Natasha Wilson

April 26, 2017

Physics1040

Conversation Paper

After a while of carefully deciding who I should pick to have a conversation with, I

ended up choosing my best friend Kyra, my dad, and my younger sister Cat. I decided to

talk to my dear friend Kyra because she has all the planets in our solar system tattood

on her back so I was curious to see how much she really did know about them, and she

is always a delight to be around. It was easy to decide my dad as a participant because

he is always interested in what I have to say, and he is a great listener. My younger

sister was chosen out of default- originally I had planned my brother-in-law, but he

couldnt make it so I asked my sister and she agreed. We all met up at a local coffee

shop just down the road from my house around noon last Sunday. I came prepared this

time with a notebook that had several questions and topics we could discuss, along with

a news article I had found that I thought was interesting. The first topic I brought up was

our solar system; I asked them what they knew about it. My younger sister and Kyra

basically only knew the names of the planets- which I dont blame them because before

taking this class thats all I knew too. My dad on the other hand, being a wise man, knew

more than I had expected. He brought up jovian and terrestrial planets, Cat and Kyra
were confused when my dad and I discussed them so I explained to them that jovian

planets are the giant gas planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and

terrestrial planets were the more earth-like planets (small and rocky) which are Mercury,

Venus, Earth, and Mars. I could tell she felt a little embarrassed that she didnt know, but

I reassured her that I only had that understanding because of this course. We got off

topic for a few moments as she got a phone call, but as soon as it ended we jumped

right back in. I then asked her I asked her if she knew which planet had moons, and she

was actually quite surprised that there was any planets other than earth with moons. I

then brought up that the Jovian planets had several moons and there was even one on

Jupiter that was being researched for life (Europa). Everyone was really fascinated by

that idea, which sparked up a more interesting unplanned conversation. We talked

about the idea of finding a planet that is habitable and how it would effect the world. We

also discussed the factors the planet would need for it to be habitable and if there was a

possibility that there was one out there. The conversation was full of excitement as we

both are interested in the thought of a discovery of an earth-like planet. My dad and I

(thus knowing the most) lead and talked the most, while Cat and Kyra mostly just

listened. I tried to keep them in the conversation as much as I could, but my dad is a

very talkative person, so most of the talking was being done by us two. After our

conversation started to die down I asked everyone what they knew about the Big Bang
Theory. Of course, I was not surprised when they all said the show?. I expressed to

them that the Big Bang Theory is the mark of when the universe slowly started

expanding. We talked for a moment about the expansion of the universe and I felt pretty

confident about what I had to say. I expressed my knowledge of the big bang theory,

although there were some things I was not able to answer- not because I was lacking

information, but because there is still so much we dont know. We got off topic a little bit

as Kyra and my dad discussed an episode in the show- but, I was determined to get at

least a full hour of good, knowledgable conversation. I then pulled up an interesting

article I had found earlier that week online. The article was about a recent disovery of a

super-Earth that is orbiting orbiting in the habitable zone of a small nearby star. I

explained to them that the team working on this project determined that it is around 40

percent larger than Earth in diameter and weighs 6.6 times the mass of earth- thus,

presenting that is likely to have a rock composition because of its density. I then

expressed that the star this planet orbits is a small, faint star that is only 1/5 the size of

the sun so, because it is cool and dim it is determined to be in a habitable zone. I also

explained that it is only 40 light years away. They were a little confused and unsure what

light years were so I explained to them that a light year is a unit of astronomical distance

that is equivalent to the distance light travels in a year. After I explained to them that, I

finally got the reaction I was hoping for when I started presenting the article. Everyone
was shocked that this earth-like planet was only 40 light years away. We chatted a bit

more about that, then we all realized we had finished our coffees. The conversation died

down and I wasnt sure if they were still interested in discussing more. Our complete

conversation lasted a little more than an hour, as we all finished our coffees quite slowly.

The majority of our conversations were unplanned and took up most of our time, which

made it more enjoyable for the both all of us. It was interesting to meet up with everyone

and talk about topics we usually dont discuss and I truthfully would like to have a

conversation like that again. If I could do anything differently it would to have not

prepared as much, our conversations between different topics flowed naturally and

made it more interesting and enjoyable. Once our discussion was over I asked them

what they thought about it and they all seemed to enjoy it, and found it different from

what they are used to talking about over coffee. I feel like my dad enjoyed it the most,

and I look forward to doing that again with him. Kyra and Cat felt they had learned a lot

though out the conversation and even mentioned they want to take an astronomy class

now. I left the coffee shop feeling quite satisfied with our conversation and although it

may have been hard getting everyone together for that, Im glad it all worked out.