88 Miles per hour: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 07:47, 15 August 2012
Lesson idea. Lesson 5 of a series of 6 entitled “Astronomy masterclass” (SC0018).
Teaching approach. The lesson initially looks at time travel, however the overriding theme is that of modelling(ta) and scientific method(ta). It aims to show students that it is acceptable to get a result that doesn't fit with what you expect. It just means you need to change what you expect next time! (edit)
| Resource details | |
| Title | 88 Miles per hour |
| Topic | [[Topics/Astronomy|Astronomy]] |
| Teaching approach | [[Teaching Approaches/Modelling|Modelling]], [[Teaching Approaches/Scientific method|Scientific method]] |
| Learning Objectives | By the end of the session students should be able to:
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| Format / structure | A Narrated Screencast of Session 5 from the Astronomy Masterclass. This fifth session looks at the frontiers of human understanding and the truly strange world proposed by Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. |
| Subject | [[Resources/Science|Science]] |
| Age of students / grade | [[Resources/Secondary|Secondary]]
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| Related ORBIT Wiki Resources | |
| Files and resources to view and download | For session 5 of the Astronomy Masterclass, see p141 to 199 of the full PDF at https://www.box.com/shared/aqnk3lvr09
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Teacher's Notes
Session 5 – 88 miles per hour
88 mph is the speed at which you must go to travel through time in Back to the future. Intro video is the original trailer for that film.
•This session will look at the question of time travel (amongst other topics) in the context of why we don’t understand everything. It aims to introduce the concept of modelling and points out how far we have to go to get a complete picture of everything.
• Video – Teaser from Back to the future – Are time and space really the same thing – can you Travel in Time?
• The sequence is +2.2 and display to 0 decimal places rounding down each time – for the first 4 numbers it follows a regular pattern – but then the model that we were using (add 2) breaks down causing us to go back to the drawing board. The same thing often happens in science. One observation can cause a whole theory to be questioned and changed
• Example from chemistry
- Model of atoms as smallest building blocks
- Plum pudding model
- Understanding of a nucleus (Rutherford)
- Charged particles in a nucleus
- Quark model (see session 4)
• Each time the model gets more refined based on new evidence and experiment – It is NOT that the old models are wrong – or that the people who first stated them were stupid – more that new evidence makes a better model possible – however it is still just a model and will no doubt be improved in the future.
• Lord Kelvin made some outlandish statements (but also did some very good science) however it is wrong to consider him stupid for them – predicting the future is notoriously difficult...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thomson,_1st_Baron_Kelvin
• No clearer is this demonstrated than the theory of special relativity.
- Thought experiment – turning the lights on, on a car travelling very very very fast.
- Is the speed of light in this case c? Or c + v?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
- Mickleson-Morley experiment proved it was always c
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelson%E2%80%93Morley_experiment
- Light clock thought experiment – I suggest you only deal with a brief explanation of time dilation and ignore length contraction etc.
- Consequence of this is that as you watch someone move fast you see time slow down for them.
- Concorde example. (fly 1 clock to JFK and back and leave another @ LHR)
- Twin example (ignoring the paradox component – twin that visits alpha centauri @ .95c comes back to find her identical twin much older than she is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_paradox
- Example in the case of a black hole
General relativity states that time also slows down in the case of a gravitational field
• So time passes faster the weaker gravity is – example the clocks on the GPS satellites have to be constantly corrected.
This can lead to extreme slowdowns of time
If you fell into a black hole – your friend watching would see you almost stop completely on the event horizon – whereas you would see all the future of the universe flash before your eyes as you spaghettified.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghettification
• http://www.slate.com/id/2199664/
- Relativity tells us something very strange happens with big and fast things... so what about small things?
• Quantum mechanics
- Key figure Niels Bohr
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr
- Quantum means “the smallest discrete quantity of some physical property that a system can possess” so a quantum of solace basically means – a very small bit of peace and quiet.
- It is important because if the universe has a smallest possible size for something – then it will be impossible to measure something smaller.
How long is a table? (analogous to the how long is a piece of string)
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8363934.stm
Video - is from the HBO series “the elegant universe” adapted from a book by Brian Greene
• Key point is that QM works very very well with the small – and GR works well with the big – but when you deal with something Heavy and small (like a black hole or the “big bang) you get nonsensical answers as you have to use BOTH.
- Therefore there is something wrong with one or both of these foundational theories in science...
• Close is often good enough... Video - we got to the moon without worrying about this...
- But sometimes it isn’t
Video - Chloe and Keith’s Wedding clip is a setup – but it is still funny...
• Pioneer Anomaly also points to potential wrongness in theory of gravity...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_anomaly
End of Session 5
Potential Cloudy weather options
• Video task from session 4
• Describe in a leaflet to a friend why time isn’t constant!?
• Come up with your own theory of the universe (you get to name it after yourself)
