From The Universe To A Quark Trivia Quiz

Answer: An infinite distance, but at some point you won't notice it anymore.

Even though the effects of gravity technically go on forever, we can talk about 'escaping' it, meaning that we are far enough away that we don't notice it anymore. The 'escape velocity' for a planet (like Earth) is determined using calculus to account for the infinite range of gravity. Amazingly, gravity is actually the weakest known force, even though it holds massive planets firmly in its grasp!

Answer: Black hole

Most astrophysicists now believe that a super-massive black hole sits at the center of nearly every galaxy in the universe!

Answer: Parsec

The magnitude of this unit, 3.26 light-years, was originally derived while dealing with a phenomenon called 'parallax', which makes objects appear to be in another location because of the changing position of the viewer. The parsec arose when astronomers where looking for a way to determine the distance to a celestial object, which is difficult to do because the earth itself is moving. With the help of trigonometry, scientists figured out how to do it, and one result of all this math is the widely misunderstood parsec.

Answer: Dark energy

In order to account for all of our observations, it turns out that dark energy must make up about 73% of all mass-energy in the entire universe. That means there is 73% of the universe we know almost nothing about!

Answer: Redshift

An ambulance passing by gives a great demonstration of how this works with sound, but with light the different wavelength results in a different color. By determining how much the light has 'shifted' towards the red end of the spectrum, we can actually determine how fast it is moving away from us!

Answer: Electrons are not held in orbit by gravity

Electromagnetic forces are responsible for keeping the electron in orbit. As it turns out, the world of the very small is a strange place indeed! Many of the rules of everyday life we take for granted simply don't apply there, as the following questions will illustrate.

Answer: Uncertainty

Even though it sounds like a problem with our technology, it is actually due to the dual nature of very small particles (they act like particles and waves). There is a lot of great literature about this out there, so if you are interested, check it out!

Answer: Entanglement

Many people have trouble accepting this, because it implies the transmission of information at faster-than-light speeds. However, this phenomenon has been demonstrated and is widely accepted, so presumably we are just waiting for a simple explanation regarding what exactly is happening and how it is possible.

Answer: Tunneling

Another mysterious quality of very small things, tunneling seems to defy logic and common sense. The explanation involves the wave-like nature of these particles, which means that the position of the particle at any moment is the result of probability. So as long as there is a chance of it appearing on the other side of the hill, it will, sooner or later.

Answer: Self-similar cosmological model

Although it sounds strange, fractals do pop up in nature all the time. We see them in seashells, snowflakes, ferns, pineapples, coastlines, and many more! The real question is, if the theory is true, what does that mean about the nature and fate of our universe?