Top Stories Virginia Beach

Posts Tagged ‘Science’

Astronomy is the study of the universe. It is a serious science, but also a very pleasurable hobby. Therefore, whenever an astronomy picture of the day is offered to people, they usually accept it. There are plenty of such pictures to choose from, and plenty of interesting objects out there to keep people looking.

Of course ,NASA is one of the primary sources for an astronomy picture of the day. This site, NASA.gov, shows a new photo each and every day. There is also a section that shows videos. These could be used to create your own photo site. For example, Saturn’s moon Enceladus was the feature with “star billing” on November 5, 2008.

This image was taken by a passing rocket. It can reproduce details the size of a bus. The ice on this moon reflects as glare, nearly 100% of all the sun light that strikes it. So you would need to wear sunglasses! This moon is so fascinating that Cassini will continue to fly by for more pictures later on in its mission.

NASA maintains an archive of all the astronomy footage of the day dating all the way back to June 16 of’95. It was a ‘what if’ picture of the Earth posing as a neutron star. The image is a computer generation. The most interesting feature is that the constellation Orion is visible twice. Even light from behind a neutron star is visible because the dense star bends the light all the way around it. This causes some double vision.

September 8,’95 was an amazing picture of the central part of the Milky Way galaxy taken by NASA’s COBE satellite. This area is normally invisible because of the dust obscuring it. But COBE scans in infrared, so produced that fantastic image of our very symmetrical galaxy.

The astronomy picture of the day was the same on January 1st, 2000 and January 1st, 2001. The explanation why both dates shared this photo is that most people considered the year 2000 as the first year of the third millennium.

However, the third millennium actually commenced on January 1st, 2001. NASA reasoned it was just better to just go with the flow and do it on both dates. apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010101.html depicts mankind’s view of the universe as it progressed from mere objects circling the Earth, all the way to the ‘Big Bang’ creating the universe as we see it today.

NASA has a lot more days with their own astronomy picture of the day. Visit the web site, NASA.gov to see them.

Astronomy: pictures of the day are fascinating to huge numbers of people. If you are fascinated by astronomy, go along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

Just where did a hybrid car get it’s start? Read on to find out. Hybrid cars are very popular to today’s car buyers and there are many reasons why that should be. But before you even think about choosing a hybrid vehicle to purchase, you might want to know a little bit about the history of the hybrid first.

It is surprising, but hybrid cars were invented even before gas-powered cars. In or about the year 1665, a Jesuit priest by the name of Ferdinand Verbeist began making plans for a new type of vehicle. That vehicle or cart would be very simple, nothing complex. Dead simple was all he was interested in.

So Ferdinand planned out a car that would have four wheels and would run only on steam. It took about fifteen years of work for Ferdinand to go through with his plan. He laboured to perfect his dream car. But no one knows if he ever finished because there is no evidence that his concept ever came into existence.

Then in 1769, a man by the name of Nicholas Cugnot designed and developed a carriage that was powered by steam. This vehicle really did go and it went at six miles per hour. This project was great, but it was difficult to get the amount of steam needed to make the car to go any significant distance.

The real break through in hybrid car development finally came in 1839 when Robert Anderson developed an electrically powered car. It was the first of its kind and was built in Scotland.

This electric car was a highly applauded innovation of its time. However, the only problem was that it was very difficult to recharge the car’s battery. Some pioneers came after Anderson, but they too had a hard time getting the battery recharged easily.

Eventually, in the year 1898, Porsche developed an electric and fuel combination combustion engine that was the first of its type. The car was called the Lohner Electric Chaise and it could travel for up to 40 miles just using its batteries.

Within a short space of time, pioneers combined both gas and a battery powered engines to power what would become today’s hybrid car. In 1999, Honda made a leap into the US market. It came out with the Honda Insight, which was a lightweight two-door hybrid. Since then, hybrid cars have been evolving and improving into what we see on the market these days. Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it’s nice to combine battery and fuel power to get them where they need to go. Hybrid cars started out simple, and they are still quite simple today.

These days hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular as people understand them better. In the 21st century, hybrids saw a boom in sales when the Toyota Prius came out on the market. It was the first hybrid with four doors that was marketed for the USA.

Then, Ford’s Escape hybrid became the very first SUV hybrid ever made. So there, you have it, the history of the hybrid vehicle, today’s modern car.

If you are interested in the insides of New Hybrid Vehicles, just visit our website on http://new-hybrid-vehicles.com Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

Astronomy is a very exact branch of science, although many people become interested in it when they are very young. Astronomy is inspiring pursuit that can teach children about the other sciences in general. Some astronomical subjects inspire kids and movies like Star Wars and they serve to increase this attraction.

The Earth’s closest neighbour is the moon. Its path around the Earth takes a little over twenty-seven days to complete. Mankind has only ever set foot on the Earth and the moon. The gravity between the moon and Earth is responsible for the tides. Its brightness in the night sky encourages many children to want to learn more about it and the subject of astronomy in general.

Let’s move on to the sun. Earth is quite far from the sun, although the distance actually fluctuates between about 91 million miles and about 94 million miles. The reason for this variance is because of Earth’s elliptical orbit. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun, which is our source of important elements such as light and heat. A little-known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass of the whole solar system! Just think about how small a person is compared to that.

The Earth is in the galaxy called the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies, it’s a very large collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. In other words, most of its volume, 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years diameter, the size of our galaxy, is empty.

Our Earth is located somewhere in the vicinity of 30,000 light years from the central core of our galaxy. The nothingness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact, the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main portion of it.

It looks just like a pool of liquid, which is why it was given the name Milky Way. There are four types of galaxies: elliptical, lenticular, irregular and, like the Milky Way, spiral.

There is a lot of information about astronomy on the Internet that is fit for children: from dictionaries and encyclopaedic references to programs that show the paths of the different planets, solar systems and objects right on the computer’s monitor! In deed, there’s more information than a child could ever get through.

Interested in astronomy, then please visit our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.

If a survey by the National Center For Education Statistics is to be believed, roughly 1.1 million children took home schooling in 2005 alone. That is a lot of children. Not so long ago, homeschooling used to be an extreme statement – something like a declaration of independence.

It was the right-wing Christians who pushed for homeschooling in the 1980’s and legalized it in every State. But these day, typical homeschooling student is not religiously motivated.

Later surveys show that parents are quite fed up with the public school system where much of the learning is superficial and compulsory. They are also concerned about the negative environment in school, which ranges from drugs and abuse to negative peer pressure.

As a result, we have a surprising mix of people who form the homeschooling world of today. They cut across all religious creeds and all regional borders. Their chief goal is providing meaningful and productive learning through a method that strengthens the bond between the various members of the family.

All these families have one main thing in common – a long enduring commitment to the sanctity of childhood. The children in these families are accorded a primary position. Many believe, and, I think, rightly so, that home schooling allows parents to bring up their kids in a more natural and caring environment.

Public schools can make a child nervous, subservient and thoroughly nasty. Children who receive their education at home are protected from these damaging, negative influences until they attain an age where they can deal with them.

Home-schooling draws the whole family into the quasi religious job of teaching. Everyone has a role to play. Both the parents together form a bond with the children. Any experience can be turned into an educational experience. Both the parents are aware of exactly what is going into their child’s education.

Parents also have a greater control over the kind of religious and moral values that the child is taught. Even watching a film together can become an educational experience. Trips to the libraries, zoos, museums and other places become educational as well as recreational.

A home-schooling family is usually dependent on the income of one earning member. That means that often outgoings have to be curtailed and proper planning of expenditure is necessary. This helps to bring the family members together and everybody gets involved in the process of not spending money.

Just having a parent at home to supervise, to nurture and to care for the children brings with it a lot of love and caring. Even the husband chips in and there just is no room for boredom.

Yes OK, problems still do sometimes crop up, and there will be a lot of misgivings in your mind, but when you know that your kids can always count on you, and your kids know it too, then homeschooling becomes a richly rewarding experience.

If you are interested in Home Schooling then please visit our site at Home Schooling Information You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

Do you think that passing time in traditional classrooms is a waste of time? For many people, that is probably true. For example, an exam is due and the pupils are told to memorize a list of dates and names. However, after taking the exam, they will definitely forget 90% of those dates and names. That’s what most students do when they have exams. If you are one of these people, you will find traditional history lessons boring, so home schooling, which focuses more on the history of the world, will surely interest you more.

Just simple memorization is not enough to realize the significance of historical, famous people and fateful events. Through home schooling in history, you can learn about the different cultures of the past in a different, but interesting way – that is your own way! Through the study of history, you will also realize what is happening in the world.

If you think that home schooling is the best option for your child’s education, you must also be prepared to take on some responsibilities. Since there will be no teacher physically present, you will have to oversee your child’s learning progress yourself.

Let’s say your kid supports a particular sport. You could combine history and home schooling by simply putting a map on the wall of your child’s schoolroom and mark the location of his favourite sports team. Make sure that you track all the team’s games, scores, activities and schedules. Then, you could return to history lessons by reading biographies of the different athletes, who had been popular in the particular sport that your child follows. Apart from that, you can also look into the history of that particular sport and discover where it started, its inventor, and the other things happening in that particular time in history.

For example, if your child loves baseball, you can teach your child about the history of Negro Leagues, government hearings on the use of steroids, and other favourite pastimes during that time. But remember that you can apply this concept to any interest such as dances and inventions. You can also have conversations with your child concerning current events or read interesting historical works and other books. Aside from that, you can also watch documentaries together with the rest of the family. There are various resources that you can use in home schooling, such as TV, maps, books, a globe, an atlas, and encyclopedias. Due of the exciting adventures that you and your child will read about and see on film, your child will find it easier to remember the names and dates of the history lessons. After all, education is better when it is done in an interesting way.

These methods are recommended if your child is still young, but once your child is older, you must choose an appropriate home schooling program that is suitable to his/her age group. The programs are available at the elementary, high school, and even college levels. You simply have to search the Internet for these different programs. A good thing about these programs is that you can tailor them to fit the interests of your child. However, you must see to it that all the lessons are followed by your child.

Once you and your child have decided to give home schooling a shot, you must be ready to endure some changes in your lifestyle. The educational will now take place in your home not at a remote school and through the various resources that you want to use, which should include a computer and the Internet.

If you are practicing Home Schooling then please pop along to our web-based resource at Home Schooling Information This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.

For most people astronomy is an interesting science filled with loads of astronomy fun facts. Everything from the size and temperature of our own star, the Sun, to the makeup of distant planets has been established. All of this information can be retold to entertain and enlighten people.

The Sun is a fantastic source of astronomy fun facts. Our own star, which supplies us with all our heat and light is between 91 and 94.5 million miles from Earth. It’s not that nobody knows the exact distance. It’s because the Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical, uneven, orbit, so the distance varies depending on where the Earth lies in that orbit.

The Sun is only an average size star, yet it’s size is another terrific source of astronomy fun facts. As normal as it is, it accounts for about 98% of all the material in our solar system. Even with the massive planet of Jupiter on our side, we’re still only a small 2% of non Sun stuff.

It would take the diameter of about 100 Earths to stretch across this average Sun. The solar winds created by the Sun extends to about 50 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Or put another way, those solar winds reach out about 50 AU’s, with an AU being the distance from the Earth to the Sun. That’s quite fantastic, isn’t it?.

How about astronomy fun facts that don’t have much to do with the Sun then? How about our Moon? It’s the only non-Earth object that man has walked on until now. And one man actually travelled to the Moon but never left it. Dr. Eugene Shoemaker really liked the Moon but was rejected as an astronaut. After his death, he was cremated and his ashes were sprinkled over the Moon by the Lunar Prospector spacecraft in 1999.

There are many more astronomy fun facts about the Moon. It’s the site of what may become the oldest footprint known to man. Neil Armstrong’s giant leap for mankind left a print in the Moon dust that will probably still be there in 10 million years time.

Many people, in fact about 13% of those polled in 1988, still believed the Moon is made of cheese. And finally, the suits worn by the Moon-walking astronauts weighed 180 pounds on Earth but only 30 pounds on the Moon, because of the Moon’s reduced gravity. Talk about losing weight, eh?

Astronomy fun facts aren’t limited to our close astronomical neighbours. Looking at stars is like looking into the past. Some of the stars we see today in the night sky are so far away that their light takes a million years to reach Earth. Some of the stars you see may really be images of stars a million years old that aren’t even there any more. There are more than 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe. That’s a 1 followed by 22 zeros. The number is really quite awesome.

There are millions of astronomy fun facts and we could go on about them forever. But unfortunately, this article can not. So, please, just get out there and learn more about astronomy for yourself.

Interested in astronomy, then why not pop along to our website at: Astronomy Today Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.

How many facts are there to be known or learned about all the objects and phenomenon in our entire universe? Just think: there are about 1 x 10 ^22 stars in the universe, that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars; then there are many of those stars that have planets in orbit around them. Then consider the moons that orbit those planets and the comets and asteroids, the galaxies these stars form, the nebulae and black holes and everything else that’s out there. The amount of information and data is really quite mind-boggling. This article definitely will not contain every fact about astronomy, but they are very interesting facts nevertheless.

Let’s take a look at a small subset of astronomy: “the brightest stars as seen from Earth”. That’s discounting the Sun which is about 250,000 times closer than the next nearest star. It’s so bright that when the sky is viewed from the Earth, it washes out all the other stars in the sky during a phenomenon called daylight.

Remember that according to the scale for the magnitudes given, lower numbers are brighter. Our Sun would be about -26.73, while the full moon is -12.6. So, with that in mind, here are the top 5:

#5 is Vega, which is in Lyra, and which means ‘falling eagle’ in Arabic. It’s about 25 light years away from the Earth, with a magnitude of 0.04.

NB: when thinking about this astronomical information, please just bear in mind that the ‘brightest from the Earth’ doesn’t mean ‘largest’ or ‘brightest’. The Sun is not the largest or brightest star in the universe or even the galaxy by any means, but it seems to be so bright to us because we are near to it compared to the other stars.

#4 Rigel Centaurus – a very bright, bluish-white supergiant star in the constellation Orion. It is a binary star, with an average apparent magnitude of 0.12. It’s scientific name is Beta Orionis. ‘Rigel Centaurus’ is Arabic for ‘the foot of the centaur’. It’s about four light years from Earth.

#3 is Arcturus. The translates as ‘guardian of the bear’ from the Greek. This star is about 37 light years away from us. It is situated in the constellation of Bootes, close to The Great Bear. It has a magnitude of 0.00

#2 Canopus. Of these top five, Canopus, the Greek name for the pilot of the vessel Argo made famous in the stories about Jason and the Argonauts, is the brightest. But it’s 313 light years from Earth, so it’s just second on this list as seen from Earth. It has a magnitude of -.62 as seen from this planet.

#1 is Sirius, meaning ’scorching’ in Greek. It’s also called the ‘Dog Star’ because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (‘The Big Dog’). It’s only 9 light years from Earth. That’s second closest of these top five. But from Earth it has a magnitude of -1.44. That makes it easily the brightest star as seen in the night sky.

These few data don’t even scratch the surface of subject of astronomy but it’s something for you to think about the next time you gaze up into the night sky.

The price of fuel continues to fluctuate even now, but that does not mean that you have to be left penniless. You don’t have to let the unstable economy control you! Take whatever measures you have to, to change the circumstances you are in: there are all types of options open to you.

For example, did you realize that a hybrid car can help you regain control of the money in your wallet? Well, yes, it can … Hybrid cars are becoming ever more popular as the cost of fuel goes up, and the cost of hybrid cars goes down.

Petrol prices rise and fuel prices go down and the cycle just seems to go on and on without giving us much respite at all. However, if you really take the time to think about it, that is not the case, it is how you think about the situation that counts. So don’t be sad, be glad, and pay close attention to the television commercials on hybrid cars.

A hybrid car really will help you fight back against high gas prices. If you purchase a hybrid vehicle after having had a conventional car, you will immediately see that you have more money in your pocket with the hybrid car.

Nobody likes to waste their money. I know that I don’t, but that is exactly what you are doing if you stick with a conventional vehicle. Hybrid cars and trucks save you up to 50% on your gas/diesel bills and that very soon exceeds the premium that hybrids vehicles go for. Over the life of your hybrid vehicle, which is over ten years, you will definitely make money on your environmentally-friendly purchase.

But work it out for yourself! Try this: write down the cost each time you visit the petrol station. What does the cost of a full tank of fuel tell you about your car? Whatever it is telling you, a hybrid car won’t be telling you the same as a conventional car does. And that is for sure.

So, get your money to speak to you in the manner you would prefer: instead of having it tell you all the time that your money is flowing out of your pocket, have it tell you, that some of it is going to stay in your purse, so buy a hybrid car.

Who slogged away for those forty hours? You did, of course. So, ensure that you get something to show for it! A hybrid car is a really nice car to have and it will be of real assistance to your bank balance.

It is a car that is not cheap to buy, but it will pay for itself over its lifetime and over that lifetime you will have done a lot of good for the environment and people will have admired you from afar, even if they don’t actually come up to you and express their feelings in person.