Hell -exothermic or endothermic?

HELL EXPLAINED BY CHEMISTRY STUDENT

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid term.

The answer by one student was so 'profound' that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :


Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell,then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,' and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God.'


THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+. 

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Unbelievable facts...(Random)

• If you get struck by lightning, your body temperature can go up to 28,000 centigrade, which is hotter even than the surface of the Sun.
• Every continent's name starts and ends with the same letter.
•  Assuming no incest, tracing your family tree 25 generations will give you 33,554,432 direct ancestors.
• If all the people in China stood up on a chair and jumped together, the Earth would be displaced from its axis.
• Children laugh about 400 times a day while adults laugh only about 15 times.
• Adolf Hitler had only one testicle. 
• If the entire population of China were to walk past you in a single file,the line would never end.The reason being the rate of reproduction.
• Typewriter is the longest that can be typed using just one row of the keyboard.
• The stars in the sky are at an average distance of 20 million miles from each other.
• A chameleon can move its eyes in different direction at the same time.
• The orbit of moon around the Earth can easily fit inside the Sun.
• An asteroid managed to wipe out all the dinosaurs off the Earth but didn't harm a single species of toads or salamanders or crocodiles.
• If a ball if thrown into a well to the centre of Earth, it would take 45 minutes to reach the bottom, 4000 miles away. If the well went through to the other end of the Earth, the ball wouldn't come out but keep oscillating in the well forever.
• 10 billion flakes of skin are shed by the body everyday.
• The largest mammal on Earth,the Blue Whale, has a heart of the size of a small car and its blood vessels are broad enough for a human to swim through them.
• In comparison to the left handed people, the right handed ones live nine years longer on average.
• The actual colour of a polar bear's hair is not white.It is actually clear and appears white as they are capable of reflecting light.
• The weight of Earth is about 6500 million million million tons.
• The heart stops for a second every time you sneeze. 
• 'Set' has the most definitions in English than any other word.
•  An octopus has three hearts.
• A type blood can be changed to O type with the use of a chicken liver.
• If you see the sun go out, behind a cloud or something, then it means that it went out 8 minutes ago since it takes 8-minutes for sunlight to reach the Earth.  
• Hummingbirds can fly backwards.
• On an average, a human eats 8 spiders while asleep. 
• The eyes of the human are of the same size from birth till death but ears and nose never stops growing.
• A cockroach is capable of surviving for 9 days without a head, after which it starves to death.
• The domain name 'business.com' was sold for $7.5 million.
• No babies can see colours when they are born.
• Tickling yourself isn't feasible as the cerebellum warns the brain about the action and then the brain ignores the resulting sensation. 
• The shortest war ever was fought in 1896 b/w Britain and Zanzibar and lasted only 38 minutes.
• The surface area of a lung is almost as much as that of a tennis court.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
• All elephants have bones only in the front part of the foot causing them to walk on tiptoe.
• Mosquito is the most dangerous insect known having contributed in more deaths than any other species on Earth.

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What may happen in 2012 that wipes out the world?

Although it seems just odd and highly improbable that the world will suddenly wipe off the face of Earth . But the hype around it is really immense. I looked up some ways which can end the world in a jiffy.Take a look and see if you agree.

• Asteroid Impact

(Image Source)

This is the first thing that comes to mind.They wiped out dinosaurs and can do it again. Rocks hit the Earth almost every day but none are big enough to cause any trouble.A huge one can still find its way to Earth although the chances are about 1 in 700,000. 

One more thing, since we are not dinosaurs, the chances are that we'll see one of them coming and destroy it or deflect it off path.

• Supernova 

(Image source)

A supernova  is a stellar explosion. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months. During this short interval, a supernova can radiate as much energy as the Sun could emit over its entire life span. The explosion expels much or all of a star's material at a velocity of up to 30,000 km/s (a tenth the speed of light), driving a shock wave into the surrounding interstellar medium. This shock wave sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust called a supernova remnant.

This surely is something capable of the task at hand but again it has odds of about 1 in 10,000,000 . 

• Gamma-ray Burst

 (Image Source)

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are flashes of gamma rays associated with extremely energetic explosions in distant galaxies. They are the most luminous electromagnetic events occurring in the universe. Bursts can last from milliseconds to nearly an hour, although a typical burst lasts a few seconds. The initial burst is usually followed by a longer-lived "afterglow" emitting at longer wavelengths.

Just a fact-Gamma rays are capable of penetrating a 30 cm thick sheet of metal.So, you can understand the danger.

Odds- 1 in 14,000,000.

• Solar Flare

(Image Source)

A solar flare is a large explosion in the Sun's atmosphere that can release as much as 6 × 10²⁵ joules of energy.

Odds- Almost nil

• Death Of Sun

(Image Source)

The Sun does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova. Instead, in about 5 billion years, it will enter a red giant phase, its outer layers expanding as the hydrogen fuel in the core is consumed and the core contracts and heats up. Helium fusion will begin when the core temperature reaches around 100 million kelvins and will produce carbon, entering the asymptotic giant branch phase.

When this happens, Earth would be toasted but do we need to start worrying now?It isn't going anywhere for billions of years.

• Black Hole

(Image Source)

A black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. So what chance does our poor Earth stand.

But odds of one coming close enough are about 1 in 1,000,000,000,000.

• Death of Universe

Earth is surely in danger if this happens, if all matter decays. Do I need to discuss the odds of this happening any time soon.

• Alien Attack

(Image Source-Crysis Warhead Screenshot)

The odds of this happening are probably better than some of the things discussed above. If aliens decide to attack us and give us severe nose bleeds we are in for a hard time.

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Amazing Extinct Animals

All of us have heard about the various species under threat of extinction and loads of efforts are being made to help them survive. But many such species have already disappeared off the face of Earth...they are extinct.
Here are some of those amazing creatures that won't be seen again:

• Tyrannosaurus Rex (Extinct about 65 million years ago)

T. Rex is surely the first that comes to mind when you think of 'extinct animals'.

Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time; the largest complete specimen, measured 12.8 metres (42 ft) long, and was 4.0 metres (13 ft) tall at the hips. Mass estimates have varied widely over the years, from more than 7.2 metric tons (7.9 short tons), to less than 4.5 metric tons (5.0 short tons), with most modern estimates ranging between 5.4 and 6.8 metric tons (6.0 and 7.5 short tons).
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• Thylacine (extinct since 1936)

The Thylacine (Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger (because of its striped back), the Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie (or Tazzy) Tiger or simply the Tiger. Native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, it is thought to have become extinct in the twentieth century around 1936.

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• Irish Elk (Extinct  about 7,700 years ago)

The Irish Elk or Giant Deer (Megaloceros giganteus), was a species of Megaloceros and one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended acrossEurasia, from Ireland to east of Lake Baikal, during the Late Pleistocene. The latest known remains of the species have been carbon dated to about 7,700 years ago.Although large numbers of skeletons have been found in Irish bogs, its common name, Irish Elk, is misleading as the animal was not exclusively Irish, and neither was it closely related to either of the living species currently called elk; for this reason, the name "Giant Deer" is preferred in more recent publications.

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• Quagga (Extinct since 1883)

The quagga (Equus quagga quagga) is an extinct subspecies of the Plains zebra, which was once found in great numbers in South Africa's Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. It was distinguished from other zebras by having the usual vivid marks on the front part of the body only. In the mid-section, the stripes faded and the dark, inter-stripe spaces became wider, and the rear parts were a plain brown. The name comes from a Khoikhoi word for zebra and is onomatopoeic, being said to resemble the quagga's call. The only quagga to have ever been photographed alive was a mare at the Zoological Society of London's Zoo in Regent's Park in 1870.

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• Megatherium (Extinct about 11,000 years ago)

Unlike its living relatives, the tree sloths, Megatherium was one of the largest mammals to walk the Earth, weighing five tons, about as much as an African bull elephant. Although it was primarily a quadruped, its footprints show that it was capable of assuming a bipedal stance. When it stood on its hind legs, it was about twice the height of an elephant, or about twenty feet tall. This sloth, like a modern anteater, walked on the sides of its feet because its claws prevented it from putting them flat on the ground. Megatherium species were members of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna, large mammals that lived during the Pleistocene epoch.

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• Woolly Mammoths (Extinct 11,000 years ago)

Woolly mammoths were elephant like animals with tusks as long as 3.5 m long.Unlike most other prehistoric animals, their remains are often not literally fossilized - that is, turned into stone - but rather are preserved in their organic state. This is due in part to the frozen climate of their habitats, and also to their massive size. Woolly mammoths are therefore among the best-understood prehistoric vertebrates known to science in terms of anatomy.

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• Dodo (Extinct since late 17th century)

The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) was a flightless bird endemic to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Related to pigeons and doves, it stood about a meter (3 feet) tall, weighing about 20 kilograms (44 lb), living on fruit and nesting on the ground.

The dodo has been extinct since the mid-to-late 17th century.It is commonly used as the archetype of an extinct species because its extinction occurred during recorded human history, and was directly attributable to human activity.

The phrase "dead as a dodo" means undoubtedly and unquestionably dead, whilst the phrase "to go the way of the dodo" means to become extinct or obsolete, to fall out of common usage or practice, or to become a thing of the past.

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• Megalodon (Extinct 1.6 million years ago)

The megalodon  was a giant shark that lived in prehistoric times during the late Oligocene epoch and Neogene period, approximately 25 to 1.5 million years ago, and was a super-predator.

It was by far the largest and most powerful fish of its time and one of the biggest hypercarnivorous predators ever known with maximum size theorized to be around 20.3 metres (67 ft) in length and 103 metric tons (114 short tons) in weight. From scrutiny of its remains, scientists conclude that C. megalodonbelongs to the order Lamniformes but its genus is disputed. Fossil evidence has revealed that C. megalodon had cosmopolitan distribution and fed upon large marine animals.

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• Steller's Sea Cow (Extinct since 1768)

Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is a large extinct sirenian mammal. Formerly abundant throughout the North Pacific, its range was limited to a single, isolated population on the uninhabited Commander Islands by 1741 when it was first described by Georg Wilhelm Steller, chief naturalist on an expedition led by explorer Vitus Bering. Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, the slow moving and easily captured Steller's sea cow was hunted to extinction.

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Mistakes aren't bad ,not if they lead to new discoveries...are they?

Not all mistakes are bad.Some mistakes, some accidents can get you more than you ever expected. Such mistakes occur in the scientific world quite frequently.Listed here are some of such discoveries and inventions that were a result of the mistakes that worked.

• Vulcanized Rubber:

The rubber in its original form is practically useless being brittle and stiff when cold and sticky when hot.Charles Goodyear had been trying to make it better for several years.But it actually happened by mistake.He brushed  his hands off that had the 'useless' rubber and some sulphur sticking on them onto a hot stove.He noticed that the rubber formed into some kind of gum and  left it out in the cold nailed to his door. He was astonished to find a perfectly elastic substance there by the morning.

• X-Rays

In the nineteenth century, the penetrating rays emitted when electrons hit metal were a matter of interest for many.One such guy was Wilhelm Röntgen.One day he was trying to see the effect they had on objects that came in their way .But he was surprised when he saw the bones of his own hand being projected on the wall.This process led to the the discovery of X-Rays as we know them today. 

• Penicillin

One day in 1928, Alexander Fleming didn't clean up his workstation before leaving.When he returned he found some strange fungus growing on some of his cultures but he was much more surprised when he saw that the bacteria didn't thrive anywhere near it.

Penicillin is still the most widely used antibiotics.

• Artificial Sweeteners

Not washing hands before eating isn't bad specially if they taste sweet.Thats what the scientists who forgot to wash their hands after working with chemicals like aspartame, saccharin, cyclamate found out.Now wasn't that a sweet mistake.

• Microwave Oven

The microwave was a result of things getting hot in Percy Spencer's pants, melting the candy bar in his pocket when he came close to a magnetron.

• Pace Maker

This life saving device was discovered by Greatbatch when he was trying to make a circuit to record the heart sounds. By mistake he used a 1 mega ohm resistor in place of an intended 10,000 ohm one.The resultant circuit pulsed for 1.8 milli-second ,then stopped for a second and then pulsed again giving a perfect heartbeat.

• Teflon

Roy Plunkett ,in an effort to make a new CFC planned to use a gas called TFE.In order to preserve the gas till the time of use, he cooled it and pressured it into canisters.But when the time of opening the canisters came, the gas was gone. Frustrated, he shook the canisters and out came some white flakes which later formed into the teflon we know today.

• Radioactivity

Becquerel back in 1896 ran a series of experiments to see if all fluorescent elements emitted X rays in the sun.But the problem was that it was winter time and the sun refused to show up .Becquerel kept his apparatus in a drawer wrapped up in a paper for the meantime.When the sun finally showed itself ,Becquerel found that the uranium rock had left some imprints on the photographic plate even without being exposed to the sun.He studied this with the Curie couple to discover radioactivity.

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Most Popular Myths of the Modern Times

Do you know the facts or are you living with the widely accepted myths.Just see those listed here and find out for yourself.

• Chewing gum, if swallowed, remains inside your body for seven years.

Whoever came up with this did a really good job of it.First of all he bought himself seven years before anyone could know that this isn't a fact.

Even though chewing gum takes longer to break down but it is still excreted like any other undigested food item within a day or two.

• A woman's breast implants may explode on an airplane due to low air pressure

The implants may expand a little on an airplane but the decompression isn't enough to cause them to burst and

if such condition ever occured ,the implants might just last longer than the people on the plane.Same goes for the inflatable bras.

• The asteroid impact immediately wiped out the dinosaurs from the Earth

The asteroid impact was largely responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs but it wasn't an instantaneous process.The after effects of the impact ,like earth quakes,acid rain and a dust cloud that would have blocked sunlight from reaching ground level for years may be,were responsible for ending the dinosaurs' reign on Earth.

• It is possible to resurrect the dinosaurs by using their DNA's and cloning them

Just think, if that were possible wouldn't there be Jurassic parks in every corner of the world.There are just too many complications for this too be done.

• Eating carrots improves eyesight

Maintaining a well-balanced diet, including carrots, can protect your eyesight, but won't make it any better.

• Drinking coffee helps you sober up quickly

No amount of black coffee you drink or showers you tale will lead to a quick sobriety.Only time can sober you up  at a rate of 0.015 percent of blood alcohol content per hour.Thats the rate at which  body can process alcohol.

• Freezing a failing  hard drive will repair it

This one isn't completely wrong.Though the process wouldn't magically repair the drive but it will keep it working long enough to copy the content to a different drive.When the drive is making clicking noises ,it is generally due to expanding over heated metal parts and cooling shrinks it back to normal for it to mount properly.

• Drinking alcohol will keep you warmer

Even though it might make you feel warmer initially but alcohol actually lowers your core body temperature as it sends the blood to the skin making you feel warmer but actually reducing the core temperature.

• A bullet fired into the gas tank of a car will blow it up

Don't believe everything you see in movies.For a gas tank to catch fire, the gas should spray out in a fine mist and come into contact with the ignition source and the bullet doesn't produce sparks and car's ignition is at the other end.

• Even a small hole in a flying aircraft can cause it to rip apart

Another myth made famous by the movies.Even a hole as big as the plane's window won't cause it to rip apart  and will allow the plane enough time for a safe landing even though a passenger might be sucked out of the hole in that period due to decompression.

• There is a dark side of the Moon

Even though one side of the moon is not visible from Earth due to tidal locking but actually each side of the moon is illuminated for an equal time by the sun.

• Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice

In fact its quite the opposite.Lightning favors certain location particularly the high ones. The Empire State Building is struck about 25 times every year. 

• Shaving causes hair to grow back thicker or coarser

This belief is due to the fact that hair that has never been cut has a tapered end, whereas, after cutting, there is no taper. Thus, it appears thicker, and feels coarser due to the sharper, unworn edges.

• A penny dropped from a high enough place can kill a person.

A penny not being the most aerodynamic of weapons would be highly affected ,mainly,by air friction and even after falling from the 1,250 ft tall Empire State Building would have enough force only to sting a pedestrian.

• The Great Wall of China can be seen from space

 None of the Apollo astronauts reported seeing any man-made object from the Moon. The misconception is believed to have been popularized by Richard Halliburton decades before the first moon landing

• There is no gravity in space

Gravity is everywhere. It only diminishes with distance but never truly disappears.The astronauts in space feel weightless only because they are in a free fall towards Earth.They don't seem to be in free fall due to their horizontal motion.

• Food picked up from the ground before 5 seconds is safe to eat.

This is a misconception.Germs can stick to a food item immediately on contact.Though all germs are not harmful, so if the food item is tasty people still will keep following the five second rule.

• Males think about sex every seven seconds.

This is an over statement and a gross one even if we consider that evolutionarily males are driven to reproduce.

• Edison invented the light bulb.

Though it was Edison who made a practically usable version of it but he didn't invent it.Different versions of it had been already invented earlier.

• An adult brain does not grow

Most of human's brain development occurs during childhood, but it isn’t the end of it. Neurons continue to grow and change well into the adult years.

• Hair and fingernails keep growing even after death

Hair and fingernails appear to be growing after death due to the continuous shrinking of the rest of the body i.e the skin and muscles etc.

• Humans use only about 10% of their brain

Another one of media's favorite.But actually most of the cerebral cortex is used by the humans even during sleep.

How many of these did you believe?
Heard any other than these?

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String Theory -A Beginner's View

I was watching a video clip of one of my favorite TV series 'The Big Bang Theory' a couple of days back(If you haven't watched it then you are really missing on a big thing in your life and i recommend that you leave everything else and watch it right now.)
Anyways ,back to the topic ,while watching the clip, 'Sheldon' mentioned the string theory and I searched for it on the net to see what exactly it is.
Then on opening google.com today ,I came to know that today it is the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton and i felt inspired to write about some physics stuff.
Anything mentioned here about the string theory is what i understood of it and I think if you are a beginner at it like me ,it is quite interesting .

What is the need of the string theory? 
Presently the universe is explained on the basis of two basic theories :

• The Quantum Theory-the theory of all the small things ,of all the sub atomic particles and how they act in their subatomic world.
• The Theory of Relativity:This theory basically given by Einstein as an extension of Newton's mechanical models and theories explains how all the 'visible' things in the universe happen.It explains the big bang,black holes and covers space and time.

The problem is that both these theories are mutually exclusive.They just can't go together hand in hand.When we talk about the quantum theory we forget the theory of relativity .We assume that gravitation doesn't apply to the subatomic particles and things like that.Similarly, while talking about relativity we tend to forget all about the quantum theories.

All this doesn't sound acceptable in the perfectly symmetrical and simple universe.Here in comes the string theory which tries to explain everything there is to explain in this universe with a simple equation,on the basis of strings which vibrate in 10 dimensions and are the cause of all forces,all energy that there is .

If string theory is a valid one,it will cause a paradigm shift like the one which happened when Copernicus proposed that the Earth goes around in orbit around the Sun.This time the shift will be from the 3+1 dimensions of space and time to the 10 dimensional hyper space +1 dimension of time in which strings can move.

What are these strings?

When one hears of strings,the first thing that comes to mind is what are these  things that are supposed to make up everything.

Lets consider a ball.Now its hard enough to imagine that if shatter it into microscopically miniscule pieces we'll see electrons revolving around the neutrons and protons which further are made up of the point particles called quarks.

String Theory says that the quarks aren't the ultimate fundamental particles.If we  see even further what we'll see are vibrating loops ,the strings,vibrating in a certain mode to form that particular form .

So if there are strings ,then there's no need to consider electrons,protons or any subatomic particles ,you just have the String.

Where and how did it start?

It all started with the Greek group that called themselves the Pythagoreans.They worked out the laws of harmony on a violin string and realised that the resonance of the vibrating strings of violin could be explained corresponding to integers.They were marvelled by the fact that music could be explained on the basis of vibration of strings.This gave birth to the idea of perhaps being able to explain the whole universe by a simple equation on the basis of vibrations of strings.This idea was only revoked a few years ago.

Biggest Drawback:

The biggest drawback or one should say the problem that physicists face is that the equations of the string theory predict a presence of a 10 dimensional hyperspace.That is undigestable for most.

The theory for explaining everything being based on 10 dimensional hyperspace seems more like science fiction than science.

To prove the String Theory completely,one will have to recreate the big bang ,the start of the creation,which is not possible.
The image shows the meaning of string theory for most people .lol  (Source)

But still if someone were to find the proof of the String Theory ,the solutions to its equations,then at that time it will be the end of all research.It will explain everything.Our universe would be a solution of the equation.

The catch here is the fact that when the mysteries of the theory are solved it might appear that it was all in vein.The String Theory has no parameters or anything to tweak and thus the theory of everything might actually be a theory of nothing.

How are the 10 dimensions theoretically explained?
This is where the physicists start talking about the parallel universes.It says that the strings constitute different membranes in a much larger space of 10 dimensions called Branes.If it has enough energy a brane could even constitute a whole universe.We are living on one such brane ,a 3-D membrane in the wider space.
Assume a loaf of bread as a 10 dimensional space and the different slices as the different branes constituting the different parallel universes following absolutely different time lines and different laws of physics maybe.

In short at this very moment there might be various different universes right in your living room, the universe of the dinosaurs millions of years ago for us,a universe of the aliens  completely invisible to us just away from our reach since we are 'out of tune' with them due to our vibrations not being resonant with their's.It's like being trapped in the 3-D membrane like the characters of a movie are trapped on the 2-D screen of the theatre.

The theory that explains this concept of the 10 dimensions in a single place is the M theory.

The G-String:
The closed loops of strings are the ones which have no loose ends ,like a rubber band,and are responsible for gravitational force.They are called the G-strings or the Gravitons.Since the gravitons do not have any loose ends to tie them down,they are free to escape into the other dimensions and this is the reason for the decrease in strength of the gravitational force.
This escape of the G-string is the phenomenon that the physicists are trying to use to give some experimental support to the String Theory.At the Fermi Lab a huge atom smasher has been setup for this purpose which tries to detect the presence of the closed loops ,the gravitons, by detecting the escape of the graviton when two atoms collide head on and shatter into strings.
In simpler words,they try to detect the presence of the graviton by detecting the absence of the graviton.
For the purpose of this experiment ,one even bigger ,even powerful 'hadron smasher' is being built at the moment in Geneva,Switzerland.A lot of hopes of the scientific community are placed on it.

People also try to prove the existence of God on the basis of String Theory as the one who is able to move between the parallel universes and thus can move from any place to any other place at any time and being immortal because of being able to move from one time line to other.As He is able to see all 10 dimensions,He is able to see everything that there is to see.

Brian Greene,a physicist,tries to explain the briefs of String Theory.


What the Wiki says about String Theory?
Another great source on the topic.

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Cool Space Facts

Everyone loves facts about the space.Everyone is intrigued by it .The chapter on space in the science books always seems the easiest one ,why? Because it's always interesting .
I was 'stumbling' around when i saw a cool space fact which inspired me to look up even more of them.Here are some of the ones i liked:

If you put Saturn in water it would float

The density of Saturn is so low that if you were to put it in a giant glass of water it would float. The actual density of Saturn is 0.687 g/cm³ while the density of water is 0.998 g/cm³. At the equator Saturn has a radius of 60,268 ± 4 km – which means you would need an extremely large glass of water to test this out.

      The light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old

The energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago – it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun! The temperature at the core of the sun is 13,600,000 kelvins. All of the energy produced by fusion in the core must travel through many successive layers to the solar photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight or kinetic energy of particles.

The Sun loses up to a billion kilograms a second due to solar winds

Solar winds are charged particles that are ejected from the upper surface of the sun due to the high temperature of the corona and the high kinetic energy particles gain through a process that is not well understood at this time. Also, did you know that 1 pinhead of the sun’s energy is enough to kill a person at a distance of 160 kilometers?

         The moon is drifting away from Earth

Every year the moon moves about 3.8cm further away from the Earth. This is caused by tidal effects. Consequently, the earth is slowing in rotation by 24 leap seconds since 1972. Scientists do not know how the moon was created, but the generally accepted theory suggests that a large Mars sized object hit the earth causing the Moon to splinter off.

 If two pieces of metal touch in space, they become permanently stuck together

This may sound unbelievable, but it is true. Two pieces of metal without any coating on them will form in to one piece in the vacuum of space. This doesn’t happen on earth because the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between the surfaces. This might seem like it would be a big problem on the space station but as most tools used there have come from earth, they are already coated with material. In fact, the only evidence of this seen so far has been in experiments designed to provoke the reaction. This process is called cold welding.

There are over 20 million observable meteors per day.

Out of these,only one or two meteorites per day reach the surface of Earth. The largest found meteorite was found in Hoba, Namibia. It weighed 60 tons. The typical size of a meteor is about one cubic centimeter, which is equivalent to the size of a sugar cube.Each day, Earth accumulate 10 to 100 tons of material.

You might be thinking if the above fact is true,then what is all the fuss about 'rocks' hitting the earth?

Those are asteroids.The most dangerous asteroids, those capable of causing major regional or global disasters, usually impact the Earth only once every 100,000 years on average. Some large asteroids even have their own moon. The orbits of most asteroids lie partially between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

 In space, any free moving liquid will form itself into a sphere.

This happens due to surface tension.The liquid tends to acquire minimum possible surface area  for its volume.

 If you shouted in space quite literally no one could hear you scream – even if they were standing/floating right next to you.

The reason for this is the absence of atmosphere or one should say a medium for the sound waves to travel.

If you fold a piece of A4 paper in half 44 times it will reach the moon

If a piece of paper is 0.1mm thick,then the effective thickness doubles on folding.Thus on folding 44 times it will be 2^44 times which is then multiplied by 0.1mm which gives 1.76 million kilometers.

Proving that women love to do things differently, Venus is the only planet to rotate clockwise.

When Apollo 11’s lunar module touched down on the moon, it had just 20 seconds of fuel left on board.

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