5 Mind-Blowing Physics Facts

Physics is weird. It's definitely awesome and certainly a rigorous science, but when you have a subject whose mission is basically to learn about "everything in the universe", some wacky things are bound to pop up. Even though we have gained an understanding of many of the universe's fundamental laws and tendencies, there are some things that still blow your mind. Here's a list of just a few...

5. Everything Is Empty 

What comes to mind when I say the word "atom". For most people, an image of a tiny billiard ball comes to mind. We think of these little solids huddled close together that make up everything around us. If that is you, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Which is okay! I mean, you'd probably think I was crazy if I told you that atoms are 99.99999% empty. Except, that's actually true! 

When Ernest Rutherford conducted his famous gold foil experiment in which he shot a beam of particles at a thin sheet of gold foil, he noticed that the vast majority of the particles passed right on through, indicating that atoms are mostly empty space. To really get across how mind boggling this is, consider this: According to Physics.org, if you were to get rid of all of the empty space in atoms and take all of the actual "stuff" like the atomic nucleus, you would actually be able to squeeze the entire human race into the volume of a sugar cube! Think about it: despite feeling very solid, you are basically nothing but empty space. 

Solidity (the feeling of something being solid) is a complete illusion. The only reason your butt doesn't pass right through your chair right now is because of trillions upon trillions of intermolecular forces and exchanges between particles (ex. the electrons in your butt repel the electrons in your chair, meaning you're kind of hovering on your chair right now…in a way). To keep the world together and solid, particles and molecules are constantly doing an intricate dance…just for your ass.  

4. Where Is the Rest of the Universe? 

The universe has a lot of stuff in it and, as you can probably guess, is pretty heavy with all of that stuff floating around. With clever techniques, physicists can actually count all of that stuff and try to measure the universe or solar system that way. 

Sounds like a great plan, right? Here's the catch: when we count all of the mass of the stuff that is visible (which includes just about everything you could think of: stars, planets, asteroids, dust, etc.), we get one answer. Just to check though (because physicists can be oh so picky), they tried another method of calculating the mass of the solar system around them. This time, they examined gravitational effects they could detect which would give them the mass of things causing these gravitational effects (bigger objects=bigger force of gravity). Should be the same right? I mean, anything that exhibits gravitational force (even dust) should be visible and could be counted by that first method, right....? Yeah...no. They got a completely different answer! The second number (which would be the more accurate) was way bigger! In fact, scientists were forced to conclude that everything that is visible (chairs, computers, stars, you, me and swiss cheese) make up a grand total of....4.9% of the universe's mass. 

Where is the rest of the universe? Well, we kind of don't know. There's definitely something out there though that has mass that we can't see. Physicists have dubbed this stuff "Dark Matter" (which would make a great band name) at about 68.3% of the universe (the rest - 26.8%- is from dark energy...but that's a story for another day...). Oh yeah, and the thing that really sucks about Dark Matter? We can't see it. It doesn't interact with light or the electromagnetic spectrum like everything else around us does. We don't even know what that shit is made up of. Current research is being done in the field to figure just what the heck is going on, but for now, Dark Matter remains a mystery. 

3. You Can Get Heavier By Moving Faster

Einstein was a funny guy with some funny ideas. One of his craziest theories was his theory of special relativity which, among other things, stated that the faster you go, the greater your mass becomes. That's right, running a race will make you heavier! While this is true, the speeds we move at on a day-to-day basis are much too slow to change anything significant. If we were to go at extremely high speeds (say 60% of the speed of light; a.k.a. pretty fucking fast), we would start to see differences - although you yourself wouldn't feel them. As you approach the speed of light (which you wouldn't be able to but whatever), your mass approaches infinity! Huh?!

That wasn't all we got from Einstein though. Special Relativity also tells us that lengths contract at high speeds and time slows down for you if you travel very fast. But I'll leave it there since Special Relativity deserves an entire article itself. If there's one thing to take away though, it is this: If you want to keep yourself from gaining weight, don't run! 

2. Particles Know You Are Watching Them 

Okay, that title is a little misleading. Particles don't have brains and eyes...but they are very mischievous. You see, the weird thing is that particles like electrons can act one way when we measure them, and then a completely different way when we look away. It was once widely believed that particles behave like...well, particles. But then, Thomas Young came around with his famous double split experiment that proved that light (and other particles) can behave like waves. So, who's right? Well, they both are! But how can they be two completely different things at the same time, you may ask. We actually never get to observe this - every time we make a measurement with a particle are observe it, it will quickly behave nicely and act as either a particle or a wave, depending on the experiment. But when we're not "looking" (or measuring), the current interpretation is that the particle is both a particle and a wave simultaneously. 

This little trick is called wave-particle duality and it really is weird. Philosophers and spiritual folk eat this shit up and like to see it as an indication that human observation affects the nature of the universe…or something like that. Other questions include: Just what is the universe doing when we're not looking? Does consciousness affect reality? Of course, physicists have real answers for these questions, but that's a topic for another post. 

1. A Speck Of Dust Is Halfway Between The Size of The Earth And A Subatomic Particle

 

I find this one amazing. We're talking about those tiny specks of dust that you sometimes see suspended in a beam of light, just floating around. Think of that tiny thing, compared to the entire, freaking earth! And then consider that that is the halfway point between the giant beast we all live on and a subatomic particle! Just...wow. I have nothing else to say about this one. Physics is awesome. Thanks for reading!