The Science Asylum

People say that solar power is the future of renewable energy, but how do solar panels work anyway? Join us as we explore the world of semiconductors using chemistry. http://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum

Most of our energy isn't generated chemically like in batteries or by solar panels. Whether, it's coal, gas, nuclear, wind, or water power; it's generated by magnetic induction and governed by Faraday's law from electrodynamics.

Most sources talk about Schwarzschild black holes, but those don't spin. Most are what we call Kerr black holes, or rotating black holes, surrounded by a region called an ergosphere. The spacetime around them is not only stretched, but also twisted, leading to some strange phenomena.

Whether or not pi exists has some very deep implications about circles, matter, computing, space-time, gravity, and quantum physics. Let's see if we can tackle some of them in honor of pi day!

Science Asylum is a proud partner of Dollar Shave Club. http://www.dollarshaveclub.com/scienceasylum

It's often said that light is an electromagnetic wave, a disturbance in electric and magnetic fields, but what does that mean? How are they made? Let's take a deeper look at electrodynamics and this history behind the discovery to see if we can find an answer.

When physics students first learn about Newton's law and momentum, they get the impression that it's all about mass. If that's true, how can mass-less light have momentum? It's because mass isn't actually required.

Color is a property that belongs to light (i.e. electromagnetic waves). We only think objects are colored because of the light they reflect and scatter. In fact, some of the colors you see are an illusion created by your eyes and brain. What colors are real and which ones are fake? Let's find out.

We might not have unified electrodynamics until 1865, but we've known light was a wave since the original double-slit experiment in 1801. Let's talk about diffraction and wave interference.

Do quantum particles actually know if they're being watched like the double-slit experiment suggests? Does the delayed-choice quantum eraser finally prove this? No, but let's ask some better questions and see what's going on.

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Go to http://audible.com/thescienceasylum or text 'thescienceasylum' to 500 500 to get started today. Is energy always conserved? Well, Noether's theorem in combination with Lagrangian mechanics and general relativity tells us that isn't true in general.

Gradients, a form of the del operator, are a way to measure change in field strength across one, two, or even three dimensional space. They come up all over physics: fluid dynamics, conservative forces, electrodynamics, cosmology. They're the reason that anything ever happens.

Maxwell's equation are written in the language of vector calculus, specifically divergence and curl. Understanding how the electromagnetic field works requires we also understand that language. Unfortunately, symbols can be ugly, so let's try some dynamic visuals instead.

Electrodynamics (electricity and magnetism) is governed by Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law, but that left it a little broken. It would take Albert Einstein inventing special relativity to fix it. If magnets are based on motion and motion is relative, how does that work?

The most mysterious aspect of quantum mechanics is the wave function. What does it have to do with probability and statistics? Let's find out. Also, check out Brilliant for 20%: http://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum

Electric and magnetic fields were considered the end-all-be-all of electromagnetism. However, in 1959, two physicists (Aharonov and Bohm) proposed a quantum mechanical experiment that shows electric and magnetic potentials are actually more real.

Lots of sources and videos explain photosynthesis through the lens of biology, but what does a physicist see as important? Can a physicist explain a biology topic? How deep will their explanation go? Let's find out.

Mirrors are weird. To truly understand them, we'll need not only ray and wave optics, but also photons, wave functions, probability, and quantum mechanics. Brilliant for 20% off: https://brilliant.org/ScienceAsylum

What's the difference between a mirror and a piece of paper? The answer requires an understanding of surface texture, but also light scattering, Huygens principle, and electrical conductivity. Optics is metal!

A lot of optical illusions can be explained by Fermat's principle of least time, but why does light obey it? On a fundamental level, it all comes down to quantum mechanics, specifically quantum optics, where we use the famous "Feynman path integral formulation" to explain light through photons.

We measure geologic time millions of years and cosmic time in the billions. These numbers seem impossible to understand, so let's get some perspective with a different unit: the galactic year.