Through the Wires: Quiz Challenge As of July 1, 2013 ThinkQuest has been discontinued. We would like to thank everyone for being a part of the ThinkQuest global community: Students - For your limitless creativity and innovation, which inspires us all. Teachers - For your passion in guiding students on their quest. Partners - For your unwavering support and evangelism. Parents - For supporting the use of technology not only as an instrument of learning, but as a means of creating knowledge. We encourage everyone to continue to “Think, Create and Collaborate,” unleashing the power of technology to teach, share, and inspire. Best wishes, The Oracle Education Foundation
Physics animations and film clips: Physclips. SkyTellers - Polaris - About Polaris How Do I Find Polaris? Polaris is located in the constellation Ursa Minor, which contains the group of stars that make up the “Little Dipper.” Polaris is the star in the end of the Little Dipper handle. Often, however, the Little Dipper is not very bright and can be challenging to find. Polaris is easiest to find by locating the seven stars of the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major, or Big Bear. These stars form a small bowl with a long handle. Polaris actually is part of a binary (two) star system. Is There a South Star? Why is Polaris Important? If you stand at Earth's north pole, Polaris is directly above you. Will Polaris Always Be “The Pole Star?” Why Do Most Stars and Constellations Move? Stars close to the celestial poles, the imaginary points where Earth's north and south axes point in space, have a very small circle of spin. Why Do We See Different Constellations During the Year? To learn more about constellations, visit the SkyTellers Constellations site. Back to top
Physics How do we know how far away the moon is?| Explore The exact distance between the Moon and Earth varies since the Moon follows an elliptical (oval) orbit, but on average the Moon is 384,399 km away. If you had a piece of string that long, you could wrap it all the way around the Earth’s equator almost ten times. Ancient Greek astronomers were able to make rough estimates of the distance to the Moon using information from eclipses to make geometric calculations. Since the 1960s, we have however had access to a much more accurate way of measuring this distance. Astronauts on the Apollo 11, 14 and 15 missions positioned retro-reflectors (a bit like the cat’s eyes you see on roads) on the surface of the Moon. This project is called the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment and it took measurements every year between 1969 and 2009. When it comes to calculating how far away the other planets in the solar system are, we don’t have the luxury of reflectors. See our favourite links about lasers The folowing links are external
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