Everyone Wants to Know

Tag: astronomy

  • Wonders of our Past

    As a Londoner, I often find myself comparing the regal Victorian architecture in places like Bank and Regent Street to the high-rise modern apartments in Southwark and Canary Wharf. The beauty of the regency architecture is unparallel as it brings a sense of class and grandeur. In contrast, the modern skyline is functional with its ergonomical design. No points for guessing my favourite form – keeping the classical architecture but adding the necessary modern twists (like insulated walls and draft management). However, thinking about architectural science, there is little comparison of the wonders created thousands of years ago. When compared, one could argue that the application of geometry and its execution may not have attained the same level of precision as witnessed 4000 years ago.


    Take the pyramids of Giza. It is common knowledge that the stones used were enormous and weighed around 15 tons each. Without modern cranes, transporting these boulders is a massive feat in itself. However, it is only when we look closer that we can truly marvel at the oldest wonder of the world. If one took the slanting height of the pyramid and divided it by half of the length of the base, you get a number suspiciously close to the golden ratio (about 1.68). To highlight the magnitude of this discovery, the golden ratio (phi) was only discovered by the Greeks 2000 years later. It creates a mathematically perfect monument with visually appealing proportion. It also has close links to the Fibonacci sequence as the ratio of consecutive Fibonacci numbers converges towards phi. This shows that a complex level of geometry was perhaps subconsciously, perhaps purposefully applied in building these towering sculptures.


    Another Greek mathematical term that everyone is familiar with is pi. Founded in 250 BCE, it has been integrated in our society for just under 3000 years. But when the Egyptian slaves were building these pyramids in 2500 BCE, how did they know about this theory? The (perimeter of base)/(2*height) is almost exactly equal to pi for every pyramid. So, how was this possible? Was it an understanding of complex geometry or a simple coincidence? One may belive it is the latter, but when we discover some more of the pyramid’s hidden features we may think differently.


    The four points on the base of the pyramid are aligned to the True North, South, East and West. The True North is different to the magnetic North which changes. A standard compass only shows you the magnetic North so in a world without GPS you would need to rely on tracking the shadow of the sun during spring and autumn equinoxes. This is when the Sun is directly above the equator and the day and night are equal. The Autumn equinox illuminates a path from the East to the true West which can be traced and eventually points out the True East and West.

    The base itself perfectly matches the curvature of the Earth, making it pretty straight for a monument without blueprints, floorplans or drone technology. Each side has an average error of only 58mm. In a monument this big and in a civilization without basic measurement tools, this fine error margin is remarkable.
    Another wonder is the concaveness of each side of the pyramid. It is known as the only 8-sided pyramid in the world. As it is consistent on all four sides and all three pyramids, it can be assumed that this design was intentional. Not only is the architecture of this extremely difficult but the subtlety of it is worthy of study. It is only visible under certain lighting like the spring and autumn equinox. The sun casts a shadow that splits each face into light and dark halves. This adds to the idea that the design was linked to solar symbolism and astronomical observations.

    It is not only these pyramids that deserve to be marveled at. Other structures like the Incan empire’s settlement high up on Machu Picchu in Peru is also a place of scientific study.
    The Incan city was built between 1438 and 1533 in the heart of the Andes in Southern Peru.

    These stones are heavy; each one weighs about 20 tons per stone. Machu Picchu is just under 2500m, so how did the Incans actually get the stones that high up. Not only that, but the nearest quarry is the Cachicata quarry, 32km away. This is roughly a 3-day hike but most likely even longer carrying each of these stones. The land itself is tectonically active and prone to earthquakes and landslides. Making it difficult to build on and even more difficult for the stones to stay stable for half a millennium.
    The stones were carved with such extraordinary precision that they fit together perfectly without the need for mortar or cement, yet the structure withstood seismic activity for over 600 years. In a time before iron tools existed, it is remarkable to consider how these tough rocks were shaped without error. The real beauty of the site lies under the ground – 60% of is foundations and drainage. Each structure is supported by strong, well-built foundations, helping the site endure frequent earthquakes. The city also contains one of the most sophisticated drainage systems in architectural history. Its entire water supply originated from a natural spring on the northern slope, carefully channelled to provide a steady flow. This system includes drainage outlets and a 749-meter network of channels that direct runoff, preventing flooding while supporting agriculture. This advanced drainage design is a key reason why Machu Picchu remains so well preserved today.
    There are several ancient engineering marvels that leave us awestruck even today. To me, these creations are far more than simply a tourist destination, they are a sight to study and respect. With minimal resources and technology, but sheer grit and intelligence, they put together the world’s oldest wonders. It teaches us that sometimes the best form of learning is from our past.

  • A Timeline of Innovation

    A trip through the wonders of technology

    My dad is a strange man. Normally, he is not superstitious and never crosses his fingers when he sees a black cat, or salutes to magpies, and tries to open umbrellas indoors! However, when we visited Santa Croce in Florence, at Galileo’s tomb, he suddenly broke character and asked Galileo to bless me with some of his intelligence.

    Galileo Galilei was an Italian physicist who is credited with the invention of some of the most remarkable scientific tools in history, pioneering the laws of motion and the concept of inertia which Isaac Newton later built on. He is also known for his laws on falling bodies which states that bodies, no matter their mass when dropped from the same height will fall at the same velocity in a vacuum. A physicist and astronomer, he is credited to have invented the most powerful telescope of his time. Fast forward today, telescopes are massive lenses in open fields and sometimes even in space, which can see objects thousands of light years away, but Galileo’s telescope was the first of its kind. With his small, yet vastly more powerful than earlier telescopes he could see the moon’s craters and the phases of Venus. This supported the heliocentric model of the solar system proposed by Nicholas Copernicus, where the Sun is at the centre of our solar system and planets revolve around it. This idea was not popular with the Pope and most Christians at the time, as the Bible states that the Earth is fixed and lies at the centre of all things. Which is why in 1610, when Galileo made his ideas public, the Pope’s men interviewed him and when Galileo would not back down from his truth, they put him under house arrest for the remaining 9 years of his life. It is only in 1979 when Pope John Paul II officially declared that Galileo was right.

    His invention of the modern telescope led to a lonely final decade of his life but was it worth it in the end?

    One of the largest ground telescopes is located in the Atacama Desert, Chile and is used for exploring hidden corners of galaxies. It has already captured images of new born stars. This telescope not only helps us detect the life span of neighbouring stars but also at what rate the universe is growing. Due to their large lens size, these telescopes can see objects millions of light years away. For example, the brightest star that we on Earth can see, is called Sirius and is located 8.6 light years away. This means that when we look at Sirius, we are looking at what the star looked like over 8.6 years ago because the light from the star takes time to travel to us.

    In January 2022, James-Webb, a space telescope with a 21-foot lens, was released into space. This telescope broke the record for the furthest celestial body detected; a galaxy 13.5 billion light years away. James Webb captured this image while the galaxy was still at a young age and astrophysicists believe that this galaxy was born only 280 million years after the Big Bang. The James Webb did not just take a photo of a galaxy, but it travelled 13.5 billion years back in time; to a time when Earth didn’t exist and hydrogen was still fusing into helium. It was a large step forward for the space industry, as it produces some of the most powerful and detailed images of faraway corners of our universe. Imagine witnessing stars being devoured by supermassive black holes and the collapse of giant stars into dense neutron stars. These findings have shaped our understanding of familiar concepts like gravitational attraction but also new ideas like spaghettification (what happens to an object when it enters a black hole).

    However, the most remarkable achievement of this particular telescope is the discovery of potential life. The James Webb telescope analysed the chemical composure of K2-18b, a planet 700 trillion miles away. Then scientists back on Earth inspected to find a large number of molecules in its atmosphere which on Earth can only be produced by living organisms. Due to the large proportion of these molecules, scientists believe that if this planet is home to organisms, it is teeming with life. K2-18b is two and a half times bigger than Earth but otherwise remarkably similar; it is a water world, thought to be covered entirely by oceans. The evidence collected by this one telescope is growing, making it more and more likely that there is life in those depths.

    So, we thank you Galileo for sacrificing your freedom. Without it, our knowledge of the entirety of the universe would be limited to still trying to prove the heliocentric model. Young curious minds like mine may never have been drawn to star-gazing. I wish you could see what your small, 51-millimetre telescope has inspired and what information has been found because of it.

    Maybe, my dad was right. A man who started the domino effect that led to these new findings deserves to be treated like a God. On behalf of all qualified and aspiring scientists out there, bless us with knowledge, integrity and innovation like yours.

  • Quest to a Perpetual Hourglass

    Secret to the universe’s greatest mystery

    It is the most common noun in the English language and used in a range of proverbs. It flies when we have fun and along with the tide it waits for no one. You try to race against it and often wish you had more of it. Time is one of our universe’s greatest mysteries and physicists spend their lives trying to understand even a fraction of it.

    Wouldn’t it be cool to go into the future, have a peek into your successes and failures, come back and fix it all? In theory, it is surprisingly simple; all you must do is travel at the speed of light. So, why hasn’t anyone taken a trip through time? Actually, everyone has. You, your neighbour, your local newsagent, astronauts and Usain Bolt. The only difference is how far ahead in time. This is all because of time dilation, the difference in elapsed time. Elapsed time simply means the amount of time that passes from the start to the end of an event. For example, if you had two identical clocks, one stationary and another one moving close to the speed of light, the moving clock seems like it is measuring a shorter time or moving more slowly relative to the stationary clock. This applies to other bodies as well. Humans have an internal clock and the faster they move, the slower their internal clock runs, allowing them to travel forwards in time.

    For instance, if you race against Usain Bolt in a 100m race, he will reach the finish line a couple of seconds before you do, well, assuming you are really fast! This means he has reached the future quicker than you have as he has travelled a fraction of the speed of light faster than you. The closer you go to the speed of light, the more apparent are the effects of time dilation. Astronauts aboard the ISS, which travels at 0.000002% the speed of light, experience time dilation on a measurable scale. Astronauts coming back from a 6-month mission are actually 0.007 seconds ahead of us. As the average human reflex speed is 0.21 seconds, this doesn’t make a massive difference. However, some cosmonauts like Oleg Kononenko, a Russian astronaut who has spent a whopping 1111 days in space might be a couple of seconds, ahead in time.

    If you (a person who hasn’t experienced time dilation on a measurable scale) and Kononenko were standing next to each other at a shooting range, Kononenko would see each shooter hit their target 2-3 seconds before you do. Depending on the distance between the shooter and the target, he may see the target being hit before the shooter has pulled the trigger!

    If a person is able to travel a couple of seconds into the future, then how hard could a couple of years be? Unfortunately, Einstein has made that quite difficult due to his special theory of relativity which states that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers. This is also where his very famous equation E = mc2  comes from. This can be rearranged to say

    m/s. Therefore, for a small mass, you will need infinitely more energy than is describable to travel at the speed of light. For many humans as well as their spacecrafts, the amount of energy required may be greater than the amount we have in this universe itself!

    Travelling at the speed of light is ruled out but what if I told you that there was another way to travel into the future. A way which allows our feet to be younger than our head. As your feet are deeper in the Earth’s gravitational field then your head, it reaches the future first. Similarly, if you spend an average lifespan of 72 years living in La Rinconda, the highest permanent human settlement, situated in the Andes at an elevation of 5,000 meters, then you would be 0.0025 seconds further ahead in time than someone who had been living their whole life at sea level. The person living at sea level is deeper in Earth’s gravitational field and therefore less time passes for them.

    Everything has a gravitational field strength, however, the heavier the body the stronger its gravitational field strength (g). As the earth’s gravitational attraction is not strong enough to experience time dilation on a measurable scale, one must turn to the heavier celestial bodies. Luckily, there are some bodies that are a trillion times heavier than the Earth. We call these black holes. They are dense and heavy with a gravitational strength so strong that not even light can escape once it has crossed the event horizon, a point of no return.

    A black hole’s gravitational attraction is so strong that if you sit just 10km away from the black hole’s event horizon for 7 years then 7,000 years would pass on Earth. This seems like a possible solution for travelling into the future but there is a catch, like with most laws of physics. Our nearest black hole is Gaia BH1 which lies in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus. To get near the black hole’s event horizon and back to Earth, one must travel for 3,000 years and that too at the speed of light. As the average lifespan of humans is currently 72 years that is not possible.

    So, if you’re hoping to pick up next week’s test paper or perform the latest trends with aliens from outer space, I’m afraid you have to wait, but it might be for the best. The future is unpredictable, and we do not know whether humans would even be alive in 1,000 years, therefore it is best to stick to dreaming about meeting moon colonies or watching the latest sci-fi movies.