Recent content by Ian

I asked this of my maths lecturer in uni. He took about ten seconds to mentally perform the calculation/integration. Can you beat his time? Q. A cyclist rides 100 miles from point A to point B at a constant velocity of 20mph. As he leaves point A, a bee on his handlebars flies ahead of him...

I thought the same at first, but Mr Madoff took from peter to pay paul, in other words, he simply gave away the banks money and lived on the semblance of being the world 'money guru'. The money was actually physically there to begin with, it is not a question of what Enron did, which was 'false...

Loren, If a sphere like has an axis of rotation through its north and south poles, as you observe it rotating you would see that its equatorial plane has the fastest motion on the spheres surface. If we add another axis of rotation perpendicular to the poles (i.e., through its equator) and...

Inflation in our world economy is determined by the amount of money chasing the available products and services. This is not the same as 'pricing' which is set by the demand for products and services. Now, recently the world banking system lost billions. The money has not vanished into thin air...

Sorry, I posted this twice in error.

Q1. What is the magnitude of the electric force between a proton & electron? [SIZE="1"](8.238x10-8 N) Q2,What is the magnitude of the gravitational force between a proton & electron? [SIZE="1"](3.63x10-47 N) Q3.What is the magnitude of the velocity of light? [SIZE="1"](299792458 m s-1)...

Q1. What is the magnitude of the electric force between a proton & electron? [SIZE="1"](8.238x10-8 N) Q2,What is the magnitude of the gravitational force between a proton & electron? [SIZE="1"](3.63x10-47 N) Q3.What is the magnitude of the velocity of light? [SIZE="1"](299792458 m s-1)...

RandallB, If you look at Einstein's original equation when he calculated the advance of mercury's perhelion you will see that he first deduced for a circular orbit and then he added the 'correction' for an elliptical orbit. The units of the advance for a circular orbit are 'metres', as shown...

"The tiny humans, who had skulls about the size of grapefruits" It's not a 'human' or a 'hobbit', its a monkey! Look, we found live orangutangs and fondly call them 'the old men of the forest'. If there were no living 'tangs' some bright spark would probably have found a 'tang' skeleton and...

Nickelodeon, When calculating the precession of any planet make sure you calculate the length the body advances along the path of orbit - don't calculate the angular advance as Einstein did, or everyone else for that matter. If the orbit of mercury was circular you would not observe an advance...

George, Imagine that you are swinging on a trapeze. In this 'you' are the Earth and the 'moon' is the trapeze pivot. If you do a 'loop the loop' as you swing, your hands holding the bar will feel a force toward the pivot - this force represents the higher tide on the side of the Earth facing...

Phil, The ball on the second platform will experience a force which will try to increase its raduis of rotation if the angular velocity is high enough to overcome the downward force of the Earth's gravity. As the rotating platform loses velocity (due to frictional forces) the centrifugal force...

I think if you look and see you will find that Mugabe was disliked from before he harmed anyone. The point being that goverments don't give a monkeys who gets hurt of their electorate, they are only concerned with their own 'inter-govermental system' power struggles. Besides, Mugabe's...

Zimbob has misrepresented what has happened in Zimbabwe. Before 1964 Zimbabwe used to be part of the Federation of Northern, Southern Rhodesia & Nyasaland. Nyasaland (now Malawi) and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) gained independence from the colonialists ~ 1964 but the white minority living in...

If the sun is converting matter to energy it must be losing mass at roughly one Earth mass per 43 million years (calculated from the solar constant). How would the loss of solar mass affect the Earth's orbit?