You Spin Me Right Round
The bottom of a rolling wheel is stationary.
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Built on Facts
An exploration of physics and the quest to understand our world.
Profile
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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Recent Posts
- Leaked Climate Change Documents
- Seeing Laser Beams
- Al Gore and Geothermal
- Sunday Function
- The Physics of Gerrymandering
- Re: Nidal Hasan's Weapons
- Veterans Day (and the scientists who help them win)
- Sunday Function
- Being an Absentee President
- Cars and Crashing
Recent Comments
- Chris on Al Gore and Geothermal
- smith on Leaked Climate Change Documents
- replica rolex on Seeing Laser Beams
- Dave on Seeing Laser Beams
- Alex on Leaked Climate Change Documents
- Ibrahim UCAK on Being an Absentee President
- Ned Wright on Al Gore and Geothermal
- Nathan Myers on Seeing Laser Beams
- ppnl on Leaked Climate Change Documents
- RWA on The Physics of Gerrymandering
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
Physics/Math Blogs
- Cocktail Party Physics
- Cosmic Variance
- Mass
- Physicality of Words
- Swans on Tea
- The Mind of Dr. Pion
- Uncertain Principles
- Shores of the Dirac Sea
- Arcsecond
My Other-Than-Science Reading (variable, very incomplete)
June 29, 2009
June 28, 2009
Sunday Function
Category: Sunday Function
I've been away from campus visiting family during the first part of the summer, in one of those rare confluences of events where research, classes, and teaching all find themselves on temporary hiatus. While it's pretty rare, I'm glad to...
Posted by Matt Springer at 1:04 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 27, 2009
Waxman-Markey is probably crap.
There's a lot not to like about the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that passed the House this last week. You'd expect the right not to like it, but this bill has many people of all political opinions unhappy. From the left:...
Posted by Matt Springer at 4:27 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 26, 2009
Blackbodies and Black Bodies
Michael Jackson, thermal radiation, and poor taste on my part.
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 24, 2009
Technology & Middle Earth
Chad Orzel's got a great post up about the physics of Lord of the Rings. It's about Legolas the elf and his excellent eyesight. His eyes are so good that in fact they're probably operating well beyond the physical diffraction...
Posted by Matt Springer at 2:38 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 23, 2009
Electric Charge and Sharp Points
Yesterday we dumped a bucket of electrons on the Statue of Liberty and watched what happened. The most important thing we saw is that all the charge immediately distributes itself over the outside surface of the statue in such a...
Posted by Matt Springer at 11:37 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 22, 2009
Statue of Charge
Today we need an example of something weirdly-shaped and electrically conductive. There's no shortage of such things, so we might as well go with the iconic. This is the Statue of Liberty: It's made out of copper, which over the...
Posted by Matt Springer at 12:55 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 21, 2009
Sunday Function
Category: Sunday Function
If you want to kill some time, try to think of all the different definitions of the word "set". You have chess sets, sets in tennis, sets of dishes, sets musicians play, sets as abstract mathematical entities, television sets. You...
Posted by Matt Springer at 10:00 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 20, 2009
Iran
It's Saturday, and it's' sort of tradition to set the topic to something not necessarily connected to science. At this point I think there's not a whole lot in the world that's of more immediate interest than what's going on...
Posted by Matt Springer at 11:55 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
June 19, 2009
Stocks, Bonds, Boneheaded Headlines
I have a friend who is also in the science business on the outreach/educational side of things. Last night he and some other friends and I were out on the town (is that what the kids call it these days?),...
Posted by Matt Springer at 1:24 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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