What laws of physics are needed in everyday life

The action of physical laws can be observed not only in the laboratory, they also work, and in our kitchen. Physicist Helen Cherskii tells how the most ordinary things to help better understand the structure of the world.

Helen Cherskogo (Helen Czerski)

Physicist and oceanographer, leading scientific and popular programs the BBC.

When it comes to physics, we present some of the formula, something strange and incomprehensible, unnecessary ordinary person. We may have heard something about quantum mechanics and cosmology. But between these two poles is just everything that makes our daily life: a planet and sandwiches, clouds and volcanoes, bubbles and musical instruments. And all of them managed by a relatively small number of physical laws.

We constantly observe these laws in action. Take, for example, two eggs - raw and boiled - and unscrew them, and then stop. Boiled egg remains fixed, damp starts to rotate again. That's because you stopped only the shell and the liquid inside continues to rotate.

This is a clear demonstration the law of conservation of angular momentum. Simplistically it can be formulated as follows: begin to rotate around the fixed axis, the system will continue to run until it is something not stop. This is one of the fundamental laws of the universe.

He not only comes in handy when you need to distinguish from raw boiled egg. With it, you can also explain how the space telescope "Hubble", being without any support in the space, brings the lens to a certain part of the sky. Just inside him spinning gyroscopes that, in fact, behave like a raw egg. The telescope itself revolves around them and thus alter its position. It turns out, the law that we can test in his kitchen, and explains the device one of the most outstanding technology of mankind.

Knowing the basic laws that govern our daily lives, we cease to feel helpless.

To understand how the world around us, we must first understand the basics of it - physical laws. We need to understand the physics - it's not just eccentric scientists in laboratories or complex formulas. It's right in front of us, available to everyone.

Where do you start, you might think. Surely you've noticed anything odd or strange, but instead of thinking about it, tell yourself that you are an adult and you do not have time for this. Czersk advises not to shy away from such things and just start with them.

If you do not want to wait to meet something interesting, put raisins in soda and see what happens. Observe how dry the spilled coffee. Tap the spoon on the edge of the cup, and listen to the sound. In the end, try to drop the sandwich so that it does not fall butter side down.