5 Science Trivia Questions to Get You Thinking

[Pat Mustard]

1. How can the universe be 93 billion light years in diameter when the big bang was only 13 billion years ago? Can dark energy cause regular matter to move faster than the speed of light?
2. In relation to the orbit of the sun around the center of the galaxy, is the orbit of the Earth around the sun perpendicular or parallel?
3. Do all the planets orbit the sun on the same p lane, i.e., around the equator of the sun at the same angle
4. Why if it we can’t drink sea water, but we can eat sea salt??
5.    According to one website,   dark energy is made of neutrinos. If we know what it's made of why do we still call it dark?


Happy thinking!

1) Inflation was much greater during the first instants of the universe, we only know what various constants were from shortly after the big bang happened. Before then the evidence suggests that a much higher speed of light was the rule.

3) spiral.

3) Kinda. All planets lie within the the ecliptic, but they aren't on the exact same degree of the plane. And if Pluto were still considered a planet, the answer'd be no. It's significantly off the ecliptic in its orbit.

4) Drinking small amounts of sea water is ok. Drinking large amounts is bad, because it takes more water (as urine) to flush the salt from the body than you're actually drinking. We need a certain amount of salt to live (at about 0.9% of or body weight) so eating sea salt is ok (as long as it's not to excess). Of course this assumes that both the sea water and sea salt are both clean.

5) Largely because it's very hard to detect.