Many of us are also in awe of what the Universe has to offer. Astronomers have explored the heavens with their telescopes and come up with findings that are so fantastic it can be hard to believe they're real.
What do Olympic athletes and objects in space have in common? The answer is matter in motion, often in extreme examples. Whether it is a human body moving at the fastest speeds possible or the debris from an exploded star blasting through space, the physics of that motion is, in many ways, the same.
The AstrOlympics project explores the spectacular range of science that we can find both in the impressive feats of the Olympic Games as well as cosmic phenomena throughout the Universe. By measuring the range of values for such things as speed, mass, time, pressure, rotation, distance, and more, we can learn not only about the world around us, but also about the Universe we all live in.
The Olympics are an opportunity to behold the limits of human abilities in athletics. After all, the Olympic motto is Latin for "faster, higher, stronger." AstrOlympics enables us to appreciate the feats of the Olympic athletes and then venture far beyond into the outer reaches of space.
The idea of rotation can be found in many places
from children's toys (spinning tops and merry
go rounds) to household appliances (washing
machines). In modern language, the description of
rotation is often used interchangeably with 'spin'
and 'revolution'. By measuring how many rotations (or cycles) an object makes over a certain amount of time, we
can compare how quickly each is turning.
Units: revolutions per minute (RPM),
Hertz (one cycle per second)
More information on rotation
We often note when something is moving faster or slower than something else. Speed is often used interchangeably
with velocity, but they are in fact not the same. Speed
measures distance over time, and velocity does this and
adds direction. Therefore, two objects may have the
same speeds but different velocities if they are moving
in different directions.
Units: miles per hour (mph), kilometers per hour (kph),
meters per second (mps)
More information on speed
We frequently ask: how far away is that? The concept of distance is very familiar to us for things we encounter on Earth. One way to describe distance is as the ground covered between two points. When we think about things on different scales, we find that distances can stretch (or shrink) almost as far as our imaginations.
Units: meter (m), kilometers (km), feet, miles, light years (A light year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles/9.5 trillion km).
More information on distance
We experience time every day, but it's not always easy to pin down a
precise way to describe it. In science, we define time by the ability to
measure it across some reasonably consistent pattern: the spinning
of the Earth on its axis, a pendulum swinging back and forth, or the
vibration of atoms under certain conditions. Time and our ability to
measure it accurately is key for many frontiers of science.
Units: seconds
More information on time
The word 'pressure' takes on lots of meanings
in today's language. The physical definition of
pressure states how much push, or gravitational force, is being exerted by all the matter around or nearby. Solids, liquids or gasses can experience or exert pressure.
Units: many different units used depending
on field of science: pound-force per square
inch (psi), millibars, etc. Below we use Pascals
(Newton/meter2) which is about 0.000145
pounds per square inch.
More information on pressure
The amount of mass that an object has depends on the types of atoms it contains and the total number of atoms*. In other words, mass is the amount of matter. In everyday language, we often interchange "mass" for "weight" but these are two different things. Weight is the mass of an object combined with the forces acting upon it. This means that a person has the same mass on the surface of the Earth as they do in space or anywhere else, but not necessarily the same weight.
*This applies to visible or normal matter, though most matter is dark
Units: kilograms (kg), pounds (lb), solar masses
More information on mass
The density of an object or a substance is the amount of mass it contains in a volume. Density is derived from the mass of the atoms and molecules that make up a material and how tightly packed these are in a certain space. It can be determined for various states of matter, including solids, liquids, and gases. One common way to use density is to compare two objects. A piece of driftwood floats on top of water because it has a lower density than the sea below; on the other hand, an iron anchor has a higher density than the salt water so it sinks to the bottom.
Units: kilograms per cubic meter; grams per cubic centimeter, kg/m3.
When we hear 'acceleration,' we often think of something that is moving very quickly. In fact, the concept of acceleration doesn't rely on how fast an object is moving. Rather, acceleration is defined as the change in speed or the direction it is going. (The combination of speed and direction is known as "velocity.") Therefore, an object moving at any rate can accelerate by speeding up, slowing down, or turning. The ability to do this quickly is important in many aspects of life, from driving an automobile, to performing in sports. It also dictates many characteristics of phenomena in space.
Units: meters/seconds2 (m/s2), miles/hour/second (mi/hr/s), kilometers/hour/second (km/hr/s)
