Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
An exploration of physics and the quest to understand our world.
Matt Springer is a graduate student of physics at Texas A&M university. He is also an occasional writer and tinkerer, and he is probably too curious for his own good.
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February 27, 2009
Here's a rather harrowing video I recently watched. It's a commercial airliner on approach to a runway during a severe crosswind. The plane is attempting to perform a maneuver to keep itself flying over the runway without drifting off course,...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 26, 2009
I hate to be pessimistic, but I can't help what I notice.
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 20 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 25, 2009
Like the Indiana Pi Bill before it, the Illinois Legislature's attempt to weigh in on the planetary status of Pluto is kind of silly. But not so silly as you might think. The Indiana Pi Bill in popular legend was...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 24, 2009
Whew. You may have noticed things have been quiet around here. There's a reason. This weekend I drove to Slidell, Louisiana to be the best man at my friend Aaron's wedding. He was my college roommate at LSU, and he's...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 19, 2009
If it's zero degrees outside and it becomes twice as cold it was before, what is the temperature?
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 33 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 18, 2009
Excellent job on yesterday's physics problem. Several people got the right answer, and in lieu of answering it again myself I'm going to let commenter arne fill us in: Well, electrostatics follow the principle of superposition. We can see that...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 17, 2009
Mind if I give the readers who've taken an electrostatics class something to noodle over? Consider a cubic box consisting of six sides of which five are held at a uniform potential of 0 volts. The top side is held...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 16, 2009
Despite the title, this isn't about those the politics of science, or even the science of politics. It's about talking in public. Watching President Obama's first press conference, I was struck as I usually am by the sheer uselessness of...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 15, 2009
Category: Sunday Function
On the surface it's one of the most boring possible functions. Two straight horizontal lines: the Heaviside step function.
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 14, 2009
News from around the world of physics: Near and dear to my heart is any clever experiment involving lasers. And via Swans on Tea, this one's a doozy. It's paddleball, but instead of a rubber ball you have a single...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
