How Earth’s Climate Changes Naturally (and Why Things Are …
Jul 21, 2020 · Earth’s climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here’s how each compares with modern climate change. Orbital wobbles, plate tectonics, evolutionary changes and other factors have sent the planet in and out of ice ages. Pablo A. Cumillaf. Earth has been a snowball and a hothouse at different times in ...
What Is a Particle? - Quanta Magazine
Nov 12, 2020 · A Particle Is a ‘Collapsed Wave Function’ 1. The quest to understand nature’s fundamental building blocks began with the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus’s assertion that such things exist. Two millennia later, Isaac Newton and Christiaan Huygens debated whether light is made of particles or waves.
A Mathematician’s Guided Tour Through High Dimensions
Sep 13, 2021 · The formal study of higher dimensions emerged in the 19th century and became quite sophisticated within decades: A 1911 bibliography contained 1,832 references to the geometry of n dimensions. Perhaps as a consequence, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the public became infatuated with the fourth dimension.
A New Map of All the Particles and Forces | Quanta Magazine
Oct 22, 2020 · We’ve created a new way to explore the fundamental constituents of the universe. Ashley Mackenzie for Quanta Magazine. [Editor’s note: The full, interactive map is available below.] All of nature springs from a handful of components — the fundamental particles — that interact with one another in only a few different ways.
The Mystery at the Heart of Physics That Only Math Can Solve
Jun 10, 2021 · The accelerating effort to understand the mathematics of quantum field theory will have profound consequences for both math and physics. Olena Shmahalo/Quanta Magazine. Over the past century, quantum field theory has proved to be the single most sweeping and successful physical theory ever invented. It is an umbrella term that encompasses many ...
The Simple Math Problem We Still Can’t Solve - Quanta Magazine
Sep 22, 2020 · This problem is simply stated, easily understood, and all too inviting. Just pick a number, any number: If the number is even, cut it in half; if it’s odd, triple it and add 1. Take that new number and repeat the process, again and again. If you keep this up, you’ll eventually get stuck in a loop. At least, that’s what we think will happen.
How Many Numbers Exist? Infinity Proof Moves Math Closer to an …
Jul 15, 2021 · An Infinity of Infinities. Yes, infinity comes in many sizes. In 1873, the German mathematician Georg Cantor shook math to the core when he discovered that the “real” numbers that fill the number line — most with never-ending digits, like 3.14159… — outnumber “natural” numbers like 1, 2 and 3, even though there are infinitely many of both.
Mathematician Proves Huge Result on ‘Dangerous’ Problem
Dec 11, 2019 · Lothar Collatz likely posed the eponymous conjecture in the 1930s. The problem sounds like a party trick. Pick a number, any number. If it’s odd, multiply it by 3 and add 1. If it’s even, divide it by 2. Now you have a new number. Apply the same rules to the new number. The conjecture is about what happens as you keep repeating the process.
Topology 101: The Hole Truth | Quanta Magazine
Jan 26, 2021 · For instance, in 1813 the Swiss mathematician Simon Lhuilier recognized that if we punch a hole in a polyhedron to make it more donut-shaped, changing its topology, then V – E + F = 0. Samuel Velasco/Quanta Magazine. Interestingly, while Euler and Lhuilier imagined their polyhedra as solid, Euler’s formula is computed using only zero ...
A Debate Over the Physics of Time | Quanta Magazine
Jul 19, 2016 · According to our best theories of physics, the universe is a fixed block where time only appears to pass. Yet a number of physicists hope to replace this “block universe” with a physical theory of time. The physicist Tim Koslowski listens to the discussion at the Time in Cosmology conference. Philip Cheung for Quanta Magazine.