(May 8, 2019 at 2:49 am)ignoramus Wrote: You know how the thing got shot around the earth's orbit to pickup lots of speed on it's final journey to Mars or Jupiter or wherever,
ok, so matter and energy can't be created or destroyed, but the thing gained energy (kinetic) by flinging around the earth's orbit.
Did the earth lose a corresponding amount of energy from somewhere in this process
As other have pointed out, the answer is yes. Bu that represents a very, very, vary small proportion of the Earth's rotational energy.
Quote:Also, on a similarly related topic, talk to me about the what's his name uncertainty principle.
Do electrons in atoms in space ever stop moving? What about at absolute zero? If so, can we then "know" exactly where the "frozen" electrons are
If not, then if the electrons are still moving according to the uncertainty principle, even
at absolute zero, then where do they get the energy to do this
Sorry for the silly questions, but in my defense, I am an ignoramus.
Well, at the quantum level, it is best to use quantum mechanics for your answers, not classical mechanics.
At absolute zero, all electrons would be in their ground state: the lowest energy that is available to them. Now, in a hydrogen atom, that means the electron is in the 1s orbital, which has a zero average momentum, a zero average angular momentum, and an average position directly on top of the nucleus. But the *spreads* of all of these are non-zero. In more complicated atoms or even molecules, the available energies may be limited by the Pauli Exclusion Principle.
Remember at the quantum level, electrons don't have specific properties until they are measured, the possible values are given by the 'spectrum' of the operator, and what value will actually be measured is completely random (but with a given distribution).
That said, the electrons *will* have a non-zero energy even at absolute zero. Furthermore, their position and/or momentum distribution has a spread to it.
