A natural phenomenon
can be detected by the senses and is not man-made. Moreover, it's not
manifest by intuition or reasoning. Classic examples are
rainbows, thunder and, going to the biological, decomposition of
fruit. However, problems arise when the phenomena involve an understanding
of some of the concepts arising in physics such as infinity.
The IDEALIZATIONS (The epistemic role of scientific idealization)
project has provided a critical evaluation of the current views
regarding scientific idealisation. The researchers have also proposed
a new position that overcomes the shortcomings of present-day
idealisation.
For most people, the most easily recognisable atmospheric optical
phenomenon is the rainbow. Rainbows are seen when the sun is behind
you, and there are raindrops in front of you. The droplets reflect the
light back towards you.
But what causes the bright colours of a rainbow? Light coming from the
sun contains all of the colours in the spectrum. When the light from
the sun enters a raindrop, it is ‘refracted’ (or bent). Different
colours of light are refracted by slightly different amounts.
more...
Think you saw a new star form? It might just be a nova. Stars that reignite themselves can experience a rapid increase in brightness which is referred to as a nova. Once a nova has its initial increase of brightness, they tend to fade back to their original brightness over a few months. While a Nova only increases in brightness when it reignites, a Supernova does not merely reignite, but explodes as the star reaches the end of its life. Supernovas are extremely powerful and can even radiate more energy than our sun! While these explosions are the most powerful and beautiful sites of space, they sadly are difficult to be viewed from Earth due to the dust in the Milky Way galaxy.more...
Get interested? To be part of our content team