Waves

There are two different types of mechanical waves, transverse and longitudinal waves. Transverse waves consist of crests and troughs because the particles in the medium are up and down. A crest is the highest point in a wave, whereas a trough is the lowest point in a wave. Longitudinal waves have compressions and rarefactions because the particles in the medium are horizontal. A compression is when the coils are close together. A rarefaction is when the coils are spread out. The amplitude of a wave is the maximum distance that the particles of the medium carrying the wave move away from their rest positions. The wavelength is the distance between two corresponding parts of a wave. The frequency (measured in hertz) is the number of complete waves that pass a given point in a certain amount of time.

Newton's Laws

All three of Newton's laws apply to everyday life. Newton's first law of motion states that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. To illustrate this, when a car is moving forward and is then suddenly hit by a car from behind, your body is thrown forward. This is because it was acted upon by an unbalanced force. Newton's second law shows how force, mass, and acceleration are related. Force= Mass x Acceleration. For example, most of the time when you go to the grocery store you are pushing a cart. When you first get the cart it is very light and does not take much strength to push it. This is because it has no mass. As you start to fill it up with groceries, the mass gets heavier and the cart needs more acceleration to make it go the same speed as when the cart was empty. Lastly, Newton's third law of motion demonstrates that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When a bird is flying it exerts force into the air. The air pushing back on the birds wings propels the bird forward.

Greatest Supernova Explosion Ever!

Recently, scientists observed the biggest supernova explosion ever recorded. This violent explosion was watched from ground-based telescopes and N.A.S.A.'s orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory in a galaxy no where near ours. A star called Era Carinae in The Milky Way could possibly explode similar to this supernova. This explosion was powerful that it is requiring a new explosion mechanism. This was discussed as a theory but never actually observed until now so scientists are very excited about it. Even though this explosion was so big and bright it wasn't too noticeable form Earth with the naked eye because it was 240 million light years away.
This article took a big interest in me. One of the details that caught my attention most was how there is a star in our own galaxy that could explode in a similar, violent way.
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