I’ve been a little bad about self-promoting here of late, but I should definitely plug this: I’m speaking at the TEDxAlbany event this Thursday, December 3rd; I’m scheduled first, at 9:40 am. The title is “The Exotic Physics of an Ordinary Morning“: You might think that the bizarre predictions of quantum mechanics and relativity– particles […]
Category: Physics
080/366: ISO Revisited
A little while back, I did a comparison of the different ISO settings on my camera, and a bunch of people commented that it would be interesting to try to match two photos at different levels. So, here’s that: These aren’t quite perfectly matched, because the time settings give me a limited range of options, […]
078/366: Quantum Calculations
As threatened yesterday, another staged shot for a “quantum is difficult” image for an upcoming talk. This is a piece of a homework solution that was on a pad I had lying around– those are infinite square well wavefunctions. It’s about as trivial as you can get from quantum, but looks math-y enough to make […]
Rotational Motion of a Bouncing Football
I followed up my ranty-y post about “Sports Science” with an experimental investigation over at Forbes, tossing a football around on the deck out back and then doing video analysis of the bounces. This provided a wealth of data, much of it not really appropriate for over there, but good for a physics post or […]
077/366: Quantum Books
Another talk-prep photo, because I wanted a shot to suggest the academic side of quantum physics. Of course, my actual textbooks are all in my office on campus, but then, they mostly have boring covers and titles, so they’re not a great visual. So I stacked up some pop-physics books: I meant to write out […]
072/366: What ISO Means to Me
It’s a grey, dismal, rainy day here at Chateau Steelypips, and I’m a little groggy from cold medication. Which means it’s not a great writing day, but it is a good day to stay inside and do a little SCIENCE! for the photo of the day. thus, this: This is a small assortment of toys […]
Sports Technobabble
Over in Twitter-land, Rhett Allain drew my attention to this “Sports Science” clip from ESPN, about a wild 4th-and-25 play in the Arkansas-Ole Miss game. This is nominally because I’ve been writing about big hits and bouncing balls over at Forbes, but really, I think Rhett’s just working on a “misery loves company” theory, here: […]
Physics Blogging Round-Up: Liberal Arts, Baseball, Bouncing Balls, Method, and G-Forces
Another couple of weeks of physics-y posts over at Forbes: — Why Scientists Should Study Art And Literature: My big defense of “the humanities,” explaining why those subjects are worth studying even if you plan to go into a STEM field instead. I’m very happy with how this came out. — Baseball Physics: How Batters […]
Speaking at TEDxAlbany, December 3
I’ve known this for a while now, but they just announced it officially: I’ll be speaking at TEDxAlbany this year, on “The Exotic Physics of an Ordinary Morning”: You might think that the bizarre predictions of quantum mechanics and relativity– particles that are also waves, cats that are both alive and dead, clocks that run […]
066/366: Sky Full of Fire
I love a lot of things about our neighborhood, which is all pleasant tree-lined streets and stuff, but it’s not a great place for taking pictures of sunset– I pretty much need to get in the car to get to a place with a clear view of the western horizon. This knocks out a big […]