Questions about science and technology. Are there other universes

Part 1.

Are the definitions of "science" correct?

A. Science is a field human activity developing objective knowledge about the world.

B. science is observation, classification, description, experimental studies and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.

2. Scientific truths that do not create a complete , exhaustive knowledge about the subject under study and which in the process of cognition will change, clarify, deepen, are called

1) objective 2) absolute 3) relative 4) abstract

3. Are judgments about science correct?

A. Science includes the observation, classification, description, experimental research, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena.

B. Science is a system of views, concepts and ideas about the world around.

1. True a 2. True b 3. Both true 4. Both false

4. K mental processes, which allow you to know the objective world do not include

1) sensations 2) perception 3) representations 4) adaptation

5. Are judgments about science correct?

A) Science is a field of human activity that develops objective knowledge about the world.

B) Science is a form of social consciousness, representing a historically established system of ordered knowledge, the truth of which is checked and constantly refined in the course of social practice.

1. True a 2. True b 3. Both true 4. Both false

6. Sensual reflection of objective reality is

1) feeling 2) perception 3) representation 4) adaptation

7.Special look human activity, a system of research aimed at obtaining new knowledge

1) science 2) education 3) culture 4) art

8. Research that uses advances science to solve practical problems, called

1) applied 2) fundamental 3) abstract 4) natural science

9. Deep and comprehensive study of the subject with the aim of obtaining new fundamental knowledge, the results of which are not intended for direct industrial use, is called

1) abstract 2) fundamental 3) applied 4) logical

10. The technical sciences include

1) ethnology 2) geology 3) mathematics 4) cyberntics

Part 2

Insert missing word

“The power of science is in its generalizations, in the fact that behind the random, chaotic, it finds and explores objective ________, without the knowledge of which conscious, purposeful practical activity is impossible.”

All terms , with the exception of one characterize the concept of "science". find the extra

Knowledge, experiment, tradition, analysis, patent.

Match

Scientific discovery

scientist

A) geocentric model of the world

B) the discovery of the laws of mechanics

C) classification of plants

G) evolutionary theory

D) the theory of relativity

1) A. Einstein

2) K. Linnaeus

3) Ch. Darwin

4) I. Newton

5) Claudius Ptolemy

Key

Part 2

The laws

Tradition

54231

Will we ever be able to understand the nature of the universe, what makes us human, and why we dream?

There are many questions to which we still do not know the answers, but hope to find them soon.

Here are some of the most difficult and fascinating scientific questions that the best minds of mankind are thinking about.

The most difficult questions

1. What is the Universe made of?

We know about 5 percent of the composition of the universe. That 5 percent is made up of atoms from periodic table that shape everything we see around us.

Rest 95 percent remain a mystery. Over the past 80 years, it has become clear that the rest is made up of two dark entities: dark matter (about 25 percent) and dark energy (70 percent).

Dark matter is found around galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and acts as an invisible glue that binds them together. We know it exists because it has mass, hence gravity.

dark energy is something more mysterious, a kind of ethereal medium that fills space, expanding it, and causing galaxies to accelerate away from each other. We don't know what is dark energy or dark matter, and astronomers are only getting closer to understanding these invisible "aliens".

2. How did life on Earth begin?

About 4 billion years ago, something originated in " primary broth". It consisted of simple chemicals that met and due to which the first molecules appeared that could reproduce by cell division.

All of us humans are connected to these early biological molecules. But how are the main chemical substances, present on Earth, spontaneously connected to create life.

How did we get DNA? What did the first cells look like? Scientists still do not know how this happened. Some argue that life originated in hot pools near volcanoes, others that life began with meteorites that fell into the sea.

3. Are we alone in the universe?

Astronomers carefully search the universe for worlds where water could give rise to life, ranging from moon Europa and the planet Mars in our solar system to planets that are many light-years away.

In 1977, radio telescopes picked up a signal similar to a possible alien message.

Now astronomers can study the atmosphere of distant worlds in more detail for the presence of oxygen and water. Recently, about 60 billion potentially habitable planets have been found in the Milky Way region alone.

4. What makes us human?

human genome 99 percent identical to the chimpanzee genome. Our brains are indeed larger than those of most animals, but not the largest. In addition, we have three times more neurons than a gorilla.

Many of the things we thought made us different from animals, including language, the use of tools, and the ability to recognize ourselves in a mirror, are seen in other animals as well.

Maybe, culture and its impact on our genes plays a decisive role. Scientists believe that the ability to cook and mastery of fire helped a person develop a large brain. Maybe cooperation and trading skills have made us a planet of people, not monkeys?

5. What is consciousness?

So far, it is known that this is due to the work of several areas of the brain, interconnected, and not one part of the brain. If we understand which parts of the brain are involved and how our nervous system, we will understand how consciousness arises, and perhaps this will help us in creating artificial intelligence.

However, an even more difficult philosophical question is the question why should we be aware.

According to one of the assumptions, by combining and processing a lot of information, and responding to sensory signals, we can to distinguish what is actually real and what is not and think through future scenarios that help us adapt and survive.

6. Why do we dream?

We do a third of your life in a dream. Given the amount of time it takes us to sleep, it might seem like we all know about it. However, scientists still cannot find an explanation for why we sleep and dream.

Followers of Sigmund Freud believe that dreams are unfulfilled wishes, often sexual. Others argue that dreams are nothing more than random impulses from the sleeping brain.

Animal studies and advances in brain imaging have shown that sleep plays a role in memory, learning, and emotion.

7. Why does matter exist?

According to the laws of physics matter should not exist on its own. Every particle of matter, every electron, proton, neutron must have a "twin" - antimatter. There should be a large number of positrons or antielectrons, antiprotons and antineutrons, but this is not so.

If matter and antimatter meet, they both disappear due to the huge amount of energy being generated. According to the theory, the Big Bang created an equal amount of both, but something happened that left only matter in the universe.

Of course, nature had its own reasons for creating matter, otherwise we would not exist.

Researchers are analyzing data from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider to understand why there is such an asymmetry of matter and antimatter in our Universe.

8. Are there other universes?

Is our universe the only one? Modern theories and cosmology are increasingly turning to the idea of existence other universes, possibly with other properties different from ours.

If there are an infinite number of them in the Multiverse, then any combination of parameters can be reproduced somewhere else, and you can exist in another universe. But is it? And how do we know that this is so? If we cannot confirm this hypothesis, is it part of science?

9. Can we live forever?

We live in an amazing time as we begin to think of aging as not a fact of life, but a disease that can be cured and possibly prevented, at least for a long time.

Our knowledge about what leads to aging, and why some animals live longer than others, are constantly expanding. Data on DNA damage, metabolism, reproductive health helps us get a better picture and possibly create drugs.

But the more important question is not how long we will live, but how long will we live well. And since many diseases, including diabetes and cancer, are more often diseases of aging, treating aging can be key.

10. Is time travel possible?

Traveling through space is doable, but is it possible to travel through time?

If the matter concerns travel to the past, the laws of physics prevent this, and it will forever remain in our memory.

However, the road to the future is more open for us. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, for astronauts on the International space station time passes more slowly. At the speed of rotation of the ISS, this effect is practically not noticeable, however, if you increase the speed to the speed of light, people will be able to fly thousands of years ahead.

However, we will not be able to go back in time and tell others about what we have seen.

The science

Will we ever be able to understand the nature of the universe, what makes us human, and why we dream?

There are many questions to which we still do not know the answers, but hope to find them soon.

Here are some of the most difficult and fascinating scientific questions that the best minds of mankind are thinking about.

The most difficult questions

1. What is the Universe made of?

We know about 5 percent of the composition of the universe. That 5 percent is made up of atoms from the periodic table, which form everything we see around us.

Rest 95 percent remain a mystery. Over the past 80 years, it has become clear that the rest is made up of two dark entities: dark matter (about 25 percent) and dark energy (70 percent).

Dark matter is found around galaxies and clusters of galaxies, and acts as an invisible glue that binds them together. We know it exists because it has mass, hence gravity.

dark energy is something more mysterious, a kind of ethereal medium that fills space, expanding it, and causing galaxies to accelerate away from each other. We don't know what dark energy or dark matter is, and astronomers are only getting closer to understanding these invisible "aliens".

2. How did life on Earth begin?

About 4 billion years ago, something originated in " primary broth". It consisted of simple chemicals that met and due to which the first molecules appeared that could reproduce by cell division.

All of us humans are connected to these early biological molecules. But how are the main chemicals present on Earth spontaneously combined to create life.

3. Are we alone in the universe?

Astronomers carefully search the universe for worlds where water could give rise to life, ranging from moon Europa and the planet Mars in our solar system to planets that are many light-years away.

In 1977, radio telescopes picked up a signal similar to a possible alien message.

4. What makes us human?

Many of the things we thought made us different from animals, including language, the use of tools, and the ability to recognize ourselves in a mirror, are seen in other animals as well.

5. What is consciousness?

So far, it is known that this is due to the work of several areas of the brain, interconnected, and not one part of the brain. If we understand which parts of the brain are involved and how our nervous system works, we will understand how consciousness arises, and perhaps this will help us in creating artificial intelligence.

However, an even more difficult philosophical question is the question why should we be aware.

6. Why do we dream?

Followers of Sigmund Freud believe that dreams are unfulfilled wishes, often sexual. Others argue that dreams are nothing more than random impulses from the sleeping brain.

Animal studies and advances in brain imaging have shown that sleep plays a role in memory, learning, and emotion.

7. Why does matter exist?

Of course, nature had its own reasons for creating matter, otherwise we would not exist.

Researchers are analyzing data from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider to understand why there is such an asymmetry of matter and antimatter in our Universe.

8. Are there other universes?

Is our universe the only one? Modern theories and cosmology are increasingly turning to the idea of existence other universes, possibly with other properties different from ours.

9. Can we live forever?

We live in an amazing time as we begin to think of aging as not a fact of life, but a disease that can be cured and possibly prevented, at least for a long time.

10. Is time travel possible?

Traveling through space is doable, but is it possible to travel through time?

If the matter concerns travel to the past, the laws of physics prevent this, and it will forever remain in our memory.

However, the road to the future is more open for us. According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, time passes more slowly for astronauts on the International Space Station. At the speed of rotation of the ISS, this effect is practically not noticeable, however, if you increase the speed to the speed of light, people will be able to fly thousands of years ahead.

However, we will not be able to go back in time and tell others about what we have seen.

If you follow the world of science, you have probably noticed that scientists often embark on their research, starting from the very simple questions. They test their hunches and run countless experiments until all sorts of theories are finally proven. But some tasks that have long tormented the brightest minds of mankind are still beyond our understanding. Find out right now what questions science still cannot answer!

25. Can we beat old age?

What is aging? Why do we get old at all? AT in general terms it's all about reducing the functional activity of cells, and this process begins at the molecular level. Mankind has long dreamed of discovering the elixir of eternal youth, and modern scientists are also trying to find a way to achieve this longed-for goal. To reverse all illnesses and return to former youth - a fairy tale or a scientific problem? Can they do it? Is it worth it, and isn't it dangerous to fight the natural order of things?

24. Is biology universal?

As long as physics and chemistry operate according to the same laws throughout the universe, scientists are not sure how things are in the field of biology. How is life organized on other planets that are too far from us for us to have the opportunity to study them? For example, are extraterrestrial life forms based on a molecular basis like we are? Or maybe they are arranged completely differently?

23. Is there any higher meaning or purpose for everything that exists?

Throughout the history of mankind, scientists have always left such questions to theologians and philosophers. Are there other methods of cognition of metaphysical concepts? Is it possible to prove or disprove anything from this area in terms of exact sciences?

22. Will we be able to provide resources for the entire population of the earth in the next century?

This question has been raised several times recent centuries before the Great Industrial Revolution. Each time, most politicians and analysts believed that very soon there would be too many people on Earth, and not all of them could be fed. Certainly, railways, electricity and other technological innovations have come to the rescue, and we have proven that it is too early to sound the alarm. But the problem of overpopulation of the planet is back on the agenda. What awaits us in another 100 years, and how will we cope with the lack of resources this time?

21. What is music, and why do we need it?

Why do we enjoy listening to various combinations of vibrations of different frequencies so much? How did humans develop the ability to create music? What is its purpose for our species as a whole? According to one hypothesis, it is somehow connected with the reproductive part of our lives, just like peacocks show off their gorgeous tails in front of females to attract their attention. But this is just one of the hypotheses ...

20. Will we be able to grow fish in laboratories?

And can laboratory fish solve the problem of starvation and extinction of species due to overexploitation of natural waters? Research in this area has a great future. Perhaps the food crisis can be overcome just with the help of laboratory experiments. However, we will get more accurate answers a little later.

19. Will we be able to predict and predict the future of economic and social systems?

In other words, can economists predict financial crises and booms? So far, this is not working out very well, no matter what the media is trying to impose on us.

18. Instincts against education

Disputes about the influence of the environment on the formation of character will last forever ... Who are we? Is it completely a product of culture and upbringing, or are we born into this world with some innate attitudes?

17. What is life?

This term has several definitions, but how exactly to define what is a living thing? It turns out that the answer to this question is not so obvious. For example, can you count artificial intelligence alive? Are computer viruses alive? The scientific community is still at a loss to answer these questions, although one famous robot has already managed to get real citizenship and even speak out about the desire to have children.

16. Will we ever have a successful brain transplant?

We have already learned how to transplant not only organs, but even some parts of the body. But what about the head? Is it possible to carry out transplantation together with a person's consciousness, his experience and memory?

15. Free will

Does it exist? Is there a free and independent choice, or is our whole life predetermined even before we are born? Quantum mechanics is already giving very interesting answers, confirming the thoughts of adherents of both camps arguing on this topic. Perhaps we will never know...

14. What is art?

How and why did the concept of art and creativity appear in our lives, because we do not need them for survival? Why do we see something special in certain patterns, shapes and colors? What is beauty anyway? Is it possible to answer such a question with the help of the exact sciences?

13. Does mathematics exist?

Is it true that people invented mathematics, or was it even before us? Many of the topics that we have already mentioned in the previous paragraphs are completely dependent on the exact sciences. Chemistry, physics, biology, medicine and music - all these areas can be expressed in numbers and equations. But what came first? Does it exist mathematical order in the universe, or did we invent it ourselves? Will aliens understand our mathematical concepts, or does this science have nothing to do with the true structure of the world?

12. What is gravity?

We know that gravity pulls objects towards each other, but why? Some scientists have even suggested that there are some hypothetical gravitons that explain the phenomenon of gravity. But the question is still open...

11. Why are we here?

Theoretically, it all started with big bang. But what exactly provoked the beginning of the expansion of the Universe? No one knows…

10. What is consciousness?

It is surprisingly difficult for scientists to distinguish between conscious and unconscious state. From the point of view of macroscopy (the study of an object with the naked eye), everything is simple - a person is either awake or not. But on a microscopic level, things are a little different, and scientists are still trying to find the difference.

9. Why do we sleep?

We used to think that animals needed sleep to rest and regenerate. However, our brains are no less active during sleep than when we are awake. Perhaps even more... In addition, it turned out that we actually do not need to sleep 8 hours to compensate for all the physical costs that have occurred during the day. In fact, we don't need it at all, according to the latest research on the subject. Our cells and muscles can also regenerate during the day while we are awake. So why do we need sleep? There are many hypotheses, but none has been proven yet.

8. Are we alone in this world?

In terms of statistical modeling, it is almost impossible to assume that the Earth is the only planet in the world that has life. The question is, how, where and when will we discover extraterrestrial cultures, and can we even recognize them as alien life? But what if these are not microscopic creatures or outlandish animals, but entire interstellar clusters that look like clouds, for example?

7. Matter and the Universe

If we collect and add together all the stars and galaxies that we can see in the night sky, they all take up no more than 5% of the mass of the universe. It turns out that dark matter and dark energy make up about 95%. Yes, we do not see most of what is in the sky. Then how do we know about the existence of these hypothetical types and forms of matter and energy? Scientists come to such conclusions on the basis of the influence of these quantities on the observed objects that are amenable to our perception and analysis.

6. Will we ever be able to predict the weather?

The weather is very difficult to predict. It all depends on the local topography, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and so on. We follow the forecasts for the coming days, but very often they change in the blink of an eye, and therefore it is quite difficult to trust these reports. At the same time, scientists are able to predict global climate change on long years forward. Isn't it a miracle? In fact, this does not contradict the difficulties in predicting accurate indicators for the coming days, because the climate is characterized by average statistics. For example, science can calculate that, on average, the current generation will live a little longer than their grandparents due to modern innovations and changed living conditions, but no one can predict the exact date of your death. Similarly, no one is able to predict how many degrees New York will be on January 1, 2030, but scientists are able to calculate some general trends based on the available statistics.

5. Ethics

What is good and what is bad? We tend to standardize everything and classify actions according to certain principles, based on generally accepted notions of ethics and morality. Why? What is murder? Why is that bad? What about theft? And why are eugenics, cloning, and natural selection so controversial? Why do some things cause us disgust and condemnation, while others delight and approval? Ethics and science have long existed either separately or contradict each other... Can they be united?

4. How did speech come about?

When a person is born, he does not know any language. He seems to be literally pure in a way. However, according to the theory of Jerry Fodor (Jerry Fodor), we all have an innate and universal language in which thoughts are made up of simple components - concepts. The American philosopher called this language mentalization, and Fodor believed that all elements of mentalization arise due to our sensory abilities. But how mentalism is subsequently replaced or develops into the language of this or that environment is still a mystery.

3. Who are you?

Remember we already talked about brain transplants? Let's say someone comes up with a way to transfer all the information from your brain into a computer program. Will she become you? Or if someone completely recreates all the atoms of your body, will it be your living copy? Or will a twin incredibly similar to you be born? What defines personality? Can it be transferred to another body? Scientists are still working on this puzzle.

2. What is death?

There is such a thing as clinical death, when the heart stops beating for a while. You can return from this state. And there is biological death. In this case, the body ceases to function completely and begins to rot. But is there something else between them? At what point does it become impossible to return to life? This question is also closely related to the question of what life is.

1. What happens to us after death?

Not surprisingly, this question is one of the most frequently asked among philosophers and theologians. It's no secret that mathematicians and physicists are rarely puzzled by this topic. However, we will never stop thinking about it. What awaits us on the other side? Nobody can answer for sure. It will probably remain a matter of faith.

Ecology of knowledge. Scientific research continue. The level of education of the population is growing. Surrounded by technological marvels

Scientific research continues. The level of education of the population is growing. Surrounded by technological marvels, from wearable electronics to communications satellites, we have to be smart as hell and understand the science, right? The problem is that we (well, not us, but many) are terrible ignoramuses when it comes to fundamental scientific knowledge. Only 53% of people know that the Earth revolves around the Sun in a year, and only 59% of people know that the first people and dinosaurs lived at different times, and not like in the Flintstones. Only 47% of people accurately answer that 70% of the Earth's surface is covered with water.

Clearly, while we have come a long way, there are still many steps ahead before we achieve universal scientific literacy. But for those of you who are desperate to change the subject when someone mentions the Higgs boson, supercomputers, or starts arguing that dinosaurs had feathers, there is a good reason to read this article. This article is about ten scientific questions that everyone should know the answers to.

Why the sky is blue?

We see blue or blue sky, white cloud feathers or heavy thunderclouds. But we still like blue skies more than overcast ones. European scientists have found that the light of the blue part of the spectrum has a positive effect on emotions, making us more sensitive to emotional stimuli and adapt to emotional difficulties.

But let's not digress. The sky appears blue due to the so-called scattering effect. Sunlight must pass through earth's atmosphere, filled with gases and particles that are barriers that sunlight hits. If you've ever held a prism in your hands, you know that light is made up of a bunch of different colors, each with a different length waves. At of blue color the wavelength is relatively short, so it passes through this filter more easily than longer wavelength colors, and as a result scatters more widely as it passes through the atmosphere. This is why the sky appears blue when the Sun is high in the sky.

At dawn and dusk, however, Sun rays must travel a greater distance to reach their position. This negates the wavelength advantage of blue and allows us to see other colors - often reds, oranges or yellows.

Why isn't the sky purple, you ask? Violet has an even shorter wavelength. But the solar spectrum is uneven, and there is less violet in it, moreover, the eye is more sensitive to blue and less to violet.

What is the age of the earth?

Probably none New Year on our planet, it’s not enough when someone doesn’t say in earnest: “I can’t believe that the Earth is 2015 years old!”. Or 2016, or 2017… The true age of the Earth has long been the subject of fierce debate. Back in 1654, a scientist named John Lightfoot, whose calculations were based on the Biblical Book of Genesis, proclaimed that the earth was created at 9 am Mesopotamian time on October 26 in 4004 BC. e. In the late 1700s, the scientist Comte de Buffon heated a small copy of the planet he had created and measured the rate at which it cooled, and based on these data he estimated the age of the Earth at 75,000 years. In the 19th century, physicist Lord Kelvin determined the age of the Earth at 20-40 million years.

But all this went down the drain with the discovery of radioactivity. Subsequent calculations showed the rate at which different radioactive substances. Earth Scientists used this knowledge to determine the age of the Earth's rocks, as well as samples from meteorites and pebbles brought from the Moon by astronauts. They looked at the decay state of the lead isotopes from the rocks and then compared it to a scale that showed how lead isotopes change over time. The earth formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago with an error of less than one percent.

How does natural selection work?

Like the age of the Earth, the theory of evolution - first developed by the biologist Charles Darwin in the mid-1800s - separate topic which people don't know but love to discuss. Nowadays, opponents of the theory of evolution are trying to remove it from the curriculum in schools or to have children learn "creation science" in addition to the theory of evolution.

And there is one idea that the opponents of evolution cling to: natural selection, central concept Darwin. It is quite easy to understand this idea. In nature, mutations - that is, a permanent change in the genetic program of microorganisms, which will subsequently distinguish a species from its predecessor - occur by chance. But evolution, a long process in which animals and plants have undergone many changes over many generations, is not accidental. Generally, changes in organisms become more common over time if they help the organism survive and reproduce.

For example, imagine that some beetles are green but mutate to become brown. Brown beetles blend in better with their surroundings than green beetles, so they are not often eaten by birds. More of them survive, they reproduce in greater numbers, and these changes are not temporary, but already permanent. Over time, the beetle population will turn brown. But this is the simplest option. In practice, natural selection takes as a basis the average, and not specific representatives, and it is not very easy to single out this process.

Will the sun ever go out?

If you think that the Sun stops shining for a person when he is going through difficult periods of his life, then in reality everything is not so. The irony is that the reality around us - the light of the Sun, the singing of birds - is more durable than our fragile feelings. Unless you were born 5.5 billion years later. At this point, the Sun, like another star, like a giant thermonuclear reactor, will exhaust all the hydrogen in its core and begin to burn hydrogen in the surrounding layers.

This will be the beginning of the end of the Sun - the core will shrink and the outer layers will expand, and the star will become a red giant. In the final flare, the Sun will fry the solar system with a burst of heat that will turn even the cool neighborhoods of Pluto and the Kuiper belt into a celestial sauna. inner planets, including the Earth, will be sucked in by the dying giant or turned into ashes.

However, if people do not colonize the solar system or other stars, no one will know about this final hell. The sun, which has outlived already half of its life span, gradually warms up, and after a billion years will be 10% more. The increase in solar radiation will be enough to evaporate all the earth's oceans, leaving us without water and other pleasures of life.

How do magnets work?

For a long time, magnets were considered something of a miracle. And this is sad, because to understand the principle of their work is quite simple. A magnet is any object or material that has a magnetic field. That is, a bunch of electrons in it float in the same direction. Electrons love to form pairs, and in iron, for example, there are many unpaired electrons that are easy to tie up to some kind of party. Therefore, objects made of solid iron, or in general with a large amount of iron, will be attracted to a sufficiently powerful magnet. Substances and objects attracted to magnets are called ferromagnets.

People have known about magnetism since time immemorial. Magnets are found in nature, and medieval travelers learned to magnetize steel compass needles, that is, they created their own magnetic fields. Such magnets were not particularly strong, but in the 20th century, scientists developed new materials and charging device which led to the creation of powerful permanent magnets. You can create an electromagnet from a piece of iron by wrapping it with electrical wire and attaching its ends to the poles of a large battery.

What causes a rainbow?

There is something special about this atmospheric phenomenon that has been awe-inspiring since ancient times. According to the Book of Genesis, the Lord put a rainbow in the sky after the Great Flood and told Noah that this was "a sign of an agreement between Me and the earth." The ancient Greeks went further and decided that the rainbow is the goddess Irida. True, her figure was sinister - she heralded war and retribution. For centuries, great minds, from Aristotle to Descartes, have tried to figure out what process produces the multicolored rainbow.

Now, of course, scientists know this well. Rainbows are caused by water droplets that remain suspended in the atmosphere after a good rainstorm. The density of the droplets is different from the density of the surrounding air, because when sunlight hits them, they act like tiny prisms, breaking the light into its component wavelengths and then reflecting them back. An arc is born with bands of color in the visible spectrum, which we see. Since the drops must reflect light back to us, in order to see a rainbow, you need to be with your back to the sun. You also need to look from the ground at an angle of about 40 degrees - this is the angle of deflection of the rainbow, that is, the angle at which it refracts sunlight. It is also interesting that, being in an airplane, you can see a rainbow in the form of a disk, not an arc.

What is the theory of relativity?

When someone mentions the "theory of relativity", they usually mean two theories at once, the special and the general, developed by the physicist Albert Einstein in the early 1900s. Regardless of the degree of our reverence for Einstein, people far from science have little understanding of his theories. Einstein himself came up with good way explanations: “When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems to him that a minute has passed. But let him sit on the hot stove for a minute, and it will seem to him for more than an hour. Everything is relative".

Everything seems to be clear, although the details, of course, are more complicated. Before Einstein, everyone pretty much believed that space and time are fixed and monotonous, never changing from whatever point on Earth you look at them. But Einstein used mathematics to prove that an absolute view of things is an illusion. In fact, space and time change: space can shrink, expand, bend, and time flows at different speeds depending on the speed of the object or the strength of the gravitational field.

In addition, the manifestation of space and time may depend on the point of view of a person. Imagine, for example, that you are looking at an old ticking clock. Now place this clock in Earth's orbit so that it moves at a tremendous speed compared to your position on Earth. Clocks in orbit will tick slower.

Clocks run slower due to the phenomenon of "time dilation". Space and time are actually parts of one whole space-time, which can be distorted by gravity and acceleration. Therefore, if an object is moving very fast or is subjected to a very powerful gravitational field, time for that object will go slower compared to an object that is not subjected to the same effect. Mathematical calculations can be used to predict how time will slow down for fast moving objects.

It probably sounds weird. But it's true. GPS satellites, which depend on accurate time measurements to map the Earth, good to that example. Satellites fly around the planet at a speed of about 14,000 kilometers per hour, and if the engineers had not adjusted the clock to take into account relativity, then in a day google maps would be wrong by almost 10 kilometers during positioning.

Why are bubbles round?

Yes, bubbles aren't always perfectly round, as you must have noticed if they've been blown at least once. But bubbles tend to be spherical, and it can be seen that even the longest of them tend to become round. The fact is that bubbles are essentially thin layers of liquid, the molecules of which are held together by a phenomenon called cohesion. It creates surface tension- a barrier that prevents objects from penetrating through it. But this is not the only force that acts on this layer. Outside, air molecules press. Most effective method for the liquid layer to counteract these forces - take the most compact form, which is a sphere, if you calculate the ratio of volume to area.

Remarkably, scientists long ago learned how to make non-circular bubbles - cubic, rectangular (stretching a thin layer of liquid on a wire frame), whatever.

What are clouds made of?

We hope that we will not disappoint anyone, but the clouds are actually not a mixture of ice cream and angel feathers. Clouds are the visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals, or a mixture of both, that are suspended above the Earth's surface. Clouds form when moist, warm air rises. As it rises higher and reaches colder zones, the warm air cools and the water vapor condenses into tiny water droplets or ice crystals, depending on the temperature. These drops and crystals stay stuck together thanks to the principle of cohesion, which we talked about a little earlier. This is how a cloud is born. Some clouds are thicker than others because they have a higher density of water droplets.

Clouds are a key part of our planet's hydrological cycle, during which water is constantly moving between the surface and the atmosphere, changing between liquid, solid and gaseous states. If not for this cycle, life on our planet might not exist.

In 1803, meteorologist Luke Howard identified four main classifications of clouds, which today have Russian and Latin names. Cumulus, or cumulus clouds, are piled up lumpy clouds that we often see in the sky. Cirrus, cirrus clouds, which means "hair" in Latin, are light feathers at a height as thin as strands of hair. Flat and inconspicuous clouds are stratus stratus, which means "layer" in Latin. There are also nimbus clouds, low and gray rain clouds. However, there are slightly more subspecies and varieties of clouds, as well as their mixtures.

Why does water evaporate at room temperature?

We humans tend to think of reality as a nice stable place where things stay in their place unless we want to move them. But the reality is different. If you look at water at the molecular level, the molecules look like a pack of puppies vying for the best position on their mother's belly. When a lot of water vapor collects in the air, the molecules bump into and stick to surfaces, causing condensation to form on the outside of a cold drink on a humid day.

Conversely, when the air is dry, the water molecules in your cup can stick to other molecules floating in the air. This process is called evaporation. If the air is dry enough, more molecules will move from the cup to the air than fall out of the air into the cup. Over time, the water will lose more and more molecules, and you will end up with an empty cup.

The ability of molecules from a liquid state to jump into the air and stick to it is called vapor pressure, because jumping molecules exert force, just like a gas or solid that presses on something. Different liquids have different vapor pressures. In acetone, for example, this indicator is high, that is, it evaporates easily. Olive oil, on the other hand, has a low vapor pressure and is unlikely to vaporize at room temperature.published