2026 Science - Stats and Dates

This mysterious force was first dubbed the “electric force” by the philosopher William Gilbert (1544–1603) in [YEAR] while performing various experiments with amber. (pg6)

1600

In Western thought, the prevailing idea for centuries was that all things on Earth are made of a combination of [#] basic elements. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg6)

4 (earth, air, fire, water)

Atoms are composed of [#] different types of particles. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg8)

3 (protons, neutrons, electrons)

[#] kilograms is about the mass of [#] liter of water. (pg9)

1; 1

A typical adult human has a mass of about [#] to [#] kg. (pg9)

60; 70

Hydrogen, number [#] on the periodic table, has [#] protons in the nucleus and is typically orbited by [#] electrons. (pg9)

1; 1; 1

Oxygen is number [#], and so there are [#] protons in the oxygen nucleus, and a typical oxygen nucleus is orbited by [#] electrons. (pg9)

8; 8; 8

The strength of a force is measured in newtons, where [#] newtons is about the weight of an apple. (pg10)

1

A proton has over [#] times the mass of an electron, so for the same force, the proton will experience much less acceleration than the electron does. (pg11)

1,000

The mass of the Sun, in kilograms, is approximately [#] kg. (pg12)

2×10³⁰

One kilogram is [#] grams, and one kilometer is [#] meters.

1,000; 1,000

As far as we can tell, there are only [#] fundamental forces in the universe. (pg12)

4

Gravity is a force that pulls mass toward other mass. The strength of the force depends on [#] variables. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg12)

3 (mass 1, mass 2, distance)

G is a very small number (in metric units, it is given by [#] N m²/kg²). (pg13)

6.67×10^-11

The only object around us that is massive enough to overcome the smallness of G is the Earth itself, which has a mass of [#] kg. (pg13)

6×10²⁴

The mass of a proton is [#] kg. (pg13)

1.7×10^-27

The mass of an electron is [#] kg. (pg13)

9.1×10^-31

Coulomb’s law was discovered by Charles Coulomb in [YEAR]. (pg13)

1785

The charge of both particles is given by ±[#] coulombs, where the proton is positive, and the electron is negative. (pg14)

1.7×10^-19

The Coulomb constant is just a number, and it is the same in every calculation (k = [#] N m²/C²). (pg15)

8.99×10⁹

The electric force is far stronger than the gravitational force, by a factor of more than [#]. (pg15)

10⁴⁰

There are [#] commonly used types of fields. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg15)

2 (scalar, vector)

As long as you are near the ground (i.e., the height of the object with respect to the ground is small compared to Earth’s radius), then the field g has approximately the same value everywhere ([#] newtons per kilogram). (pg17)

9.8

For most satellites in orbit, g is about [#] percent of the value it has on the Earth’s surface. (pg17)

90

In the area where the Moon orbits, g is less than [#] percent of its original value, but it is still enough to keep the Moon bound to the Earth. (pg17)

1

A substance can be a good conductor in [#] different contexts. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg26)

2 (electricity, heat)

During the height of the Industrial Revolution in the [CENTURY], a teenager named James Joule worked at the family brewery in England, but in his spare time, he tinkered with electric motors and eventually proposed a connection between the work a motor does and the heat it produces. (pg28)

19th

The origin of the battery starts in the [DECADE] with a married couple of scientists, Lucia and Luigi Galvani. (pg36)

1780s

Volta made a small pile of silver and zinc sheets, with layers of cardboard soaked in saltwater in between, and managed to create voltages up to [#] volts. (pg36)

30

Disposable batteries use [#] rods submerged in sulfuric acid. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg37)

2 (zinc, carbon)

A current of [#] amps will create the effect of a slight shock to the human body. (pg41)

.001

A current of [#] amps will create the effect of a painful shock to the human body. (pg41)

.005

A current of [#] amps will create the effect of a loss of muscle control to the human body. (pg41)

.015

A current of [#] amps will create a potentially fatal effect to the human body. (pg41)

.07

The voltage in a typical wall outlet is a mere [#] V. (pg43)

120

Power is measured in watts, where one watt is equal to [#] joules per second. (pg44)

1

A lightbulb is even hotter though, getting up to [#]° Celsius, as it glows yellow rather than red. (pg44)

2,000

We can say that one joule is equal to [#] watt-seconds. (pg45)

1

A kilowatt-second is [#] joules, and a kilowatt-hour is [#] of those ([#] seconds per hour). (pg45)

1,000; 3,600; 3,600

So, a kilowatt-hour is equivalent to [#] joules. (pg45)

3,600,000

The electrons in a wire actually drift through the wire quite slowly, at a rate of less than [#] millimeters per second. (pg45)

1

A [#]-watt lightbulb plugged into a standard [#] V outlet will have [#] A flowing through it. (pg50)

100; 120; .8

You probably will not blow a fuse turning on lights, but certain devices, such as heaters and hair dryers, can use over [#] watts of power, and having too many of them turned on at once can overload the circuit. (pg50)

1,000

The threshold for breakdown in air is about [#] Megavolts. (pg53)

3

As with electricity, there are [#] types of opposite “charge” for magnetism. (pg56)

2

A wire with electric current running through it creates a magnetic field. This was first observed in [YEAR] by Hans Christian Oersted, who noticed that a wire with current running through it would deflect a compass. (pg61)

1820

If you still have a hard time imagining the ground potentially being seen as a moving frame of reference, recall that the Earth itself is spinning around, [#] times per day. (pg63)

1 (duh)

And the entire Earth is moving at [#] mph relative to the Sun, as the Earth travels in its circular orbit. (pg63)

70,000

Our entire solar system is orbiting the center of the Milky Way galaxy at over [#] mph. (pg63)

100,000

It is unknown exactly when the first compass was invented, but compasses were in use in China for navigational purposes as far back as the [CENTURY]. (pg65)

11th

The magnetic poles are switched every once in a while, ranging from [#] years to [#] years, seemingly with no pattern to it. (pg67)

1,000; 100,000

Unlike the Earth, the Sun’s magnetic pole switching happens with some regularity, about every [#] years. (pg69)

11

The next solar maximum is in [MONTH, YEAR], so in recent months we have seen increased solar activity, with faint aurora sometimes being visible at unusually low latitudes. (pg69)

July, 2025

As usual, the standard amount of the unit is huge; it is very rare that you will ever encounter a magnetic field anywhere near [#] Teslas. (pg71)

1

The strength of Earth’s magnetic field, which is enough to turn compasses, ranges from [#] to [#] microTeslas. (pg71)

25; 65

The magnetic force is inherently a [#]-dimensional force. (pg72)

3

The magnetic force vector FB is always perpendicular to the [#]-dimensional plane containing vectors v and B. (pg72)

2

An experiment similar to a mass spectrometer was what led to the discovery of the electron itself by J. J. Thomson in [YEAR]. (pg74)

1897

The currents in an MRI machine are high enough to produce a magnetic field between [#] and [#] Telsa, which is actually very powerful. (pg77)

1; 2

A steady magnet cannot generate current; instead, you need a changing magnetic field. This extremely useful fact was discovered by Michael Faraday in [YEAR]. (pg78)

1831

As the film in a cassette tape cycled through the tape player, the shifting magnetic field could be interpreted by a circuit inside as a series of [#]’s and [#]’s that would tell the player what sound to play. (pg80)

0; 1

The voltage across power lines can be many thousands of volts, but the voltage of the electrical outlet in your wall is only [#] V. (pg82)

120

The voltage across many miles of wire can be [#]s of volts. (pg82)

10,000

The first electric light was invented in [YEAR] by Frank Hauksbee. (pg86)

1705

The first electric light to see widespread use was the arc lamp, which was invented by Humphrey Davy around [YEAR]–[YEAR]. (pg87)

1802; 1809

The process of building arc lamps was refined over time, and by the [DECADE], many cities were lit up with arc lamps. (pg87)

1860s

In [YEAR], Edison lit up part of New York City with his direct current lightbulbs. (pg88)

1882

In [YEAR] Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented a [#]-phase generator. (pg89)

1891; 3

In [YEAR], the inventors Alexander Just and Franjo Hanaman created the tungsten lightbulb. (pg89)

1904

Unlike many charlatans, Tesla did actually invent real things, one of which is the Tesla coil, which he first demonstrated in [YEAR]. (pg89)

1891

Newton listed [#] laws that everything follows. (pg92)

3

If the electric and magnetic fields inside our eyes are oscillating at [#] times per second, then our eyes send a signal to our brain that tells us we are seeing the color red. (pg94)

400 trillion

If the frequency increases to [#] times per second, then we see it as yellow. (pg94)

500 trillion

A frequency of [#] times per second is green. (pg94)

600 trillion

A frequency of [#] times per second is blue. (pg94)

700 trillion

The frequency of a wave is measured in hertz (Hz), where 1 Hertz is [#] wavelengths per second. (pg97)

1

The speed of sound waves in air is typically around [#] meters per second ([#] mph). (pg97)

300; 760

The speed of light, on the other hand, is [#] meters per second. (pg97)

300 million

The speed of sound is still very fast, but the speed of light is literally [#] times faster. (pg97)

1 million

Light can travel through a vacuum just fine which is good news because we need the Sun’s light to be able to travel across the [#] miles of vacuum between the Sun and the Earth in order to warm up our planet. (pg98)

100 million

The wavelengths of the visible spectrum range from [#] nanometers (blue) to [#] nanometers (red). (pg98)

400; 700

A microwave oven has a miniature particle accelerator inside of it, which causes electrons to emit microwave radiation. The waves themselves are large in wavelength compared to visible light, but they are still smaller than [#] centimeters. (pg101)

1

X-rays were discovered in [YEAR] by Wilhem Röntgen, when he found that they were emitted by electrons accelerated by high voltages. (pg102)

1895

Most sources of light give off unpolarized light, where the light coming from the source is not polarized in any particular direction, and so roughly [FRACTION] of it will be vertical and [FRACTION] will be horizontal. (pg104)

1/2; 1/2

In the [PART-DECADE] to [PART-DECADE], inspired by Maxwell’s equations, Heinrich Hertz came up with the idea to send a wireless signal. (pg105)

mid-1880s; late-1880s

In [YEAR], Guglielmo Marconi invented the wireless telegraph and announced that he successfully sent the first wireless signal across the Atlantic. (pg105)

1901

Arecibo sent a powerful radio signal to the star cluster Messier [#] with an encoded message about humanity just in case there are any beings there to receive it. (pg105)

13

The James Webb Space Telescope, the largest space telescope ever built, which was launched in [MONTH, YEAR], primarily detects infrared radiation, allowing us to see inside vast nebulae that would otherwise be too opaque to see through with visible light. (pg106)

Dec, 2021

With LCDs, each picture element (pixel) has [#] glass plates, and in between these plates is sandwiched a gooey material that is not quite liquid, but not quite solid. (pg109)

2

To put it simply, each pixel is actually [#] pixels. (NAME THEM FRFR) (pg109)

3 (red, green, blue)

Semiconductors are comprised of a mixture of [#] materials that are not normally good conductors, but when they are combined together and exposed to an external voltage, they can act as a conductor. (pg110)

2

Solar panels have existed since the [PART-CENTURY], but they were expensive and niche. (pg111)

mid-20th

Even a mere [#] years ago, solar power was still seen as a small player in the effort toward carbon-neutral energy generation. (pg111)

10

If these trends keep up, solar power could be a dominant source of electricity powering homes by the [DECADE]. (pg111)

2030s

Einstein’s original [YEAR] paper on the theory of relativity that started it all was On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies. (pg117)

1905