MODULE

IN
PHYSICAL
SCIENCE

Christian Jay L. Fajardo

Compiler

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The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation about how the universe began. At its
simplest, it says the universe as we know it started with a small singularity, then inflated
over the next 13.8 billion years to the cosmos that we know today.

Because current instruments don't allow astronomers to peer back at the universe's
birth, much of what we understand about the Big Bang Theory comes from
mathematical formulas and models. Astronomers can, however, see the "echo" of the
expansion through a phenomenon known as the cosmic microwave background.
While the majority of the astronomical community accepts the theory, there are some
theorists who have alternative explanations besides the Big Bang — such as eternal
inflation or an oscillating universe.
The phrase "Big Bang Theory" has been popular among astrophysicists for decades,
but it hit the mainstream in 2007 when a comedy show with the same name premiered
on CBS. The show follows the home and academic life of several researchers (including
an astrophysicist).

The first second, and the birth of light

In the first second after the universe began, the surrounding temperature was about 10
billion degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 billion Celsius), according to NASA. The cosmos
contained a vast array of fundamental particles such as neutrons, electrons and
protons. These decayed or combined as the universe got cooler.
This early soup would have been impossible to look at, because light could not carry
inside of it. "The free electrons would have caused light (photons) to scatter the way
sunlight scatters from the water droplets in clouds," NASA stated. Over time, however,
the free electrons met up with nuclei and created neutral atoms. This allowed light to
shine through about 380,000 years after the Big Bang.

Determining the age of the universe

The cosmic microwave background has been observed on many missions. One of the
most famous space-faring missions was NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
satellite, which mapped the sky in the 1990s.

Several other missions have followed in COBE's footsteps, such as the BOOMERanG
experiment (Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and
Geophysics), NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the
European Space Agency's Planck satellite.

Planck's observations, first released in 2013, mapped the background in unprecedented

detail and revealed that the universe was older than previously thought: 13.82 billion
years old, rather than 13.7 billion years old. [Related: How Old is the Universe?] (The
research observatory's mission is ongoing and new maps of the CMB are released
periodically.)
The maps give rise to new mysteries, however, such as why the Southern Hemisphere
appears slightly redder (warmer) than the Northern Hemisphere. The Big Bang Theory
says that the CMB would be mostly the same, no matter where you look.

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Examining the CMB also gives astronomers clues as to the composition of the universe.
Researchers think most of the cosmos is made up of matter and energy that cannot be
"sensed" with conventional instruments, leading to the names dark matter and dark
energy. Only 5 percent of the universe is made up of matter such as planets, stars and
galaxies.
Gravitational waves controversy
While astronomers could see the universe's beginnings, they've also been seeking out
proof of its rapid inflation. Theory says that in the first second after the universe was
born, our cosmos ballooned faster than the speed of light. That, by the way, does not
violate Albert Einstein's speed limit since he said that light is the maximum anything can
travel within the universe. That did not apply to the inflation of the universe itself.
In 2014, astronomers said they had found evidence in the CMB concerning "B-modes,"
a sort of polarization generated as the universe got bigger and created gravitational
waves. The team spotted evidence of this using an Antarctic telescope called
"Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization", or BICEP2.
"We're very confident that the signal that we're seeing is real, and it's on the sky," lead
researcher John Kovac, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told
Space.com in March 2014.

But by June, the same team said that their findings could have been altered by galactic
dust getting in the way of their field of view.

Faster inflation, multiverses and charting the start

The universe is not only expanding, but getting faster as it inflates. This means that with
time, nobody will be able to spot other galaxies from Earth, or any other vantage point
within our galaxy.
"We will see distant galaxies moving away from us, but their speed is increasing with
time," Harvard University astronomer Avi Loeb said in a March 2014 Space.com article.

"So, if you wait long enough, eventually, a distant galaxy will reach the speed of light.
What that means is that even light won't be able to bridge the gap that's being opened
between that galaxy and us. There's no way for extraterrestrials on that galaxy to
communicate with us, to send any signals that will reach us, once their galaxy is moving
faster than light relative to us."

Some physicists also suggest that the universe we experience is just one of many. In
the "multiverse" model, different universes would coexist with each other like bubbles
lying side by side. The theory suggests that in that first big push of inflation, different
parts of space-time grew at different rates. This could have carved off different sections
— different universes — with potentially different laws of physics.

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NAME: ____________________________________________________
COURSE&YEAR: __________________ DATE: _____________

Activity 1

Answer the following question

1. What are the 4 pieces of evidence for the Big Bang?

2. What is the evidence for the Big Bang?

3. What caused the big bang?

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Atomic Theory
A theory of the structure and behavior of atoms has taken more than two millenia to
evolve, from the abstract musings of ancient Greek philosophers to the high-tech
experiments of modern scientists. However, prior to the scientific revolution and the
development of the scientific method starting in the 16th century, ideas about the atom
were mainly speculative. It wasn't until the very end of the 19th century that technology
became advanced enough to allow scientists a glimpse of the atom's constituent parts:
the electron, nucleus, proton, and neutron.

Greek Origins
The idea that all matter is made up of tiny, indivisible particles, or atoms, is believed to
have originated with the Greek philosopher Leucippus of Miletus and his
student Democritus of Abdera in the 5th century B.C. (The word atom comes from the
Greek word atomos, which means ?indivisible.?) These thinkers held that, in addition to
being too small to be seen, unchangeable, and indestructible, atoms were also
completely solid, with no internal structure, and came in an infinite variety of shapes and
sizes, which accounted for the different kinds of matter. Color, taste, and other
intangible qualities were also thought to be composed of atoms.
While the idea of the atom was supported by some later Greek philosophers, it was
fiercely attacked by others, including Aristotle, who argued against the existence of such
particles. During the Middle Ages in Europe, Roman Catholic theologians were heavily
influenced by Aristotle's ideas, and so atomic philosophy was largely dismissed for
centuries. However, the Greeks' conception of the atom survived, both in Aristotle's
works (his arguments against) and in another classical work by the Roman
author Lucretius, De rerum natura (?On the Nature of Things?), which was rediscovered
in Europe at the start of the Renaissance.

Modern Development
Modern atomic theory is generally said to begin with John Dalton, an English chemist
and meteorologist who in 1808 published a book on the atmosphere and the behavior of
gases that was entitled A New System of Chemical Philosophy. Dalton's theory
of atoms rested on four basic ideas: chemical elements were composed of atoms; the
atoms of an element were identical in weight; the atoms of different elements had
different weights; and atoms combined only in small whole-number ratios, such as 1:1,
1:2, 2:1, 2:3, to form compounds.
Not all of these ideas were new; the Greeks had already introduced the idea that
elements were composed of atoms and that atoms of different elements had different
physical properties. Dalton's particular contribution, which distinguished his work from
what had been done before, was his method for actually determining atomic weight. In
an essay published in 1805, Dalton had included a list of atomic weights for 21
elements. Dalton was also the first to propose standard symbols for the elements.

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Subatomic Structure
Dalton's work was mainly about the chemistry of atoms?how they combined to form new
compounds?rather than the physical, internal structure of atoms, although he never
denied the possibility of atoms' having a substructure. Modern theories about the
physical structure of atoms did not begin until 1897, with J. J. Thomson's discovery of
the electron.
Actually, what Thomson discovered was that cathode rays were streams of negatively
charged particles with a mass about 1,000 times smaller than a hydrogen atom. He
claimed that these particles, which he called ?corpuscles,? were the things that atoms
were made from. The term ?electron? predated Thomson's discovery?a few years
earlier Irish physicist G. J. Stoney had proposed that electricity was made of negative
particles called ?electrons,? and scientists had adopted the word to refer to anything
with an electric charge. However, Thomson, who was a physicist at Cambridge
University, was the first to suggest that these particles were a building block of the
atom.
Thomson also tried to show how the electrons were situated in the atom. Since atoms
were known to be electrically neutral, Thomson proposed (1904) a model in which the
atom was a positively charged sphere studded with negatively charged electrons. It was
called the ?plum-pudding? model, since the electrons in the atom resembled the raisins
in a plum pudding. This model did not survive unchallenged for long. In 1911, Ernest
Rutherford's experiments with alpha rays led him to describe the atom as a small,
heavy nucleus with electrons in orbit around it. This nuclear model of the atom became
the basis for the one that is still accepted today.

Bohr and Beyond

In 1913, Danish physicist Niels Bohr, who had studied under both Thomson and
Rutherford, further refined the nuclear model by proposing that electrons moved only in
restricted, successive orbital shells and that the outer, higher-energy orbits determined
the chemical properties of the different elements. Furthermore, Bohr was able to explain
the spectral lines of the different elements by suggesting that as electrons jumped from
higher to lower orbits, they emitted energy in the form of light. In the 1920s, Bohr's
theory became the basis for quantum mechanics, which explained in greater detail the
complex structure and behavior of atoms.

Protons and Neutrons

Since Thomson's discovery of the electron in 1897, scientists had realized that an atom
must contain a positive charge to counterbalance the electrons' negative charge. In
1919, as a byproduct of his experiments on the splitting of atomic nuclei, Rutherford
discovered the proton, which constitutes the nucleus of a hydrogen atom. A proton
carries a single positive electrical charge, and every atomic nucleus contains one or
more protons. Although Rutherford proposed the existence of a neutral subatomic
particle, the neutron, in 1920, the actual discovery was made by English physicist
James Chadwick, a former student of Rutherford, in 1932.

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NAME: ____________________________________________________
COURSE&YEAR: __________________ DATE: _____________

Activity 2

Answer the following question

1. Why is atomic structure important to life?

2. How many atomic structures are there?

3. What elements make up life?

4. What is atomic structure?

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Properties of Matter

The different types of matter can be distinguished through two components:

composition and properties. The composition of matter refers to the different
components of matter along with their relative proportions. The properties of matter
refer to the qualities/attributes that distinguish one sample of matter from another.
These properties are generally grouped into two categories: physical or chemical.

Physical Properties and Changes

Physical properties can be observed or measured without changing the composition of

matter. Physical properties are used to observe and describe matter. Physical
properties of materials and systems are often described as intensive and extensive
properties. This classification relates to the dependency of the properties upon the size
or extent of the system or object in question.

An intensive property is a bulk property, meaning that it is a physical property of a

system that does not depend on the system size or the amount of material in the
system. Examples of intensive properties include temperature, refractive index, density,
and hardness of an object. When a diamond is cut, the pieces maintain their intrinsic
hardness (until their size reaches a few atoms thick). In contrast, an extensive property
is additive for independent, non-interacting subsystems. The property is proportional to
the amount of material in the system.

Intensive properties: A physical property that will be the same regardless of the
amount of matter.

 density: ρ=mvρ=mv
 color: The pigment or shade
 conductivity: electricity to flow through the substance
 malleability: if a substance can be flattened
 luster: how shiny the substance looks

Extensive Properties: A physical property that will change if the amount of matter
changes.

 mass: how much matter in the sample

 volume: How much space the sample takes up
 length: How long the sample is
Physical Change

Change in which the matter's physical appearance is altered, but composition remains
unchanged.

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A physical change takes place without any changes in molecular composition. The
same element or compound is present before and after the change. The same molecule
is present through out the changes. Physical changes are related to physical properties
since some measurements require that changes be made. The three main states of
matter are: Solid, Liquid, Gas

 Solid is distinguished by a fixed structure. Its shape and volume do not change.
In a solid, atoms are tightly packed together in a fixed arrangement.
 Liquid is distinguished by its malleable shape (is able to form into the shape of its
container), but constant volume. In a liquid, atoms are close together but not in a
fixed arrangement.
 Gas is made up of atoms that are separate. However, unlike solid & liquid, a gas
has no fixed shape and volume.
Example 11: Physical Change

When liquid water (H2OH2O) freezes into a solid state (ice), it appears changed;
However, this change is only physical as the the composition of the constituent
molecules is the same: 11.19% hydrogen and 88.81% oxygen by mass.

Figure 22: Physical Change: Ice Melting is a physical change. from Wikipedia.

Chemical Properties and Changes

Chemical properties of matter describes its "potential" to undergo some chemical

change or reaction by virtue of its composition. What elements, electrons, and bonding
are present to give the potential for chemical change. It is quite difficult to define a
chemical property without using the word "change". Eventually you should be able to
look at the formula of a compound and state some chemical property. At this time this is
very difficult to do and you are not expected to be able to do it. For example hydrogen
has the potential to ignite and explode given the right conditions. This is a chemical
property. Metals in general have they chemical property of reacting with an acid. Zinc
reacts with hydrochloric acid to produce hydrogen gas. This is a chemical property.

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Chemical change results in one or more substances of entirely different composition
from the original substances. The elements and/or compounds at the start of the
reaction are rearranged into new product compounds or elements. A CHEMICAL
CHANGE alters the composition of the original matter. Different elements or
compounds are present at the end of the chemical change. The atoms in compounds
are rearranged to make new and different compounds.

Example 11: Corrosion of Metals

Corrosion is the unwanted oxidation of metals resulting in metal oxides.

2Mg+O2→2MgO(1)(1)2Mg+O2→2MgO

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NAME: ____________________________________________________
COURSE&YEAR: __________________ DATE: _____________

Activity 3

Answer the following question

1. Milk turns sour. This is a ________________

 Chemical Change
 Physical Change
 Chemical Property
 Physical Property
 None of the above

2. HCl being a strong acid is a __________,

Wood sawed in two is ___________

 Chemical Change, Physical Change

 Physical Change, Chemical Change
 Chemical Property, Physical Change
 Physical Property, Chemical Change
 None of the above

3. CuSO4 is dissolved in water

 Chemical Change
 Physical Change
 Chemical Property
 Physical Property
 None of the above

4. Aluminum Phosphate has a density of 2.566 g/cm3

 Chemical Change
 Physical Change
 Chemical Property
 Physical Property
 None of the above

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5. Which of the following are examples of matter?

 A Dog
 Carbon Dioxide
 Ice Cubes
 copper (II) nitrate
 A Moving Car

6. The formation of gas bubbles is a sign of what type of change?

7. True or False: Bread rising is a physical property.

8. True or False: Dicing potatoes is a physical change.

9. Is sunlight matter?

10. The mass of lead is a _____________property.

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Changing Views of the Solar System

Humans’ view of the solar system has evolved as technology and scientific knowledge
have increased. The ancient Greeks identified five of the planets and for many centuries
they were the only planets known. Since then, scientists have discovered two more
planets, many other solar-system objects and even planets found outside our solar
system.

The Geocentric Universe

The ancient Greeks believed that Earth was at the center of the universe, as shown
in Figure below. This view is called the geocentric model of the universe. Geocentric
means “Earth-centered.” In the geocentric model, the sky, or heavens, are a set of
spheres layered on top of one another. Each object in the sky is attached to a sphere
and moves around Earth as that sphere rotates. From Earth outward, these spheres
contain the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. An outer sphere
holds all the stars. Since the planets appear to move much faster than the stars, the
Greeks placed them closer to Earth.

Model of a geocentric universe. This diagram of the universe from the Middle Ages
shows Earth at the center, with the Moon, the Sun, and the planets orbiting Earth.

The geocentric model worked well, by explaining why all the stars appear to rotate
around Earth once per day. The model also explained why the planets move differently
from the stars and from each other.

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One problem with the geocentric model is that some planets seem to move backwards
(in retrograde) instead of in their usual forward motion around Earth.

A demonstration animation of retrograde motion of Mars as it appears to Earth can be

found here:

http://projects.astro.illinois.edu/data/Retrograde/index.html

Around 150 A.D. the astronomer Ptolemy resolved this problem by using a system of
circles to describe the motion of planets (Figure below). In Ptolemy’s system, a planet
moves in a small circle, called an epicycle. This circle moves around Earth in a larger
circle, called a deferent. Ptolemy’s version of the geocentric model worked so well that it
remained the accepted model of the universe for more than a thousand years.

The Heliocentric Universe

Ptolemy’s geocentric model worked but it was not only complicated, it occasionally
made errors in predicting the movement of planets. At the beginning of the 16th century
A.D., Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that Earth and all the other planets orbit the Sun.
With the Sun at the center, this model is called the heliocentric model or “sun-
centered” model of the universe (Figure below). Copernicus’ model explained the
motion of the planets as well as Ptolemy’s model did, but it did not require complicated
additions like epicycles and deferents.

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Unlike the geocentric model, the heliocentric model had the Sun at the center and did
not require epicycles.

Although Copernicus’ model worked more simply than Ptolemy’s, it still did not perfectly
describe the motion of the planets because, like Ptolemy, Copernicus thought planets
moved in perfect circles. Not long after Copernicus, Johannes Kepler refined the
heliocentric model so that the planets moved around the Sun in ellipses (ovals), not
circles (Figure below). Kepler’s model matched observations perfectly.

Animation of Kepler’s Laws of Planetary

Motion: http://projects.astro.illinois.edu/data/KeplersLaws/index.html

Kepler’s model showed the planets moving around the sun in ellipses. The elliptical
orbits are exaggerated in this image.

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Because people were so used to thinking of Earth at the center of the universe, the
heliocentric model was not widely accepted at first. However, when Galileo Galilei first
turned a telescope to the heavens in 1610, he made several striking discoveries. Galileo
discovered that the planet Jupiter has moons orbiting around it. This provided the first
evidence that objects could orbit something besides Earth.

An animation of three of Jupiter’s moons orbiting the planet is seen

here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Galilean_moon_Laplac
e_resonance_animation_de.gif.

Galileo also discovered that Venus has phases like the Moon (Figure below), which
provides direct evidence that Venus orbits the Sun.

The phases of Venus.

Galileo’s discoveries caused many more people to accept the heliocentric model of the
universe, although Galileo himself was found guilty of heresy for his ideas. The shift
from an Earth-centered view to a Sun-centered view of the universe is referred to as the
Copernican Revolution.

Watch this animation of the Ptolemaic and Copernican models of the solar system.
Ptolemy made the best model he could with the assumption that Earth was the center of
the universe, but by letting that assumption go, Copernicus came up with a much
simpler model. Before people would accept that Copernicus was right, they needed to
accept that the Sun was the center of the solar system

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The Modern Solar System

Today, we know that our solar system is just one tiny part of the universe as a whole.
Neither Earth nor the Sun are at the center of the universe. However, the heliocentric
model accurately describes the solar system. In our modern view of the solar system,
the Sun is at the center, with the planets moving in elliptical orbits around the Sun. The
planets do not emit their own light, but instead reflect light from the Sun.

Extrasolar Planets or Exoplanets

Since the early 1990s, astronomers have discovered other solar systems, with planets
orbiting stars other than our own Sun (called “extrasolar planets” or simply “exoplanets”)
(Figure below).

The extrasolar planet Fomalhaut is surrounded by a large disk of gas. The disk is not
centered on the planet, suggesting that another planet may be pulling on the gas as
well.

Some extrasolar planets have been directly imaged, but most have been discovered by
indirect methods. One technique involves detecting the very slight motion of a star
periodically moving toward and away from us along our line-of-sight (also known as a
star’s “radial velocity”). This periodic motion can be attributed to the gravitational pull of
a planet or, sometimes, another star orbiting the star.

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 A planet may also be identified by measuring a star’s brightness over time. A temporary,
periodic decrease in light emitted from a star can occur when a planet crosses in front of
(or “transits”) the star it is orbiting, momentarily blocking out some of the starlight.

More than 3,600 extrasolar planets have been identified and the rate of discovery is
increasing rapidly.

Planets and Their Motions

Since the time of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, we have learned a lot more about our
solar system. Astronomers have discovered two more planets (Uranus and Neptune),
four dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris), more than 150 moons,
and many, many asteroids and other small objects.

(Figure below) shows the Sun and the major objects that orbit the Sun. There are eight
planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and the
five known dwarf planets and the five known dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, Makemake,
Haumea, and Eris).

Object Mass (Relative to Earth) Diameter of Planet (Relative to Earth)

Sun 333,000 Earth’s mass 109.2 Earth’s diameter

Mercury 0.06 Earth’s mass 0.39 Earth’s diameter

Venus 0.82 Earth’s mass 0.95 Earth’s diameter

Earth 1.00 Earth’s mass 1.00 Earth’s diameter

Mars 0.11 Earth’s mass 0.53 Earth’s diameter

Jupiter 317.8 Earth’s mass 11.21 Earth’s diameter

Saturn 95.2 Earth’s mass 9.41 Earth’s diameter

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Uranus 14.6 Earth’s mass 3.98 Earth’s diameter

Neptune 17.2 Earth’s mass 3.81 Earth’s diameter

Relative sizes of the Sun, planets and dwarf planets. The relative sizes are correct and
their position relative to each other is correct, but the relative distances are not correct.

Although the Sun is just an average star compared to other stars, it is by far the largest
object in the solar system. The Sun is more than 500 times the mass of everything else
in the solar system combined! Table below gives data on the sizes of the Sun and
planets relative to Earth.

The Size and Shape of Orbits

Figure below shows the relative sizes of the orbits of the planets, asteroid belt, and
Kuiper belt. In general, the farther away from the Sun, the greater the distance from one
planet’s orbit to the next. The orbits of the planets are not circular but slightly elliptical
with the Sun located at one of the foci (Figure below).

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The relative sizes of the orbits of planets in the solar system. The inner solar system
and asteroid belt is on the upper left. The upper right shows the outer planets and the
Kuiper belt.

The planets orbit the Sun in regular paths.

While studying the solar system, Johannes Kepler discovered the relationship between
the time it takes a planet to make one complete orbit around the Sun, its “orbital period,”
and the distance from the Sun to the planet. If the orbital period of a planet is known,
then it is possible to determine the planet’s distance from the Sun. This is how
astronomers without modern telescopes could determine the distances to other planets
within the solar system.

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Planet Average Distance from Sun (AU) Length of Day (In Earth Days) Length of Year (In E

Mercury 0.39 AU 56.84 days 0.24 years

Venus 0.72 243.02 0.62

Earth 1.00 1.00 1.00

Distances in the solar system are often measured in astronomical units (AU). One
astronomical unit is defined as the distance from Earth to the Sun. 1 AU equals about
150 million km, or 93 million mi. Table below shows the distances to the planets (the
average radius of orbits) in AU. The table also shows how long it takes each planet to
spin on its axis (the length of a day) and how long it takes each planet to complete an
orbit (the length of a year); in particular, notice how slowly Venus rotates relative to
Earth.

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Mars 1.52 1.03 1.88

Jupiter 5.20 0.41 11.86

Saturn 9.54 0.43 29.46

Uranus 19.22 0.72 84.01

Neptune 30.06 0.67 164.8

NAME: ____________________________________________________
COURSE&YEAR: __________________ DATE: _____________

Activity 4

Answer the following question

1. What solar system means?

2. What are the 13 planets in our solar system?

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3. How our solar system works?

4. How important is solar energy to you?

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