Royston

Anyone ? If I want to get planck mass, it's the square root, of the planck constant x C, divided by '2pi' x gravitational constant. 2pi crops up in fine structure constants like Alpha Em as well, so why 2pi ?

Sorry if this seems a stupid question, but why is 2pi used to complete a fine structure constant. I'm right near the end of my course, and working out Planck mass, and Planck energy which has 2pi just thrown in, with no explanation ?

Bah ! I was getting quite used to the idea of Pluto being one of the family...it deserves planet status just for the tenure of the debate. What's with the 'dwarf' planets, is this similar to the (now rejected) plutons category ?

Well our household recycle anything that can be recycled, we nearly always shower, rather than taking baths (not together I hasten to add.) We never have lights on when we're not in the room, turn pc's off when not in use, along with any other electrical equipment. Recycling is very much encouraged in our area, and they will take and sort practically anything...it's called the 'blue box' scheme. I used to ride my bike to work everyday, roughly a 14 mile round trip (along the South Coast...it's a very pleasant ride), but as I get nearly an hour and a half of study time on the bus, I make use of the bus passes that are dished out at work, to encourage people not to drive in.

Thanks Severian, the maths is a bit beyond my scope for now, but I've saved the course on my hard drive for future reference.

Open University, my courses are planned for a BSc honours in Physics. I'm not sure (depending on how well I do) to do a masters full time, or carry on with the OU, I'll decide nearer the time. Ideally I'm ultimately aiming for a Phd, but that's a long way off yet.

Ok, thanks Severian, my current course pretty much said the same thing. I just wasn't content with not knowing the method, I'm sure it's covered in later courses...a couple of years from now, so I'll just have to wait.

How are the probabilites derived for the outcome of electron and positron high energy collisions using the Alpha Em constant, is the same method used with Alpha S e.g to find the probability of the emission of a gluon ?

I couldn't agree more, I decided to start studying physics purely for the love of the subject, with no career objectives whatsoever. I'd be perfectly happy becoming proficient enough to write papers, and not even use physics with my day job. I have scanned career prospects, and they're not abundant in the physics field i.e research. Jobs in chemical engineering, pharmaceuticals, and engineering would almost guarantee a career. Finance, couldn't interest me less, if I was to make a career through my (I hope) qualification, then it would most definitely be in the research field. EDIT: Although I just remember an old friend who got a 1:1 in physics IIRC, who now works in satellite navigation / communication (not sure of the details) so the advancement in telecommunications et.c is probably a safe bet. If you don't fancy engineering.

kaos, you should also look into the hubble constant...the further away a galaxy is, the faster it is moving. v=H0r v is velocity, r is the distance and H0 is the hubble constant...which is approx 60 kms-1 Mpc-1. So for every megaparsec a galaxy's distance is from the observer, the speed increases by 60 km s-1.

As already stated, it's a matter of definition. If I were to use my own definition, I'm not an environmentalist, I recycle, I'm carfeful with energy and water use, and I'm aware of environmental issues. But, I'm by no means an activist, unless you class a few posts on here as such. I class an environmentalist as taking action further, than what they have already presented to them, such as recycling et.c I also grew up in a town right next to the countryside, so I'm a bit torn if I consider myself as growing up in the country or city.

My point was, is that although people are aware that global warming is going on, I can't think of any government move to educate these specific issues, just sticking it on a website or the odd news article, isn't good enough. Perhaps compulsory additional study at school, and media attention within the mediums that everybody has access to. I think when you understand the effect of aerosols, greenhouse gases, negative and positive feedback, distribution of radiation et.c you appreciate a lot more the problems that can arise. I get the impression that the education for the general public, is very poor indeed in this area, I just think that there should be a step up in not just awareness, but atleast a reasonable understanding of the main processes that effect the climate.

I'm studying through the OU, so my course is very condensed...kinda A level, and undergraduate level, but starts on the basics as well. Next year is when it gets a little more serious...having said that, the 'block' I'm on at the moment (last one before my exam) is on cosmology, QED, QCD, inflationary models, the use of Feynman diagrams, and using the fine structure constant, along with many other concepts, it's quite heavy going squeezing it into one month, but I'm thorougly enjoying it. I passed the coursework about a month ago (it's a nine month course), with two assignments still to go...but it's not graded yet, that comes next year.

I'm sure plenty of you have seen this already, but here's a camel spider eating a lizard... http://www.metacafe.com/watch/62695/big_ass_spider/

Thanks Martin, I didn't see a link on your original post...so I tried looking for one myself, obviously the wrong one. Wow, I like the eureka moment showing the offset between gas and mass peaks (1E 0657-56.) Thanks for the links.

Doesn't surprise me you done well 5614, congrats. My exam isn't until October, I'm taking further maths courses at the end of this year, and next. (Not As or A2...by the way.) I'm guessing most people are celebrating at the moment, wtf aren't you down the pub ?

Good stuff, I'm guessing the title Dark Matter will change, now it's lost it's anonymity. The link I found doesn't appear to have any images embedded, were you referring to the recent galaxy clusters ? http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2006/1e0657/

There's a game show called 'test the nation', where they have certain groups such as house wives, builders, estate agents et.c all competing, and people can play at home as well. When they interviewed some of the contestants before the show (the theme was 'planet earth') they were asked to name three greenhouse gases...one person managed to name just one greenhouse gas. Although it's hardly a controlled study of peoples awareness of the environment, I slapped my forehead when I saw this. I think the government really should take steps to educate people in these issues, make it a media strategy of some kind.

I'm going through exactly the same thing at the moment, trying to strip couloumbs law down plus using the energy of a photon for a fine structure constant, to get a dimensionless figure. 1/137.0001 (can't remember the exact figure) I want to be as methodical as possible, but as it's a part time degree course, I just havn't got the time I'd like, to wrap my head around it.

Same, I grew up with cats in the house...just something my housemate said. I'll give him a ball of lint, and send him into the backgarden, just to be sure

It's a shame scientists can't get away with exaggerating in some circumstances, and not questionable websites.

I was told cats, as well as some dogs chew on grass so they cough up fur, from when they've been licking themselves...is this a myth ?

Due to a re-classification of what qualifies as a planet, our solar system could have 12 orbiting planets, compared to the age old and accepted 9.