PODCAST

Spherical Cow

Olivia and Naina

Two Sixth Form students who love discussing interesting physics topics!

science physics

All Episodes

00:27:58

The End of the Beginning

Spherical Cow ·

2021/09/24

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions!This week unfortunately marks the final episode of Spherical Cow. Thank you so much for supporting our podcast - we hope you have enjoyed the episodes! In this episode we are finishing off our discussion about the history of the universe. We will be talking about the Epoch of Reionization, how scientists actually learn about this era and saying goodbye! Please see an amendment to our discussion below: 1:35 - Sorry I slipped up here! I meant to say that when high

00:30:03

Cosmic Dawn

Spherical Cow ·

2021/09/10

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing our journey through the history of the universe and discussing Cosmic Dawn. We will be talking about what Cosmic Dawn is, the properties and formation of the first stars and why they are so interesting! Please see some additions/amendments to our discussion below: 04:45 - To explain this a little further, ATLAS is one of the four detectors located around the Large Hadron Collider ring at CERN. Two protons beams, travelling in opposite

00:16:30

And sound too!

Spherical Cow ·

2021/08/29

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing our discussion about the history of the universe and once again talking about 380,000 years after the Big Bang. We will be discussing the formation of sound waves in the early universe and how studying the imprint of these acoustic oscillations of the Cosmic Microwave Background map can tell us lots of fascinating information about our universe! Please see some additions/amendments to our discussion below: 13:42 - Sorry! I meant to

00:22:34

Let there be light!

Spherical Cow ·

2021/08/14

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are discussing the surface of last scattering and cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR). We will be talking about what CMBR is, how it was discovered and how measurements of CMBR agree with observations of our universe. To view our sources please see our website - https://www.podpage.com/spherical-cow/ N.B. This episode was recorded virtually so the audio quality might be different to normal.

00:20:50

A melting pot of matter

Spherical Cow ·

2021/08/03

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing our journey through the history of the universe and discussing the beginnings of matter! We will be talking about the quark-gluon plasma era and big bang nucleosynthesis. To view our sources please see our website - https://www.podpage.com/spherical-cow/ N.B. This episode was recorded virtually so the audio quality might be different to normal.

00:20:02

Then came the Big...

Spherical Cow ·

2021/07/16

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing our journey through the history of the universe and discussing inflation and reheating. We will be talking about what inflation is, what are the motivations behind inflationary theory and what happened to the universe immediately after inflation. Please see some additions/amendments to our discussion below: 3.30 - I misspoke here! The fluctuations are actually at a level of one part in 100,000 so they are even tinier than I suggested

00:18:57

It started with a bang!

Spherical Cow ·

2021/07/02

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are venturing all the way back to the birth of the universe! We will be discussing the big bang, the Planck epoch and the GUT era. To view our sources please see our website - https://www.podpage.com/spherical-cow/ N.B We are sorry about the noisy background!

00:16:51

The darker side of the universe

Spherical Cow ·

2021/06/11

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we will be discussing dark energy! We will be exploring the evidence for dark energy, how scientists determined the expansion of the universe is accelerating and what dark energy might be. Please see an addition to our discussion below: 3:22 - To expand on this further, if the universe is closed (has positive curvature) and the shape of space is spherical, this would mean that initially parallel beams of light would converge (like how, when you follow

00:22:36

A very dark matter...

Spherical Cow ·

2021/05/28

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week, we are talking about Dark Matter! We will be discussing why the notion of dark matter was first introduced, what evidence there is for the existence of dark matter and what dark matter could be. Please see an addition to our discussion below: 21:58 - After looking into this more, we are still not sure if we were talking about the same neutrino! If you would like to learn more about neutrinos, please see our podpage for some links to resources. To view

00:27:45

Mooos Flash!

Spherical Cow ·

2021/05/14

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This episode is all about the exciting Particle Physics News from CERN and Fermilab which came out around March-April time. We will be discussing the results published by both organisations and what they mean for the future of physics! If you stay to the end you will also hear an interesting link between muons and special relativity! Please see some additions/amendments to our discussion below: 2:00 - The charm quark is similar to the up quark because of its

00:32:28

Nothing really antimatters

Spherical Cow ·

2021/04/30

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are discussing the topic of antimatter! What is antimatter? How was antimatter first discovered? Why is there such an imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe? Listen to this episode to find out more! Please see some amendments/additions to our discussion: Around 10:50 - I misspoke here! The weak force only governs beta decay. Alpha decay is essentially caused by a quantum mechanical phenomena called quantum tunneling! Around 25:06 -

00:21:35

Your questions answered! - Part 3

Spherical Cow ·

2021/04/16

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This episode is the last installment in our series of q&a episodes. We will be discussing some of the fascinating quantum mechanics questions you have sent in including the notorious thought experiment, ‘Schrödinger's Cat’ and the notion of parallel universes! Please see an amendment to our discussion below: 3:40 - To be more precise, we should say that the radioactive substance has a 50:50 chance of decaying within a certain time period. This time period,

00:21:23

Your questions answered! - Part 2

Spherical Cow ·

2021/04/02

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing to answer all the great questions you have sent in! We will be discussing how we know the universe is expanding, where the universe will end and lots more! Please see an amendment to our discussion below: 10:34 - We were quite far off! Dinosaurs actually roamed the earth in a period of time known as the Mesozoic Era (between about 245 - 66 million years ago) but the same logic of our discussion applies! To view our sources please see

00:25:03

Your questions answered! - Part 1

Spherical Cow ·

2021/03/21

Welcome back, Spherical Moonions! To celebrate the tenth episode of our podcast, this week we will be answering interesting physics questions sent in by you! Thank you very much for all your great questions!We will be discussing the physics of rainbows, what actually is touch and lots more! We would also like to say a big thank you to all the physics teachers at our school for supporting our podcast. We really appreciate it! To view our sources please see our website -

00:16:46

So light is both! And sort of neither...

Spherical Cow ·

2021/03/05

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are bringing our miniseries about the history of light, the birth of quantum mechanics and particle-wave duality to a close. In this episode we are revisiting the Double-slit Experiment but looking at it from a slightly different angle. By doing so, we will finally reach the 'particle-wave duality' stage of our journey and discuss some of the crazy ideas quantum mechanics has to offer! Please see a slight amendment to our discussion below: 06:49 -

00:28:00

Yes, light is a particle!

Spherical Cow ·

2021/02/19

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing our journey through the history of light, the birth of quantum mechanics and particle-wave duality! In this episode we are carrying on with our discussion about the birth of quantum mechanics by talking about the Photoelectric Effect and the Compton Effect. Please see an addition to our discussion below: 15:07 - Poor Robert Millikan! We forgot to mention that he also won a Nobel Prize in 1923 for his work on the Photoelectric Effect

00:18:54

Hang on...is light actually a particle?

Spherical Cow ·

2021/02/05

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week we are continuing our miniseries about the history of light, the birth of quantum mechanics and particle-wave duality! In this episode we will be discussing the Ultraviolet Catastrophe, the work of Max Planck and the birth of quantum mechanics. To view our sources please see our website -https://www.podpage.com/spherical-cow/ N.B. This episode was recorded virtually so the audio quality might be different to normal.

00:31:30

Light is a wave!

Spherical Cow ·

2021/01/22

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week marks the beginning of our miniseries about the history of light, the birth of quantum mechanics and particle-wave duality! This episode is all about the wave theory of light. We will be discussing some of the key figures involved in the development of this theory, exploring some of the central ideas behind wave theory and looking at the evidence which supports a wave theory of light. Please see a slight amendment to our discussion below: 09:30 -

00:29:48

Under Pressure! - Part 2

Spherical Cow ·

2021/01/08

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions! This week's episode is the second part of our double episode about Pressure! We will be discussing why it is important for divers to slowly ascend after being underwater, what prevents stars from collapsing inwards, how aeroplanes are designed to keep you conscious when flying and lots more! To view our sources please see our website -https://www.podpage.com/spherical-cow/

00:18:08

Under Pressure! - Part 1

Spherical Cow ·

2020/12/25

Welcome back, Spherical Cow Moonions and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! This week's episode is the first part of a double episode all about Pressure! In this week's episode we will be discussing how pressure cookers work, why competitive cyclists travel directly behind each other, how to break the bottom of a bottle by hitting the top and lots more! To view our sources please see our website -https://www.podpage.com/spherical-cow/

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