Specialty Digest

DISCOVER IDEAS THAT SHAPE OUR WORLD

Specialty Knowledge

Science & Mathematics

Physics, chemistry, biology, space and mathematics

Speed of light

In simple terms Light in a vacuum travels at exactly 299,792,458 meters per second. Not approximately. Exactly. That precision does not come from an ever more careful experiment. Since 1983 the number has been fixed by international agreement, and the meter is defined from it. How it works In 1983 the General Conference on Weights […]

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The speed of light in vacuum is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second, a fixed value that now defines how long a meter is.

Statistical significance

In simple terms Statistical significance is a check on whether a pattern in data could plausibly be a fluke. Researchers start from a null hypothesis, the assumption that there is no real effect. They then ask how surprising their data would be if that assumption were true. How it works The answer arrives as a

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A result is statistically significant when it would be unlikely to appear by chance alone if the effect being tested were truly absent.

Water cycle

In simple terms The water cycle is the constant movement of water around the planet: where it is stored, and how it travels between those stores. The US Geological Survey calls it the hydrologic cycle and defines it as describing where water is stored on Earth and how it moves. Energy from the sun and

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The water cycle is the continuous movement of Earth's water between the ocean, the atmosphere, the land surface and underground stores.

Wavelength

In simple terms Wavelength is the distance from one crest of a wave to the next. It is a length, measured in meters, and for light it is what separates a radio broadcast from a sunbeam. The range is enormous. The shortest wavelengths scientists study are a fraction of the size of an atom. The

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Wavelength is the distance from one wave crest to the next, and it decides whether light is a radio wave, visible color or gamma ray.