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Phun physics facts #1

I thought I'd have a bit of a fun physics facts week. Here's a couple of random titbits to get you started:
  • In air at room temperature the gas molecules move at around 500 meters per second – over 1,100 miles per hour. Luckily they are so light that even at this speed, the energy of each molecule is around 6x10^-21 joules. That’s 1/10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000th of the energy required to run a 60 watt light bulb for a second.
  • One ancient Greek theory on matter suggested that you could cut stuff up into smaller and smaller pieces until eventually you could cut no more. What was left was uncuttable – in Greek a-tomos – atoms.

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