How to Teach Relativity to Your Four-Year Old

SCENE: The library at Chateau Steelypips. DADDY is typing on the computer, while THE PIP plays on the floor. Enter STEELYKID. STEELYKID: I’m already four years old. DADDY: Yes, yes you are. THE PIP: Thbbbbbbbpppt! STEELYKID: How old is The Pip? DADDY: Eleven months. Not quite one year. STEELYKID: When The Pip is four, how […]

Links for 2012-09-26

In which Rhett almost makes me want ridiculously expensive sneakers, space loses its aura of cool, the Dean Dad introduces his kids to Star Trek, John Myers Myers overreaches in an interesting way, and a blogger asks for information on why women leave physics. ———— Physics Not Physical: Why I’m Asking Why I want to […]

Links for 2012-09-24

In which we look at the real goal for the Giants, how they’ve overspent on running backs over the last twenty years, the capital-S surrealism of Daniel Pinkwater (author of Lizard Music and The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death), and an attempt to put the cost of the Large Hadron Collider in perspective. […]

What Your Canadian Dog Should Know About Quantum Physics, Eh

Having been on hiatus for a couple of months has made me forget my obligation for self-promotion via the blog, but I should note one fast approaching public appearance: I’ll be at the University of Waterloo next weekend, where they are celebrating the opening of their shiny new Quantum and Nano Center with an Open […]

Links for 2012-09-19

In which we look at the death of a sports-media pioneer, the settling of the Chicago teachers strike, writing while a parent, why even highly educated people hate school teachers, and a different approach to teaching students not to plagiarize papers. A Positive Solution for Plagiarism – Do Your Job Better – The Chronicle of […]

The “Ballistic” Story

Last week, in the post about fermion conduction, I left a reference hanging: There’s nothing physically blocking the atoms from flying right through the channel– in fact, an atom that enters the channel will always exit the other side without slowing down along the way. This is termed “ballistic,” a term that will always have […]