Plus Magazine

gravity

Tags: planetary orbit : gravity : eclipse

Tags: gravity : cosmology : dark matter : lens

What happens when one black hole meets another? Professor Kip Thorne shows us how to eavesdrop on these cosmic events by watching for telltale gravitational waves.

Tags: gravity : interference : curvature of space : gravitational wave detector : black hole : Schwarzchild singularity : laser interferometry : Big Bang : cosmic microwave background radiation

Stephen Hawking's 60 years in a nutshell

Plus is very proud to present Professor Stephen Hawking's own Birthday Symposium address.

Tags: gravity : cosmology : black hole : Big Bang : string theory : m-theory : entropy : general relativity : relativity : inflation : singularity theory : Cauchy surface : cosmic censorship : quantum gravity

Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking!

This issue of Plus is a special, marking the occasion of Stephen Hawking's 60th birthday. Plus attended his Birthday Conference in Cambridge, where we interviewed some of the world's most influential mathematicians and physicists.

Tags: gravity : cosmology : curvature of space : Grand Unified Theory : black hole : Big Bang : quantum mechanics : general relativity : relativity : time travel : wormhole

Faster than a falling bullet...

Scientists have for the first time measured the speed of gravity and tested Einstein's assumption - or have they?

Tags: gravity : cosmology : Newtonian mechanics : general relativity : gravitational lensing : relativity : gravitational wave

101 uses of a quadratic equation: Part II

In issue 29 of Plus, we heard how a simple mathematical equation became the subject of a debate in the UK parliament. Chris Budd and Chris Sangwin continue the story of the mighty quadratic equation.

Tags: bernoulli equation : navier-stokes equations : gravity : ellipse : chaos : differential equation : public understanding of mathematics : quadratic equation : circle : parabola : hyperbola : acceleration : stopping time : galileo : Newton : pendulum : Euler : complex number : logistic map : copernicus : kepler

Squeeze me, stretch me

Did you know that every instant, gravity waves from outer space are stretching and squeezing you - and everyone and everything else in the universe? Learning more about this mysterious radiation will help us to probe the structure and origins of the universe, explains Anita Barnes.

Tags: gravity : LISA : LIGO : gravitational wave

Outer space: Two's company, three's a crowd

Tags: gravity : 3-Body Problem : 5-body problem : slingshot

Outer space: A matter of gravity

What is the cosmological constant?

Tags: gravity : physics

String theory: From Newton to Einstein and beyond

Over the last few years the words string theory have nudged their way into public consciousness. It's a theory of everything in which everything's made of strings — or something like that. But why strings? What do they do? Where did the idea come from and why do we need such a theory? David Berman has an equation-free introduction for beginners.

Tags: gravity : physics : string theory : quantum mechanics : Newton's Principia : general relativity : Einstein : Newton : relativity : quantum uncertainty : quantum gravity

Fashion gets physical

Solving the mathematics of drapery may help change the way we shop.

Tags: gravity : draping : folding : material properties : bending stiffness : fashion

The origins of proof II : Kepler's proofs

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) is now chiefly remembered as a mathematical astronomer who discovered three laws that describe the motion of the planets. J.V. Field continues our series on the origins of proof with an examination of Kepler's astronomy.

Tags: history of mathematics : gravity : proof : ellipse : astronomy : geometry : Kepler's three laws of planetary motion : error

Lagrange and the Interplanetary Superhighway

In the last issue Lewis Dartnell explained how chaos on the brain is not only unavoidable but also beneficial. Now he tells us why the same is true for our solar system and sends us on a journey that has been travelled by comets and spacecraft.

Tags: space exploration : gravity : chaos : astronomy : dynamical system : calculus : physics : Newton : Euler : copernicus : 3-Body Problem : analysis : lagrange point : Manifold : centripetal force : Lagrange : Poincare : Interplanetary Superhighway