Best physics web sites, Endings of Divine Comedy canticas, How tall is a Space Shuttle?

[Nostromics Newsletter]

Nostromics Newsletter

Nostromics science gifts product news, educational resources & science tidbits

Nostromics Newsletter, 1 December 2010 - You are welcome to share this mail

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The best physics web sites

Would you like to learn more about physics? Check the winners of the Physics.org Web Awards, the best web sites about physics education and news. They were selected by the Physics.org portal of the Institute of Physics.

The 2010 Physics.org Web awards list includes the Starts with a bang blog, The Last Word questions and answers site, the PopSci online magazine, the NASA Kids' Club site for kids and more.

The ending stanzas of Dante's Divine Comedy canticas

The Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) medieval poem by Italian poet Dante Alighieri is one of the greatest works of world literature. But it is more than a work of art, and its learned references to Medieval knowledge and science, especially astronomy, are of interest also to the history of science. We have an upcoming Dante's astronomy free e-book and resources page.

The Inferno Ending Stanza Dark Sweatshirt, the purgatory and paradise ending stanzas clothing in the Science and Art section of Nostromics Store include text quoted from the poem, and show the key role played by astronomy and cosmology in Divina Commedia. The closing stanzas of the poem's canticas all end with the word "stelle" (stars):

• Inferno (hell): "E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle" (Thus issuing we again beheld the stars)
• Purgatorio (purgatory): "...Puro e disposto a salire a le stelle" (pure and made apt for mounting to the stars)
• Paradiso (paradise): "...L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle" (the Love impell'd, that moves the sun in heav'n and all the stars)

More science gifts and products at Nostromics Store.

How tall is a Space Shuttle?

Even those who are not space geeks are familiar with the Space Shuttle manned NASA spacecrafts. Yet the many available images and videos make it difficult to realize how large -- or small, if you prefer -- the Shuttle system is.

By "Shuttle" we may mean different things. While on the pad before launch, we call "Shuttle stack" or simply "stack" the complete vehicle, i.e. the assembly of its 4 main parts: the orbiter vehicle or simply Shuttle, which looks like a plane (our Atlantis Over Andes Mouse Pad beautifully shows it), the orange external tank and the 2 solid rocket boosters.

To get an idea of how large the vehicle is, we may compare its size to that of a landmark at a familiar, widely known tourist spot. For example, at a height of 56 m, the Shuttle stack is almost as tall as the leaning Tower of Pisa.

-- Paolo Amoroso & Mauro Arpino (Nostromics), science educators - Milan, Italy