd sussed it.

"Because it's not made of matter, it's a figment of your imagination. You could be in a deep sleep, creating this entire universe and its laws subconciously"

By the way, this is how I remember it, but these aren't exact quotes (does it matter?)
So, as revenge for your well-planned and mind numbing point, I have an awkward question of my own!

"How do you know this question even exists?"

The AstroNetwork

So far, there are only four sites in the AstroNetwork, but it's growing and each site has lots of good content.

It inlcudes this site (my first blog), my weebly Astrosteve site, AstroSteve on Facebook, and TheAstroSteve on Youtube.

The list of links is under 'AstroNetwork' on my weebly site. Check it out!

http://astrosteve.weebly.com/index.html#/

STS-135 The final voyage

As everyone who's interested in this blog (and a lot of people who aren't) will know, Space shuttle Atlantis was the last ever manned shuttle, launched from pad 39A on the 8th of July, 2011. It reached a maximum altitude of 226km and provided the ISS with Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) Rafaello before landing for the final time on the 21st of July, 2011.

The crew consisted of Commander Christopher Feguson, Pilot Douglas Hurley, Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus and Mission Specialist Rex Walheim - the smallest crew since STS-6.

The mission marked:

• 166th (and the final currently planned) NASA manned space flight
• 135th shuttle mission since STS-1
• 33rd flight of Atlantis
• 3rd shuttle flight in 2011
• 37th shuttle mission to the ISS
• 110th post-Challenger mission
• 22nd post-Columbia mission
• 100th day launch
• 133rd landing overall, 78th at KSC, 26th night landing, 20th night landing at KSC

Find me on Youtube!

I have a Youtube channel now, called TheAstroSteve, and it's mainly about my opinions on atheism and theism at the moment, but I'll definitely make some videos about physics and general science soon. For example, this one about Gravity, the Big Bang and Genes http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAstroSteve?#p/u/11/DyydFDWOf-U

If you want some video content, from my usual personal lecture style videos to animations and slideshows about science, religion and philosophy then my channel's perfect for that.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAstroSteve

Science is not a religion

Unfortunately, I recently came across one the dumbest, most backwards minded theist I have ever seen on Youtube. This content may be intended to be satirical but it can fool alot of people and compelled me to rewrite his entire speech titled "Science is the dumbest religion" and here it is.

And here's my reply:

We don’t need a war on atheism, we need a war on theism! You are very badly misinformed and I can disprove any religious statement in this video. First of all, science is not a religion and I’m insulted that you think it is. Christianity is based on a single book, thousands of years old, scribbled by desert dwelling men, slightly misinterpreted by every generation after that and everything was written many years after the event occurred. Science is only science when it can be proven.

I’ve never seen anyone as backward in their opinions as you. “out-dated”, “irrelevant” and “deluded” are but a few of the words I could use to describe religion as a whole. Science does everything for you.

You wouldn’t have this computer if it weren’t for science. Or the satellites that maintain the internet. Or crisps with bags that are filled with hydrogen to prolong edible life as it was found to be an inert gas by science. And religion meanwhile has remained as stubborn and as useless as an old mule.

Do you assume that atheists worship  “so called fossils” Mr current? You obviously have a “blind worship” in that story book in your hands, after all that’s what faith is about. In addition this animal doesn’t seem to be run over, all the bones are intact. You keep making unjustifiable assumptions.

 You also call us “pathetic followers of the science cult”. WE have actual physical and provable evidence and YOU have an ancient misinterpreted literature, so don’t pass off this missing link as rubbish just because you don’t want to learn the truth.

Now why have you clung to the idea that it was run over? If humans are so intelligent why do many people get run over every day? Because its FASTER you deluded man. Faster beats slower you see or do you dismiss this because it makes sense as well? Checkmate Edward.

Those ‘opposable thumbs’ and ‘five fingers’ are there in the picture next to you. You can’t deny it and they contain traits of early primates and of humans. If you try to deny it, it shows how backward you really are.

I’ll tell you how a fossil with bones of a real long dead animal is different to someone wanting to see a figure of Jesus Christ up a dogs arse. Because those are real, physical, indisputable bones and the figure of Jesus is a coincidental and requires imagination.

So “totally proved” by your “infallible document of eternal truth” isn’t looking so likely now is it. How is that truth anyway? Would you like to put some physical evidence forward now or let science and common sense do all you work while religion moves the goalposts still further. Evolution is a myth? God is a myth.

That is the transitional form. Next to you in the video. So stop dismissing it you theist jerk. Long ago there were four elements because people were stupid. Too stupid to know everything instantly obviously, so in their in omniscience they made stories about gods all over the world. That’s why there are so many because they’re all made up.

 Ever wondered why all Hindu gods wear traditional Hindu dress but look nothing like other worldly inhabitants? Because they were made at a time when we didn’t even know how to travel around our own planet. Now we know about all chemical elements because we are smarter than that and earth, air, fire and water aren’t the same type of element.

There were always as many astral bodies as there are now in our solar system as we thought there were thousands of years ago. Telescopes weren’t very powerful when Galileo invented them, but since then (thanks to science and not religion) telescopes have become powerful enough to see very very deep into space. Pluto is still there it’s just not big enough to be classified as a planet.

Yes we can answer questions with absolute certainty, we just think them through and only say we know when we can prove it. Unlike religion. Science is not a religion for the last time, religion lies with faith and science uses facts and proof. Science should never pick a ‘story’ and stick to it because it isn’t a story, it’s our ever expanding and evolving knowledge of literally everything.

Look. Us scientists don’t really want to have to keep giving proof to you Christians (especially blind religious slaves like you) when you keep dismissing it because it may not fit with the bible. Well it doesn’t need to, religion needs to conform with what we have learned through science. And there won’t be “a fossil verifying that a rib turned into the world’s first mom” because that’s absurd. It doesn’t have all the right elements or enough mass to even form the body let alone operate as one.

So while you use that collection of fables as toilet paper to wipe your mouth, I hope you’ll come to realise that you must be living in a deluded theist bubble to believe all of this magical and romantical nonsense your spewing over youtube. Reminding YOU that religion is the dumbest lifestyle choice ever, this has been Astrosteve and I hope this was just a convincing parody because otherwise I’ve just burst that metaphorical bubble of insanity that your living in. Science is not a religion.

Just sayin' science moment #4: Your face has gravity

It surprised me recently when I realised that so many people didn't know very much about gravity at all. Even my freind Luke, who's very good at general science thought it only came from planets. As the title suggests, however, that is very wrong.
The point is, all mass has gravity. Everything you can see and some things you can't. A particle of H2O. A polar bear. And, yes, your face. With gravity, though, size really does matter. The bigger something is, the stronger its gravitational pull, and this is why you don't feel the gravity from your face, or a polar bear or a particle of H2O - your face is attached to you anyway, so it contributes to your internal gravity, a polar bear is very far away, so (assuming you don't live in the artic circle) is to distant to have any effect, and a particle of H2O is far too tiny to pull you (in fact, you would pull the H2O!)
Here's the sciencey bit.

There are four dimensions - up-down, left-right, forwards-backwards and time.
Combined, these make space-time and we are all moving 'through' space and 'along' time right now. In order to help you comprehend this incomprehensible dimension of space-time and the effect that mass has on it, i have an analogy originaly devised my Marcus Chown.
Imagine an ant on a trampoline. All it ever sees is left-right and forwards-backwards, there's nothing for it to climb up. Then imagine you put a connonball in the centre in the middle of the trampoline and the ant suddenly slides in, down the curve. "wow!" says ant "I can go up and down aswell!". Even though he can't talk and never really said that, he's suddenly realised a new dimension that he would never normaly be able to see.
Well space-time is our unseen dimension, we are the ant and planet earth is our cannonball. We are pulled towards the earth because it's obviously very close, it's evidently very large and there's clearly nothing near and big enough to pull us away.
That's how gravity works, the bigger something is, the more mass it has and the stronger its gravitational pull. The closer something is, the closer its curve in space-time is and the more control it has over you.

Everything has gravity. Except waves (like sound, not sea).

Just sayin' science moment #3: Who discovered gravity?

Well Isaac Newton (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727), the english physicist, astronomer, natural philosopher, mathematician, alchemist and theologian right? Yes, but not according to Islam.

In the Qur'an, It says that a muslim called Mullah Nasradim sat under a shady oak tree near a field of watermelons. He proceeded to speculate as to why Allah, the islamic god, had made watermelons grow with tiny tendril-like roots, but the tiny acorns had the huge oak to support them and not the other way around. An acorn then fell on his head and he was most pleased that Allah had done things this way or else the watermelon would have covered him in red watermelon juice. It doesn't say this, but Mullah had then discovered gravity in the same way as Isaac Newton and a long time before him but no-one knew about this? hmm.

In addition, foolish Mr. Nasradim had failed to realise that if watermelons grew on oak trees they would fall off long before they got ripe, because watermelons tend to be far heavier.
Also, this oak tree would have evolved in a different way to accomodate such heavy fruits and would look much different, and probably wouldn't be called an oak tree, probably would have been in a different place and then nothing would fall on his head but he also would have no shade. Either that or maybe having them grow on the ground really is the best way, you invalid.
Earth's been around for 4.54 billions years to evolve into what it is today, so the next time you see a massive plant on the ground and a tiny seeds being suspended, consider whatever religious and philosophical ponder you want to say and keep it to yourself.

50 interesting science facts

1 – The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (equal to 186,287.49 miles per second).

2 – It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the Earth.

3 – 10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

4 – The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 mph.

5 – Every year, over one million earthquakes shake the Earth.

6 – When Krakatoa erupted in 1883, its force was so great it could be heard 4,800 kilometers away in Australia.

7 – Every second around 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth.

8 – Every year lightning kills 1000 people.

9 – In October 1999 an Iceberg the size of London broke free from the Antarctic ice shelf .

10 – If you could drive your car straight up you would arrive in space in just over an hour.

11 – Human tapeworms can grow up to 22.9m.

12 – The Moon is 4.56 billion years old, but the Earth is around 4.8 billion years old (The moon was formed from the Earth)

13 – The dinosaurs became extinct before the Rockies or the Alps were formed.

14 – Female black widow spiders eat their males after mating.

15 – When a flea jumps, the rate of acceleration is 20 times that of the space shuttle during launch.

16 – If our Sun were just inch in diameter, the nearest star would be 445 miles away.

17 – Astronauts cannot belch – there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

18 – The air at the summit of Mount Everest, 29,029 feet is only a third as thick as the air at sea level.

19 – One million, million, million, million, millionth of a second after the Big Bang the Universe was the size of a pea.
20 – DNA was first discovered in 1869 by Swiss Friedrich Mieschler.

21 – The molecular structure of DNA was first determined by Watson and Crick in 1953.

22 – The first synthetic human chromosome was constructed by US scientists in 1997.

23 – The thermometer was invented in 1607 by Galileo.

24 – Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866.

25 – Wilhelm Rontgen won the first Nobel Prize for physics for discovering X-rays in 1895.

26 – The tallest tree ever was an Australian eucalyptus – In 1872 it was measured at 435 feet tall.

27 – Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967 – the patient lived for 18 days.

28 – An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.

29 – ‘Wireless’ communications took a giant leap forward in 1962 with the launch of Telstar, the first satellite capable of relaying telephone and satellite TV signals.

30 – The Ebola virus kills 4 out of every 5 humans it infects.

31 – In 4.5 to 5 billion years the Sun will run out of fuel and turn into a Red Giant.

32 – Giraffes often sleep for only 20 minutes in any 24 hours. They may sleep up to 2 hours (in spurts – not all at once), but this is rare. They never lie down.

33 – There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

34 – An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.

35 – On the day that Alexander Graham Bell was buried the entire US telephone system was shut down for 1 minute in tribute.

36 – The low frequency call of the humpback whale is the loudest noise made by a living creature.

37 – Matter can be in two superpositions at once, but in minute amounts for minute amounts of time.

38 – Each person sheds 40lbs of skin in his or her lifetime.

39 – At 15 inches the eyes of giant squids are the largest on the planet.

40 – The Universe contains over 100 billion galaxies.

41 – Wounds infested with maggots heal quickly and without spread of gangrene or other infection.

42 – More germs are transferred shaking hands than kissing.

43 – The fastest speed a falling raindrop can hit you is 18mph.

44 – It would take over an hour for a heavy object to sink 6.7 miles down to the deepest part of the ocean.

45 – Around a million, billion neutrinos from the Sun will pass through your body while you read this sentence.

46 – The deepest part of any ocean in the world is the Mariana trench in the Pacific with a depth of 35,797 feet.

47 – Every hour the Universe expands by around 1 billion miles in all directions.

48 – Somewhere in the flicker of a badly tuned TV set is the background radiation from the Big Bang.

49 – Even traveling at the speed of light it would take 2 million years to reach the nearest large galaxy, Andromeda.

50 – A thimbleful of a neutron star would weigh over 100 million tons.

Improved from a quote from http://immenseknowledge.blogspot.com/2006/10/50-interesting-science-facts.html. I havn't personaly checked all of these facts yet though.

A history of shuttle launches: December

2nd December 1988, Atlantis STS-27, and in 1990, Columbia STS-35, and in 1992, Discovery STS-53, and in 1993, Endeavour STS-61

4th December 1965, Gemini 7, and in 1998, Endeavour STS-88

5th December 2001, Endeavour STS-108

7th December 1972, Apollo 17 (America and Challenger)

9th December 2006, Discovery STS-116

15th December 1965, Gemini 6

19th December 1999, Discovery STS-103

21st December 1968, Apollo 8 launch

A history of shuttle launches: November

3rd November 1994, Atlantis STS-66

8th November 1984, Discovery STS-51A

11th November 1966, Gemini 12, and in 1982, Columbia STS-5

12th November 1981, Columbia STS-2, and in 1995, Atlantis STS-74

14th November 1969, Apollo 12 (Yankee Clipper and Intrepid), and in 2008, Endeavour STS-126

15th November 1990, Atlantis STS-38

16th November 1973, Skylab 4, and in 2009, Atlantis STS-129

19th November 1996, Columbia STS-80, and in 1997, Columbia STS-87

22nd November 1989, Discovery STS-33

23rd November 2002, Endeavour STS-113

24th November 1991, Atlantis STS-44

26th November 1985, Atlantis STS-61B

28th November 1983, Columbia STS-9

30th November 2000, Endeavour STS-97

A history of shuttle launches: October

3rd October 1962, Mercury Atlas 8 Sigma 7, and in 1985, Atlantis STS-51J

5th October 1984, Challenger STS-41G

6th October 1990, Discovery STS-41C

7th October 2002, Atlantis STS-112

11th October 1968, Apollo 7, and in 2000, Discovery STS-92

14th October 1066, Battle of Hastings

18th October 1989, Atlantis STS-34, and in 1993, Columbia STS-58

20th October 1995, Columbia STS-73

22nd October 1992, Columbia STS-52

23rd October 2007, Discovery STS-120

29th October 1998, Discovery STS-95

30th October 1985, Challenger STS-61A

A history of shuttle launches: September

7th September 1995, Endeavour STS-69

8th September 2000, Atlantis STS-106

9th September 1994, Discovery STS-64, and in 2006, Atlantis STS-115

12th September 1966, Gemini 11, and in 1991, Discovery-48, and in 1992, Endeavour STS-47, and in 1993, Discovery STS-51

16th September 1996, Atlantis STS-79

25th September 1997, Atlantis STS-86

29th September 1988, Discovery STS-26

30th September 1994, Endeavour STS-68

A history of shuttle launches: August

2nd August 1991, Atlantis STS-43

7th August 1997, Discovery STS-85

8th August 1989, Columbia STS-28, and in 2007, Endeavour STS-118

10th August 2001, Discovery STS-105

12th August 1977, Enterprise first free flight

21st August 1965, Gemini 5

27th August 1985, Discovery STS-51L

28th August 2009, Discovery STS-128

30th August 1983, Challenger STS-8, and in 1984 Discovery STS-41D

A history of shuttle launches: July

1st July1997, Columbia STS-94

4th July 2006, Discovery STS-121

8th July 1994, Columbia STS-65

12th July 2001, Atlantis STS-104

13th July 1995, Discovery STS-70

15th July 1975, Apollo Soyuz (Test project launch), and in 2009, Endeavour STS-127

16th July 1969, Apollo 11 (Columbia and Eagle)

17th July 1975, Apollo Soyuz (ASTP - Apollo Soyuz Test Project) docks with soviet spacecraft

18th July 1966, Gemini 10

20th July 1969, Apollo 11 (Moon landing)

21st July 1961, Mercury Redstone 4 Liberty Bell 7

23rd July 1999, Columbia STS-93

26th July 1971, Apollo 15 (Endeavour and Falcon), and in 2005, Discovery STS-114

28th July 1973, Skylab 3

29th July 1985, Challenger STS-51F

31st July 1992, Atlantis STS-46

A history of shuttle launches: June

2nd June 1998, Discovery STS-91

3rd June 1965, Gemini 4, and in 1966, Gemini 9A

5th June 1991, Columbia STS-40

8th June 2007, Atlantis STS-117

17th June 1985, Discovery STS-51G

18th June 1983, Challenger STS-7

19th June 1932, No launch

20th June 1996, Columbia STS-78

21st June 1993, Endeavour STS-57

25th June 1992, Columbia STS-50

27th June 1982, Columbia STS-4, and in 1995, Atlantis STS-71 (100th human space flight)

A history of shuttle launches: May

4th May 1989, Atlantis STS-30

5th May 1961, Freedom 7 Mercury Redstone 3

7th May 1992, Endeavour STS-49

11th May 2009, Atlantis STS-125

14th May 1973, Unmanned Skylab 1

15th May 1963, Faith 7 Mercury Atlas 9, and in 1997, Atlantis STS-84

18th May 1969, Apollo 10 (Charlie Brown and Snoopy)

19th May 1996, Endeavour STS-77, and in 2000, Atlantis STS-101

24th May 1962, Aurora 7 Mercury Atlas 7

25th May 1973, Skylab 2

27th May 1999, Discovery STS-96

31st May 2008, Discovery STS-124

A history of shuttle launches: April

4th April 1983, Challenger STS-6, and in 1997, Columbia STS-83

5th April 1991, Atlantis STS-37

6th April 1984, Challenger STS-41C

8th April 1993, Discovery STS-56, and in 2002, Atlantis STS-110

9th April 1994, Endeavour STS-59

11th April 1970, Apollo 13 (Odyssey and Aquarius)

12th April 1981, Columbia STS-1, and in 1985, Discovery STS-51D

16th April 1972, Apollo 16 (Casper and Orion)

17th April 1998, Columbia STS-90

19th April 2001, Endeavour STS-100

24th April 1990, Discovery STS-31

26th April 1993, Columbia STS-55

28th April 1991, Discovery STS-39

29th April 1985, Challenger STS-51B

A history of shuttle launches: March

1st March 2002, Columbia STS-109

2nd March 1995, Endeavour STS-67

3rd March 1969, Apollo 9 (Gumdrop and Spider)

4th March 1994, Columbia STS-62

8th March 2001, Discovery STS-102

11th March 2008, Endeavour STS-123

13th March 1989, Discovery STS-29

15th March 2009, Discovery STS-119

16th March 1966, Gemini 8

22nd March 1982, Columbia STS-3, and in 1996, Atlantis STS-76

23rd March 1965, Gemini 3 (Molly Brown)

24th March 1992, Atlantis STS-45

A history of shuttle launches: February

1st February 2003, Columbia STS-107 accident

3rd February 1984, Challenger STS-41B, and in 1994, Discovery STS-60, and in 1995, Discovery STS-63

7th February 2001, Atlantis STS-98, and in 2008, Atlantis STS-122

8th February 2010, Endeavour STS-130

11th February 1997, Discovery STS-82, and in 2000, Endeavour STS-99

20th February 1962, Friendship 7 Mercury Atlas 6

22nd February 1996, Columbia STS-75

28th February 1990, Atlantis STS-36

A history of shuttle launches: January

9th January 1990, Columbia STS-32

11th January 1996, Endeavour STS-72

12th January 1986, Columbia STS-61C, and in 1997, Atlantis STS-81

13th January 1993, Endeavour STS-54

16th January 2003, Columbia STS-107

22nd January 1992, Discovery STS-42, and in 1998, Endeavour STS-89

24th January 1985, Discovery STS-51C

27th January 1967, Apollo 1 accident

28th January 1986, Challenger STS-51L accident

31st January 1958, First launch of Explorer 1, and in 1971, Apollo 14 (Kitty hawk & Antares)

Just sayin' science moment #2: Distance from the sun

Distance from the Sun (Sol) (km):

Mercury (Mercurius) - 57,910,000

Venus (Venus) - 108,210,000

Earth (Terra) - 149,600,000

Mars (Mars) - 227,940,000

Jupiter (Iuppiter) - 778,570,000

Saturn (Saturnus) - 1,429,400,000

Uranus (Uranus) - 2,870,990,000

Neptune (Neptunus) - 4,504,000,000

Pluto (Pluto) - 5,913,520,000

Just sayin' science moment #1: States of matter

The 6 states of matter (yes six):
solid, liquid, gas, plasma, fermionic condensate and bose-einstein condensate.

I would hope that everyone, especialy people interested in a blog like this, would know what solid, liquid and gas are and could describe them but the next three arent as well known, in particular the last two.

Plasma is a gas of positive ions and free electrons with little or no overall electric charge. (the probably more commonly known meaning is the colourless fluid part of blood)

Fermionic condensate is a "superfluid phase formed by fermionic particles at low temperatures" and unlike bose-einstein condensate, it is created with fermions (a subatomic particle, such as a nucleon, which has a spin of half an integer, named after Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, 1901-1954)

Bose-einstein condensate is a "dilute gas of weakly interacting interacting bosons" (bosons are also sub-atomic particles and unlike fermions, several of them can occupy the same quantum state, named after Bengali mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose, 1894-1974 and world-famous German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, 1879-1955) that must be cooled to near absolute zero (0K or -273.15 °C)

Just sayin'.

Schrӧdingers cat

Yesterday, my form had a test about a practical investigation that involved radiation and a geiger-müller counter and this reminded me of the Schrӧdingers cat paradox. Since then i've been reading a book that I conveniently happen to own called "In search of Schrӧdingers cat" by John Gribbin, which of course explains what the thing is all about along with alot of other theories and facts.

According to Gribbin, the paradox first appeared in print in a German text called Naturwissenschaften, volume 23, page 812 in 1935, that same year as a paper about the Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paradox (which is more of a question than a paradox).

The Schrӧdingers cat paradox ponders 'There is a sealed box, containing a radioactive source, a geiger-müller counter to record the presence of radiation, a glass vial containing gaseous poison and a live cat. The apparatus is arranged so that the geiger-müller counter will be switched on for just long enough for there to be a 50% chance that it records any radiation. If it does, it will release the gaseous poison and kill the cat. If it doesn't, no further action occurs and the cat lives.

According to the Copenhagen interpretation, there is an equal chance that the cat will live or die and so, until the outcome is observed, we must assume that the cat is both alive and dead, that the vial is both full and empty and that there wasn't any but there was some radiation recorded by the geiger-müller counter!

Because of this, Einstein agrees with Schrӧdinger that wave representation of matter is an incomplete representation of reality because both of these scenarios cannot be true at the same time; they are inversely proportional to one another.

Maybe they can, however, in alternate realities, where every single possibility for the universal 'storyboard' is lived out. This seems quite a mathematical way to think about space-time and so, personaly, it looks like one of the most likely theories about reality. However, this last paragraph is just me and doesn't have anything to do with Schrӧdingers cat. Good night.

Mr Lambs physics equation triangles

Mr Lamb has been my physics teacher for 2 years and in that time my form's collected a number of 'Mr Lambs physics equation triangles' which help to work out equations in physics, are triangular in shape and although I'm not completely sure he created them, I'd name them after him because hes taught me quite a lot.

To use them, put your finger over the letter that represents whatever you want to find. Now, you are left with an equation and if you have both pieces of information that are represented by the remaining letters you can work out whatever is under your finger.

For example, In the speed, distance, time triangle, to find time you put your finger over T (this represents time) and you can see the D over S so you now calculate Distance divided by Speed and this will equal Time.

Successful STS 133 launch

The discovery shuttle, STS 133 successfuly launched on thursday 24th from pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. It will dock on the ISS to resupply it with equipment and crew. If you were reading my other blog, http://sts133.blogspot.com/ then you would know all about the shuttle.

 I waited around 7 months to see it launch and me and my family even flew to Florida from England for 3 weeks primarily to see it launch but it was postponed for... around 7 months. You'd know about that too if you click on the link http://sts133.blogspot.com/. but I did of course watch it live when it finaly flew into space.

Image courtesy of NASA

For more information, see http://spaceflightnow.com/

For the official NASA website, see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

On the taking of generic site names without making good use of them

Excuse me while I have a little rant, because astrophysics.blogspot.com was created by an idiot who doesn't know what they're talking about. The site should belong to someone more educated, because 'astrobuff' is wrong and the site isn't even about astrophysics, just normal everday physics.

In the top post, 'astrobuff' says "Can you hear in space? In theory, if there is nothing to receive the sound, there is no sound. Because there are no "air waves" in space to conduct the sound, it would not carry. So, the object would make a noise, but it would not carry to any receiver, and no one would hear it."

WRONG! There will always be a receiver, because the reciever can be any matter and it doesn't have to be a concious being like a human or any other animal. Sound is created due to the vibration of matter and this matter is the 'receiver'.

WRONG AGAIN! There's no theory that says there won't be a sound without a 'receiver'. In theory, if there is nothing concious to receive the sound, there WILL still be a sound, get your facts straight!

AND AGAIN! I like how they've put "air waves" in speech marks like that, because they aren't sure whether to write this. Air 'waves' dont exist, air is made of trillions of trillions of microscopic pieces of matter- atoms and molecules (which are made of even smaller things). so air should not be treated as a wave, but as gaseous matter.

AND AGAIN! Finally, they contradict themselves when they say that "the object would make a noise, but it would not carry to any receiver". In space, where there is practicaly zero air between planets (there is some, but it's very very scarce, so it's generaly treated as a vacuum) you can't make a sound, because there is no air to carry the vibrations. So if you hit the outside of a shuttle, the astronauts inside would hear it because there's air inside but you wouldn't because you're outside in a spacesuit and there is no matter between you and the shuttle to carry the vibration.

Apart from all this rubbish, astrophysics.blogspot.com is about their black cat called miu which has no relation to astrophysics AT ALL and this is why astrophysics.blogspot.com should be repossessed by blogger and reserved for an actual astrophysicist.

According to the bible heaven is hotter than hell

First of all, if you have a bible, read Isaiah 30:26. This says that 'moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun and the llight of the sun shall be seveonfold as the light of seven days'. From this you can draw that heaven would receive as much radiation from the moon as the earth does from the sun and the seven times seven (49) mentioned in the passage, so 50 relative units of radiation in all.

Using the Stefan-Boltzmann fourth-power law for radiation, there is mathematical proof that Heaven would therefore be an insufferable 525˚C.

Now read Revelations 21:8, which describes the damned condemned to 'a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone' which means the sulphur in the brimstone must be a liquid and therefore below the boiling point of 444.6˚C because above that, the lake would be vapour and not a lake.

Therefore, Hell would be below 444.6˚C, so according to the bible, Heaven is over 80.4˚C hotter than Hell.

Of course this was all written a long, long time ago before they realised that it would all be proved wrong, because they unsurpringly didn't have the technology or methodolgy to test any of this.
And then to make it all look even worse, in 1998 Eugenio Ramiro Pose (the Auxiliary Bishop of Madrid and Titular Bishop of Turuda) decided that you should actualy ignore one of the sevens in the bible, admitting it to be wrong (although this is stupid because you can't change facts to suit your purpose!).

The funny part is, many people chose to believe his ridiculous interjection which shows how easily the church can move the goal posts away from science, which particularly frustrates me.
And may I just point out that even with his desperate statement, Heaven would still be 231.5˚C and is still doesn't sound like a plausible temperature for 'paradise'.