☀️📐 Solar Intensity & the Solar Constant: Cosmic Power, Calculated with Third-Grade Math How much energy does the Sun send our way every day? The answer is the fundamental basis of our solar technology and surprisingly easy to calculate: Welcome to the world of the solar constant. It describes solar intensity—that is, how many kilowatts of pure energy per square meter strike the Earth’s outer atmosphere. To determine the total power of our home star, no quantum formulas are needed. You mentally draw a sphere with the Earth’s orbital radius around the Sun, relate this sphere’s surface area, and multiply. It’s basically simple multiplication from third grade! 🌌 From the Simple to the Mysterious: Natural Constants Put to the Test But while the solar constant can be calculated wonderfully clearly, with other fundamental values we reach the limits of our understanding. It is precisely this transition that we ventured into in the new Zoomposium. We had the honor of speaking with physicists Prof. Dr. Thomas Naumann (CERN) and Dr. Ilja Bohnet (DESY) about their book “THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE” and dissecting the most burning questions in the natural sciences: • Fine-tuning: Why are the constants of nature so perfectly tuned for life? Are multiverses still cosmology or already metaphysics, defying Karl Popper’s principle of falsifiability? • Beauty & Truth: Is the aesthetic elegance of a mathematical theory (such as string theory) a reliable criterion for its physical correctness? • Science on the Couch: Why does research tend to avoid unsolvable problems, and what role does humor play in everyday research? From the simple rule of three for solar radiation to the multiverse: The universe becomes all the more fascinating the closer we look. 💬 Discussion prompt for the network: The fine-tuning of the constants of nature has baffled scientists for decades. Do you think we will eventually crack these ultimate mysteries purely through physics, or do we inevitably drift into philosophy and metaphysics once we cross a certain threshold? I look forward to your comments! 👇 📎 Information: https://philosophies.de/index.php/2022/10/26/zoomposium-naumann-bohnet-das-raetselhafte-universum/ 📺 Interview: https://youtu.be/k22eSYJgPD0
