Show:
Plasma/Nobel Prizes
Is it a particle or a wave?
Movie Physics?
F's in Optics
Astronomy
100
He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.”
Who was Albert Einstein?
100
He avoided the “ultraviolet catastrophe”
Who is Max Planck?
100
Created using the rare substance “Decalithium”, a single drop of this colorful, portable, containable material can create a singularity. Nero used a small amount of it, drilled into the core of Vulcan, to create an artificial black hole that quickly eradicated most of the Vulcan race as well as their home planet. (VIDEO CLIP)
What is "red matter?"
100
See supplement doc
What is finesse?
100
These three “laws” of planetary motion also describe the motion of any object orbiting another massive object.
What are Kepler’s Laws?
200
She won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911.
Who was Marie Curie?
200
Ubiquitous in physics, this quantum mechanical version has an energy ladder with rungs separated by units of hw (hbar*omega).
What is a quantum harmonic oscillator?
200
The bus from the movie Speed can do what, that ordinary, mortal buses cannot? (VIDEO CLIP)
What is drive off an unfinished bridge at 67 mph and defy the law of gravity!
200
Lent his last name to far-field diffraction (first name is Joe).
Who was Fraunhofer?
200
These very large gaseous planets were unexpectedly found orbiting their host stars in less-than-10-day orbits.
What are hot Jupiters?
300
Of the 10 youngest people to ever win a Nobel Prize in any category, this many won the award in Physics. Multiple choice: (a) 7; (b) 5; or (c) 3.
What is 7?
300
The condition when two or more quantum states are described by identical quantum numbers.
What is “degeneracy”?
300
This is the major flaw in the otherwise brilliant opening sequence of the classic sci-fi film Contact?
What is : Incorrect lookback time. The radio broadcasts are much older than they should be considering the distance from Earth where they are heard.
300
A fine fellow whose fringes are featured in Newton's rings.
Who was Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau?
300
The best evidence for the accelerating expansion of the Universe comes from measurements of these objects.
What are supernovae? (Also acceptable: what are Type Ia supernovae?)
400
He was born in Missoula, Montana in 1967 and shared the Nobel Prize in 2011 "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.”
Who is Brian Schmidt?
400
They are the following set of matrices:
What are the Pauli Spin Matrices
400
Can you hear explosions in space? Which beloved sci-fi production gets it right? (Star Wars or Firefly? Star Wars clip to play)
What is Firefly?
400
He's got his own lens, type of diffraction, integral, and equations, the last of which provide reflectivity and transmission vs. angle.
Who was Augustin-Jean Fresnel?
400
This is the maximum mass of a white dwarf that may be supported by degenerate electrons.
What is the Chandrasekhar mass? (Also acceptable: What is 1.4 solar masses?)
500
The youngest person to ever win any Nobel Prize shared the prize in Physics with his father for “their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays.”
Who was Lawrence Bragg?
500
This theorem provides an experimentally verifiable test of whether “hidden variables” exist beyond our framework of quantum mechanics.
What is Bell’s Theorem?
500
These are a few of the most glaring suspensions of the laws of physics in the movie The Core. (video clip) (background on movie from Diane?)
What is the Earth’s outer core stops rotating, Earth’s magnetic field disappears, and there are large empty voids deep in the mantle!
500
Optical cavities and etalons are associated with these guys, Chuck and Alf, and their meddlesome interference.
Fabry-Perot
500
The measured shape of a distant star on an image, this function is the result of atmospheric motion and diffraction within the telescope.
What is the point spread function? (Also acceptable: What is the PSF?)