1 00:00:08,680 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do you know what's weird about the universe? 2 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: Everything all right, that's true, but I mean when I 3 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: look at the planet, it kind of makes my head 4 00:00:16,920 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: spin a little. Oh yeah, what makes your head spin? 5 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:21,959 Speaker 1: Because all the planets are spinning, you know, none of 6 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:25,080 Speaker 1: them are just sitting there. True, And they're also spinning 7 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: around the Sun, right, which is also spinning around the galaxy. 8 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 1: And our galaxy is spinning around other galaxies. It's like 9 00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: the whole universe is spinning around. Oh my gosh, now 10 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:55,160 Speaker 1: my head is also spinning. I am r Hammad, cartoonists 11 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,040 Speaker 1: and the creator of PhD Comics. I'm Daniel. I'm a 12 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:01,640 Speaker 1: particle physicist, but I don't have spin. Welcome to our podcast, 13 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, a production of I 14 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:08,160 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, a no Spin zone about the true facts 15 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:12,280 Speaker 1: of the universe. Everything that's crazy, everything that's amazing, everything 16 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: that's fascinating, everything that makes you wonder. We dig deep 17 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:18,679 Speaker 1: into it and explore it and try to explain all 18 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: of it to you. I like how you put a 19 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: positive spin on the fact that we put no spin 20 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: on science. It's just a facts around here. When we 21 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:28,320 Speaker 1: know something, we say we know it. When we don't 22 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:32,679 Speaker 1: know something, we are happy to say we are clueless. Well, 23 00:01:32,720 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: do you think maybe the universe does need a little 24 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: bit of spinning, you know, just if people feel a 25 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,400 Speaker 1: little bit more positive about it. It is pretty dark 26 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,720 Speaker 1: and dangerous out there. It is dark and dangerous. But 27 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: I prefer to take a direct approach because then those 28 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 1: moments when you do learn something amazing and true and 29 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,840 Speaker 1: incredible about the universe and really just sort of fills 30 00:01:51,880 --> 00:01:54,560 Speaker 1: your heart with light to know something about the universe, 31 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: that's that's a good way to spin it. But anyways, 32 00:01:57,840 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 1: we like to talk about all the amazing things have 33 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:02,640 Speaker 1: pening out there in the cosmos, all of the crazy 34 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: and all of the mind blowing objects that are out there. 35 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: And we have a series of podcasts where we talk 36 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: about the most extreme things in the universe. The best 37 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 1: snowboarder in the universe? What how the snowboarding fitting? It's 38 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: an extreme sport, man. No, we'd like to talk about 39 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: all the extremes in the universe because they tell us something. 40 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: We are interested in the limits. Why do stars only 41 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 1: get up to a certain size? How hot can something get? 42 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: What prevents something from getting bigger or hotter or faster, 43 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: or spinning even more rapidly. There are lessons there about 44 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: the limits of physics and about what is allowed in 45 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: the universe and what is not allowed in the universe, 46 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:47,519 Speaker 1: because in the end, that's our goal to figure out 47 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:51,560 Speaker 1: what are the rules of this crazy, beautiful, bonkers universe, 48 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,000 Speaker 1: and the extremes help point the way. So we have 49 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,440 Speaker 1: episodes in the archive about the biggest thing in the universe, 50 00:02:57,600 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: the hottest thing in the universe. I think we've also 51 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:01,880 Speaker 1: done the coldest thing in the universe, right, we have, 52 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:04,920 Speaker 1: we did the emptiest places in the universe, and we 53 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: haven't done one about the fastest thing in the universe 54 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:10,680 Speaker 1: because that one's a little bit tricky because basically, the 55 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 1: fastest thing in the universe is a photon. Is just 56 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,280 Speaker 1: the speed of light, right, Oh, that was a short 57 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: podcast that was the mini warm up podcast to the 58 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: real podcast today. But also because you know, the speed 59 00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 1: of something depends on the speed that you're measuring from, 60 00:03:27,360 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: so you can make anything fast by just getting in 61 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: a spaceship and zooming around. So the fastest thing in 62 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: the universe not that easy to pin down, other than 63 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: of course a photon. I guess My question is is 64 00:03:38,480 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 1: a photon a thing? First of all? And those some 65 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:44,120 Speaker 1: other things move with the speed of light too. You 66 00:03:44,120 --> 00:03:46,600 Speaker 1: know what what happens if you race them? Yes, Actually, 67 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,240 Speaker 1: gravitational waves move at the speed of light, and everything 68 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: that is massless moves at the speed of light. So 69 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: that includes gluons, for example, and photons. So if you 70 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: had a race between photons and gluons, it would be 71 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,160 Speaker 1: an exact tie. All right, Well, so we can't fill 72 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:04,800 Speaker 1: a whole hour on the fastest thing, but we can 73 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,080 Speaker 1: talk about another fastest thing that happens in the universe. 74 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:16,719 Speaker 1: So to the other podcast, we'll be talking about what 75 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: is the fastest spinning thing in the universe. I'm guessing 76 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:23,680 Speaker 1: most people saw this coming, probably because they read the 77 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 1: title of the episode before they play. But yeah, we're 78 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 1: we're spinning up an interesting story here today, and also 79 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:33,640 Speaker 1: because we made a hundred spin jokes before we told 80 00:04:33,680 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: them the topic of the episode. But this, to me 81 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: is a really fascinating question. The whole notion that things 82 00:04:39,920 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: in the universe are spinning, and this is spinning this way, 83 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 1: and that's spending that way, and why are things spinning anyway? 84 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: And the whole question of angler momentum to me really 85 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: fun and fundamental, and you learned something really interesting about 86 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:53,520 Speaker 1: sort of the way the universe works and the way 87 00:04:53,600 --> 00:04:57,359 Speaker 1: space works from studying how things spin right, spinning it is, 88 00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: by itself kind of a weird thing, isn't it. It's like, 89 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,920 Speaker 1: if I'm spinning, am I really turning? Or are just 90 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: my particles going around in a circle? Whoa, It's like 91 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: a whole other teleportation question. Yeah, like are my particles 92 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: actually like turning around or are they just moving around? 93 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:16,520 Speaker 1: I see, Yeah, this is an interesting question. I mean, 94 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,239 Speaker 1: you can imagine all of them moving in a circle 95 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: but pointing in the same direction, like their internal acts 96 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:25,160 Speaker 1: not changing, or you can imagine them like a car 97 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 1: moving around on a track, where they actually do change direction. 98 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: If you stand in a circle and turn, then you 99 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: know your molecules are held together by pretty tight bonds 100 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:37,160 Speaker 1: and so they're gonna be pulled to turn with you. 101 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: So I think if you stand in turn, then you're 102 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 1: more like a car going around the track. All of 103 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: your molecules and particles are definitely turning with you. They're 104 00:05:44,120 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: not like little gyroscopes, right, but their point particles can 105 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: they have a direction they do have spin, right, These 106 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,520 Speaker 1: particles do have spin absolutely all right, Well, this is 107 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:57,919 Speaker 1: a fascinating question. What is the fastest spinning thing in 108 00:05:57,960 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: the unerse And I'm guessing Daniel will be measuring that 109 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: by revolutions per second or like or how dizzy they get? Yeah, 110 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: I think revolutions per second is probably the best metric. 111 00:06:08,520 --> 00:06:11,080 Speaker 1: But then it's also fun to calculate like the speed 112 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,039 Speaker 1: at the surface. You know, how fast how close to 113 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,600 Speaker 1: the speed of light is the surface of a neutron 114 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:19,239 Speaker 1: star moving, and this kind of stuff. Well, as usually, 115 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:21,360 Speaker 1: what we were wondering how many people out there had 116 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,280 Speaker 1: an opinion or a favorite as to what is the 117 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: fastest spinning thing in the universe. So Daniel went out 118 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:30,520 Speaker 1: there and ask people on the internet this question. So 119 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: thank you to everybody who participated. As usual, if you 120 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: would like to take your turn and answer questions without 121 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: Googling about a tough physics topic that we are going 122 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: to unpack, please volunteer two questions at Daniel and Jorge 123 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: dot com and the use of different search engine Daniel, 124 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,039 Speaker 1: or is googling now a universal verb? I'm working on 125 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:51,920 Speaker 1: a physics version of Google. Yeah, that just gives you 126 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:57,159 Speaker 1: the physics answer to everything. Time it says no, or 127 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,440 Speaker 1: we have no idea. By the way, by this book 128 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: that these two podcasters wrote, that's all it does. It 129 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:07,360 Speaker 1: just links you to our book. There you go, perfect, 130 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:09,880 Speaker 1: let's make it happen. All right, Well, think about it 131 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: for a second. As if you listening, if someone ask 132 00:07:12,200 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: you what you thought is the fastest spinning thing in 133 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:17,680 Speaker 1: the universe, what would you say? Here's what people had 134 00:07:17,680 --> 00:07:21,200 Speaker 1: to say. So I'm guessing that by spinning, it makes 135 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:25,640 Speaker 1: like actually spinning, not like a quantum spin. So I'm 136 00:07:25,680 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: guessing it's probably some type of special star or maybe 137 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: like a black hole, a neutron star, and I think 138 00:07:36,200 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: that's the same thing as like a pulsar pulsar I think, 139 00:07:39,600 --> 00:07:41,880 Speaker 1: or possibly even like a magneto, which I think maybe 140 00:07:41,880 --> 00:07:43,600 Speaker 1: spins at a faster rate, or maybe just has a 141 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: much larger magnetic field. I'm not sure unless we are 142 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: including a particle's spin like it's spin up and spin 143 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,520 Speaker 1: down properties as a definition of a fast spin. But 144 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:55,800 Speaker 1: I don't think that's quite the angular momentum that we're 145 00:07:55,800 --> 00:08:00,280 Speaker 1: familiar with. Probably a Tasmanian devil. No, it's probably a 146 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:05,240 Speaker 1: spinning neutron star or maybe a black hole that spins. Well, 147 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: there's a pulsar, and above pulsar it's a magnetor so. 148 00:08:13,240 --> 00:08:17,080 Speaker 1: Electrons spins pretty fast. I think X ray or gamma 149 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:21,680 Speaker 1: ray particles in real activistic teams shot from quasars. All right, 150 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: I like the person who said the Tasmanian devil. I've 151 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 1: obviously we've been watching physics cartoons. There's a lot of 152 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:31,760 Speaker 1: physics consulting going on in looney tunes. Let me tell 153 00:08:31,800 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: you the whole time delay of the gravitational effect in 154 00:08:36,160 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: the road Runner cartoons. Yeah, not sure, but I think 155 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:42,480 Speaker 1: the research center is called ACNE. Yeah, exactly. They are 156 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,199 Speaker 1: very generous with their funding, apparently. And now there's a 157 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: lot of great answers in here, a lot of cool ideas, 158 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: a lot of informed answers, but none of them are 159 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,680 Speaker 1: actually right. Wow, nobody could to grind and they went 160 00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 1: for the whole shi bank here. They went with pulsars 161 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,360 Speaker 1: and neutron stars. There pretty extreme things. Yeah, all the 162 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,880 Speaker 1: way down to a electrons and everything. Oh, nobody got 163 00:09:01,880 --> 00:09:04,200 Speaker 1: it right. Nobody got it right. Zero points for all 164 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: of you folks, But thank you for trying. Boy, this 165 00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: is a pretty negative website here. It doesn't give you 166 00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: any points. We will send you all an ACME company 167 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: gift package. All right, well maybe three. A lot of 168 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 1: people talked about particle spin, and so because it's so small, 169 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:23,120 Speaker 1: I think I would imagine that maybe it is the 170 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: fastest spinning thing in the universe, right, I mean, it's 171 00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:29,000 Speaker 1: it's almost like an abstract quantity. So could you say 172 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:31,320 Speaker 1: it's the fastest spinning thing in the universe. Yeah, it's 173 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 1: really weird, actually, right. We talk about particles as having spin, 174 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: and we know that there's spin is something closely related 175 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:43,520 Speaker 1: to angular momentum. Like if something is actually physically spinning, 176 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,440 Speaker 1: like it's moving around the nucleus of an atom, you 177 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:49,040 Speaker 1: can take that motion and you can convert it into 178 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:52,839 Speaker 1: particle spin. So it's like a real kind of anglar momentum. 179 00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:56,080 Speaker 1: But we don't think it's an actual physical spin of 180 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,240 Speaker 1: an object, because an electron, as we think about, is 181 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: a really time the particle maybe even just a point, 182 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,559 Speaker 1: and it doesn't actually make sense to think about that 183 00:10:05,679 --> 00:10:08,359 Speaker 1: object as spinning. Like if you try to do the calculation, 184 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 1: you say, well, how much energy is in the spin 185 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: and what's the mass of the electron, And what can 186 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: I assume about the radius to the electron if you 187 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:18,280 Speaker 1: put in what we know to be like the upper 188 00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,200 Speaker 1: limit of the radius to the electron, like our measurement 189 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:23,800 Speaker 1: for the biggest an electron could be though you know 190 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: it could be zero. And you crank all the numbers 191 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:29,120 Speaker 1: and you ask like how fast is the surface of 192 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:32,679 Speaker 1: the electron moving? You get a crazy number, it's like 193 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:35,960 Speaker 1: a hundred times the speed of light. Wow, what but 194 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 1: that would be impossible. That would be impossible, which tells 195 00:10:38,559 --> 00:10:41,880 Speaker 1: you something about your calculation is wrong. Like taking the 196 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,920 Speaker 1: energy of an electron spin and thinking about it as 197 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,840 Speaker 1: actual physical spin doesn't make sense. We don't think that 198 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:52,880 Speaker 1: this is a tiny little object that's actually spinning. It's 199 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: a quantum spin. It's something weird, something different from actual 200 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,400 Speaker 1: physical spin. But it is related, like it's can you 201 00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: can't just say put it in that quantum box and 202 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: say we don't understand it. Whatever, put a quantum in 203 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,160 Speaker 1: front of it. It's something connected to actual spin. You 204 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: can take again real angular momentum and convert it into 205 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: quantum spin and back again. So they're definitely connected, but 206 00:11:15,640 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: we can't really say it's actual spin. Well, I do 207 00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:19,880 Speaker 1: that all the time, tied Daniel with thinks I don't 208 00:11:19,960 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: want to understand. I just put quantum in it, and 209 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:24,520 Speaker 1: I stick it in the box, you know, like my 210 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:30,600 Speaker 1: taxes or m Yeah. Yea deadline deadline, quantum deadlines plus 211 00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:34,280 Speaker 1: our minus you know a year. Yeah, I got this 212 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:37,800 Speaker 1: in within the uncertainty right there, you go. I did, 213 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 1: and I didn't turn it in. How about that? That's right, 214 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:43,720 Speaker 1: your contract is dead and alive at the same time. 215 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:47,640 Speaker 1: But I still get paid right in quantum dollars. But 216 00:11:47,720 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 1: it is really fascinating, Like it's definitely something you can 217 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:53,080 Speaker 1: think about as a spin. These particles have a spin. 218 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: It's definitely a quantity we connect with spinning things. But 219 00:11:57,360 --> 00:11:59,600 Speaker 1: if we want to talk about what's the fastest spinning 220 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:01,760 Speaker 1: thing in the universe, I don't think it's really fair 221 00:12:01,800 --> 00:12:04,920 Speaker 1: to say that a particle is something that is in 222 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 1: the running for it because it's not physically spinning. But 223 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: can you give it a value like a certain revolutions 224 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:13,719 Speaker 1: per second on an electron? Right, because you have the 225 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:16,000 Speaker 1: angular momentum and you know the mass of the electron, 226 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 1: can you just divide that to get some kind of 227 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: spinning velocity? Yeah? You can do that because you know, 228 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:25,560 Speaker 1: the angular kinetic energy is proportional to the moment of 229 00:12:25,559 --> 00:12:28,719 Speaker 1: inertia and the number of revolutions per second. But the 230 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 1: moment of inertia depends on the radius of the object, right, 231 00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 1: how much angular momentum there is depends on the distribution 232 00:12:34,960 --> 00:12:38,320 Speaker 1: of stuff. This moment of inertia is like rotational mass, 233 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: so it doesn't just depend on the mass and the object. 234 00:12:40,280 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: That depends on where the mass of the object is, 235 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:44,760 Speaker 1: like is it all on the surface or all at 236 00:12:44,800 --> 00:12:47,880 Speaker 1: the core? Sort of like how a figure skater, you know, 237 00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:51,560 Speaker 1: when she moves her arms in closer, she spins faster 238 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:54,280 Speaker 1: and faster, even though she has the same mass. So 239 00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:56,680 Speaker 1: the revolutions depend not just on the mass and on 240 00:12:56,720 --> 00:12:59,280 Speaker 1: the energy, but also on like how that's distributed. And 241 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: we just don't owe anything about how electron looks like inside. 242 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:05,040 Speaker 1: Is it really a point particle? Is it made of 243 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:08,720 Speaker 1: tiny vibrating strings? We just don't know, alright, So I 244 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:10,680 Speaker 1: guess the thing is that it just doesn't make sense 245 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:13,040 Speaker 1: to think of an electron as spinning, even though it 246 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: has quantum spin, it's not actually like turning around. Yeah, 247 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:18,959 Speaker 1: So I think the physics referee, and this one is 248 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,280 Speaker 1: going to rule it out of bounds. For this competition. 249 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: It's probably spinning in some crazy awesome way we just 250 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:27,240 Speaker 1: don't understand yet. It might take the cake and be 251 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:29,760 Speaker 1: the fastest spinning thing in the universe, but for the 252 00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: purposes of today's competition, it's been de cute. All right. Well, 253 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:37,959 Speaker 1: that's a bummer for particles there for Team Electron. I 254 00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: was trying to put a positive spin on it, Daniel, 255 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:43,319 Speaker 1: but um, you totally shut that down. I mean for particles, 256 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:45,719 Speaker 1: I know, and usually I'm pro particles, right, Like, that's 257 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 1: sort of my job. I'm made of particles. I study particles. 258 00:13:48,720 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: But in this case, I don't really think they qualified. 259 00:13:51,760 --> 00:13:56,160 Speaker 1: Physicist are fickle alright, Well, um, let's talk about real things, like, 260 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,720 Speaker 1: you know, how fast is the Earth spinning? For example? 261 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:01,040 Speaker 1: I mean we I know that it's been once a day, 262 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,080 Speaker 1: but is that fast relative to other things in the universe. 263 00:14:04,200 --> 00:14:07,560 Speaker 1: It's actually pretty fast, Like for our solar system, it's 264 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,240 Speaker 1: one of the faster spinning things. You know, Like the Sun, 265 00:14:10,320 --> 00:14:14,439 Speaker 1: for example, rotates every twenty seven days. The Sun rotates. 266 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,280 Speaker 1: The Sun rotates, oh absolutely every month, yea once a month. 267 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: The Sun completes a revolution, and you know the rest 268 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:22,200 Speaker 1: of the Solar system is basically just an extension of 269 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: the Sun. Most of the stuff in the Solar system 270 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:28,040 Speaker 1: is the Sun, and everything is spinning. The whole thing 271 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:31,240 Speaker 1: is spinning, and most of its spinning in the same direction. Right. 272 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,160 Speaker 1: The planets move around the Sun the same direction the 273 00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:37,360 Speaker 1: Sun spins because it all comes from the same original 274 00:14:37,440 --> 00:14:40,680 Speaker 1: angle momentum of the huge blob of gas and dust 275 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: that form the Solar system. So, yeah, the Sun is 276 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: definitely rotating, but not that fast. Well, I guess it's 277 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:48,840 Speaker 1: weird to think of it like an explosion rotating, right, 278 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:51,760 Speaker 1: because that's what the Sun is. It's like a constant explosion, 279 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:53,160 Speaker 1: and so it's kind of weird to think of it 280 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: as or like fire. You know, it's it's hard to 281 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: think of fire spinning. Yeah, it is pretty cool. And 282 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:01,520 Speaker 1: you know, inside the Sun there's also all sorts of 283 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:05,479 Speaker 1: really complex conductions and currents and like streams of plasma 284 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,680 Speaker 1: that move around, and you know, the Sun's magnetic field 285 00:15:08,760 --> 00:15:11,880 Speaker 1: flips every eleven years or so, probably because these streams 286 00:15:11,880 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 1: of plasma are like swapping directions. And there's a whole 287 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: podcast episode about that where we're doing the future about 288 00:15:17,960 --> 00:15:20,160 Speaker 1: what's going on inside the Sun. But yeah, it's a 289 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:24,360 Speaker 1: really big, complex, spinning beast. So so what does that 290 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:26,320 Speaker 1: mean about the surface of the Sun. How fast is 291 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,080 Speaker 1: in moving? So the speed of the surface of the 292 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:30,160 Speaker 1: Sun is pretty fast, because the radius of the Sun 293 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: is really large, right, So if something is rotating once 294 00:15:33,680 --> 00:15:36,320 Speaker 1: every day or so, then the speed of the surface 295 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:39,560 Speaker 1: depends on how far you are from the center. And 296 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: so the Sun is huge, and that means that it's 297 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:47,920 Speaker 1: moving at like sixty six thousand kilometers per day per day. Wow, 298 00:15:48,320 --> 00:15:50,680 Speaker 1: that's close to what the Earth is moving, isn't it. Yeah, 299 00:15:50,760 --> 00:15:53,160 Speaker 1: service of the Earth moves obviously, the circumference of the 300 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: Earth twenty four miles per day. All right, so those 301 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:00,320 Speaker 1: are pretty fast. And what else in our solar system 302 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:03,440 Speaker 1: is spinning pretty fast? Well, surprisingly to me, Jupiter actually 303 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:06,280 Speaker 1: spends faster than the Earth. I was thinking the begger 304 00:16:06,320 --> 00:16:09,560 Speaker 1: the object, maybe the slower it rotates, because the Sun 305 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:12,640 Speaker 1: rotates more slowly than the Earth. But Jupiter actually spins 306 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:15,880 Speaker 1: faster than the Earth. It does a revolution in ten hours. 307 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:19,240 Speaker 1: So wait, the like the core of it, or the 308 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:21,520 Speaker 1: whole thing, or just the clouds in the surface we 309 00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:24,280 Speaker 1: can't really measure very well what's going on inside Jupiter. 310 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: We think that there's differential rotation, like the internal core 311 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,480 Speaker 1: might be rotating at different speeds than the outer cloud cells, 312 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:32,920 Speaker 1: and this could be what's contributing to all that turbulence. 313 00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,080 Speaker 1: But we can just look at stuff on the surface 314 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,520 Speaker 1: of Jupiter and watch it rotate. So like that red 315 00:16:38,560 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: eye actually goes around once every ten hours, once every 316 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,239 Speaker 1: ten hours. Yeah, it is kind of like the iosaurin 317 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:49,000 Speaker 1: it's looking around keeping an eye on the Solar system. 318 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:50,880 Speaker 1: That's right. So if you're gonna sneak around, you've got 319 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: about ten hours until the eye turns around and looks 320 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: at you, so you can finish your plans. All right, 321 00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:58,480 Speaker 1: let's get into other things that are spinning fast in 322 00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:02,560 Speaker 1: the Solar System and into wider space. But first let's 323 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: take a quick break, all right, Dannel, we're asking the 324 00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,760 Speaker 1: question what is the fastest spinning thing in the universe, 325 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:23,160 Speaker 1: And there's a lot of spinning things in the universe. 326 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:25,320 Speaker 1: A lot of things are spinning around. They certainly are, 327 00:17:25,720 --> 00:17:28,960 Speaker 1: and in our Solar system, Jupiter spins every ten hours, 328 00:17:29,040 --> 00:17:31,879 Speaker 1: but it's not the champion in our Solar system. We 329 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: have a lot of little objects out there, like past Pluto, 330 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,359 Speaker 1: around the size of Pluto, and some of them has 331 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,640 Speaker 1: been pretty fast. Like well, the king of the Solar 332 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:44,160 Speaker 1: System or queen, depending on the gender of this object, 333 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: is the dwarf planet how maya. It's out in the 334 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:50,119 Speaker 1: Kuiper Belt. It's about the size of Pluto, and it 335 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: spins around every four hours. Whoa, So I guess if 336 00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 1: you're standing on it, a day would be four hours, 337 00:17:57,280 --> 00:17:59,920 Speaker 1: like every four hours the sun would set and rise. Yeah, exactly. 338 00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:02,160 Speaker 1: And we don't know that much about it because it's 339 00:18:02,200 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: really far away. It has this like dark red spot 340 00:18:05,080 --> 00:18:07,520 Speaker 1: on its surface, so you can see it move around. 341 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,080 Speaker 1: But it's spinning, and you know that must have come 342 00:18:10,119 --> 00:18:13,359 Speaker 1: from some like crazy collision with some other object to 343 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:15,800 Speaker 1: get it spinning so fast. Really, like maybe it was 344 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:18,679 Speaker 1: just standing there and then it got knocked or grazed 345 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,200 Speaker 1: by another thing and that said it to spin. Yeah, 346 00:18:21,359 --> 00:18:23,640 Speaker 1: or it was spinning in some other way and then 347 00:18:23,640 --> 00:18:26,040 Speaker 1: it got knocked into and some crazy collision and it 348 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 1: came out with more spin. You know, Like a lot 349 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,000 Speaker 1: of the objects in the Solar System, like Uranus has 350 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:33,880 Speaker 1: weird spin and Venus has weird spin, and that can 351 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,520 Speaker 1: also be the result of collision from something else outside 352 00:18:37,560 --> 00:18:40,880 Speaker 1: the Solar System. Wow, alright, so it's a super short day. 353 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:44,720 Speaker 1: But you know what about out further in space? What 354 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,040 Speaker 1: else do we know is spinning out there pretty fast? 355 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:49,120 Speaker 1: So the listeners were on the right track when they 356 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:53,560 Speaker 1: were thinking about pulsars and neutron stars, because these are 357 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:57,680 Speaker 1: objects that do spin pretty fast. And remember, a neutron 358 00:18:57,800 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 1: star is when a star has collapsed, like it's mostly 359 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:02,920 Speaker 1: done with its life, and the core of it has 360 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:06,480 Speaker 1: collapsed into a very very dense object that's dense enough 361 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: to like squish all of the protons and electrons together 362 00:19:09,840 --> 00:19:14,359 Speaker 1: to make neutrons, but not so dense to overcome the 363 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:17,480 Speaker 1: pressure of the neutrons and compacted into a black hole. 364 00:19:17,720 --> 00:19:19,720 Speaker 1: So it's sort of like a black hole that didn't 365 00:19:19,760 --> 00:19:22,600 Speaker 1: quite make it into a black hole. This is a 366 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:25,200 Speaker 1: neutron star. This is a neutron star. And so they're 367 00:19:25,240 --> 00:19:28,760 Speaker 1: all neutrons. They're very very dense, and because they've been 368 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:31,919 Speaker 1: compacted very very small, like it's a huge amount of 369 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,840 Speaker 1: stuff in a very very small space, they also gained 370 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:37,760 Speaker 1: a lot of spin, just like that figure skater you're 371 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:40,800 Speaker 1: pulling in all that angular momentum, but now you're radius 372 00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:42,840 Speaker 1: is much much smaller, so you have to be moving 373 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:46,160 Speaker 1: faster to have the same angular momentum. So these things 374 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,640 Speaker 1: can spin really really fast. How fast are they spinning? Well, 375 00:19:49,640 --> 00:19:52,520 Speaker 1: there's one variety of them called pulsars, and these guys 376 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:54,800 Speaker 1: shoot out a beam of light from their north and 377 00:19:54,840 --> 00:19:57,320 Speaker 1: south poles, and so we can actually see them spin. 378 00:19:57,400 --> 00:19:59,960 Speaker 1: That's how they were discovered. That this beam of lights 379 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:03,600 Speaker 1: of like washes over the Earth once every rotation, and 380 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:05,880 Speaker 1: so you might imagine, Okay, these things they've probably spin 381 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:08,600 Speaker 1: once a day, or once every hour or once every minute. 382 00:20:09,080 --> 00:20:12,680 Speaker 1: But the fastest spinning pulsars spin like six or seven 383 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:17,280 Speaker 1: hundred times a second per second per second. Yeah, these 384 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:20,600 Speaker 1: are huge objects that are spinning hundreds of times a 385 00:20:20,800 --> 00:20:24,840 Speaker 1: second right totally blowing away the Sun, Jupiter, the Earth, 386 00:20:25,119 --> 00:20:28,360 Speaker 1: even our dwarf planet. Like, these things are really spinning. 387 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,080 Speaker 1: I can't even hit wrap my head around something. I mean, 388 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:34,080 Speaker 1: how big is this thing? How can something that large 389 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:37,200 Speaker 1: spin that fast? But did it just explode? Well, it's 390 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:41,000 Speaker 1: held together really tightly right by gravity. It's about sixteen 391 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:43,600 Speaker 1: kilometers in radius. So this one that's like the Queen 392 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 1: of pulsars is about eighteen thousand light years from Earth. 393 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,639 Speaker 1: It's in the constellation Sagittarius. It has a radius of 394 00:20:49,760 --> 00:20:54,359 Speaker 1: only about sixteen kilometers. Tiny, so these things are not big. Yeah, 395 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,560 Speaker 1: but it's spinning super duper fast. And if you do 396 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:00,399 Speaker 1: the calculation, like the surface of this thing is spinning 397 00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:03,159 Speaker 1: at a quarter of the speed of light. Wow, that's crazy. 398 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,359 Speaker 1: How do is it something that massive and large spin 399 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,480 Speaker 1: that fast when it explode at some point or break apart. Well, 400 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:12,679 Speaker 1: there's a lot of things going on here, right. You 401 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:15,480 Speaker 1: have gravity pushing it down, and then you have rotational 402 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:18,720 Speaker 1: pressure preventing it from collapsing. Right. One of the things 403 00:21:18,720 --> 00:21:22,640 Speaker 1: that prevents things from collapsing into black holes is rotational pressure. 404 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:25,280 Speaker 1: It's hard to get things to get smaller and more 405 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,439 Speaker 1: compact because they would have to spin even faster. So 406 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:30,160 Speaker 1: what we're looking at here is sort of a balance 407 00:21:30,240 --> 00:21:32,880 Speaker 1: between all the forces at play. You have the pressure 408 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,320 Speaker 1: from the molecules not wanting to get squeezed down more. 409 00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:37,800 Speaker 1: You have the rotational pressure, which makes it harder and 410 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:39,720 Speaker 1: harder for things to get smaller, But then you have 411 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:43,080 Speaker 1: gravity pushing down on it. So you know, that's why 412 00:21:43,160 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 1: the Earth has not fallen into the Sun, right because 413 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:49,399 Speaker 1: our angular momentum protects us. That's why the galaxy is 414 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:51,480 Speaker 1: not fallen into the black hole at the center of 415 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:54,680 Speaker 1: the galaxy because of our angular momentum. And so as 416 00:21:54,720 --> 00:21:56,600 Speaker 1: you get smaller and small, you have to spin faster 417 00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:01,040 Speaker 1: and faster. So meaning if you stop these neutron stars 418 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:04,120 Speaker 1: or pulsars from spinning, they would collapse into a black hole. 419 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 1: They might collapse new black hole. They would definitely get smaller. Yeah, 420 00:22:07,400 --> 00:22:11,880 Speaker 1: something that's spinning is definitely bigger than something that's not spinning. Right, Well, 421 00:22:12,040 --> 00:22:15,040 Speaker 1: that sounds pretty crazy, but there's even crazier spinning things. 422 00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,640 Speaker 1: There's another one out there. This is neutron star, which 423 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:20,320 Speaker 1: has sort of the crown for the fastest spinning thing 424 00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 1: that we know about out there in outer space at least. 425 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,720 Speaker 1: And it's got some crazy name, and it's about thirty 426 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,760 Speaker 1: thousand light years from Earth and it's spinning at more 427 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:35,400 Speaker 1: than a thousand times a second twenty two hers. Wow. Yeah, 428 00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:37,159 Speaker 1: it has a pretty cool name. It sounds like a 429 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:43,960 Speaker 1: science fiction name. E J one eight five that's right, 430 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:47,639 Speaker 1: not to be confused with a four. That's a totally lame. 431 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,000 Speaker 1: Neutron star to eight five is the one that wins 432 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:54,240 Speaker 1: the spinning contest. Yeah, it's incredible, and this thing is 433 00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:57,720 Speaker 1: only ten kilometers wide, right, it's a tiny dot. It's 434 00:22:57,760 --> 00:23:01,320 Speaker 1: amazing how much stuff is crammed into these tiny little 435 00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:04,479 Speaker 1: areas and the incredible speeds they move at. And this 436 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,080 Speaker 1: surface is also spinning. It just about a quarter of 437 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,120 Speaker 1: the speed of light, but again, because it's smaller, that's 438 00:23:10,119 --> 00:23:13,600 Speaker 1: a faster rotation speed. And these things are really dense, right, 439 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 1: like it's about the mass of the sun. Maybe, yeah, exactly, 440 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:18,480 Speaker 1: they're both the mass of the Sun. But it's only 441 00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,600 Speaker 1: ten kilometers wide, so like you know, a tea spoon 442 00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:24,600 Speaker 1: of this stuff weighs like a billion tons. It's really 443 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:28,240 Speaker 1: pretty incredible, and it's not something that we understand very well, 444 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,520 Speaker 1: like what's going on inside a neutron star? What is 445 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: the pressure? How do all these things squeeze together? And 446 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:36,760 Speaker 1: one of the reasons we don't understand it is because 447 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,199 Speaker 1: what's at work here is the strong force, like the 448 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,159 Speaker 1: force that holds protons together and neutrons together and the 449 00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:46,280 Speaker 1: nucleus together. It's taken over because everything is so squeezed together, 450 00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: and we don't really understand how to do calculations with 451 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,280 Speaker 1: a strong force really nasty because it's so strong that 452 00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,639 Speaker 1: any small change in your calculation means a big change 453 00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,399 Speaker 1: in what happens. And so it's hard to describe. Like 454 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:02,159 Speaker 1: the internals of an entire neutron star, it's kind of 455 00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:05,879 Speaker 1: hard to imagine, you know, something the size of you know, 456 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:08,800 Speaker 1: Los Angeles spinning a thousand times a second. Yeah, and 457 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,439 Speaker 1: their spin can change. Also, because they're a tiny bit unstable, 458 00:24:12,840 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: sometimes when they're spinning, they get this glitch where like 459 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:19,120 Speaker 1: this like a quake on the crust of the neutron stars, 460 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,359 Speaker 1: things shift and then it might like compact a tiny 461 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,080 Speaker 1: little bit and then speed up, or if it quakes 462 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: in a different direction, they can glitch and then slow down. 463 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,960 Speaker 1: It's pretty amazing. Wow, it's almost kind of like a 464 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:34,119 Speaker 1: surreal you know, like if you were standing next to it, 465 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: your mind would just be blown. Yeah, exactly. And these 466 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,639 Speaker 1: things are hard to see. Also, we can see the 467 00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:43,920 Speaker 1: ones that are pulsars that emit these beams of light 468 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,320 Speaker 1: along their magnetic axis, and obviously we see those beams, 469 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,159 Speaker 1: but if they don't shine in our direction, they're pretty 470 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,479 Speaker 1: hard to spot. Because these neutron stars are not undergoing fusion. 471 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,399 Speaker 1: They don't glow like our stars, right, so it's not 472 00:24:56,440 --> 00:24:58,439 Speaker 1: clear exactly what you would see. I think it's just 473 00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:02,920 Speaker 1: a big hot, lowing rock basically, So it'd be fascinating 474 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,400 Speaker 1: to actually see one up close. We've only ever really 475 00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:08,840 Speaker 1: seen them because of their pulsar radiation. All right, Well, um, 476 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:11,159 Speaker 1: I feel like we can have a discussion of wild 477 00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:15,120 Speaker 1: things in the universe without talking about black holes. Can 478 00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,240 Speaker 1: black hole spin as well? Black holes definitely can spin. 479 00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:21,560 Speaker 1: And one of the amazing things about black holes, of 480 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:24,760 Speaker 1: all the amazing things about black holes is how little 481 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: you can know about them. Like two black holes that 482 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:30,680 Speaker 1: have the same amount of stuff in them, you can't 483 00:25:30,800 --> 00:25:34,280 Speaker 1: tell them apart, Like there's no information about what went 484 00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:37,040 Speaker 1: into the black hole that you can extract, and that 485 00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:39,720 Speaker 1: includes information about like what order the stuff went in, 486 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:42,240 Speaker 1: or when it went in, how long ago went in. 487 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:44,800 Speaker 1: The only things you can know about a black hole 488 00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: are its mass and its spin and it's electric charge. 489 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,679 Speaker 1: So if you have two black holes that have like 490 00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:56,120 Speaker 1: no electric charge and no spin and the same mass, 491 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,480 Speaker 1: there's nothing you can do to tell them apart. They're 492 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:03,560 Speaker 1: like as quip lent as two electrons to us. I mean, right, 493 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:06,399 Speaker 1: but if you were inside the black hole, could you 494 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:08,679 Speaker 1: tell the difference? That's an awesome question. If you were 495 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: inside the black hole, then yes, you could tell the 496 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:16,640 Speaker 1: difference if things were thrown in after you or before you. Right, 497 00:26:16,680 --> 00:26:18,800 Speaker 1: But if everything has been thrown in before you, it 498 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:21,960 Speaker 1: would be closer to the singularity than you would be, 499 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:24,080 Speaker 1: and so you wouldn't be able to probe any of 500 00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:28,000 Speaker 1: that stuff. But you can tell if a black hole 501 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: is spinning. So like, if you make a black hole 502 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:32,760 Speaker 1: by just dropping a bunch of bananas with no spin 503 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: and make a black hole, that will look different than 504 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:37,960 Speaker 1: a black hole where you've like thrown the bananas in 505 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,240 Speaker 1: so they have angular momentum relative to the center of 506 00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: the black hole. You throw them sort of like a 507 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:45,400 Speaker 1: little bit to the side, so you get the thing spinning. 508 00:26:46,080 --> 00:26:47,919 Speaker 1: And now I guess a question is what does it 509 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:50,080 Speaker 1: mean for a black hole to spin? Does it mean 510 00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:52,359 Speaker 1: that the stuff inside of it is spinning? Or is 511 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,879 Speaker 1: it also sort of like a quantum quantity That doesn't 512 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: really make sense. Man, I wish black holes did make sense. 513 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,080 Speaker 1: We have to use just the only theory we have, 514 00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,159 Speaker 1: which is general relativity, to describe what we think is 515 00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:08,800 Speaker 1: happening inside of black holes. We know that theory is limited. 516 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:11,280 Speaker 1: We know it breaks down when you get to the singularity, 517 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:14,720 Speaker 1: that you cannot describe what happens in infinite curvature. So 518 00:27:14,800 --> 00:27:16,919 Speaker 1: we know this is wrong, but it's also sort of 519 00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:20,160 Speaker 1: our best idea for what's happening. So in the universe 520 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:24,080 Speaker 1: without quantum effects and only general relativity, then yes, we 521 00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: think that the stuff inside the black hole is actually spinning, 522 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:29,680 Speaker 1: like orbiting around the center. Well, we think that there's 523 00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:32,160 Speaker 1: a singularity at the heart of the black hole, and 524 00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,120 Speaker 1: the singularity is a point, right, and so how can 525 00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:37,720 Speaker 1: a point spin? Well, we think that a spinning black 526 00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,640 Speaker 1: hole doesn't have a singularity that's a point. We think 527 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,359 Speaker 1: it's singularity is a ring. What what does that even mean, Daniel. 528 00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,760 Speaker 1: It means that the place where the curvature goes infinite 529 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,359 Speaker 1: is not just one place in space because a point 530 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:54,560 Speaker 1: cannot spin, right, the singularity that's a point cannot have 531 00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:58,320 Speaker 1: any angular momentum. However a circle can. So you have 532 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:02,159 Speaker 1: a singularity which is not a point but a perfect circle. Well, 533 00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:05,120 Speaker 1: so that means that things are spinning around the ring 534 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:09,680 Speaker 1: or towards the ring. The ring is spinning itself is 535 00:28:09,720 --> 00:28:12,439 Speaker 1: spinning because it has a radius and so it can spin, 536 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,719 Speaker 1: you see. But it could also mean the stuff between 537 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: that ring and the surface of the black hole is 538 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:22,440 Speaker 1: also spinning, right like. It could be a swirling thing 539 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:24,159 Speaker 1: inside of the black hole, or it could just be 540 00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:27,639 Speaker 1: things falling in right, Yeah, exactly, And it's very likely 541 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,240 Speaker 1: that if something is approaching the end of the black hole, 542 00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:33,000 Speaker 1: it will be spinning because it's hard to otherwise. Like, 543 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,320 Speaker 1: if you're gonna fall into a black hole, you have 544 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:38,160 Speaker 1: two options. One is go straight to the heart of 545 00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:43,160 Speaker 1: the singularity right exactly right on, or any other direction, 546 00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,880 Speaker 1: And any other direction will mean you're falling in with 547 00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,120 Speaker 1: some spin because you're not gonna be going straight at it, 548 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:51,240 Speaker 1: and so you're gonna be giving it like a little 549 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:54,320 Speaker 1: bit of torque. And so most likely things that fall 550 00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:56,400 Speaker 1: into the black hole do give it some spin. So 551 00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,040 Speaker 1: we think that most black holes are spinning. And if 552 00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,240 Speaker 1: you look at the stuff around the black hole, the 553 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,080 Speaker 1: accretion disk, the stuff that has not yet fallen in, 554 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:09,080 Speaker 1: that's spinning, right's swirling around, gradually losing its Anglo momentum 555 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,120 Speaker 1: as it falls into the black hole. All right, So 556 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,880 Speaker 1: we can know the mass, the charge, and the spin 557 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,640 Speaker 1: of a black hole. So how do we measure the 558 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: spin of a black hole? Because it's it's just a giant, 559 00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 1: you know, black ball. How can you tell if it's 560 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: spinning or not? And how much? That's a great question 561 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:28,880 Speaker 1: because your first thought might be, well, a black hole 562 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: is just a big gravitational object, and according to Newton, 563 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,000 Speaker 1: the force of gravity only depends on the mass of 564 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,040 Speaker 1: the thing, right, not on its spin. So you can't 565 00:29:38,120 --> 00:29:41,840 Speaker 1: tell gravitationally if something is spinning. And since gravity is 566 00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:43,720 Speaker 1: the only way to probe the spin of these things, 567 00:29:43,960 --> 00:29:47,360 Speaker 1: how could you tell at all? Well, Newton wasn't right right. 568 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:50,960 Speaker 1: Newton's theory of gravity is not complete, and it fails, 569 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:54,520 Speaker 1: especially around black holes. There are more complicated effects here, 570 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:58,480 Speaker 1: and there are corrections to Newton's theory in Einstein's theory 571 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: that do depend on the spin of the black hole. 572 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:05,440 Speaker 1: So the gravitational effect of an object depends not just 573 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:07,880 Speaker 1: on how much stuff is in it, but also on 574 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:12,440 Speaker 1: its energy density. Right, energy density, and one component of 575 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: its energy density is its spin. So how much it's 576 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:20,800 Speaker 1: spinning changes its gravitational effects, right, I see, so kind 577 00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:25,040 Speaker 1: of because mass is energy and spin is also energy. 578 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 1: You can sort of maybe tell the difference between the two. Yeah, 579 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: And there's one really awesome test case where they have 580 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 1: a super big black hole. There's this black hole that's 581 00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:39,640 Speaker 1: eighteen billion solar masses, so it's like one of the 582 00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:43,120 Speaker 1: biggest black holes we know about, and it's being orbited 583 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,400 Speaker 1: by another black hole, a tiny little black hole that 584 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,520 Speaker 1: only has a hundred and fifty million solar masses right 585 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:51,880 Speaker 1: now on its own. This one would also be an 586 00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:55,440 Speaker 1: awesome black hole, but in comparison to this monster black hole, 587 00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:59,160 Speaker 1: it's pretty small. So the little one is orbiting the 588 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:03,280 Speaker 1: big one, right, and it's affected by the gravity of 589 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: the big one. But because the big one is spinning, 590 00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:09,640 Speaker 1: this causes a procession in the orbit of the smaller 591 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:12,880 Speaker 1: black hole. So the smaller black holes orbiting the bigger one, 592 00:31:13,040 --> 00:31:16,160 Speaker 1: but it's orbit itself is spinning. It's like an ellipse, 593 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:19,600 Speaker 1: and the ellipse is moving around the bigger black hole, 594 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:21,600 Speaker 1: and that tells you something about the spin of the 595 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,040 Speaker 1: big black hole exactly. The procession of the orbit of 596 00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:28,040 Speaker 1: the little one comes from the spin of the big 597 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 1: black hole. And you can do these calculations. It's not 598 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: trivial to think about, like Newton's laws, Einstein's calculations are 599 00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,240 Speaker 1: much more complicated. But the spin of the big black 600 00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:40,280 Speaker 1: hole affects how things move around it and affects the 601 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,000 Speaker 1: orbit of this little black hole. Interesting, and so that's 602 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:45,400 Speaker 1: how they were able to measure in this case that 603 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: very precisely the spin of the big black hole. I see, 604 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:51,560 Speaker 1: so like a black hole that has mass would affect 605 00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:54,800 Speaker 1: things differently around it than a black hole that has 606 00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: mass and spin exactly. And the way you probe that 607 00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,880 Speaker 1: is by looking at the stuff around the black hole 608 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,640 Speaker 1: seeing the effect on that stuff. Usually is on the 609 00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:07,600 Speaker 1: accretion disk. Sometimes it's on other big massive objects like 610 00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 1: a black hole, And so typically looking at the accretion 611 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:14,400 Speaker 1: disc you can tell how fast is this black hole spinning? 612 00:32:14,840 --> 00:32:17,640 Speaker 1: Does that apply to other things? Of our Sun wasn't spinning, 613 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,760 Speaker 1: would our orbit be totally different? Yeah, if the Sun 614 00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:24,320 Speaker 1: wasn't spinning, our orbit would be different. The Sun's gravitational 615 00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,480 Speaker 1: energy is mostly due to its mass though, because it's 616 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,440 Speaker 1: not spinning that fast. But yeah, we would have settled 617 00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:31,160 Speaker 1: into a different orbit that I don't think it's by 618 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,480 Speaker 1: a big number. But that's how you can tell how 619 00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,760 Speaker 1: much a black hole is spinning, yes, exactly, and you 620 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:38,320 Speaker 1: could look at the accretion disc. So, for example, a 621 00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,040 Speaker 1: black hole that's spinning in the same direction to see 622 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:44,320 Speaker 1: acretion disc, the acreation disc can actually get closer to 623 00:32:44,520 --> 00:32:47,959 Speaker 1: the black hole than otherwise a black hole that's not spinning. 624 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:50,760 Speaker 1: The acreation disc can't get quite as close because remember 625 00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:53,520 Speaker 1: the acreation disk sort of ends not at the edge 626 00:32:53,560 --> 00:32:55,800 Speaker 1: of the black hole, but like a little bit further out. 627 00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:01,600 Speaker 1: All right, that's a pretty impressive black hole to eighteen 628 00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,920 Speaker 1: billion times the mass of our Sun. But surprisingly it's 629 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,920 Speaker 1: not the fastest spinning black hole. So let's dig into 630 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,160 Speaker 1: what is the fastest spinning black hole and whether or 631 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,600 Speaker 1: not that is actually the fastest spinning thing in the universe. 632 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:28,120 Speaker 1: But first, let's take a quick break. All right, Daniel, 633 00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,680 Speaker 1: we are spinning black holes here, and my head is 634 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:34,040 Speaker 1: spinning a little just to think about a black hole spinning. 635 00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:35,920 Speaker 1: I mean, how can a weird thing like a black 636 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:37,960 Speaker 1: hole spin? But it can, and you can measure it. 637 00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,520 Speaker 1: And we're gonna talk about the fastest spinning black holder 638 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: is because it's not this big one we just talked about. Yeah, 639 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,479 Speaker 1: and that big one is not actually even spinning that fast. 640 00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,040 Speaker 1: And the reason is that it's huge. Like the radius 641 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,520 Speaker 1: of that black hole is like three hundred and sixty 642 00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:56,360 Speaker 1: times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. It 643 00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:58,880 Speaker 1: is this enormous. It's much much bigger than our entire 644 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 1: solar system. And so even though the surface of that 645 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,120 Speaker 1: black hole is moving it like of the speed of light, 646 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:11,480 Speaker 1: it takes five million seconds to complete a spin. Wow, 647 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:14,400 Speaker 1: so the surface is going really fast, but it's actually 648 00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:17,080 Speaker 1: not spinning that fast. Yeah, because it's so big. The 649 00:34:17,080 --> 00:34:20,000 Speaker 1: surface is so far away from the center that even 650 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,440 Speaker 1: moving a of the speed of light, it takes a 651 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,640 Speaker 1: long time to complete one circumference. All right, So what 652 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,640 Speaker 1: is the fastest spinning black hole do we know? Or 653 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,880 Speaker 1: what is this fastest spinning black hole we know about? 654 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,520 Speaker 1: So there's another black hole that we think is spinning faster. 655 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:36,120 Speaker 1: It's another one of these big black holes that has 656 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,680 Speaker 1: two million solar masses. Remember that there are two categories 657 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,040 Speaker 1: of black holes. The ones that come from like stars 658 00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,319 Speaker 1: that collapsed, and those tend to have you know, like 659 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:47,279 Speaker 1: ten to a hundred solar masses, and then there's just 660 00:34:47,320 --> 00:34:49,640 Speaker 1: like a leap. There are no black holes in between that, 661 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:52,400 Speaker 1: and like the really big monster ones that the centers 662 00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:56,160 Speaker 1: of galaxies that have millions and millions or even billions 663 00:34:56,160 --> 00:34:58,560 Speaker 1: of solar masses. So this is one of those. It's 664 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,000 Speaker 1: two million solar mass is again pretty small compared to 665 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,280 Speaker 1: the monster we talked about, but a really very massive object. 666 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:08,080 Speaker 1: All right, So this one is near us? Is it 667 00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,040 Speaker 1: in another galaxy? So this one is in another galaxy. 668 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:13,400 Speaker 1: It's at the center of another galaxy about fifty million 669 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,600 Speaker 1: light years away in the constellation formats, and it's called 670 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:21,239 Speaker 1: n g CT. And we can study the spin of 671 00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:24,279 Speaker 1: this one by looking in detail at the accretion disc. 672 00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:27,279 Speaker 1: So this acreation disc is like the stuff that's swirling 673 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:30,359 Speaker 1: around the black hole that's waiting to fall in. And 674 00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,120 Speaker 1: can we actually see it or do we just kind 675 00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:34,120 Speaker 1: of see it as a a star almost We don't 676 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:35,960 Speaker 1: have an image of it the way we have imaged 677 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,879 Speaker 1: another black hole in another galaxy. But what we can 678 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 1: do is look at the radiation from it admits in 679 00:35:41,680 --> 00:35:44,160 Speaker 1: the radio and an X rays, and all this hot 680 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,840 Speaker 1: gast that's surrounding the black hole sends us information according 681 00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,760 Speaker 1: to how it's emitting radiation. So that's how we measured 682 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:53,000 Speaker 1: these things. By looking at the X ray spectrum at 683 00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:55,920 Speaker 1: the center of those galaxies. Yeah, like I guess you. 684 00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,000 Speaker 1: You see kind of lips and dips. It tells you 685 00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 1: how fast the black hole is spinning. Yeah, exactly. And 686 00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,360 Speaker 1: you can get the radiation from mostly from the iron 687 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:07,239 Speaker 1: that's emitting inside this secretion disk, and it's really hot 688 00:36:07,320 --> 00:36:09,480 Speaker 1: and it's smashing into itself, and so it has a 689 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,520 Speaker 1: lot of energy and it tends to emit in the 690 00:36:11,680 --> 00:36:14,160 Speaker 1: X ray and that information comes all the way to 691 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,880 Speaker 1: our X ray telescopes and tells us about what's going on. 692 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:19,320 Speaker 1: And we can look at sort of like how close 693 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:21,680 Speaker 1: to the center of the black hole is this accretion 694 00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:23,960 Speaker 1: disc getting. And if the black hole is spinning in 695 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:26,280 Speaker 1: the same direction as the accretion disc, then the stuff 696 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,760 Speaker 1: in the acreation disc can actually get closer and closer 697 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,200 Speaker 1: to the center of the black hole. Remember we talked 698 00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:34,319 Speaker 1: once about how if a black hole starts spinning, it's 699 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,279 Speaker 1: event horizon actually shrinks, right, Because if you're converting sort 700 00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:40,960 Speaker 1: of the energy of the black hole directly from mass 701 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:43,920 Speaker 1: and into spin, then the event horizon shrinks. And if 702 00:36:43,920 --> 00:36:47,839 Speaker 1: you spin it actually fast enough, the event horizon collapses 703 00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,040 Speaker 1: down and you can actually see the singularity on this thing, 704 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,160 Speaker 1: so we're not talking about that. We don't have any 705 00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,200 Speaker 1: naked singularities that we're looking at. But if a black 706 00:36:56,200 --> 00:36:59,560 Speaker 1: hole is spinning really really fast, then it's event horizon shrinks, 707 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,440 Speaker 1: and so they creation disc also gets closer and closer 708 00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,200 Speaker 1: to the center of this thing. So how fast is 709 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,400 Speaker 1: it spinning? Do we know for sure? This one we 710 00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: think is spinning at eight of the maximum speed that 711 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,000 Speaker 1: a black hole can spin before it turns into a 712 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,239 Speaker 1: naked singularity. Wow, I imagine that's a lot. But do 713 00:37:17,239 --> 00:37:19,840 Speaker 1: we have a number for that? I don't actually have 714 00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:21,880 Speaker 1: a number for that. It depends a little bit on 715 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:24,239 Speaker 1: the mass of the object. But they think that there 716 00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: is this theoretical rate that black hole can't spin faster 717 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:31,680 Speaker 1: than this theoretical rate without losing its event horizon and 718 00:37:31,719 --> 00:37:34,880 Speaker 1: revealing itself as a naked singularity. And this one's moving 719 00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:37,960 Speaker 1: at eight four percent of that speed. So it's a 720 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,719 Speaker 1: real spinner. I see. We just have to imagine a 721 00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: ridiculous spinning rate that would strip away the event horizon 722 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:52,040 Speaker 1: of a black hole and then imagine that exactly of 723 00:37:52,080 --> 00:37:55,399 Speaker 1: a big number is a big number. But I guess, 724 00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:57,279 Speaker 1: you know, I just did not leave us hanging. Is 725 00:37:57,280 --> 00:37:59,919 Speaker 1: it like millions of revolutions per second? Is it bill 726 00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:02,799 Speaker 1: revolutions per second? What is there a rough estimate? Now, 727 00:38:02,840 --> 00:38:05,120 Speaker 1: these things are not spinning that fast, right, It's a 728 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:07,719 Speaker 1: lot of energy. But these things are big, and so 729 00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,960 Speaker 1: they're not spinning as fast as pulsars or neutron stars. 730 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:14,120 Speaker 1: So you know, the other black hole took five million 731 00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:17,360 Speaker 1: seconds to spin. I did some calculations for you. You 732 00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:20,920 Speaker 1: have to know something about the distribution of mass inside 733 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,160 Speaker 1: the black hole to actually figure it out, and of 734 00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:25,680 Speaker 1: course we don't know that. But if you make some 735 00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: pretty dubious assumptions, you find if this one takes even 736 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:32,400 Speaker 1: longer to spin than the last one, even though the 737 00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,160 Speaker 1: surface of it is actually moving closer to the speed 738 00:38:35,200 --> 00:38:38,680 Speaker 1: of light. Oh, I see, these things are large, so 739 00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:41,439 Speaker 1: they have a high speed at their surface. But again 740 00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,480 Speaker 1: they are so big that they can't spin around very 741 00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:47,239 Speaker 1: many times per second. Well, disappointed here, Daniel. I thought 742 00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:50,640 Speaker 1: black holes were gonna beat out neutron stars and pulsars, 743 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:53,200 Speaker 1: but it sounds like not. No, they're more awesome and 744 00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,279 Speaker 1: weird than neutron stars and pulsars, but they do not 745 00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:59,840 Speaker 1: spin faster. But there is something else which is faster 746 00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:03,040 Speaker 1: than both black holes and neutron stars. Yeah, so this 747 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:05,440 Speaker 1: is where we get to the winner of the spinning contest. 748 00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,960 Speaker 1: And it's not pulsars, it's not neutron stars, and it's 749 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,759 Speaker 1: not black holes. It's actually pretty surprising. It's right here 750 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:16,799 Speaker 1: at home. It's engineers and how they spin, how they 751 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:21,120 Speaker 1: spend their safety protocols. Yeah, you know, it's hard to 752 00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:24,399 Speaker 1: spend something that's really really big, Right, You're gonna take 753 00:39:24,400 --> 00:39:26,680 Speaker 1: a planet and spin it really really fast. That's a 754 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:29,400 Speaker 1: lot of energy, and if you don't want it to 755 00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:31,640 Speaker 1: tear itself apart, you have to really compact it to 756 00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,440 Speaker 1: a dense object. So it's not actually that hard to 757 00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:37,520 Speaker 1: make something that spends more than a thousand times a second. Right, 758 00:39:37,760 --> 00:39:39,880 Speaker 1: every time you drive your car, if you have a 759 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,319 Speaker 1: gas car, you probably get it up two thousands of rpm, right, 760 00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:47,439 Speaker 1: and that's spinning pretty fast, faster than a neutron star 761 00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:49,439 Speaker 1: or pulsar. Well, you have to do the conversion because 762 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,600 Speaker 1: a neutron star spending a thousand times per second in 763 00:39:52,640 --> 00:39:54,880 Speaker 1: your car probably you know, red lines at five or 764 00:39:54,920 --> 00:39:58,600 Speaker 1: six thousand revolutions per minute, so your car is probably 765 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,040 Speaker 1: not spinning as fast as a new on star. But 766 00:40:01,840 --> 00:40:04,279 Speaker 1: you know, there are jet engines out there that's been 767 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:09,200 Speaker 1: really really fast and those things spin at like rpm, 768 00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:12,600 Speaker 1: and so that's approaching the speed of a neutron star. Wow. 769 00:40:12,719 --> 00:40:14,759 Speaker 1: So I guess if you're in an airplane, then you're 770 00:40:14,960 --> 00:40:18,560 Speaker 1: next to something spinning as fast as an adron star. Yeah, exactly. 771 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:20,719 Speaker 1: Those things are pretty awesome. But there's something of a 772 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:24,280 Speaker 1: race going on. There's folks trying to make things spinning 773 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,200 Speaker 1: as fast as they can. There are these physicists that 774 00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:31,600 Speaker 1: build these tiny little objects, these nanoparticles, and then try 775 00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:33,920 Speaker 1: to get them spinning. And there's been something of a 776 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:36,200 Speaker 1: race over the last ten twenty years to make nano 777 00:40:36,280 --> 00:40:39,320 Speaker 1: particles and then spin them as fast as possible. Really, 778 00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:42,360 Speaker 1: there's a race, yeah, like a contest for real. Or 779 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,000 Speaker 1: is it just kind of like bragging rights among physicists 780 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,080 Speaker 1: who can make something small spin as fast as possible. 781 00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,719 Speaker 1: It's definitely bragging rights. There's no like X prize or 782 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,760 Speaker 1: anything that people are going for. It's like a lower 783 00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:56,040 Speaker 1: case xpress. But if you read the papers over the 784 00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:58,920 Speaker 1: last ten or fifteen years, they're all announcing the fastest 785 00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:01,359 Speaker 1: spinning thing ever and then the number just keeps going 786 00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,239 Speaker 1: up and up and up. So, for example, in two 787 00:41:04,280 --> 00:41:08,279 Speaker 1: thousand thirteen is a paper announcaying the fastest spinning nanoparticle ever. 788 00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:11,160 Speaker 1: And they took this tiny little thing they built, and 789 00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,000 Speaker 1: they levitated it with a laser. Right, It's so light 790 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:16,719 Speaker 1: that just shining a laser on it will float it up. 791 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,360 Speaker 1: And then they spin it with another laser, a pulse 792 00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,120 Speaker 1: laser that gives it like a little push every time 793 00:41:22,120 --> 00:41:25,160 Speaker 1: it goes around. And this thing goes around six hundred 794 00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:31,759 Speaker 1: million times a minute, what six hundred million times oh 795 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:36,640 Speaker 1: a minute? A minute? What ten million times a second? 796 00:41:36,640 --> 00:41:40,280 Speaker 1: Ten million times a second exactly, So you know, every 797 00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,600 Speaker 1: time you take a breath or whatever, this thing has 798 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:46,279 Speaker 1: done ten or twenty million last what are we trying 799 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:47,880 Speaker 1: to learn about? Are we trying to learn about the 800 00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:50,759 Speaker 1: physics of spinning? Why are they doing this other than ragging? Right, 801 00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:54,719 Speaker 1: that's not enough for you? That seems pretty awesome. I 802 00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:56,799 Speaker 1: think they're trying to understand, you know, the materials, like 803 00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 1: how fast can you make this thing spin? How fast 804 00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:01,279 Speaker 1: can you hold it to other? But I also think 805 00:42:01,320 --> 00:42:04,480 Speaker 1: that it's just pure questioning. It's just pure like how 806 00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,920 Speaker 1: fast can we do this, is there a maximum number? 807 00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:09,799 Speaker 1: And so they're just pushing it and pushing it and 808 00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:12,680 Speaker 1: you know that number ten million times per second. That 809 00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:19,280 Speaker 1: and now they're up to three hundred billion revolutions per minute, 810 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:23,160 Speaker 1: so that would be five billion revolutions per second, which 811 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:26,319 Speaker 1: is pretty awesome. Five billion times each second. This thing 812 00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:30,319 Speaker 1: goes around and it still holds together. It still holds together. Right, 813 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:32,839 Speaker 1: it's a it's made of silica, right, which is sort 814 00:42:32,840 --> 00:42:36,560 Speaker 1: of like related to sand and glass, And it's amazing. 815 00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:38,759 Speaker 1: But to make these things spin this fast, they have 816 00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:41,200 Speaker 1: to be really really tiny. Interesting. There are these viral 817 00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:45,160 Speaker 1: videos on YouTube where they people spin apples like they 818 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:47,920 Speaker 1: suspended in a jet of air and they spin it 819 00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:50,960 Speaker 1: and it actually like explodes at some point because they 820 00:42:50,960 --> 00:42:54,759 Speaker 1: can't hold together. Yeah, exactly, See physics works, right, That's 821 00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:57,840 Speaker 1: exactly what happens. Maybe if you had dark matter apple 822 00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:00,319 Speaker 1: right there, you could hold it together dark apple. Yeah, 823 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,359 Speaker 1: I just let it rot a little bit and make 824 00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:07,160 Speaker 1: us messier. Explosion. But I guess, I guess. My question 825 00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:09,600 Speaker 1: is like, at what point will it fall apart or 826 00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:13,919 Speaker 1: explode these nanoparticles or never? Maybe because the atomic bond 827 00:43:13,960 --> 00:43:16,280 Speaker 1: is so strong, we don't know. There are some theories 828 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,120 Speaker 1: that if you go fast enough, you could reach some 829 00:43:19,239 --> 00:43:22,840 Speaker 1: quantum effects, like there are these virtual photons, these quantum 830 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:26,720 Speaker 1: fluctuations in the vacuum that might affect how this thing spins, 831 00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:29,239 Speaker 1: and so you might reach some sort of limit. That's 832 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,680 Speaker 1: like probing quantum physics. But they don't really know it's 833 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,239 Speaker 1: it's really it's an area where the experiment is sort 834 00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:37,400 Speaker 1: of pushing past with the theory can calculate like you're 835 00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:39,800 Speaker 1: just trying to break the rules and see what happens. 836 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:41,880 Speaker 1: We're trying to break the rules exactly. Hey, that's what 837 00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:45,080 Speaker 1: physics is all about, right, pushing the boundaries, understanding the universe, 838 00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:49,040 Speaker 1: breaking things and taking notes and hopefully not destroy the 839 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,400 Speaker 1: Earth in the process. This is just take things apart, 840 00:43:52,480 --> 00:43:55,560 Speaker 1: engineers put them back together. Well, in this case, it's 841 00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:59,080 Speaker 1: the engineers doing the amazing stuff. I'm trying to spin 842 00:43:59,160 --> 00:44:01,240 Speaker 1: it for the engineers. Yeah, and so for the record, 843 00:44:01,280 --> 00:44:03,960 Speaker 1: these were folks that Perdue that have the currently the 844 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:07,400 Speaker 1: fastest spinning thing in the universe at five billion times 845 00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:11,719 Speaker 1: per second. Alright, go boiler makers. All right, well, I 846 00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:13,840 Speaker 1: guess maybe that we can crown out as the winner. 847 00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,040 Speaker 1: The fastest spinning thing in the universe that we know 848 00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:21,799 Speaker 1: about is man made in apparently Indiana exactly. Yeah, West 849 00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:25,520 Speaker 1: Lafayette holds the record for the whole universe as far 850 00:44:25,560 --> 00:44:29,960 Speaker 1: as we know. All right, they should put that on 851 00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,280 Speaker 1: their brochures for visiting West Lafayette. Yeah, they'll get alien 852 00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,279 Speaker 1: tourists stopping by just to see that. Right. Well, I 853 00:44:36,320 --> 00:44:38,920 Speaker 1: guess that answers the question that is the fastest spinning 854 00:44:38,920 --> 00:44:41,359 Speaker 1: thing in the universe that we know about? Right? I mean, 855 00:44:41,400 --> 00:44:42,920 Speaker 1: we don't know of anything else out there. Could there 856 00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:45,400 Speaker 1: be smaller particles out there spinning that we don't know about. 857 00:44:45,560 --> 00:44:48,320 Speaker 1: There certainly could be, And it could be that strings 858 00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,200 Speaker 1: are real that they are spinning. And it could also 859 00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:54,360 Speaker 1: be that alien physicists have spun things even faster and 860 00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:57,560 Speaker 1: hit these quantum limits. We just don't know. But as 861 00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:00,719 Speaker 1: of today, this is the fastest spinning thing that we 862 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,040 Speaker 1: are aware of. All right. Well, hopefully that made everyone's 863 00:45:04,480 --> 00:45:07,160 Speaker 1: head spin a little, if not think a little bit 864 00:45:07,200 --> 00:45:10,120 Speaker 1: about the extremes of the universe and what happens when 865 00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,120 Speaker 1: you push things to their limits. That's when we learned 866 00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:15,120 Speaker 1: things when we push and push and break things and 867 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:17,799 Speaker 1: understand why they break, or why they don't break, or 868 00:45:17,920 --> 00:45:21,480 Speaker 1: why they do something weird. Those are our opportunities to 869 00:45:21,520 --> 00:45:24,680 Speaker 1: sort of pull on a thread of mystery and unravel 870 00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:27,319 Speaker 1: something we didn't understand before, and that, in the end, 871 00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:29,480 Speaker 1: is what our curiosity is all about. And just give 872 00:45:29,520 --> 00:45:33,880 Speaker 1: a hammer to physicist and everything will look like yeah, exactly, 873 00:45:33,960 --> 00:45:39,799 Speaker 1: especially a big ten billion dollar you'd spend faster than 874 00:45:39,800 --> 00:45:43,280 Speaker 1: a black hole. That's the title of my next funding proposal. 875 00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,279 Speaker 1: All right, well, we hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for 876 00:45:45,360 --> 00:45:55,839 Speaker 1: joining us, See you next time. Thanks for listening, and 877 00:45:55,880 --> 00:45:58,600 Speaker 1: remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The Universe is a 878 00:45:58,640 --> 00:46:02,040 Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. Or more podcast from my 879 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:05,759 Speaker 1: heart Radio. Visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 880 00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:08,240 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.