Black Holes Research Project Reflection
By: Tyrel Mortensen
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PAGE 1 PAGE 2 PAGE 3 REFLECTION
Reflecting on Black Holes Research Project
I chose to research black holes because I wanted a project that was both challenging and on a topic that I have had interest in for many years. This was a perfect excuse for me to take time to study black holes as well as other interesting things in our Universe. This project was a great blend of learning and enjoying free time.
I first began the project by simply trying to take in as much information on the subject as I could, by reading books, browsing web postings, and watching videos. During this process I would take quick reference notes to things I though important, or a where something was explained in a way I found easy to understand. I then wrote a quick outline of the paper so that it would make sense as to how I introduced topics to the reader. I proceeded to break those topics up and begin writing on them as if they were their own project. I then took the pieces I felt I needed for the final paper and pieced them together. After a couple of my peers had read over the piece and given some feedback I wrote the paper over again, and then did a final read to check for errors, finally posting it to my ePortfolio page.
The most challenging aspect of the project was finding information specifically on the proof of black holes. While finding a lot of what people think and don’t think was easy, finding actual data that could be verified took the most time. A lot of times I would find some study or documentation only to not be able to find any other reference to it anywhere and therefore felt unsure of the validity of the source. When I could find multiple stories of the same discovery or studies I felt it held a lot more proof than just some random study no one has ever heard of.
There is quite a bit of physics involved in the study of black holes. Finding the mass of a black hole is a common step once a black holes location has been verified. This is done by calculating the speed of the objects orbiting the black hole, which is also another physics equation (speed = distance/time). They will then figure out how long it takes for the object to orbit the black hole, and using the laws of gravity then is able to tell the mass of the black hole. Newton’s law of Universal gravitation is , which is the formula used for this process. The Formula for distance is also a commonly used physics formula to calculate how far away the black hole is.
The laws of black hole mechanics also bear a remarkable resemblance to the laws of thermodynamics. The physics involved in these laws is important to the understanding of black holes and how they work. When black holes were still widely debated many scientists used laws of quantum gravity to debate whether black holes were even possible.
By doing this project my interest in Physics as well as our Universe has increased greatly. While I have always enjoyed learning on both subjects, I have never had an in depth chance such as this to really get into them. The project also discouraged me a little bit when I could see just how brief of a glimpse I got into learning about our Universe. It’s also discouraging to know that the more you want to know about something as vast as our Universe, the amount of information you have to know to understand it increases exponentially.
In beginning to understand black holes my understanding of our own world has been impacted tremendously. Not only did I learn about black holes, but also was able to go beyond and learn about our own Earth as a planet, our solar system, as well as a little about our neighboring solar systems. This learning helps you to feel fortunate about just how lucky we are to have Earth. When you look at all the places out there, Earth is truly one in a billion.
All of this information and appreciation of the subject has opened up a whole new area that I look forward to learning about in the future. This future study may be for academic purpose or for just pure enjoyment outside of the classroom. This project has brought a great deal of excitement to any news and stories I may come across pertaining to space and physics alike. Neither my current career, as a chef, or my future career, as a programmer, have too much to do with learning about black holes. This course has allowed me to study something I have had interest in for years, but never a real chance to get into all the details of. It also has allowed be to impress, or bore, my friends with facts I have picked up or interesting things I have learned.
I first began the project by simply trying to take in as much information on the subject as I could, by reading books, browsing web postings, and watching videos. During this process I would take quick reference notes to things I though important, or a where something was explained in a way I found easy to understand. I then wrote a quick outline of the paper so that it would make sense as to how I introduced topics to the reader. I proceeded to break those topics up and begin writing on them as if they were their own project. I then took the pieces I felt I needed for the final paper and pieced them together. After a couple of my peers had read over the piece and given some feedback I wrote the paper over again, and then did a final read to check for errors, finally posting it to my ePortfolio page.
The most challenging aspect of the project was finding information specifically on the proof of black holes. While finding a lot of what people think and don’t think was easy, finding actual data that could be verified took the most time. A lot of times I would find some study or documentation only to not be able to find any other reference to it anywhere and therefore felt unsure of the validity of the source. When I could find multiple stories of the same discovery or studies I felt it held a lot more proof than just some random study no one has ever heard of.
There is quite a bit of physics involved in the study of black holes. Finding the mass of a black hole is a common step once a black holes location has been verified. This is done by calculating the speed of the objects orbiting the black hole, which is also another physics equation (speed = distance/time). They will then figure out how long it takes for the object to orbit the black hole, and using the laws of gravity then is able to tell the mass of the black hole. Newton’s law of Universal gravitation is , which is the formula used for this process. The Formula for distance is also a commonly used physics formula to calculate how far away the black hole is.
The laws of black hole mechanics also bear a remarkable resemblance to the laws of thermodynamics. The physics involved in these laws is important to the understanding of black holes and how they work. When black holes were still widely debated many scientists used laws of quantum gravity to debate whether black holes were even possible.
By doing this project my interest in Physics as well as our Universe has increased greatly. While I have always enjoyed learning on both subjects, I have never had an in depth chance such as this to really get into them. The project also discouraged me a little bit when I could see just how brief of a glimpse I got into learning about our Universe. It’s also discouraging to know that the more you want to know about something as vast as our Universe, the amount of information you have to know to understand it increases exponentially.
In beginning to understand black holes my understanding of our own world has been impacted tremendously. Not only did I learn about black holes, but also was able to go beyond and learn about our own Earth as a planet, our solar system, as well as a little about our neighboring solar systems. This learning helps you to feel fortunate about just how lucky we are to have Earth. When you look at all the places out there, Earth is truly one in a billion.
All of this information and appreciation of the subject has opened up a whole new area that I look forward to learning about in the future. This future study may be for academic purpose or for just pure enjoyment outside of the classroom. This project has brought a great deal of excitement to any news and stories I may come across pertaining to space and physics alike. Neither my current career, as a chef, or my future career, as a programmer, have too much to do with learning about black holes. This course has allowed me to study something I have had interest in for years, but never a real chance to get into all the details of. It also has allowed be to impress, or bore, my friends with facts I have picked up or interesting things I have learned.