Earth-Moon 1.5 seconds
Earth-Sun 8 minutes
Earth-Jupiter 40 minutes
Earth-Pluto 3 days
Oort cloud 100 days
Alpha Centauri 4 years nearest star
Galaxy thickness 1000 years
Galaxy diameter 100000 years
Andromeda galaxy distance 2.54 million light years
Size of local group 1 million years
Virgo cluster distance 54 million years
Universe Hubble horizon 14 billion years
Energy density (MegaJoules/kg)
Antimatter 90 billion
Hydrogen bomb 25,000,000 theoretical maximum yield
Hydrogen bomb 21,700,000 highest achieved yield
Uranium 20,000,000 nuclear fuel
Hydrogen 143
Natural gas 53.6
Gasoline 47
Jet fuel 43
Fat 37
Coal 24
Carbohydrates & sugar 17
Protein 16.8
Wood 16
Lithium-air battery 9
TNT 4.6
Gunpowder 3
Lithium battery 1.3
Lithium-ion battery .72
Alkaline battery .59
Compressed air .5 300 atmospheres
Supercapacitor .1
Capacitor .00036
The energy cost to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen is
13.16 MJ/kg. If hydrogen and oxygen are reacted to produce one kg of
water, the energy produced is equivalent to a 1 kg mass moving at
5.13 km/s.
Energy
Calorie = "Food Calorie" = 1000 calories = 4187 Joules
= Energy to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water by 1 Kelvin
gram of TNT 1 Calorie = 4.184e3 Joules
gram of sugar 5 Calories
gram or protein 5 Calories = 1.7e4 Joules
gram of fat 10 Calories = 3.8e4 Joules
gram of gasoline 13 Calories = 5.0e4 Joules
13-18 kilotons TNT energy of the "Little Boy" uranium-235 fission bomb
20 kilotons TNT energy of the "Trinity" plutonium-239 bomb
20 kilotons TNT energy of 1 gram of antimatter
10 megatons TNT characteristic energy of a hydrogen fusion bomb
Energy in Joules
1.0e16 Energy of the Meteor Crater impact in Arizona
8.4e17 Krakatoa volcanic eruption
8.8e13 Fat Man fission bomb
4 e16 Hydrogen bomb equivalent to 10 megatons of TNT
5 e20 Energy generated by civilization in one year
5.0e23 Energy released in the formation of the Chicxulub Crater
1.2e44 Characteristic energy of a supernova
1 e47 Energy of an intense gamma ray burst
1 Joule = 1e7 erg
5e20 Joules Energy generated by civilization in one year
1.5e13 Watts Power generated by civilization
Smartphone battery 5 Watt-hours
Laptop battery 50 Watt-hours
Density (g/cm^3)
air on Mars .00002 2% of the Earth's atmospheric density
air on Everest .0004 1/3 of sea level
air in Denver .0010 82% of sea level
air at sea level .00127
ice .92
water 1.00
human body ~ 1.0
rock ~ 2
iron 7.9
nickel 8.9
lead 11.3
uranium 19.1
gold 19.3
osmium 22.6 densest element
white dwarf e9
atomic nuclei 2e17
neutron star 2e17
Planck density 5.1e96
Mercury 5.60
Venus 5.20
Earth 5.52
Moon 3.35
Mars 3.95
Ceres 2.08
Io 3.528
Europa 3.103
Ganymede 1.942
Callisto 1.834
Titan 1.88
Triton 2.061
Jupiter 1.326
Saturn .687
Uranus 1.270
Neptune 1.638
Pluto 2.03
Particles
Helium atom
Particles and forces
Electron neutrino < 1 eV
Muon neutrino < 2 eV
Red photon 1.8 eV
Green photon 2.3 eV
Blue photon 3.1 eV
Electron .51 MeV
Up quark 1.9 MeV
Down quark 4.4 MeV
Strange quark 87 MeV
Muon 105.7 MeV
Neutral pion 135 MeV
Charged pion 140 MeV
Proton 938.27 MeV
Neutron 939.57 MeV
Charm quark 1.32 GeV Discovered at SLAC
Tau 1.78 GeV Discovered at SLAC
Bottom quark 4.24 GeV Discovered at Fermilab
W boson 80 GeV Discovered at the Super Proton Synchrotron
Z boson 91 GeV Discovered at the Super Proton Synchrotron
Higgs Boson 125 GeV Discovered at the LHC
Top quark 173 GeV Discovered at Fermilab
Cosmic rays 10^12 GeV Highest-energy events observed
Planck scale 10^19 GeV Quantum gravity. Planck energy = 1.22e28 eV = 1.956e9 Joules
1 electron Volt (eV) = 1.602e-19 Joules ~ kT at 11,000 Kelvin
Accelerators
Accelerator Collision Particle Size Type Year
energy km
Stanford Linear Accelerator 90 GeV electron 3.2 linear 1966
Fermilab 2000 GeV proton 6.3 ring 1983
Large Electron-Positron collider 208 GeV electron 27 ring 1989
Large Hadron Collider 14 TeV proton 27 ring Running at 8 TeV
Superconducting Supercollider 40 TeV proton 87 ring Cancelled
International Linear Collider ~1 TeV electron >30 linear Proposed
Compact Linear Collider ~5 TeV electron linear Proposed
"Size" refers to length for linear colliders and circumference for circular colliders.
LHC: Luminosity ~ 7.7e33 cm^-2 s^-1
Mass (kg)
electron 9.11e-31
proton 1.673e-27
neutron 1.675e-27
Planck mass 2.2e-8
1 ounce .0283
1 pound .454
1 liter of water 1.00
human 50
sumo wrestler 200
metric ton 1000
Ford Mustang V6 3447 2012 Model, manual transmission
elephant 5000
Bradley tank 27000
argentinosaurus 70000 largest dinosaur
Saturn 5 payload 119000 payload to low Earth orbit. Largest payload of any rocket
blue whale 200000
space station 4.2e5
sequoia tree 1.25e6 mass of the tree named "General Sherman"
space shuttle 2.0e6
mini black hole 1e12 black hole with an evapration time equal to the age of the universe
Earth's atmosphere 5e18
Water on Ceres 2.0 e20
Ceres 9.5 e20
Earth's oceans 1.35e21
Earth's moon 7.35e22
Mars 6.4 e23
Earth 5.92e24
Jupiter 1.90e27 ~ 318 Earth masses ~ .00096 solar masses
Sun 2.0 e30
Chandrasekhar limit 2.9 e30 ~ 1.44 solar masses
Milky way black hole 7.4 e36 ~ 4.2e6 solar masses
Largest black hole 3.6 e40 The supermassive black hole "OJ287"
Triangulum galaxy 5 e10 solar masses ~ .1 Milky Way mass
Milky Way 2-3 e42 kg ~ 1 - 1.5 e12 solar masses
Andromeda ~ 1 Milky Way mass
M87 black hole 6.6e9 solar masses
M87 > e13 solar masses galaxy at the center of the Virgo cluster
Virgo Cluster 1.2e15 solar masses
Great Attractor larger than the Virgo cluster
Speed
Sr-71 Blackbird
1 mile per hour .444 m/s = 1.609 km/h
Walking 2 m/s
Swiming world record for 50 meters 2.39 m/s
Object falling 1 meter 4.4 m/s
Marathon world record 5.72 m/s
Sprinting 10 m/s
Usain Bolt's world-record 100 meter sprint 10.438 m/s
Object falling 10 meters 14 m/s
Cycling sprint 20 m/s
Freeway 30 m/s ~ 65 mph
Cheetah, fastest land animal 30 m/s
Speed of unmyelinated sensory neurons 5-25 m/s
Baseball pitch at 100 mph 45 m/s
Object falling 100 meters 45 m/s
Peregrine Falcon, fastest bird 90 m/s
Formula-1 car 100 m/s
Propagation speed of mammalian neurons 120 m/s
747 airplane 250 m/s
Sound (15 Celcius & 1 atm pressure) 340 m/s = Mach 1
Pistol (9 mm bullet) Mach 1
Average speed of air molecules Mach 1
F-16 Falcon Mach 1.2
F-22 Raptor Mach 1.82
F-15 Eagle Mach 2.5
SR-71 Blackbird spy aircraft Mach 3.1
M-16 muzzle velocity Mach 3 975 m/s
Speed of sound in water Mach 4.4 1500 m/s
Tank shell Mach 5 1700 m/s
Scramjet X-43 Mach 10 3373 m/s
low-Moon orbit 1.7 km/s
Hydrogen-oxygen rocket propellant 5 km/s
low-Earth orbit 7.7 km/s
Earth escape velocity 11.2 km/s
New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto 16.5 km/s Departure speed from the Earth
Speed of sun with respect to local stars 20 km/s
Earth orbital velocity 29.8 km/s
Propellant speed of a VASIMR ion rocket 30 km/s
Speed of Andromeda toward the Milky Way 120 km/s
Speed of Triangulum toward the Milky Way 192 km/s
Sun's orbital speed around the Milky Way 220 km/s
Solar wind 450 km/s
Milky Way 552 km/s relative to the cosmic microwave background
Sun escape speed 618 km/s
Speed of the Milky Way away from Virgo 1254 km/s
Nuclear fusion rocket 30,000 km/s
Electrical signal through a conductor 200,000 km/s
Light 300,000 km/s
Acceleration (m/s^2)
Ceres gravity .27
Europa gravity 1.31
Titan gravity 1.35
Moon gravity 1.62
Mars gravity 3.8
Venus gravity 8.87
Earth gravity 9.8
Bugatti Veyron 15.2 0 to 100 km/h in 2.4 seconds
Red out 30 Max long-term acceleration in the direction of blood rushing to your head
Blackout 50 Max long-term acceleration while sitting
Formula-1 car 50 High-speed breaking and cornering with a downforce wing
Blackout with g suit 90 Max long-term acceleration while sitting with a g-suit
Max long-term (front) 120 Max long-term acceleration while lying on one's front
Max long-term (back) 170 Max long-term acceleration while lying on one's back
Max short-term 500 Max short-term acceleration
Bullet 310000 9×19 Parabellum handgun, average acceleration along the barrel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force
Time
Planck time 5.4e-44 seconds
W and Z boson decay e-24 seconds
Transistor timescale e-12 seconds
Computer add or multiply e-10 seconds
One year 3.16e7 seconds
O star lifetime 10 million years 10 solar masses. Becomes supernova
Age of the Earth 4.5 billion years
Sun lifespan 10 billion years
Age of the universe 13.7 billion years
Red dwarf star lifespan 32 billion years .1 solar masses. Becomes white dwarf
Black hole lifespan 2.1e67 years one solar mass black hole
Supermassive black hole e94 years 1 billion solar masses
Temperature (Kelvin)
Absolute zero 0
Helium boiling point 4.2
Cosmic background 2.725
Hydrogen boiling point 20.3
Pluto 44
Nitrogen boiling point 77.4
Oxygen boiling point 90.2
Hottest superconductor 135 Mercury barium calcium copper oxide
H2O melting point 273.15 0 Celcius = 32 Fahrenheit
Room temperature 293 20 Celcius
H2O boiling point 373.15 100 Celcius = 212 Fahrenheit
Venus 740
Plutonium melting point 913
Wood fire 1170
Uranium melting point 1405
Beryllium 1580
Nickel melting point 1726
Iron melting point 1811
Bunsen burner 1830
Space shuttle hull 1900 During atmospheric re-entry at 8 km/s
Titanium melting point 1933
Platinum melting point 2045
Hydrogen flame 2320
Thermolysis of H2O 2500
Ruthenium melting point 2523
Iridium melting point 2716
Niobium melting point 2741
Molybdenum melting point 2896
Tungsten carbide melt 3143
Tantalum melting point 3290
Osmium melting point 3300
Rhenium melting point 3459
Tungsten melting point 3683
Earth's core 5650 Inner-core boundary
Sun's surface 5780
Universe at 300,000 yrs 6000 Beginning of the cosmic dark age
Monotnic gas at 1 eV 7735
Solar corona 1-10 million Also the solar wind
Solar core 13.6 million
Helium-4 fusion 200 million
Carbon-12 fusion 230 million
Universe at 100 seconds 1e9
Universe at 1 second 1e10
Large Hadron Collider 1e18
Planck temperature 1.4e32
Power
Nanotech scale e-18 W power at which nanoelectromechanical systems are
overwhelmed by thermal noise
Human cell e-12 W
Laptop computer 10 W
Human brain 20 W
Light bulb 60 W
Human 100 W
X-Box 160 W
1 horsepower 746 W
Strenuous exercise 1000 W
Solar constant 1366 W Solar energy per second per square meter
at Earth's semimajor axis
Maximum human power 2000 W
World per-capita power 2500 W
Iron Man e8 W Flying at Mach 1
km^2 of ocean 3.6-6.6 kW Average photosynthetic power of 1 km^2 of ocean
U.S. per-capita power 10 kW
km^2 of land 16-32 kW
Wind turbine 1 MW
Blue whale 2.5 MW
Nuclear submarine 25 MW Los Angeles class
Boeing 747 140 MW
Hoover Dam 2.1 GW
U.S. power consumption 3.4 TW
World power consumption 15 TW
Earth geologic heat 44 TW
World photosynthesis 75 TW
Hurricane e14 W
Earth solar power 1.74e15 W Total solar power falling on the Earth
Telescopes
Keck Telescope
Webb Telescope
30 Meter Telescope
Telescope Aperture Year Resolution
(meters) (arcsec)
Human eye .005 60
Lippershey's telescope ? 1608 first telescope. refractor
Galileo's telescope .015 1609 refractor
Galileo's telescope .038 1620 refractor
Newton's telescope .033 1668 first reflecting telescope
Yerkes refractor 1.02 1897 refractor. end of refractor age
Hale 60-inch 1.52 1908 .5 Mount Wilson observatory
Hooker 100-inch 2.54 1917 .5 Mount Wilson observatory
Hale 200-inch 5.08 1948 .5 Palomar Observatory
Hubble 2.4 1990 .04 Earth orbit
Keck 10 1993 .5 Mauna Kea Observatory
Keck + adaptive optics 10 2003 .05 Keck with adaptive optics
Webb space telescope 6.5 ? .02 L2 Lagrange point
Hipparcos .29 1997 .001 Earth orbit
Gaia 1.45 ~2014 .00002 L2 Lagrange point
Giant Magellan 24 ~2020 .21 Las Campanas observatory, Chile
30 Meter Telescope 30 ~2018 .015 Mauna Kea. Adaptive optics
European ELT 39.3 ~2025 .015 Cerro Armazones, Chile
Orion .10 2013 1.0 $120 at Amazon.com
1 arcsecond = 4.85*10-6 radians
The diffraction limit to the resolution of a telescope in radians is
Resolution ~ 1.22 * Wavelength of light / Mirror diameter
For blue light with wavelength = 400 nm,
Resolution in arcseconds ~ .101 / Mirror diameter in meters
In this video, you can see the light from a star being distorted by atmospheric turbulence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4J52rgxjTs
Because of atmospheric distortion, Earth-based telescopes are limited in resolution
to ~ .5 arcseconds. This means that all telescopes larger than 20 cm have
the same resolution.
Adaptive optics can correct for atmospheric distortion and improve the resolution to
~ .05 arcseconds.
For an object to twinkle, it has to have an angular diameter less than one arcsecond.
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn don't twinkle because their angular diameters are
larger than this.
Hipparcos and Gaia specialize in measuring precise positions for parallaxes.
The first successful determination of the distance to a star by parallax was
done by Bessel in 1838, for the star 61 Cygni, 10.4 light years away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_large_telescope
Silver 6.3 e7
Copper 5.96e7
Gold 4.1 e7
Aluminum 3.5 e7
Iron 1.0 e7
Steel 1.45e6
Mercury 1.02e6
Sea water 4.8
Drinking water 5e-4 to 5e-2
Silicon 1.56e-3
Deionized H2O 5.5e-6
Air 3 to 8 * 10^-15
Glass e-11 to e-15
Fused quartz 1.3e-18
Teflon e-25 to e-23
Magneic field (Gauss)
e-22 SQUID magnetometers on Gravity Probe B gyroscopes measure
fields at this level over several days of averaged measurements
e-19 SQUID magnetometers on Gravity Probe B gyros measure fields at
this level in about one second
e-16 Human brain magnetic field
.31 Magnetic field at the Earth's equator
50 Refrigerator magnet
12500 Neodymium-iron-boron magnet
20000 Magnetic resonance imaging machine
4.5e5 Strongest continuous magnetic field produced in a laboratory
1e6 Strongest pulsed non-destructive magnetic field produced in a laboratory
e10 Magnetic field of a neutron star
e13 Magnetic field of a magnetar
Spacecraft propulsion
Propulsion Spacecraft Exhaust Power Thrust Spacecraft
speed (kW) (Newtons) mass
(km/s) (kg)
Ion Dawn 31 1.3 .09 1240
Chemical Cassini 5 .8 5600
Chemical Galileo 5 .4
Nuclear thermal, H2 NERVA 9 200 large Test rocket. Not flown
Nuclear thermal, H2O 3 large large
Nuclear salt water 100 large large
Hydrogen fusion 10000 large large Orion project
Solar sail N/A 1.4/km^2 9/km^2 At 1 A.U.
VASIMR
Solar thermal, H2 12
Solar thermal, H2O 1.9
Dawn spacecraft
Dawn is in orbit around Vesta until July 2012, at which point it will depart for
Ceres, arriving February 2015.
The asteroid "Vesta"
Cassini spacecraft
Galileo spacecraft
Human vision
A person with 20/20 vision can resolve parallel lines with an angular
resolution of ~ .0003 radians, and can read letters with an angular resolution
of ~ .00145 radians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_eye
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snellen_chart
Fluid mechanics
Schmidt number = Momentum diffusivity / Mass diffusivity
Prandtl number = Momentum diffusivity / Thermal diffusivity
Magnetic Prandtl number = Momentum diffusivity / Magnetic diffusivity
Prandtl Schmidt
Air .7 .7
Water 7
Liquid metals << 1
Oils >> 1
Heat Capacity
Heat capacity
(kJ/kg/Kelvin)
Water 4.19
Ice 2.06
Air 1.02
N2 1.04
O2 .92
H2 14.3
Ammonia 4.70
H2O melting energy 333.6 kJ/kg
H2O vaporization energy 2257 kJ/kg
Aircraft
Engine Engine Empty Max Cargo
Speed Ceiling thrust mass mass takeoff mass
(Mach) km (tons) (tons) (tons) (tons) (tons)
Blackbird SR-71 3.3 25.9 2 x 14.8 2 x 2.7 30.6 78 Spy
F-15 Eagle 2.5 20.0 2 x 11.3 2 x 1.70 12.7 30.8 Fighter
F-22 Raptor 2.25 19.8 2 x 15.9 2 x 1.77 19.7 38 Stealth Fighter
Concorde 2.02 18.3 4 x 17.2 4 x 3.18 78.7 187
Airbus A380 .96 13.1 4 x 38.2 4 x 6.27 276.8 650 Up to 853 passengers
Boeing C-5 Galaxy .8 4 x 19.4 4 x 3.63 172.4 381 122.5 Cargo
Boeing 747-8F .86 13.0 4 x 30.2 4 x 5.6 448 134.2 Cargo
Antonov 224 .75 4 x 23.4 4 x 4.1 175 405 150 Cargo
Antonov 225 .7 6 x 23.4 6 x 4.1 285 640 250 Cargo
Stratolaunch 6 x 25.5 230 Orbital launch platform
The Stratolaunch (in development) is designed to launch rockets into space.
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