Dancing Stars and Forceful Gamblers

I finally finished reading my library book! Just in time for me to write this and then get ready for a party! This book has been on trips to open days, optician waiting rooms and up to school a few times so I could read it whenever possible. I'll admit that I have taken so long to read it that I now have a fine of £1.50 to pay.. I wanted to finish before next week so I felt a little more prepared for the PHYSICS ACADEMY! It is pretty much a summary of 'A Brief History of Time' which I desperately needed because it is impossible to know exactly how much went in..

I am considering buying this book for future reference because it really did describe things beautifully! I have a slightly better understand of virtual particles now but still find the idea of imaginary time slightly mind boggling although it is comforting to see a practical application of the imaginary numbers I learnt in school.

I now have a list of my favourite analogies! For example as proof of black holes, astronomers have been searching for binary star systems (2 stars that rotate in an orbit around each other due to their gravity) in which one of the stars is a black hole. This way we would know a black hole was there by the rotations of the visible star even though we cannot see the black hole. The analogy that this is like turning the lights out in a dancing hall when the male partner is dressed in black and the female is dressed in white. You would only be able to see the lady dancing but you would know the man is there lifting her. I love the idea of dancing stars!

My other favourite is the unification of the four fundamental forces. The idea is like a roulette table in a casino. When the table is spinning the ball is only capable of one position, flying above the table. When the table slows down and stops spinning the ball falls into one of the 36 compartments and is capable of 36 positions. At our current temperatures there are 4 fundamental forces but at higher temperature (higher speeds) there will be just one. Well, two at the moment because gravity is being stubborn... Pretty cool right? I hope to collect a lot more!