Quantumaniac

Symmetree

Physics Clock

• Newton became a professor of mathematics at only 26.
• Newton practiced Alchemy. 
• Newton was elected as a member of parliment. His membership lasted only a year.
• Newton earned the title of Warden of the Royal Mint.
• Newton oversaw the recoinage of the whole country.
• Newton was knighted because of his political activites.
• He was named after his father who died three months before Isaac was born.
• Isaac was born early. He was so small he could have put him in a quart jug.
• Isaac’s father could hardly write his name.
• Isaac was one of the worst in his class until a bully at school kicked him. Isaac challenged him to a fight even though he was smaller. He won. That wasn’t enough for him, he decided to be better than the bully at school as well.
• Isaac liked to draw, his room was even colored on the ceilings and walls.
• Newton was born on Christmas.

Fractal Tetrahedron

Calculus Board

The Book that Started It All

Gravitational Waves

In 1916, Albert Einstein revolutionized the physics world with his theory of general relativity. This theory was the first to predict the existence of gravitational waves - a fascinating concept. Gravitational waves are effectively ripples in the curvature of spacetime which travel outward from the source - sources could possibly include binary star systems composed of white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes. Gravitational waves cannot exist in the Newtonian theory of gravitation, since in it physical interactions propagate at infinite speed.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity effectively states that gravity is a phenomenon due to the curvature of spacetime. Massive objects cause this curvature - with mass being roughly proportional to the strength of the curvature that object produces. As massive objects move around in spacetime, this curvature inevitably changes. In general, gravitational waves are produced by objects whose motion include acceleration and are not symmetric (examples of symmetrical motion would be an expanding balloon or spinning cylinder). When accelerated, these objects would cause disturbances in spacetime which would spread like ripples on the surface of a pond. This disturbance is known as gravitational radiation - which is thought to travel at the speed of light and never stop or slow down, yet weaken with distance. 

Although gravitational radiation has not been directly detected, there is indirect evidence for its existence. The 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for measurements of the Hulse-Taylor binary system, which suggests that gravitational waves are much more than mere mathematical anomalies. gravitational wave detectors exist, yet they remain unsuccessful in detecting such phenomena.

List of Paradoxes

Here’s just a few interesting ones! 

• Barber Paradox: A male barber shaves all and only those men who do not shave themselves. Does he shave himself?
  
• Curry’s Paradox: If this sentence is true, then Santa Claus exists.
• Exception Paradox: If there is an exception to every rule, then every rule must have at least one exception; the exception to this one being that it has no exception.
• The Pinocchio Paradox: What would happen if Pinocchio said “My nose will start growing”?
• Opposite Day Paradox: “It is opposite day today.” Therefore it is not opposite day, but if you say it is a normal day it would be considered a normal day.
• Socratic Paradox: I know that I know nothing at all.
• Friendship Paradox: For almost everyone, their friends have more friends than they do.
• Force Paradox: What would happen if an unstoppable force hit an immovable object?
• Twin Paradox: The theory of relativity predicts that a person making a round trip will return younger than his or her identical twin who stayed at home.
• Omnipotence Paradox: Can an omnipotent being create a rock too heavy for itself to lift?
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Paradox: We learn from history that we do not learn from history.