Common Misconceptions in Physics (Science )

 There are so many misconceptions among us relating to so many things. Our mind will always tend to make sense out of anything, whatever we read to start making a picture of it. But sometimes false information may lead to disaster. Science is always going to improve, and we will always go for learning something new every day.

 Let's see some misconceptions about Physics that we think we understand but we actually do not-

1.   Misconception about Temperature...

What exactly is an object telling you when you touch it and it feels warm or cold?

In one experiment, participants were instructed to compare their body temperatures with those of a metal hard drive and a book.

Which one, the book or the hard disc, do you think will feel warmer? Some people claimed that the hard drive is much colder than the book. Unexpectedly, they were both at the same temperature. How does that make sense? No clue?

It has to do with thermal conductivity, or how quickly heat is transported from one object to another. Although both the book and the hard disc in our scenario were at the same temperature, the hard drive felt colder. This is because the book transfers heat away from your hand more slowly than the aluminum does. The book feels warmer as a result, and the hard disc feels cooler.

You, therefore, don't genuinely experience temperature when you touch something. You can sense how quickly heat is transferred from or to you. Next time you step out of the shower in the cold, give this some thought. To stand on the bath mat rather than the towel next to it is considerably more pleasant.

The bath mat retains heat for a longer period away from you, not because it is warmer but how fast heat gets absorbed or transferred.

2. Where Do Trees Get Their Mass?

Photo credit - Wikipedia

Even though trees are some of the largest living things in the world, how do they receive the nutrients they need to grow? From the ground?

Jan Baptist van Helmont, a scientist, endeavored to identify the source of a tree's mass in the early 1600s.

He took a pot of soil and precisely measured how much to put inside. The tree was then planted, and for the following five years, he cared for it, making sure that no soil was added to or removed from his container. He weighed the tree after the experiment and discovered that it weighed 72 kilos, whereas the enormous soil had only lost roughly 60 grams of weight.

This provided rather compelling proof that the tree's mass is not derived from the soil. Well, most likely from the soil's nutrients and water. Other than the soil and the water, what else are you going to need? That should be all you require, right?

Jan Baptist van Helmont did, after all, come to the conclusion that the tree was totally composed of water. Even though that is incorrect, at least he was on the right track when he realized that a tree's stuff did not come from the soil.

Where do they obtain that mass to become that large, I wonder? The sun?

Has the tree gained weight since the sun's arrival? To grow, it would require sunlight. Of course, they wouldn't develop without it. They wouldn't survive without it, even if it didn't increase mass. Of course, the sun's energy is required for the tree to create the matter for its branches and leaves, but the Sun's energy itself does not matter.

So you must also add air to this. Do you think we're missing any ingredients?

A carbon dioxide.  Would it surprise you to learn that carbon dioxide actually makes up 95% of a tree? Most of the material in trees is air. Yeah. — Surprising. As it turns out, trees are primarily composed of air and the carbon dioxide they absorb.

It's noteworthy to note that whereas trees breathe in carbon dioxide and water to gain bulk, we breathe out these same gases when we lose mass. Therefore, if you can picture a closed system where there is only one tree and you. You would exhale the carbon dioxide, and the tree would absorb it through the water. As a result, you would shrink as the tree grew, in a way becoming a tree yourself.

3. Why ice is slippery?

Photo credit - shutterstock

The majority of people mistakenly believe that it is because of the sun's heat, which they believe warms the air molecules and melts the ice.

But in reality, ice compresses a little bit when you step on it, which lowers the melting point. As a result, we have a thin layer of water that you may glide along. As a result, the ice is slippery. However, since the slippery effect is dependent on pressure rather than the temperature of the outside air, it doesn't need to be warm outside; it might be quite cold and you still receive the same effect.  

->So Ice melts under pressure. (Most of this is incorrect. yet it's still fascinating.) 

->Ice melts due to friction. (Becoming hotter. However, it doesn't cover all the bases.)

Therefore, the friction created by a narrow blade on ice cannot account for how skates glide. However, what about friction? There is no reason why the heat produced by ice skates skating across the surface couldn't melt the ice.

In the ice skating question,  friction "is a second-order effect." Ice skates can glide more quickly when they are moving because of friction, but we still don't know how they start to glide so quickly.

On top of the ice, there is a thin layer of liquid water. (This is crucial.)

Ice is covered with a thin coating of liquid water. This is essential. Take two ice cubes from your freezer, and swiftly stack them on top of one another so that no part of them heats up to a melting point.

After a few hours, return. They are bonded together. The liquid layer that surrounds the ice cubes is what causes them to stick together. These liquid layers come together and freeze when they touch.

To hold one another in place in a crystalline structure, the individual water molecules interact with one another through hydrogen bonds when water freezes. However, the molecules on the surface have fewer molecules to cling to, which causes them to become more disordered and ultimately makes the ice slick.

4. Why earth is spinning?

Photo credit- pixbay

Do you know why the planet is spinning, even though everyone is aware of it? 

Since Earth was created from dust which was spinning. As long as no external force is acting on the mass, it will continue to spin. The term "inertia" refers to this quality.

5. What causes the seasons?

Why do we get the seasons? The Earth's axis is tilted and the orbit is elliptical but the distance to the sun varies by only 3% and this variation does not cause the seasons.

While the Earth's axis is tilted and its orbit is elliptical, the variation in its distance from the sun—which is only 3%—does not result in the seasons. The tilt of the Earth's rotational axis concerning the plane of revolution is what actually causes the seasons. Different regions of the Earth are exposed to the Sun's strongest rays at various times of the year. Therefore, the Northern Hemisphere experiences summer when the North Pole tilts toward the Sun. Additionally, winter in the Northern Hemisphere occurs when the South Pole tilts toward the Sun.

Many people think that the summertime heat is caused by Earth being closer to the Sun. They also believe that during the winter, Earth is farthest from the Sun. This notion makes sense, but it is untrue.

The orbit of the Earth is not a complete circle. It is a little unbalanced. The Earth is closer to the Sun at some periods of the year than at other times. However, in the Northern Hemisphere, we experience both winter and summer, with winter being when Earth is closest to the Sun. This variation in Earth's distance over the year has little impact on our weather when compared to how far away the Sun is. Many people think that the summertime heat is caused by Earth being closer to the Sun. They also believe that during the winter, Earth is farthest from the Sun.

The seasons on Earth are caused by something else.

The axis of the Earth is a hypothetical pole that runs straight down its middle from "top" to "bottom." Every day, the Earth completes one full rotation around this pole. The existence of day and night and the fact that each region of the Earth's surface experiences both is due to this.

The reason why Earth has seasons is that its axis isn't vertical.

But what caused Earth to tilt?

It is believed that something significant struck Earth in the distant past when it was still young, throwing it out of balance. So it leans a little bit rather than rotating with its axis straight up and down. By the way, Theia is the name of the large object that struck Earth. Additionally, it created a sizable surface hole. There was a great deal of dust and debris in orbit after that enormous strike. Most scientists believe that throughout time, that debris transformed into our Moon.

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The slanted axis of the Earth points in the same general direction as it revolves around the Sun. As a result, during the year, the Sun's direct rays reach various locations on Earth. Around June, the North Pole will occasionally tilt toward the Sun. Other times, the South Pole will do similarly (around December). The Northern Hemisphere experiences summer in June because the Sun shines more intensely there than at any other time of the year. The Northern Hemisphere experiences winter in December because it is the month when the South Pole is oriented toward the Sun.

6. Misconception about gravity

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You likely learned in school that objects are attracted to one another based on their mass, leading you to believe that since light has no mass, gravity cannot possibly affect it.

Guess what, though?

The cause of gravity is not mass; rather, it is energy and momentum, which light unquestionably possesses (as does ordinary stuff, of course). As a result, not only does light get bent as it passes by a star, planet, or black hole, but it also somewhat weakly (and very weakly) attracts the object in question. However, a negligible sum is not zero.

Photo credit - iStock

In any case, the key point is that Newton's equation of gravitation is only a rough approximation, sufficient to lead us to the moon but not perfect. Relativity in general is preferable.

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