Memories of First Year
This is a lab write-up that was actually turned for credit in a class I took first year. Enjoy. This piece was produced with the help of Miss. Susannah Kalb's unmatched brilliance. (Note that this was written in a "computer-looking font" You, know, where everything is sorta blocky...anyway)
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Expansion and Density of the Universe
Crafted by: Susannah Kalb & Kellen Paul
Nat. Sci. 102 - Brian "The Wily" Wilhite (TA)
Due upon the date of June the First in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Four
After deciding to write this we discovered we were robots.
To determine the expansion rate of the universe and try to figure out whether it is constant, or, rather, if it has changed.
The universe, which is made of numerous large galaxies, is expanding in a way that we can capture through a series of calculations. The way in which these calculations are done is by evaluating the length and distance of light waves, specifically the red shift and brightness of these mysteries, so fundamental in understanding the boundless universe in which our world exists. What we are doing is using the measurements of the red shift and the brightness to discover the distance and recessional velocity of the universe, thus enabling us to figure at that most historically elusive of estimations, the Hubble Constant. In procuring this as our answer we will be able to determine htat our calculations of distance and velocity are correct. Cool.
1. The introductory information pertaining to the procedures of the lab, as well as the purpose of the lab were read over.
2. Evaluating the redshift and brightness given for calculation purposes, we use the inverse square law to determine the distance.
3. We must re-scale the distance by factoring in the already existing distance of the first supernova, which is at 47 mpc away.
4. An x-y scatter graph is then plotted to demonstrate the relationship between velocity and distance, as well as, when setting the y-intercept at zero, determining the Hubble Constant, which acts as the slope in this graph.
--INSERT CHART HERE--
--INSERT DISTANCE V. VELOCITY GRAPH HERE--
The purpose of this lab was to discover the density of the universe by its calculation through the evaluation of both the mass of the universe and its volume.
The Sloan digital Sky Survey is a program that can map a 3D depiction of the universe. The abbreviation for Sloan digital Sky Survey is surprisingly...SDSS! The SDSS uses the redshift of objects to find their brightness. It then can choose a certain brightness that is a cutoff point in which only the certain stars of this brightness show up. Faint stars that are close to us show up as well as faint and bright stars in the farthest reaches of our universe. It is important to note that the stars move together as the universe ages. The stars begin to spread out at the advent of time. As time continues to progress the stars move closer together forming clumps, which are known to us as GALAXIES!
1. After watching a fantastic 3D imagery presentation made to distract us from our initiative, we understood the immensity of the universe around us. With this image of colossal things floating around in our minds, we proceeded to the next room, wherein we began to work on our lab.
2. Using the Sloan Sky Survey, we looked at it from 5' and analyzed all of the boxes, discovering the most distant box--that is, the one with the highest redshift.
3-5. (*omitted out of boredom)
6. Following these calculations, it can be seen in the following data what the density of the universe is.
ANSWER: 8.92 X 10^-29
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expansion and Density of the Universe
Crafted by: Susannah Kalb & Kellen Paul
Nat. Sci. 102 - Brian "The Wily" Wilhite (TA)
Due upon the date of June the First in the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Four
After deciding to write this we discovered we were robots.
To determine the expansion rate of the universe and try to figure out whether it is constant, or, rather, if it has changed.
The universe, which is made of numerous large galaxies, is expanding in a way that we can capture through a series of calculations. The way in which these calculations are done is by evaluating the length and distance of light waves, specifically the red shift and brightness of these mysteries, so fundamental in understanding the boundless universe in which our world exists. What we are doing is using the measurements of the red shift and the brightness to discover the distance and recessional velocity of the universe, thus enabling us to figure at that most historically elusive of estimations, the Hubble Constant. In procuring this as our answer we will be able to determine htat our calculations of distance and velocity are correct. Cool.
1. The introductory information pertaining to the procedures of the lab, as well as the purpose of the lab were read over.
2. Evaluating the redshift and brightness given for calculation purposes, we use the inverse square law to determine the distance.
3. We must re-scale the distance by factoring in the already existing distance of the first supernova, which is at 47 mpc away.
4. An x-y scatter graph is then plotted to demonstrate the relationship between velocity and distance, as well as, when setting the y-intercept at zero, determining the Hubble Constant, which acts as the slope in this graph.
--INSERT CHART HERE--
--INSERT DISTANCE V. VELOCITY GRAPH HERE--
The purpose of this lab was to discover the density of the universe by its calculation through the evaluation of both the mass of the universe and its volume.
The Sloan digital Sky Survey is a program that can map a 3D depiction of the universe. The abbreviation for Sloan digital Sky Survey is surprisingly...SDSS! The SDSS uses the redshift of objects to find their brightness. It then can choose a certain brightness that is a cutoff point in which only the certain stars of this brightness show up. Faint stars that are close to us show up as well as faint and bright stars in the farthest reaches of our universe. It is important to note that the stars move together as the universe ages. The stars begin to spread out at the advent of time. As time continues to progress the stars move closer together forming clumps, which are known to us as GALAXIES!
1. After watching a fantastic 3D imagery presentation made to distract us from our initiative, we understood the immensity of the universe around us. With this image of colossal things floating around in our minds, we proceeded to the next room, wherein we began to work on our lab.
2. Using the Sloan Sky Survey, we looked at it from 5' and analyzed all of the boxes, discovering the most distant box--that is, the one with the highest redshift.
3-5. (*omitted out of boredom)
6. Following these calculations, it can be seen in the following data what the density of the universe is.
ANSWER: 8.92 X 10^-29