A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 8

Chapter 8 (Pg 119-145) Today I started a new chapter that starts with Stephan Hawking talking about how after he did research on black holes he started doing research on the origin and fate of the universe. So far he talks about the origin of the universe where once the big bang happened the temperature of the universe decreased up to where it stopped producing helium and other elements and started expanding (the temperature still kept decreasing). I read about how the earth was when it was initially created and that it was very hot with no atmosphere. And once there was an atmosphere it was very poisonous due to being made up of toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide. Thankfully the first primitive forms of life released oxygen into the air and changed the atmosphere to the one we have today. This allowed the creation of much higher forms of life like fish, mammals, reptiles, and humans. I read about the strong & the weak anthropic principle which is “how you see the universe the way it is because of how you exist”. It also talks about whether there is other life out there in the universe, if there was an initial configuration for the universe on how it started, and whether the universe is spatially infinite.

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 7

Chapter 7 (Pg 103-117) Today, I started a new chapter that starts with Stephan Hawking talking about how he first got into studying and researching black holes. Then he talks about how light rays can never escape the event horizon and that lies right on the edge of it. Then he talks about entropy, the behavior of a physical quantity, and second law of thermodynamics. He mentions how Jacob Bekenstein suggested that the area of the event horizon was a measure of entropy of the black hole. He talks about how Jacob’s suggestion doesn't violate the second law of thermodynamics, but he noticed a fatal flaw in which that if a black hole has entropy, it must have a temperature. Today, I read about if and how rotating black holes can create and emit particles. Then he talks about how one part of a particle/antiparticle pair will have positive energy while the other will have negative energy. Today I learned that once a black hole’s mass gets incredulously small it disappears in a final burst of emission, the production and discharge of something, especially gas or radiation. It’s said that the gamma rays of a black hole is very useful to the earth since it can power more than 5 power stations. Then he says that once the black hole gets small due to a decreasing mass, it becomes white hot, proving that black holes aren't really black!

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 6

Chapter 6 (Pg 83-101) Today, I read about two theories on light: one that states that light is composed of particles and the other states that light is composed of waves. I also read about the life cycle of stars, which is needed to understand in order to how black holes are formed. I read about how a black hole is formed. A black hole is formed due to the gravitational collapse of star in which it shrinks to critical radius where the gravitational field becomes so strong that nothing escapes. Today, I read about how Stephan Hawking & Roger Penrose’s they did in 1965 & 1970 inspired Penrose to create the cosmic censorship hypothesis, a theory that suggests singularities made by a gravitational collapse occur only in places like a black hole. I learned that the event horizon is a path in space-time where nothing can escape; it’s also like a gate to the black hole. Hawking then talks about how in 1967 a Canadian scientist Werner Israel revolutionized the study of black holes by showing that according to general relativity non rotating black holes must be very simple in that they were perfectly spherical, their size depended on their mass, and any two black holes with the same mass were identical. And I learned that to find the number of “primordial” black holes depends on the conditions in the early universe and that if we find that number and how much the number has decreased since then, we can learn about how the universe was in its early stages. 
 

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 5

Chapter 5 (Pg 65-81) In this chapter, Stephan Hawking talks about Aristotle and his beliefs on how the world is made of Fire, Water, Earth, Air and that matter is continuous, but some Greeks like Democritus disagreed. This argument continued for centuries until Einstein wrote a paper on the Brownian motion, the effect of atoms of liquids colliding with dust particles. I read about the discoveries of the election, proton, neutron and the entire structure of the atom. I learned about quarks (the particles that make up a proton, neutron, & electron), a positron, an anti-electron, and that every particle has an antiparticle. I also read about how in quantum mechanics the forces or interactions of matter particles are carried by particles of an integer spin 0, 1, or 2, the three of four categories of force carrying particles (gravity, weak nuclear force, & electromagnetic force), the Weinberg-Salem Theory (a theory that's about weak nucler force), and the fourth force carrying particle strong nuclear force, I learned that confinement prevents you from seeing an isolated quark or gluon. I read about whether a proton or neutron can decay (but they can't since they live or function for more than 1 with thirty zeros after it years. I also read about how people believed that the law of physics obeyed the symmetries C, that the laws are the same for particles & antiparticles, T, that if you reverse the direction of motion in particles & antiparticles the system should go back to what it was at earlier times, & P, that the laws are the same for any situation and its mirror image. At the end he starts talking about Black Holes, which is the center of focus for the next chapter. 

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 4

Chapter 4 (Pg 55-63) In this chapter, Hawking starts to talk about the uncertainty principle created Werner Heisenberg. The uncertainty principle, as also stated in Wikipedia, is any variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle known as complementary varibales, such as position x and momemtum p, can be known simultaneously. I also read about Max Planck's Quantum Hypothesis. It's the theory that explains how light behaves as if it was composed of particles that can be emitted or absorbed in only packets or quanta, and interference between particles. I read about quantum mechanics (not in full detail though), the sum over histories, and a nice way of seeing the wave/particle duality.

Animorphs The Invasion: Journal Entry 2

Chapters 5-10 (Pg 32-76) It continues off with Visser Three sending his slaves the Hork-Bajirs & the Taxxons, their allies, to look for the humans, but they end up finding the Andalite. The Humans watch by as Visser Three transforms into this colossal being that kills the Andalite by eating him alive. The kids look on sad and depressed as they just met the Andalite and he just died right in front of him. They end escaping the wrath of Visser Three and all of his minions. The Next Day, Tobias stops by Jake's house to show him that he could morph into Dude, his cat. Tobias's troubled family life is revealed as that he never knew his father, his mother passed away, and he is traded back in forth between his aunt and uncle who hate each other. Jake can't believe that Tobias transformed and he would get convinced by Tobias to transform in Homer, his dog. Tobias & Jake realize that when they transform half their brain is human and the other half is the animal they transformed into. Jake decides to hold a meeting between everyone (Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, & himself) at Cassie's farm. Jake would tell us that he used to be close to his older brother Tom until he joined The Sharing, a club, where he wasn't acting like himself like how he didn't care that Jake didn't make the basketball team (Tom is really into basketball) and tells Jake that he quit the team. It was all of this that made Jake suspect that Tom is a Human Controller. At Cassie's farm two things are revealed. One, Cassie can transform into a horse without her clothes being destroyed (When Tobias & Jake transformed they ended naked after since it destroyed their clothes). Two, in a newspaper it says that cops are looking for the teenagers who caused a rucus at the construction site last night. As they started getting worried that they can't trust anyone else besides the five of them the cops arrive.

Naruto Vol.1 The Tests Of The Ninja: Journal Entry 1

Issue 1 Uzumaki Naruto (Pg 1-59) Today I started volume 1 of one of the most popular manga in Japan, Naruto. It takes place in Konohagukure a.k.a the Hidden Leaf Village. First it explains a incident that happened 12 years prior to the book about how a demon fox attacked the fox. It explains how the Fourth Hokage, leader of the village, saved everyone by sealing away the fox spirit into a baby. 12 years later it shows Naruto Uzumaki, a prankster who is a ninja in training, defaming the faces of the  4 Hokages, whose faces were carved onto the side of a mountain. Naruto does these pranks to receive attention because everyone in the village ignores him and despises him for an unknown reason. At the Academy, where they teach young lings to become full fledged ninjas,  Iruka Sensei gives his students, including Naruto, their last test before the final test to graduate and that test is to be able to do the Transform Technique. When it is Naruto's turn he transforms into naked girl in which he calls his Sexy Jutsu, but then Iruka yells and gets mad because he was supposed to transform into Iruka. Iruka then has Naruto clean up his mess from earlier when he defaced the faces of the 4 Hokages, Naruto says he doesn't care because it is not like he has a family to go home to because he is an orphan. Iruka then decided to take out Naruto to eat Ramen, Naruto's favorite food. During the final test the students are supposed to do the Shadow Clone Technique where when Naruto summons up his clone it's very bad and fails. Then it shows him sitting on a swing watching all the graduating kids with their parents. Then Mizuki, a fellow ninja of the leaf, felt bad about Naruto and tried to convince Iruka to give him a headband as a symbol of becoming a ninja, but Iruka would say no. Later that day, Mizuki went to Naruto and told him about this scroll the First Hokage sealed away due to all of the most powerful jutsus in the world. Later that night, Mizuki would tell Iruka that Naruto had stolen the scroll and left. The Third Hokage would then send out every avaible ninja to go after Naruto. Then after some searching, Iruka would find Naruto in the forest where Naruto, who is happy to see Iruka, tells him that he has been practicing the first jutsu in the scroll, which is the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu. Iruka would ask Naruto how he got the scroll where he would tell Iruka that Mizuki told him where the scroll was and that it would help him pass the academy. Mizuki would appear and would proclaim his intent to use the scroll and become the greatest shinobi of all time. Iruka & Mizuki would then have a fight. During the fight, Mizuki would reveal a shocking revelation that Naruto was the baby the Fourth Hokage sealed the demon fox spirit into and that he was the demon fox. Shocked by this, Naruto would run off leading to Iruka & Mizuki to go after Naruto where they would have another scuffle. It was during this fight that Iruka would get stabbed in the back, not fatally, by one of Mizuki's big shuriken while trying to protect Naruto. Naruto enraged, saying that if he ever hurt his sensei he would kill him, would use the Multi Shadow Clone Technique where he summoned up hundreds of clones who would beat down Mizuki, not to death though. The next day still in the forest, Iruka would put his headband on Naruto's head and would say "You graduated you are now a full fledged ninja". Very excited, Naruto would give Iruka a huge hug knocking him to the ground and then asking Iruka if they can celebrate by eating at a Ramen shop in which Iruka argees.

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 3

Chapter 3 (Pg 37-54) Today I read about the revolutionary discovery about how the universe isn't static and that it’s actually expanding and getting bigger. Two important people in this discovery were Edwin Hubble & Alexander Friedmann. I also read about stars, wavelengths, the idea of other galaxies in the universe, and I learned about the Doppler Effect. The Doppler Effect is the change of the frequency of a wave for someone who is moving relative to the source. I read about whether our universe is finite or infinite based off a model found by Friedmann and two other models. There was a short story about two American physicists discovering a sound coming from outside the atmosphere and they would get a Nobel Prize out of it despite two other physicists who also discovered the sound. I learned that our universe is expanding 5 to 10% ever thousand million years. of the wave. Then we revisited the argument on if the universe had a big bang or not and Stephen Hawking started to talk about how he was trying to get his PH.D despite having ALS. Stephen Hawking talked about how he was trying to prove that there must be a singularity only if the universe was expanding fast enough to avoid collapsing again. He then wrote a paper with Roger Penrose that finally proved that there must have been a big bang to start the beginning of the universe. 

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 2

Chapter 2 (Pg 15-35) Today, I started a new chapter about Space & Time. He talked about the theories of Galileo, Aristotle, & Newton.  He said that each of them either disproved the other’s theories or added on to it (Galileo on Aristotle, Newton on Galileo & Aristotle). He stated that “The big difference between the ideas of Aristotle and those of Galileo & Newton is that Aristotle believed in a preferred state of rest, in which any body would take up if it were not driven by some force or impulse.” It also talked about the lack of absolute space and Newton on lack of absolute space and Newton & Aristotle on absolute time. And he talks about the speed of light, ether, and how Einstein disagreed with the idea of ether and that it is unnecessary. I read about Einstein’s theory of relativity, how the speed of light is measured, and four coordinates of an event that specify its position in the four dimensional space. I read about how the speed of light should be the same as the speed of the source. I also read about how Einstein’s general theory of relativity came to be and what it is. I also learned what a geodesic is. I learned about the twins paradox on how if one twin leaves on top of a mountain and the other lives at sea level, one twin will age faster than the other. Also, I read about light rays & light deflection. I also learned that with this knowledge on space and time we can have a better understanding of the universe. And I read that Einstein’s general theory of relativity implies that our universe has a beginning and, unfortunately, an end.

Animorphs The Invasion: Journal Entry 1

Chapters 1-3 (Pg 1-31) Today I started the book Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. It starts with the main character Jake explaining that he cannot tell us the readers about the whereabouts his at because he is worried that "something" will them. He then starts telling about this one night where after a night of bowling with his best friend Marco, he, Marco, his cousin Rachel, his friend Cassie who he kind of has a crush on, and Tobias, his friend who admires Jake because he stopped two kids from giving him a swirly, encounter a alien. This alien known as an Andalite tells them that other aliens are on this planet and they want to destroy the human race. Those aliens are known as the Yeerks, aliens who don't have an actual body but have host bodies in humans. The Andalite tells them that he is dying and that he decides to put the fate of the human race in their hands by giving them a special power only exclusive to Andalites, the ability to morph into any animal. As he is done giving them their powers Visser 3, the leader of the Yeerks who also has the ability to morph, arrives on the scene causing the Andalite to tell them to run and warn people of the Yeerks before it is too late.

A Brief History Of Time: Journal Entry 1

Chapter 1 (Pg 1-14) Today, I began my book A Brief History of Time by Stephan Hawking. He talked about the earth’s shape and why it’s round and not flat by using information from a book written by Aristotle. I got to read about the theories on where the solar system was centered around, Isaac Newton’s theory on Gravity and how it affects the universe, and whether not the universe had a beginning or if the universe had just already existed. It included work from famous people like Galileo Galilee, Isaac Newton, Johann Kepler, & Aristotle. I read about the history of theories, arguments, & theses about whether the universe had a beginning or if it was already there. Then Stephan Hawking was talking about what makes a good theory by using Newton’s theory of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity as examples. I also read about a time in 1929 when Edward Hubble comes up with the theory of the Big Bang. I also read about relativity & quantum mechanics and how there is yet to be a combination of the two theories (the quantum theory of gravity). And that “our goal, of desiring knowledge, is nothing less than the description of the universe that we live in.