Phew missus - Chris and I had quite a day's work today. By the end of it I think we were In The Zone; we did the Moon card in half an hour!
Here's the science for the Magician, Hermit, Devil and Moon cards - any critiquing will be very welcome.
Magician – The Electromagnetic Force
The Electromagnetic (EM) Force is the power behind both magnetism and light. It is distributed in waves of different lengths that make up the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Visible light is only a tiny part of the EM spectrum, which also contains X-rays, Gamma rays, microwaves, TV and radio waves. Gamma rays and X-rays have a very short wavelength, i.e. the waves are very densely packed together, whereas microwaves and radio waves have a very long wavelength.
Although the EM Force is distributed in waves, it also has a carrier particle known as the photon. Photons have no mass and always travel at the speed of light, about 186,000 miles per second (in a vacuum). EM waves with a higher wavelength also have a higher photon energy (measured in electron volts). Conversely, waves with a lower wavelength, like radio waves have a lower photon energy.
Hermit – Subatomic Particles
Just over 100 years ago, scientists believed that atoms were the smallest particles of matter in the universe. However, in the early years of the 20th century, it was discovered that atoms had structure, and were made out of smaller constituents: a nucleus, with a positive charge, with one or more negatively charged electrons orbiting around it. Then it was discovered that the nucleus was not fundamental, but made up of two types of matter – protons, which have a positive charge, and neutrons, which are neutral.
While atoms are miniscule, the nucleus is 10,000 times smaller, and electrons are thousands of times smaller still (in fact, according to the standard model, they are “point particles” having virtually no size, but String Theory proposes an alternative explanation...watch this space!), so most of an atom is made up of empty space.
In the 1960’s, physicists theorised that protons and neutrons might not be fundamental particles but made up of even smaller components. These were idiosyncratically named quarks after a word invented by James Joyce in Finnegan’s Wake. There are six varieties of quark, and they come in three pairs; up and down, charmed and strange, top and bottom (once called truth and beauty). The up and down quarks are the lightest of the six combine to make up protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus. In fact, all visible matter in the universe consists of up quarks, down quarks and electrons. The other varieties of quark are unstable and soon decay into these more stable constituents of matter. No-one knows quite why the less stable quarks (and other particles) exist.
Devil – Black Holes
A Black Hole is an object so dense that it exerts a huge gravitational force. This prevents even light escaping – hence the name. Black Holes are thought to form from very large stars. When the star comes to the end of its life, it explodes into a Supernova then collapses to form a very small, dense star known as a Neutron Star. If the Neutron Star is large enough it continues to collapse until not even light can escape.
If you were able to approach a Black Hole without being crushed, the huge gravitational forces would appear to slow down the passage of time. Close enough, and time would appear – at least to the outside observer – to stop altogether. This is because, according to the theory of Special Relativity, time and space are linked, and the massive distortion in space caused by the Black Hole’s gravity would also distort time.
Black Holes were first theorised in 1916 by German physicist Karl Schwarzschild while he was serving on the Russian front during the Great War. He worked out that Black Holes must exist after reading Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, which describes (among other things!) how space is warped by massive objects. Unfortunately, Schwarzschild died soon after formulating his theory and for many decades afterwards Black Holes were the stuff of science fiction. However they’ve enjoyed a revival in recent years, and the Hubble telescope has found evidence for their existence at the centre of galaxies.
Moon – Extra Dimensions
In the standard model of the universe, the most fundamental particle is a zero-dimensional point. However, string theory suggests that it is not a point but a vibrating loop, or string. This may be an open length (like a real piece of string) or a closed loop. The string vibrates at different frequencies like a violin string, and it is the frequency of vibration that determines the nature of the particle.
This basic string theory suggests that strings have only one dimension, but a later development called superstring theory suggests, among other things, that strings may have many dimensions. In fact, it claims that they vibrate in
ten dimensions. How is this possible when we are only aware of three spatial dimensions (plus the dimension of time)? The theory claims that the other six dimensions are “curled up” in an incredibly tiny space, and that the string winds itself around the dimensions. Because of their size, we are not aware of these dimensions in everyday reality, but as we move through space, we are passing through these extra six dimensions without realising it.
Calabi-Yau shapes, a construct borrowed from mathematics, give physicists a possible way of demonstrating how this curling up of dimensions might occur. The trouble is that there are many thousands of different Calabi-Yau shapes and no-one knows which is the “right” one. (An example of a Calabi-Yau shape is shown superimposed on the Moon in this card).
Now I'm going for a lie down...
