Time is only an illusion @u12banadventurer - Tumblr Blog

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stability

u12banadventurer

We can do this

road-kill-cafe

The teen pregnancy rate has been cut in half since the 1950s. #ThisGeneration

Smoking has also dropped by 50% #ThisGeneration

The abuse and availability of drugs has actually been in drastic decline. #ThisGeneration

The U.S. homicide rate is currently the at lowest it has been since 1962. #This Generation

Searches for porn have been reduced by half in just the past ten years. #ThisGeneration

The average IQ score has seen a dramatic increase, mainly due to our increasing ability to process symbols. #ThisGeneration

The high school dropout rate is at half of what it was in the 70’s. #ThisGeneration

But somehow the last generation remains largely convinced that we are bad and stupid people because they cannot comprehend advances in technology and society. #LastGeneration

It's lovely to see perfection in someone It's saddening to see that melt away Slowly, she picks her petals And quicker she'll decay

Fuck you old man

fuck you I’m done with your shit.

#notransparency

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s-t-y-l-e-t-s

searching-silently

sixpenceee

A rainbow was caught in the trail of an F-22 fighter jet. This picture was taken by Bernardo Malfitano. The low pressure around the body of the jet caused the water to condense and the angle of the sunlight was just right to make rainbow colors.

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u12banadventurer

A tiger mother lost her cubs from premature labour. Shortly after she became depressed and her health declined, and she was diagnosed with depression. So they wrapped up piglets in tiger cloth, and gave them to the tiger. The tiger now loves these pigs and treats them like her babies.

sciencesoup

Cherenkov Radiation: A Light Boom

The first time you witness an aircraft break the sound barrier is a truly cool moment. As a plane pushes through air, it creates a series of pressure waves that zoom outwards in a cone shape at the speed of sound. When the plane’s speed increases, the waves pile up, compress together because they can’t get out of the way fast enough – until the plane surpasses than the speed of sound and a shockwave booms out like an explosion.

So travelling faster the speed of sound causes a sonic boom – but what about travelling faster than the speed of light?

We’re not talking about violating any laws of physics – the speed of light in a vacuum is the maximum speed limit of the universe, but when light passes through other mediums like glass or water, its interactions with other particles slows it down. When particles travel faster than the speed of light in one of these mediums, they create the light equivalent of the sonic boom: a weirdly cool glow called Cherenkov radiation.

They do this by exciting other molecules, which then release photons (like little pressure waves) as they calm back down. Usually this isn’t noticeable, but when the particle is speeding along faster than light, it can trigger the release of a cascade of photons, which quickly pile up, interfere constructively with each other, and create a bright, visible glow.

Cherenkov radiation is often emitted in nuclear reactors, when particles fly out from the nucleus and into water at incredible speeds – it’s the reason we depict radioactive materials in pop culture as glowing. And in fact, the effect was first observed in 1934 by Pavel Cherenkov, a Soviet physicist, when he was looking at the effects of radioactive particles in liquid. Along with Igor Tamm and Ilya Frank, he won the 1958 Nobel Prize for this discovery.

Though it is really pretty, Cherenkov radiation is also useful – it can be used to detect biomolecules and high-energy particles, and can help study cosmic rays and particle collisions.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons