Judging by the title of this article, you would assume that I’m going to attempt to persuade you that physics is not scary; well that would be a lie. Physics is scary, but I feel everyone should know something about this awesome force governing our world.
If you are like me, you might never have been interested in physics, or knew that a hydrogen atom has one electron and one proton. Like me, you might not have known that the electron in the hydrogen atom quantum leaps from side to side, up and down, and is only in a fixed place when it is being observed.
Until recently I didn’t know any of this. I didn’t care and possibly could have gone my whole life without caring. Then I watched a series of documentaries on FOX called “COSMOS” hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The show opened my eyes to questions I wouldn’t have had the knowledge to conjure in my wildest dreams.
For example, why does an electron in an atom leap from side to side or up and down? Is the leap faster than the speed of light? If so, then Einstein’s theory of relativity could be wrong. Imagine how that revelation would alter your next physics textbook. I am not a physics expert. I haven’t taken a physics class. If someone who barely knows algebra can grasp the logic of physics, I’m sure you can too.
Watching “COSMOS” was the best, or maybe the worst thing to happen to me. The questions I keep asking myself consume me. I am being driven to look for answers I never thought I would have questions for. I have since discovered the electron leaps because its atom absorbs light, but I want to know more. What kind of light makes the atom respond with a leap? Can we implement that into spaceship technology? If so, could we then leap from star to star? Who wants to spend ten years traveling to another planet? Hardly anyone in our society. The implications that would have on space travel and mankind’s willingness to pursue it are mind blowing. Imagine what we would find.
I have developed many questions during this last spring break. If it wasn’t for “COSMOS”, I wouldn’t have been able to open my eyes to the bigger picture. Now I feel that this world is connected, like an invisible web has all of us fastened to it, forever glued to its sticky blanket of space and time.
If the essence of everything we can see, touch and feel is connected to everything we can’t see, touch, and feel, how are we as a species going to bridge that knowledge gap? What kind of power would we harness, or maybe just haphazardly unleash? We have in the past let drama and society govern our thoughts and actions, making us blind to the stars we have only barely understood. What will we find next, and better yet, how will we use it?
I encourage everyone reading this article to search for their own answers. Diligently seek out what you don’t know. Who knows, maybe you will be the next Einstein, or maybe you will inspire the next Einstein to unravel the mysteries of our existence. With a piece of knowledge you gleaned in your search for understanding, you might be the inspiration that changes the world.
Above all, I encourage you to be proactive. Imagine you sitting wherever you are reading this. Now, zoom out a little until you are hovering a mile above yourself. Then keep going until you see yourself as the universe sees you: a little dot on a blue rock orbiting a large fiery ball. Don’t feel insignificant. That little dot can achieve so much. You just need to work for it.
