PHYS 190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Notation, Atomic Nucleus, Hubble Ultra-Deep Field
10 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Phys 190 - lecture 1 - distance scales. 1 light year - distance travelled by light in 1 year. ~100,000 light-years across with ~400 billion stars. Limit of observable universe ~13 billion light-years* Field of view only ~1/10 width of pinkie nail at arm"s length. Sun-pluto 6 million kilometres* (scaled) 1 kilometre model. 1 au - sun-earth distance - 150 million kilometres* Essential for expressing very big and very small numbers. 10 = one factor of 10 = 10^1. 100 = 10x10 = two factors of 10 = 10^2. 1000 = 10x10x10 = three factors of 10 = 10^3. 0. 1 = 1/10 = one factor in denominator = 10^-1. 0. 01 = 1/100 = 1/(10x10) = two factors = 10^-2. 0. 001 = 1/1000 = 1/(10x10x10) = 10^-3. 1 = no factors of 10 = 10^0. Clearly provided inspiration for opening sequence in contact and for many variations. Scientific knowledge spans over 40 orders of magnitude.
