(Source: paradox-explained, via 4dspacetime)
C’s in Physics
Calorie: A unit of heat, 1Calorie = 4.186 joules.
Candela: The S.I. unit of luminous intensity defined as the luminous intensity in a given direction of a source that emits monochromatic photons of frequency 540 x 1012 Hz & has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 W/sr
Capacitance: The ratio of charge stored per increase in potential difference.
Capacitor: Electrical device used to store charge and energy in the electrical field.
Capillarity: The rise or fall of a liquid in a tube of very fine bore.
Carnot’s theorem: No engine operating between two temperatures can be more efficient than a reversible engine working between the same two temperatures.
Centrifugal force: An outward pseudo force acting on a body in circular motion.
Centripetal force: The radial force required to keep an object moving in a circular path; it is equal to mv2/r.
Charles’ law: For a given mass of a gas at constant pressure, the volume is directly proportional to the temperature.
Chromatic aberration: An optical lens defect causing color fringes, because the lens brings different colors of light to focus at different points.
Clausius’ statement of second law of Thermodynamics: It is not possible that at the end of a cycle of changes heat has been transferred from a colder body to a hotter body without producing some other effect.
Closed system: The system which cannot exchange heat or matter with the surroundings.
Coefficient of linear expansion: The increase in length per unit original length per degree rise in temperature.
Coefficient of superficial expansion: The increase in area per unit original area per degree rise in temperature.
Coefficient of volumetric expansion: The increase in volume per unit original volume per degree rise in temperature.
Coherent source: A source in which there is a constant phase difference between waves emitted from different parts of the source.
Condensation point: The temperature at which a gas or vapor changes back to liquid.
Conduction: The transfer of heat from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature by increased kinetic energy moving from molecule to molecule.
Convection: The transfer of heat by the actual transfer of matter.
Coulomb’s law: The force between any two charges is directly proportional to the product of charges and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the charges.
Critical angle: The angle of incidence in a denser medium for which angle of refraction is .
Cyclotron: A device used to accelerate the charged particles.
10 Things You Don’t Know About Albert Einstein
Most people know that Albert Einstein was a famous scientist who came up with the formula E=mc2. But do you know these ten things about this genius?
10. Loved to Sail
When Einstein attended college at the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, he fell in love with sailing. He would often take a boat out onto a lake, pull out a notebook, relax, and think. Even though Einstein never learned to swim, he kept sailing as a hobby throughout his life.
9. Einstein’s Brain
When Einstein died in 1955, his body was cremated and his ashes scattered, as was his wish. However, before his body was cremated, pathologist Thomas Harvey at Princeton Hospital conducted an autopsy in which he removed Einstein’s brain. Rather than putting the brain back in the body, Harvey decided to keep it, ostensibly for study. Harvey did not have permission to keep Einstein’s brain, but days later, he convinced Einstein’s son that it would help science. Shortly thereafter, Harvey was fired from his position at Princeton because he refused to give up Einstein’s brain.
For the next four decades, Harvey kept Einstein’s chopped-up brain (Harvey had it cut into over 200 pieces) in two mason jars with him as he moved around the country. Every once in a while, Harvey would slice off a piece and send it to a researcher. Finally, in 1998, Harvey returned Einstein’s brain to the pathologist at Princeton Hospital.
8. Einstein and the Violin
Einstein’s mother, Pauline, was an accomplished pianist and wanted her son to love music too, so she started him on violin lessons when he was six years old. Unfortunately, at first, Einstein hated playing the violin. He would much rather build houses of cards, which he was really good at (he once built one 14 stories high!), or do just about anything else. When Einstein was 13-years old, he suddenly changed his mind about the violin when he heard the music of Mozart. With a new passion for playing, Einstein continued to play the violin until the last few years of his life. For nearly seven decades, Einstein would not only use the violin to relax when he became stuck in his thinking process, he would play socially at local recitals or join in impromptu groups such as Christmas carolers who stopped at his home.
7. Presidency of Israel
A few days after Zionist leader and first President of Israel Chaim Weizmann died on November 9, 1952, Einstein was asked if he would accept the position of being the second president of Israel. Einstein, age 73, declined the offer. In his official letter of refusal, Einstein stated that he not only lacked the “natural aptitude and the experience to deal properly with people,” but also, he was getting old.
6. No Socks
Part of Einstein’s charm was his disheveled look. In addition to his uncombed hair, one of Einstein’s peculiar habits was to never wear socks. Whether it was while out sailing or to a formal dinner at the White House, Einstein went without socks everywhere. To Einstein, socks were a pain because they often would get holes in them. Plus, why wear both socks and shoes when one of them would do just fine?
5. A Simple Compass
When Albert Einstein was five years old and sick in bed, his father showed him a simple pocket compass. Einstein was mesmerized. What force exerted itself on the little needle to make it point in a single direction? This question haunted Einstein for many years and has been noted as the beginning of his fascination with science.
4. Designed a Refrigerator
Twenty-one years after writing his Special Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein invented a refrigerator that operated on alcohol gas. The refrigerator was patented in 1926 but never went into production because new technology made it unnecessary. Einstein invented the refrigerator because he read about a family that was poisoned by a sulphur dioxide-emitting refrigerator.
3. Obsessed Smoker
Einstein loved to smoke. As he walked between his house and his office at Princeton, one could often see him followed by a trail of smoke. Nearly as part of his image as his wild hair and baggy clothes was Einstein clutching his trusty briar pipe. In 1950, Einstein is noted as saying, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs,” Although he favored pipes, Einstein was not one to turn down a cigar or even a cigarette.
2. Married His Cousin
After Einstein divorced his first wife, Mileva Maric, in 1919, he married his cousin, Elsa Loewenthal (nee Einstein). How closely were they related? Quite close. Elsa was actually related to Albert on both sides of his family. Albert’s mother and Elsa’s mother were sisters, plus Albert’s father and Elsa’s father were cousins. When they were both little, Elsa and Albert had played together; however, their romance only began once Elsa had married and divorced Max Loewenthal.
1. An Illegitimate Daughter
In 1901, before Albert Einstein and Mileva Maric were married, the college sweethearts took a romantic getaway to Lake Como in Italy. After the vacation, Mileva found herself pregnant. In that day and age, illegitimate children were not uncommon and yet they were also not accepted by society. Since Einstein did not have the money to marry Maric nor the ability to support a child, the two were not able to get married until Einstein got the patent job over a year later. So as not to besmirch Einstein’s reputation, Maric went back to her family and had the baby girl, whom she named Lieserl.
Although we know that Einstein knew about his daughter, we don’t actually know what happened to her. There are but just a few references of her in Einstein’s letters, with the last one in September 1903. It is believed that Lieserl either died after suffering from scarlet fever at an early age or she survived the scarlet fever and was given up for adoption. Both Albert and Mileva kept the existence of Lieserl so secret that Einstein scholars only discovered her existence in recent years.
Schrödinger’s cat
Schrödinger’s Cat: A cat, a flask of poison and a radioactive source are placed in a sealed box. If an internal Geiger counter detects radiation, the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cateither alive or dead, not both alive and dead.
Schrödinger’s cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a cat that might be alive or dead, depending on an earlier random event. Although the original “experiment” was imaginary, similar principles have been researched and used in practical applications. The thought experiment is also often featured in theoretical discussions of the interpretation of quantum mechanics. In the course of developing this experiment, Schrödinger coined the term Verschränkung (entanglement).
Check “If instead of an apple it had been a coconout, Leibnitz would be the boss”: http://agc2.bandcamp.com/album/if-instead-of-an-apple-it-had-been-a-coconout-leibnitz-would-be-the-boss :D
(Source: engineering-laughter)
