The Earth Is Moving Through Space At Around 107,826 Km/H

Fact of the day: The earth is moving through space at around 107,826 kilometres per hour relative to the sun.

We experience movement everyday. When you walk. When you drive (or are being driven).
Movement is a fairly simple part of physics. But when you observe movement, it may not be necessarily accurate because of this.
 For example, you are in a car travelling at 20 Km/H and you want to measure another vehicle's speed. You measure a truck, and the truck is (according to the device you are measuring it with) is travelling at 30 Km/H. The truck is really travelling at 50 Km/H, but the device is actually measuring the difference between the speed of your car, and the truck.
The truck is travelling at 50 Km/H relative to the earth, but the earth is not stationary. So the truck is travelling between around 107,875 and 107,775 Km/H relative to the sun. But the sun is travelling at around 828,000 Km/H around the centre of our galaxy. So the truck is actually travelling between 720,225 and 935,875 Km/H relative to the centre of our galaxy.
As you can see from this movement is relative.

Some Key Terms For Motion

Speed
Speed is the change in an objects position over time.

Velocity
Velocity is an objects speed in a certain direction.

Acceleration
Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity. That means in physics, acceleration means a change in speed, or direction.

Inertia
Inertia is related to mass. In my previous posts I have mentioned that mass is an object's resistance to movement. Inertia is how much force is needed to be applied to an object for it to change its velocity.
An object with a large inertia needs more force to change its velocity.

Momentum
Momentum is the energy conservation of movement. An example is when you are playing snooker. When you use a cue to hit one of the balls, it moves, and hits the other balls, and stops on impact. But the other balls start moving on impact with the ball that was hit by the cue, because the energy was transferred from the ball that was hit by the cue into the other balls, or in other words, the energy was conserved.


We can explain all movement (except the orbits of some celestial bodies) using Isaac Newton's laws of motion.


A car moving (above)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

There Are Over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Atoms In A Drop Of Water

Image
Fact of the day: There are over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (approx.) atoms in a drop of water. Particles. They are almost everything in the universe. From the computer that I am writing this with, to the light coming through my window from a star millions of lightyears away. They are made of particles. As I have briefly mentioned in one of my previous posts, particles have a wave property. This is called the wave-particle duality. Every particle has a wavelength. Even carbon 'buckyballs' (a molecule that is a ball of 60 carbon atoms) have been measured to have wavelengths. Apparently, a tennis ball has a wavelength between 10^-33 metres and 10^-35 metres (this must have been calculated, not measured). Despite the wave-particle duality, most different forms of matter and force carriers are classified by their particle type. All of the discovered fundamental particles (they cannot be split apart into new particles) are in the Standard Model Of Elementary Particles. I
Read more

The First Man Stepped On The Moon In 1969

Image
Fact of the day: The first man stepped on the moon in 1969*. The moon was formed at around the same time as the Earth, and some theories suggest that the moon formed when a mars sized planet collided with the Earth and the moon formed from the debris. The moon is the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system, and the largest natural satellite in relation to its host planet. Most people think that the moon is really close to the earth, but the distance is actually around 4 times the diameter of the earth. (above) The Earth and the moon taken from Mars. The moon always shows the same face to Earth as its orbit and rotation are synchronised by coincidence. It takes around 29.53 days to orbit the Earth and rotate once on its axis. It has no atmosphere, and as a result is covered with impact craters. The moon's noticeable effect on the Earth is the tides, but has many other effects, even effecting the weather. (above) The moon. *Some people think that this
Read more

There Are 15 Types Of Energy

Image
Fact of the day: There are 15 types of energy. When someone says energy, most people think of electricity, or light. Energy is so much more than that. Energy takes so many forms that the definition is very simple and generic. Energy is the ability to do work. Energy can never be created or destroyed, but can be interchanged with matter ( E  = mc  2 ), so the overall amount of mass and energy in the universe remains constant. Energy can be changed between different types of energy. Types Of Energy Kinetic Energy Kinetic energy is basically the energy that an object uses to move. Potential Energy Potential energy is the energy 'stored' in an object in relation to its position. For example, when you pick a tennis ball up, the kinetic energy that you are using to pick the ball up turns into gravitational potential energy, and when you drop it, the gravitational potential energy then turns back into kinetic energy for the ball to drop. Mechanical Energy The sum of an o
Read more