Project 3
Student id: v26
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<DOC>
<docHead>
<!--required header includes metadata about the assignment (title, author, version)-->
<title>Writing Project 3</title>
<author xml:id="v26">Michael Van Wickle</author>
<version n="2" date="2016-08-22"/>
</docHead>
<blog_post>
<title>A Second Sun?</title>
<background>
<question> What would happen if a second sun appeared where Pluto currently is? </question>
<pb/>
<technical_principle n="1"> The core principle involved here is the theory of
gravitation. We will be using the Newtonian theory, first formulated by Isaac Newton
in the 17th century. <important_idea n="1"> The gravitational force is predicated on
the mass of each object and the distance between them. </important_idea> This
version of gravitation has since been replaced by General Relativity, described
first by Albert Einstein, but still serves fine for large-scale approximations,
which we will do here. </technical_principle>
</background>
<answer>
<pb/>
<section_header>The Situation</section_header>
<important_idea n="2"> Imagine it's any other day, like a Tuesday, you're going about
your day when suddenly Pluto suddenly becomes a G-type main sequence star (the same
type of star as the sun). This star is exactly identical to the Sun. <visual
type="drawing" url="http://i.imgur.com/bRLFQnU.jpg">Close up of Pluto</visual>
</important_idea>
<pb/>
<section_header>Assumptions</section_header>
<important_idea n="3"> In order to make this problem more tractable, we make a few
assumptions about the situation. First, the planets are basically aligned and at
their furthest distance. This is important as the planets, and particularly Pluto,
do not have perfectly circular orbits. Also this helps as the gravitational effect
on the planets is more uniform. We will also only be looking at the effects in the
short term. The long term effects on orbits is a complex problem that would likely
take a fair amount of simulation, so I'll ignore it, for now. <pb/> As a notation
note, I'll be using Sol1 to refer to the Sun we have now and Sol2 to refer to the
star where Pluto is now. <note type="instructor" resp="#kgs">this amount of
formatting as important idea might reduce the effectiveness of italics as a way
to have info stand out.</note></important_idea>
<pb/>
<section_header>Effects on Earth</section_header>
<technical_principle n="2"> Gravitation, as stated above, is predicated on three
variables, the mass of object one, the mass of object 2, and the inverse square of
the distance between them. The distance between Earth and the Sun (Sol1) is defined
as one astronomical unit (AU), which is about 150 kilometers (93 million miles). The
distance between Pluto (Sol2) and Earth is 48 times that distance. </technical_principle>
<specific_topic n="1"> We'll first tackle the effects this change would have on us,
since we're so self centered. The good news, sort of, is that Earth will remain in
orbit mainly around Sol1. Since Sol2 is so very, very far away, its gravitational
effect is very, very small compared to Sol1's (around 23 hundred times smaller). The
overall effect is, essentially Sol1's gravity becomes slightly weaker and we move
slightly further away from the Sol1. <visual type="drawing"
url="http://i.imgur.com/jc82jmo.jpg">Force on Earth</visual> The net effect?
Earth gets a little colder and slowly drifts outwards, towards an equilibrium point
between Sol1 and Sol2. This may sound bad, and it is. </specific_topic>
<important_idea n="4"> Net gravitational force from Sol1 is decreased, we drift
outwards, and most likely slowly freeze to death. This outcome is predicted even
without taking into account other effects of having a second sun. </important_idea>
<pb/>
<section_header>Effects on Other Planets</section_header>
<technical_principle n="3"> What I'll be doing here is comparing the gravitational force
exerted by Sol1 with the gravitational force exerted by Sol2 (on each planet). If
the force exerted by Sol2 is the larger value, then it "captures" the planet. This
is a fairly simplistic way of looking at this, and would only really apply in the
short term. </technical_principle>
<specific_topic n="2"> Using the mass of each planet along with each planet's distance
we can gain an early estimate of what the new solar system will look like. We'll
start from the outer solar system and work our way in. Starting, for some reason,
with Pluto (not actually a planet). Pluto is gone, completely, vaporized; no
gravitational effect from either star. Neptune is captured, just barely, by Sol2
whose gravitational effect is around two and a half times larger than that of Sol1.
It is, in fact, the only planet captured outright by Sol2. All the other planets,
while feeling some gravitational effect from Sol2, are still chiefly affected by
Sol1. </specific_topic>
<important_idea n="5"> Neptune is the only planet remotely close enough to Sol2 to be
more affected by its gravity than that of Sol1. </important_idea>
<explanation> The effects on Earth will be similar to effects on the solar system as a
whole, with the added downside of the fact that we live here. The general effect on
the planets is that at first they will spread out, moving towards Sol2 as it negates
some of the gravitational force of Sol1. In a longer time frame, the orbits of the
planets will become more and more perturbed and complicated. In fact, at a certain
point, some planets may be ejected from the solar system or collide with Sol1 or
Sol2. </explanation>
<pb/>
<conclusion>
<section_header/>
<important_idea n="7">
<note type="instructor" resp="#kgs">the empty section header affects the way
that the 'important idea' below is rendered</note>The general takeaway here
is that in this situation, the solar system will change drastically. A side
effect of this change: human extinction comes much sooner than most people
currently expect. </important_idea> Luckily this situation has effectively zero
percent chance of happening, so we can sleep easy at night knowing that Pluto will
not become a star. </conclusion>
</answer>
<pb/>
<sources> Wikipedia was a great help in finding the masses and orbital radii of planets.
<ref type="source" url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System">Solar System
Article</ref>
</sources>
</blog_post>
<!-- Writer's Memo
- I would say that I am in the very early rough draft phase. I have an question, for which I have
a few answers. However, I am not close at all to this project's final form. I have no pictures and
no analogies. My answers are also mainly super short term.
- My rhetorical situation is the answering of a question. I would say that it is geared towards
curious people who are relatively scientifically literate. They also should have a mind that
would be interested in the answer to the question: "what if Pluto became the sun?"
- The main (only) thing that is going well is that I thought of a question to answer.
- It has been difficult thinking of analogies that could go with this, shown by the fact that I
have none. Also difficult has been making sure that I'm not saying the same thing over and over
again.
- Specific Things:
1. Am I writing the same thing over and over again? cause it writing/reading this felt like
Groundhog Day.
2. Is the writing too scientific? Not scientific enough? I can't tell.
3. Thoughts on analogies? I got nothing.
-->
<docReview>
<reviewer type="peer" xml:id="s25"/>
<report type="peer" resp="#s25">
<p>This edutainment science blog post explores the gravitational effects on the solar
system if Pluto suddenly became a second Sun.</p>
<p>This blog post does a good job of answering a hypothetical situation in a way that I
could easily understand. My main critique, in terms of content, is that there could
be more information regarding what happens to the solar system. A good point of
elaboration would be where you mention a decrease in the temperature on Earth. It
would be interesting to know how significant this change would be, and you could
also answer a possible misconception I had which is the distance of the Earth from
the Sun is not extremely important with regards to temperature. Something like this
might also make the post seem less repetitive, which is a valid point you had,
though I think that simply may be due to the nature of the answer.</p>
<p>In terms of how scientific the writing is, I think you do a good job of not making it
too complicated for the reader. However, I think it might make sense to add some
more numerical answers to quantify your explanations. This could include just how
far the Earth displaces after a year, or how fast it accelerates immediately after
getting hit by the gravitational waves. I would also be interested to know how long
it takes for the gravitational waves to reach Earth after Sol2 appears. Another
small suggestion I would like to make in terms of scientific writing is that it
might be worthwhile to explain what a "G-type main sequence star" since that might
not be common knowledge.</p>
<p>In terms of your third point, I agree analogies are difficult to think of for this
topic. One possible place for an analogy could be where you describe the distance
from the Earth to the Sun. Personally, that is a number too large for me to
comprehend, so it might make sense to compare it to something more common. Other
than that, I think there is good potential for analogies for sections you can add.
One idea could be looking into how many times bigger the Sun is compared to Pluto,
and how many Plutos could fit inside of the Sun. This could then be compared to
something like bouncy balls fitting inside of a jar. Something like this could help
the reader grasp why Sol2 has such a large effect on the Earth even though it is so
far away.</p>
</report>
<reviewer type="instructor" xml:id="kgs"/>
<report type="instructor" resp="#kgs">
<p>There is a lot going well here. I was interested to see that you decided not to use
any anologies, since they seem to integral to the style of the genre. I might also
suggest adding a bit more information, perhaps on the effects on other planets,
since your post is a bit short. Or choose a topic with more imlpications than
this.</p>
</report>
</docReview>
</DOC>