Dustin Johnson

PHYS 1010
David Schaffer
4/7/2018

Reflective Writing

Throughout this signature assignment, I was grappling with various physic principles.

The most prominent ones were that of mass and energy and how they interact through time, and

how certain external conditions

(typically involving objects with

mass and energy) can affect systems

with mass and energy through time.

One instance is the accumulation of

so much mass that objects may

become stars. In our first question, I

had to look up several stars within

the Andromeda and Southern Cross

constellations. The stars I picked--Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri, Gamma Crucis, and Alpha

Crucis (pictured right)--are all systems that contain mass and energy. What is interesting about

these particular stars in our night sky, is that they are actually systems of several suns clustered

close enough together appearing as one to us nighttime observers. However, each star within

these star systems, are a system themselves with their own mass and volume. There are couple

stars within the Alpha Centauri star-system that are comparable to our sun in both size and

lumens. It also happens appear to be the brightest star amongst the others surrounding it.

However, there are other stars near it in our night sky that are much bigger and brighter. One
such star is the Alpha Crucis star-system, where the prominent star (α1) is 17.8 times the size of

our sun and 25,000 times brighter. The main difference between these stars is the distance they

lie in relation to our solar system. The light coming from Alpha Centauri is 4.2 light-years away,

while Alpha Crucis is 321 light-years away. So the light we are seeing from Alpha Crucis

originated in the year of 1697!

Another question in our signature assignment dealing with mass and energy through time,

was with the equivalent energy a system contains. I never quite understood this theorem when it

was introduced to me back in elementary school. The only thing I truly understood about it was

that Albert Einstein came up with it. But this assignment brought it back to the forefront of my

awareness. I cannot say this assignment helped make this equation any clearer--especially since

we had no previous lectures on the subject, but through my research, it did bring awareness to

how complex the surrounding interpretations are. I stumbled into the Stanford Encyclopedia of

Philosophy’s entry “The Equivalence of Mass and Energy” which deals with this particular

equation. The equation led to further philosophical debates about whether mass and energy

should be considered the same property of physical systems, or whether mass ‘converts’ into

energy. Leave it to philosophers to make a concept more difficult to grasp or understand, because

after reading this article, it was difficult for me to answer my teacher’s question: If it is possible

to change mass into energy, could a little bit of mass produce a lot of energy”. In the

aforementioned article, this was considered a misconception since, in relativistic physics, “mass

and energy are both regarded is ​properties​ of physical systems… Consequently, there is no sense

in which one of the properties is ever physically converted into the other” (Section 2.1-2.2). So

in response to the teacher’s question, I was a bit perplexed, because I have also understood that
nuclear energy, as well as nuclear bombs, tear apart atoms and harness or explode their energy. It

was a difficult question for me to answer succinctly because I was coming across various

viewpoints. So I answered no, in that it cannot produce a lot of energy by itself, but if an outside

agent acts upon it, then yes a lot of energy can be produced. This was stated in uncertainty, and I

feel I know more about the equation, but I still feel I am missing a lot of the picture; it turned out

to be bigger than I imagined it would be.

Another area concerning how external systems influence mass and energy through time

was how gravity affects or does not affect the speeds at which two object of different weights

fall. This particular subject is all about mass and energy through time. Earth has so much mass

that it exerts a pulling force on an object within its gravitational field. The object (or system) that

is being pulled by Earth’s gravity has mass as well, and when measured on Earth, is prescribed a

weight, which is how much that amount of mass weighs on Earth. The idea of this particular

question in our signature assignment was, if two objects--one lighter in weight and the other

heavier in weight--were dropped from the same height, would they reach the ground at the same

time? It seems so counter-intuitive that they would reach the ground at the same time, but they

do. In fact, it is so counter-intuitive, that humanity was under the delusion that heavier objects

fall faster until Galileo came along in the 14th century. I love that the equations that came out of

his experiments didn’t even include weight or mass. One such equation is ​v​ = ​gt​, where ​v​ is the

velocity acquired (acceleration x times), ​g​ is acceleration due to gravity (9.8m/s​2​) and ​t​ is the

amount of time in seconds. I think this is such a clear, succinct package of how gravity affects an

object. But notice in the equation there is no mention of weight or mass, because the weight of an

object does not affect these measurements. The beauty of physics and math is when it can
portray phenomena in such a simple way, while dispelling misconceptions that have lasted

millenia. It is such a cool theorem.

It seems all of physics is related to mass and energy and how these properties interact

with one another through time. These three concepts were at the heart of every chapter we

explored in our book, and I find it amazing the depth we as humans have been able to understand

the physical world through these three ideas. What has been fascinating about physics is viewing

the myriad ways these elements play out through everything: sound, electricity, planetary

movements, atomic elements, and so on, and so on. What is fascinating is how many different

expressions or equations may be made to illustrate the interactions of these three concepts.