Science For Enjoyment: A Whistle-Stop Q-and-A Tour for Everyone

By Bellarmin Selvaraj, PhD

This book is a Q-and-A tour for anyone with a curious mind. It focuses on the beauty and excitement of science rather than the details. It is an effort to stimulate everyone's scientific curiosity. It includes some mysteries, strange phenomena, and extremes in nature. It covers some interesting historical episodes. It sheds light on some common myths.

In this book, answers to a collection of over five hundred questions are provided in a conversational style. The objective is to simplify the scientific concepts and make them comprehensible, relevant, and enjoyable for all readers.

This book covers topics such as the history of science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, paleontology, technology, and astronomy. It includes modern ideas such as quantum theory, chaos theory, and dark energy. It offers the reader a whistle-stop tour of science.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9781638816294

Book preview

Science

for

Enjoyment

A Whistle-Stop Q-and-A Tour for Everyone

Bellarmin Selvaraj, PhD

Copyright © 2022 Bellarmin Selvaraj, PhD

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-63881-628-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63881-629-4 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

For my mother, in memoriam

Contents

Preface

Introduction

A Brief History

General Concepts

Mathematics

Classical Physics

Modern Physics

Chemistry

Biology and Medicine

Technology

Life on Earth

Planet Earth

Space Missions

Solar System

Universe

Further Reading

Index

Preface

We all use science every day. I have been fascinated by science since I was in high school. When I was a youngster, questions such as these intrigued me: Why does a magnet attract iron? Why does Earth rotate? Are there aliens on other planets as seen in science-fiction movies? When I played with Christmas lights and got an electric shock, I wondered why that mysterious thing I could not see hurt me. I wondered why I was able to ride my bicycle without falling off when I could not stay on it when the bicycle was not moving. As I got older, my fascination with science only grew.

After my retirement from teaching mathematics and computer science, I started reading more about several interesting phenomena both on Earth and beyond. I wanted to share it with anyone interested. I wanted to compile some interesting questions into a book for anyone with a curious mind. I wanted to present science in a way the reader would enjoy reading as well as learn. That was the genesis of this book. It started out as a pastime and ended up as a project.

Although my background is in mathematics, computer science, and technology, I found astronomy quite fascinating once I started reading about it. I also had to read about many new areas of science outside my fields. I had more questions than answers when I first thought about writing this book. What we know about the universe seems little in comparison to what we don’t know. There are also mysteries in the cosmos even the future generations may never fully understand because of the limits imposed by physics—at least based on our understanding of physics today. This book is not meant to be a typical science book. The objective of this book is to make science interesting to everyone with the hope that the reader would learn some new things from it.

When I was teaching mathematics, undergraduate students would sometimes come to my office for help in solving problems in physics. I tried to tell them some historical episodes or stories about physicists, wherever possible, but soon found out that most of them were interested in the right formula to use or the right answer more than anything else. That was another reason for writing this book—to tell some of those stories and episodes to anyone who wants to hear them. One day, when I was helping a student with a physics problem, I explained to her why the gasoline (petrol) engines in our cars are notoriously inefficient. It was a good context to show the relevance of physics to our lives. She looked at me with total incredulity that even her new car had such a low thermal efficiency. It was indeed some of my students who generated some of the questions in this book and prompted me to write about them.

My goal is to make people enjoy science. When we were born, we knew nothing. After we were born, we learned so much so fast because we were curious. We asked questions and wondered why things worked the way they did. Our parents, teachers, and others taught us some things; and we also learned some things ourselves because we were curious. We had inquisitive minds as children. This book is an attempt to uncover that kind of curiosity in science in everyone. When I taught undergraduate courses in mathematics and computer science, I attempted to kindle the curiosity and interest of students as much as possible. Especially in an area such as mathematics, interest often starts at an early age, as seen among the great mathematical minds in history. When writing this book, I had particularly undergraduate students in mind. I just wanted to spark their curiosity. I have also considered some common myths, and one of my goals is to shed some light on those areas.

First and foremost, I thank my friend Leo Subbarao, whose encouragement proved to be a huge help in bringing this book to fruition. Additionally I offer my deepest, most sincere thanks to my colleague Professor Jai Parkash for proofreading the manuscript and for his thoughtful comments. I am grateful to my late father, who kindled my love for mathematics and science as a youngster, particularly mathematics. I am grateful to him for asking questions that I couldn’t answer. I am grateful to my late uncle, who taught me that faith and science are complementary and not in conflict. My gratitude is extended to my teachers, both in high school and in college, who inspired me.

Finally I am grateful to Mr. Greg Fournier, Ms. Shana Fitzpatrick, and their team at Newman Springs Publishing for their role in bringing this book to fruition.

Introduction

When I started collecting materials for this book, one thing led to another; I had more questions than answers. Most of all, simplifying the concepts and making them presentable to everyone was more difficult than it seemed at the outset. I had to find a balance between the complexities of some scientific concepts and making them comprehensible for all readers. That was the real challenge. Another challenge was to make the topics relevant and interesting. There were several additions and deletions as a result, and that took quite a bit of time. It took me several months of solid effort to finish this book.

I have made a conscientious effort to stay away from rigorous mathematics and theories because that is not the purpose of this book. My goal is to explain the concepts or tell the stories and get the reader interested in the general ideas and histories. I have tried to present science as a way of seeing the world and make learning interesting. I have tried to focus on the beauty and excitement of science rather than the details, some of which are difficult to understand even for scientists in a different area of specialty. Certainly it is of no interest or value to the general public.

Whenever I taught an introductory course in calculus, I started the course with the story about both Newton and Leibniz deserving recognition for inventing calculus—not just Newton. Wherever possible, I introduced a new topic with a brief history behind it. I have always felt that, before students learn any new topic in mathematics or science, they should have some knowledge of its history to fully appreciate it. For that reason, I have included a brief history of science as a separate chapter. Furthermore, I believe learning should be interesting. It has motivated me to include some interesting stories wherever possible. When I was teaching full-time, I always felt that my primary responsibility was to inspire my students and teach them to think. That philosophy was in the back of my mind when I started writing this book. Therefore, I felt it was important to discuss the scientific method in this book.

I have always loved physics since my undergraduate days. Physics is a fundamental branch of science. Physics has explained so much in astronomy; but there are still areas, such as dark matter and dark energy, where physics has no satisfactory answers thus far. Many astronomers like physics, and many physicists like astronomy. Physics is fundamentally an experimental science. Without experimental or observational versification, no new idea can be recognized as valid by the physics community, and it will stay more in the realm of speculation or philosophy rather than a theory in physics. String theory is an example of this kind of idea. Nothing in string theory could be experimentally verified at least so far. This does not mean that an idea such as string theory needs to be ignored. The point here is that it cannot be accepted as theory until supported by an experiment or observation.

Modern physics is full of new theories and findings, some of which are surprising. Quantum physics turned our world upside down by questioning the very concept of an object’s existence and the Newtonian world. Astronomy tries to answer questions about the universe. New discoveries are made in astronomy almost on a daily basis. How did everything come to be, and why are we here? Is the planet we live on so special or somehow inevitable? Physicists have uncovered a hidden bizarre world of fundamental particles. Even our bodies are mostly empty space. The atoms in our bodies are supported by a scaffolding of nuclear forces. Physics grew out of philosophy, and in a way, it is turning back toward it by providing new and unexpected views of nature. Quantum mechanics surpasses our daily experiences.

Science is not just a collection of imaginative ideas. It is rooted in fact and experiment. The scientific method continually upgrades the laws of physics and everything else. If the evidence requires it, major shifts in thinking can be accommodated, but acceptance takes time. It took more than a generation for Copernicus’s idea that Earth orbits the Sun to be widely accepted. The pace has quickened after quantum physics and relativity were integrated into physics not too long ago. Even the most successful laws of physics are constantly being challenged and new ones added.

I generally prefer to use the metric units. Nevertheless, I have tried to include the British imperial units—such as foot and pound—when they seemed appropriate for some readers. For temperature, I have used both Celsius and Fahrenheit, wherever possible, even though the scientific community generally uses Celsius. In this book, I have used pounds and kilograms as if these two were in the same category. In physics, pound is a unit of force (thus weight), and kilogram is a unit of mass. Therefore, it is incorrect to use them as if they were in the same category. I have decided to put them in the same category on the grounds that it would be too confusing otherwise for some readers. After all, the scales in grocery stores are marked in pounds and kilograms. Even in countries that use the metric system, people would say, for example, I weigh 75 kilograms. They won’t say, I weigh 735 newtons, which would be appropriate in terms of physics. (Earth’s gravitational acceleration is 9.8 m/s/s; 75×9.8=735.) In physics, speed and velocity are distinct quantities. I have decided to use them interchangeably to keep it simple for all readers.

This book offers the reader a whistle-stop tour of the landscape of science. It covers some interesting episodes. It sheds light on some common myths. It includes some mysteries, strange phenomena, and extremes in nature. It covers topics such as the history of science, some basic concepts, mathematics, classical physics, chemistry, biology, paleontology, technology, and astronomy. It also includes modern ideas such as quantum theory, chaos theory, and dark energy.

It is worth mentioning that topics such as astronomy and paleontology are burgeoning fields. New discoveries are made on a regular basis, and some records are inevitably shattered. Certain things won’t stand the test of time, including certain ideas in physics. I have written this book on the best-effort basis, based on what we knew at the time of this writing. Although accurate at the time of this writing, the reader must be cognizant that new discoveries will be made in the future that could make some of the statements in this book obsolete.

A Brief History

Scientific Developments

How did the Babylonians and the Egyptians influence our daily routines?

Babylon was the capital of southern Mesopotamia (Babylonia). It was founded about four thousand years ago. It is one of the famous ancient cities (located in modern southern Iraq).

Most historians believe the reason behind why we organize our lives around a seven-day week may go back to Babylon. The number 7 had a mystical significance to the ancient Babylonians. Most scholars believe weeks have seven days corresponding to the interval between phases of the Moon, introduced by the ancient Babylonians. Some historians, however, believe the ancient Babylonians associated seven days with the seven heavenly bodies they knew of at that time: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. Historical sources seem to indicate that the connection between the days of the week and the classical planets was popularized later by the ancient Greeks. There are sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour. This system was introduced by the ancient Babylonians. The Babylonians used the sexagesimal (base 60) number system.

Another Babylonian influence is the twelve months in a year, based on their zodiac system with its twelve signs. The Babylonians split the heavens into twelve equal sections, one for each lunar month and carrying the name of a prominent constellation (a group of stars). Translated into Latin, these now exist as twelve signs of the zodiac family familiar from newspaper horoscopes, such as Aries the ram and Taurus the bull. The ancient Babylonians also struggled to reconcile the solar year, which is a little over 365 days long. Unlike our calendar, the Babylonians just devised a technique based on adding the thirteenth month every three years.

Most historians credit the ancient Egyptians for dividing the time between sunrise and sunset into twelve parts, thus giving us the twenty-four-hour day. The Egyptian calendar also had twelve months, and each month had thirty days.

What we have may not be the most convenient system, but it has become deeply entrenched throughout the world. During the French Revolution in the late 1700s, a more rational system of ten-hour days and ten-day weeks was introduced, but it was soon abandoned.

What is the history of the calendar in use today?

As a reform of the difficult and old Roman calendar, Julius Caesar introduced a calendar based on the Egyptian solar calendar. The Julian calendar came into force in 45 BC. The Gregorian calendar was introduced as a refinement of the Julian calendar in 1582 and is today in worldwide use as the de facto calendar for secular purposes.

The motivation for the adjustment was to bring the date for the celebration of Easter to the time of year in which it was celebrated when it was introduced by the early church. Although a recommendation of the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 specified that all Christians should celebrate Easter on the same day, it took almost four centuries of struggle—religious and otherwise—before virtually all Christians achieved that objective by adopting the rules of the Gregorian calendar after its introduction in 1582.

By the sixteenth century, the seemingly minor error in the Julian calendar (estimating the solar year to be about eleven minutes and fourteen seconds shorter than it actually was) had accumulated to a ten-day discrepancy between the calendar and reality. The date for Easter celebration was off by ten days. Pope Gregory XIII employed a German Jesuit and astronomer, Christopher Clavius, to find a solution. By calculating that the error amounts to three days in four hundred years, Clavius suggested an ingenious adjustment. His proposal, which became the basis of the calendar known after the commissioning pope as Gregorian, is that century years (or those ending in 00) should be leap years only if divisible by four hundred. This eliminates three leap years (divisible by four) in every four centuries and cleverly solves the problem. The result, in the centuries since the reform, is that 1600 and 2000 were normal leap years; but the intervening 1700, 1800, and 1900 did not include February 29.

More precise measurements in the twentieth century have introduced a further refinement of the Gregorian calendar though not one of immediate significance. The proposed system adds one day in every 3,323 years. The proposed solution is that years divisible by 4,000 will not be leap years.

The Gregorian calendar was introduced at a time of great religious upheaval in Europe, and many countries were in no hurry to change because it was commissioned by the bishop of Rome. Some people even accused the pope of shortening their lifetime by ten days. Russia did not convert to the Gregorian calendar until after the Russian Revolution in 1917.

What is the brief history of clocks?

The word clock comes from the Latin word for bell, clocca. Although it may seem strange nowadays, seven centuries ago, visualizing time as something measurable was uncommon. People’s lives were governed by daylight and darkness of night, by summer and winter, and by planting and harvesting.

Historians claim the first method of measuring time goes as far back as 3500 BC. People then used a vertical stick in the ground, and the time of day was determined by measuring the length of the shadow when struck by sunlight. It was called a gnomon.

There is some historical disagreement as to when the oldest mechanical clock was invented. In the early to mid-fourteenth century, Italy made history when one of its churches struck twenty-four equal hours for the first time. Prior to that, visualizing time as something that could be broken down into equal segments was not popular in Europe. By the end of the fourteenth century, several cathedrals in Europe boasted prominent clock towers to regulate time and also the lives of people.

Mechanical clocks had the same basic problem: time depended heavily on the amount of driving force and the amount of friction in the drive, so the time was difficult to regulate. Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist Christiaan Huygens made the first pendulum clock in 1656. And clocks became far more accurate.

Atomic clocks are the most precise devices to measure time today. They are used in Global Positioning System (GPS). The most stable measurement clock that is used as the standard for the second is the cesium-133 clock. Science relies on precision measurement and global coordination, yet this control through metered time was launched by Christian monks in medieval Europe.

What was the significance of astrology in the ancient world?

Astronomers were interested in the planets’ movements not just as an intellectual exercise but also as a way to discover how they influence people. Ptolemy (AD ca. 100–ca. 170) is considered by many as the author of one of the oldest complete manuals of astrology. In Ptolemaic astrology, different parts of the body are related to particular planets. Studying the stars remained important for Islamic and European physicians. William Shakespeare’s As You Like It presents the seven ages of man (All the world’s a stage), the stages of life in medieval society to modern society. In cosmological medicine, the seven ages of man corresponded to the seven classical planets.

What was the philosopher’s stone?

The philosopher’s stone is a legendary substance allegedly capable of turning inexpensive metals into gold. It was sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For a long time, it was the most sought-after goal in Western alchemy. One of the alchemists’ main goals was to find the philosopher’s stone.

Who was the first scientist in the Western world?

That title should probably go to Thales of Miletus (ca. 620–ca. 546 BC). He was a Greek/Phoenician philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer from Miletus in Asia Minor (located in modern Turkey). Many, including Aristotle, regard him as the first philosopher in the Greek tradition; and he is historically recognized as the first individual in the Western civilization known to have entertained and engaged in scientific philosophy.

When was the birth of modern science?

Historians have often placed the birth of modern science in the sixteenth century when Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) suggested that the Sun rather than Earth should be at the center of the universe. In those days, the word science was not in common use.

How old is the word scientist?

In her book Science: A Four Thousand Year History, Dr. Fara states that the word scientist was not even invented until 1833 when the British Association for the Advancement of Science was holding its third annual meeting. The conference delegates needed an umbrella term to cover their diverse interests. Expressions such as men of science, naturalist, or experimental philosopher were in common use until then. Critics at that time accused the new word scientist of being an American import. It was only in the early twentieth century that scientist was fully accepted. Eventually it became a compliment rather than a sneer to call someone a scientist.

What is the history of the metric system?

The idea behind the metric system—a decimal system of measurement—had been discussed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first practical realization of the metric system came in 1799, during the French Revolution, when the existing system of measure, which had fallen into disrepute, was temporarily replaced by a decimal system based on the kilogram and the meter. The work of reforming the old system of weights and measures was sponsored by the revolutionary government, including the approval of Louis XVI before his fall from power. Most of the world switched to the metric system in the latter half of the twentieth century. The simpler metric system makes basic calculations easier and thus less error prone.

The United States is the only industrialized country that still uses the British imperial system as its predominant system of measurement. The US Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 to coordinate and plan the increasing use of the metric system in the United States. A process of voluntary conversion was initiated, and the US Metric Board was established. The efforts of the Metric Board were largely ignored by the American public, and the Metric Board was decommissioned in 1982.

The American scientific community, however, uses a coherent system of units called the International System of Units. It is abbreviated as SI (French: Système international d’unités). One way to think about it is standardized metric units for scientific work. For example, the SI unit for length is the meter (m)—not the kilometer, centimeter, or millimeter.

What is the history of the Fahrenheit and the Celsius temperature scales?

Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736) was born in a predominantly German-speaking city of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was a physicist and scientific-instrument maker. He was the inventor of the reliable mercury thermometer. Fahrenheit’s deliberate choice for the temperature scale was named after him. He based it on freezing water, human body temperature, and the coldest point that he could cool a solution of water, ice, and a kind of salt (ammonium chloride). After his death, the Fahrenheit scale was recalibrated to make 32ºF as the freezing point and 212ºF as the boiling point of pure water.

Anders Celsius (1701–1744) was a Swedish astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was a professor of astronomy. After careful considerations, Celsius designed his own temperature scale. It may surprise some people that the temperature scale Celsius originally designed was based on 100ºC as the freezing point of water and 0ºC as the boiling point of water. After his death, the scale was changed to 0ºC as the freezing point of water and 100ºC as the boiling point of water.

In the late eighteenth century, Celsius was integrated into the metric system. Celsius is a good scale that assigns freezing and boiling points of water with numbers 0 and 100. Up until the latter half of the twentieth century, it was much more common to say centigrade rather than Celsius. Since centigrade was thought to mean one-hundredth of a grade, it lost support in the scientific community and eventually in most countries for general purpose.

When did the science of ecology get started?

The concept of ecology had no firm beginnings. Most science historians think the modern science of ecology was founded by Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), who defined and gave substance to the word ecology in the late 1860s. He was a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, and artist. Ecology started out as the study of the relation between living creatures and their surroundings. Haeckel promoted the philosophy that all Earth’s organisms coexist as a single unit, competing against each other but also offering mutual aid.

What was the most famous failed experiment in history?

The Michelson-Morley experiment became what might be