J T Oney

Mutterings of A Madman 7 J T Oney

The author continues to annoy his family by bombarding them with another series of letters resulting in the current book in the Muttering of a Madman series. This one is subtitled: Understanding Cosmology and Astrophysics. Under Part 1, Cosmology, the author explores understanding the Universe by discussing the Big Bang theory of its beginning, the events after the Big Bang, the expanding universe, followed by a discussion of how the Universe ends. He then discusses the solar system and its formation. He then follows this with a detailed description of the Sun and a discussion of the Terrestrial Planets which includes Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The author next takes up a discussion of the Giant Planets to include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The last chapter in Part 1 includes a discussion of the Asteroid belt, the Keiper Belt and, finally, the Oorth Belt that surrounds our solar system. Under Part 2, Astrophysics, the author discusses our understanding of Black Holes to include disc accretion and Hawking radiation. He then discusses our understanding of Dark Matter and Dark Energy within the context of the Cosmic Microwave Background and the Inflation theory of the expanding universe. He follows this with a discussion of Time and how time is viewed from both an everyday perspective and from the perspective of the physicist. Included in this discussion is the role that Entropy plays in relation to time. The author then discusses Gravity and the role that gravity played in creating the Universe. He next takes up the subject of Relativity, to include both Special and General Relativity. This is followed by a chapter on Understanding Sub-atomic particles where he discusses the Periodic Table and the Standard Model of Particle Physics to include Fermions, Bosons, Leptons, Quarks and the field theory of subatomic forces. The author ends Part 2 with a discussion of Quantum Mechanics to include its historical development, the Schrödinger Equation, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, the Principle of Complementarity, and Quantum Entanglement.