Kylee Hadfield

Physics 1010

PART ONE: Star Identification

1: Acrux
a. Acrux is 321 light years away from Earth. It is not one star, but two (Alpha-1 (aa) and
Alpha-2) that can be seen as separate with the use of a telescope. There is a third star
in the system Alpha ab which is visible only through its spectrum and thus is not a
distinguishable component of Acrux.
b. Being that this star set is 321 light years away from Earth, it can be said the stars seen
today are actually comprised of light that has taken 321 years to travel to earth or that
the light seen today actually left the star in 1696.
c. Alpha aa is 14 times as massive as the sun, Alpha ab is 10 times more massive than
the sun and Alpha 1 is 13 times more massive than the sun
d. Alpha aa is 25,000 times as luminous as the sun Alpha-2 is 16,000 times more
luminous than the sun. Alpha ab is only visible through its spectrum.

2: Theta Musc
 a. Like Acrux, Theta Muscae is actually a 3 star system that is estimated to be about
7,400 light years away.
b. The light from Theta Muscae that we are seeing today likely left the system in the
year 5383 BC.
c. The exact mass of this star system is not known but it is estimated that it is anywhere
from 40 to 60 times more massive than the sun.
d. The three stars in the Theta Muscae system are all very luminous and are likely about
a million times as luminous as the sun combined.

3: Alpha Centauri
a. Alpha Centauri (which is actually a triple star system) is the closest star in the solar
system at 4.37 light years away.
b. The light from Alpha Centauri that we can see today left the star in 2013.
c. The combined mass of the two visible stars is approximately 2 times bigger than the
mass of the sun.
d. Alpha Centauri A is 1.5 times more luminous than the sun while Alpha Centauri B is
only about .45 times more luminous than the sun.

4: Alpha Circini
a. Alpha Circini is 54 light years away from Earth.
b. The light that we see today left the star in 1963.
c. The mass of Alpha Circini is about 160% times that of the sun and it has double the
radius of the sun.
d. Alpha Circini has a luminosity 10 times greater than that of the sun.

5: Coal Sack

PART TWO: Equation Analysis

E=MC2
1. E (the kinetic energy of an object) = M (mass) * C2 (the speed of light squared); the only
constant in this equation is C which represents the speed of light in a vacuum.

2. The size of C2 is a large number that when rounded, looks something like (9 * 1016 m2/s2)
 3. Yes, mass and energy are related. The amount of energy that something has is directly
related to the amount of mass, as shown in the equation. The equation suggests that the
more mass something has, the more kinetic energy it has.

4. The statement that a little bit of mass could produce a lot of energy is true. Because the
mass is multiplied by the C2, which we already know to be a large number, then even a
small amount of mass could produce a high amount of energy.
D=gt2/2
5. Objects fall at the same speed (if no air resistance) and weight doesnt matter is the true
statement. The equation depends on time and gravity. Neither of these have any relation
to weight whatsoever. When dropped from the same height, objects experience the same
gravitational force and the same time of free fall. When dropped from the same height,
they fall the same distance.
V=gt
6. Objects fall at the same speed (if no air resistance) and weight doesnt matter is the true
statement. The equation depends on time and gravity. Neither of these have any relation
to weight whatsoever. When dropped from the same height, objects experience the same
gravitational force and the same time of free fall. When dropped from the same height,
they experience the same velocity

7. Because we didnt understand the relationships between the equation above and air
resistance. In practice, dropping a penny and a piece of paper would validate Aristotles
theory that heavy objects fall faster than light objects, but that is because paper
experiences far more air resistance than the penny.

8. The weight of an object is found by multiplying the mass by the acceleration of gravity at
the surface of the earth whereas mass is a constant across any gravity field. But regardless
of the physical properties of mass and weight, both elements are irrelevant to objects in
freefall because the equation deals with the acceleration of gravity at the earths surface ,
which is a constant, and not the force of gravity on an object.
E=1-Tcold/Thot
9. It is possible to achieve 100% efficiency only if tcold is zero.

10. It is not possible to achieve 100% efficiency in practice because it would have to operate
at a tcold temperature of 0 kelvin

11. It is only possible to achieve 100% efficiency in theory by raising the temperature of thot if
tcold is zero

12. It isnt possible to achieve 100% efficiency in practice.

 13. It is not possible to build a car that uses burning fuel as a method for running an engine
and achieve 100% efficiency. The math makes this impossible as the ONLY WAY to
achieve 100% efficiency is to have a tcold temp of 0, which isnt reasonable.

PART THREE: Learning about a Law of Physics

The Law of Inertia
An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. An object in
motion continues in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by
an unbalanced force.
1. The law of inertia is one of the laws of motion that explains why bodies act the way that
they act. It explains why rocks dont roll around of their own volition and why, without
any outside forces, bodies can stay in motion.
2. Some real examples of inertia are:
a. Pulling a table cloth off a table fast enough that the items on top of it remain in
place. If the friction is small enough, inertia can be demonstrated here. The items
will remain at rest.
b. When a car is moving in one direction and makes a turn, the bodies within will
continue moving in the initial direction, though it will appear to them like they are
leaning to the side.
c. A ball rolled downhill will continue to roll until stopped by friction.

PART FOUR: Explanation of Fermis Paradox and Possible

Resolution
1. Fermis paradox is the question that puts at odds the probability of intelligent life in the
universe and the lack of evidence of intelligent life in the universe. To oversimplify, if
there is a one in a million chance of intelligent life evolving on a planet, and there are
billions of planets, then there should be thousands of civilizations of intelligent life out
there, but there is evidence of none.

2. The Planetarium Hypothesis

This hypothesis states that there is at least one Type III civilization existing right now that
has essentially created a simulation for humans which does not involve the detection of or
communication with alien life. It states that Earth is purposely isolated from other
civilizations and that while we may look for signs of intelligent life across our galaxy, we
are destined not to find any due to the interference of a highly-advanced race.

The Zoo Hypothesis

The Zoo Hypothesis is similar to the Planetarium Hypothesis in that it has based upon the
idea that there is one or more advanced races of alien lifeforms that have decided that
Earth should not be contacted or allowed to detect other intelligent life. It differs,
however, in that the Zoo Hypothesis states that other Intelligent Species may have a
reverence for unimpeded, uninterrupted evolution. Much like the prime directive in the
television show Star Trek, they observe but do not interfere or allow themselves to be
detected. This theory relies heavily on convergent evolution, the concept that different
species and races evolve independently but with similar features which, in this case,
would be adherence to the rule or idea that relatively unadvanced civilizations should
not be contacted.

Aliens are already here, but are undetected or unacknowledged

There are many people who believe that we have already been contacted but that either
by willful negligence or genuine obviousness, we have disregarded the contact and
continued to search the skies for beings that have already come to earth. People who hold
this theory often laud things like UFOs, cave paintings and the construction of the
Egyptian pyramids as proof of alien contact, though others maintain that these examples
are circumstantial and/or not sufficient to prove that an alien intelligence has made
contact with humans.

Everyone is listening, no one is transmitting

This theory hypothesizes that there may be other civilizations out that there that, like
Earth, are not transmitting signals but only listening for signals that are being transmitted.
We have made very few attempts to transmit and spend the majority of our time listening
for signals (though it is not clear what would occur should we ever detect a signal from
an alien intelligent civilization). If other civilizations mirrored our behavior, its possible
that we are all just listening for one another and no one is actually speaking.