Say hello to the Taco Wallet—because why should tacos be limited to your plate? Introducing Hide & Drink’s suede and leather taco wallet! With a taco shell made of soft suede and fillings of dyed full-grain leather, it’s like your wallet had a delicious makeover! Just try not to mistake it for your dinner when you’re hungry.
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A new video from Nerd of the Rings explaining how the original tale of Gollum’s riddles in the dark changed between when The Hobbit was orignally released to what we know of it today!
Ze Frank is back, and this time he’s wriggling his way into the world of snakes in his latest “True Facts” video: How Snakes Move. If you’ve ever wondered how a creature with no legs manages to get anywhere, let alone do it with such swagger, Ze Frank has the answers—and, as always, they’re as hilarious as they are informative. Check it out!
For today’s edition of “Deal of the Day,” here are some of the best deals we stumbled on while browsing the web this morning! Please note that Geeks are Sexy might get a small commission from qualifying purchases done through our posts. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Y’all ain’t ready for this one! Harry Potter’s done packed up his trunk and moved down to the trailer park, y’all. In DemonFlyingFox’s latest video, our favorite wizard’s traded his robes for a flannel shirt and a mullet, and he’s takin’ on Voldemud right from his flying pickup truck. So grab your lawn chairs, crack open a cold one, and watch Harry and the gang work some good ol’ fashioned Southern sorcery. This ain’t your grandma’s Hogwarts!
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected].
What is space made of – what does gravity actually bend? – Phil, age 12, Birmingham
What comes to mind when you think of space? Imagine a friend boasting about a spacious building, stadium or museum they recently visited. Do you envision the building as vast and expansive? Is it simply very large, or does it seem empty?
The word spacious does not necessarily mean empty. It simply indicates that there is enough room to move around the objects inside it. Similarly, outer space is not completely empty. It is vast and forever expanding, but there’s a lot of stuff in it.
As a kid, I used to wonder about questions like how far away the clouds are, what lies beyond Earth and how vast space is. This curiosity led me to pursue master’s and Ph.D. degrees in astronomy. I have been teaching about these very concepts for two decades as a physics instructional professor at the University of Texas, Arlington.
Where does space begin?
Earth is surrounded by different layers of various gases. At sea level, Earth’s atmosphere contains about 100 billion molecules per cubic centimeter. As we ascend, the atmosphere becomes thinner and thinner.
At an altitude of about 50 to 62 miles (80 to 100 km), there isn’t enough air for airplanes to fly. This boundary, which separates the Earth’s atmosphere from outer space, is called the Kármán line, named after the Hungarian-American engineer and physicist Theodore von Kármán. Everything above the Kármán line is called space.
The density of space can vary, but, on average, it is around only 1 atom per cubic centimeter. Just imagine – a dice-sized cube of Earth’s atmosphere contains billions of air particles. But in space, the same-sized cube contains only one or two particles.
The interstellar medium and radiation
Space, or outer space, is a vast, near-perfect vacuum largely devoid of matter. This vacuum contains very few particles compared with Earth’s atmosphere. However, it’s not entirely empty.
Space is dotted with scattered matter called the interstellar medium, which includes hydrogen and helium atoms. These are the most common elements in space, and they exist in both charged and neutral forms. The interstellar medium also contains cosmic dust – tiny particles of various elements, including carbon and silicon, scattered throughout space.
A map of cosmic microwave background radiation from when the universe was only 380,000 years old. The colors are artificial and show tiny temperature variations, which represents heat left over from the origin of the universe.NASA/WMAP Science Team
Space is filled with various forms of radiation, including cosmic microwave background radiation. This is remnant heat from the origin of the universe. High-energy cosmic events like supernovae and black holes also emit X-rays and gamma rays.
Magnetic fields generated by stars, planets and many other celestial bodies also permeate space. These fields influence the motion of charged particles by attracting or repelling them like magnets.
Dark matter and dark energy
Scientists predict that an as-yet unseen form of matter that does not emit light or energy, called dark matter, makes up a significant portion of the universe’s mass. Researchers guess that it exists because they can see its gravitational pull on other visible matter.
Similarly, scientists predict a mysterious form of energycalled dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. Unlike dark matter, dark energy is not related to matter or gravitational forces, but it’s a property of space itself.
Imagine the universe as a balloon. Dark matter is like the balloon’s material, affecting its shape, while dark energy is like the air being pumped into it. It doesn’t change the balloon’s material, but it influences how quickly the balloon expands.
Does space warp? Can gravity bend space?
Space can also warp. Imagine that space is like a big, stretchy trampoline. If you put a heavy ball, like a bowling ball, in the middle of the trampoline, it makes a big dip downward. This dip is similar to how space warps around something big, like a planet or a star. The bigger the ball, the stronger the gravity and the deeper the dip.
You can visualize how space warps around objects using a trampoline and balls.
If you roll a smaller marble across the trampoline with the bowling ball in the center of it, marbles might start going around the dip made by the bowling ball’s gravity. The marble follows the curve of the dip, just like how planets follow the curve of space around the Sun.
Imagine that you shine a flashlight across the trampoline. If the light goes near the dip made by the bowling ball, it might bend a little bit as it travels. This is like how light bends when it passes near a very big object in space, such as a galaxy.
Think of a black hole, which has huge gravity, as an even bigger, deeper dip in the trampoline. If you rolled a marble too close to this super-deep dip, it would fall in and disappear, just like how things can get pulled into a black hole in space and can’t escape.
So, space can warp or bend around big things that have lots of gravity, just like a trampoline bends when you put a heavy ball on it.
Space is more than just emptiness. It contains a mix of particles, radiation, magnetic fields and mysterious forms of matter and energy. Imagine space as a 3D playground, inside which objects like stars, planets, nebulas and galaxies exist and together make up our fascinating and complex universe.
Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to [email protected]. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.
And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
