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What happens when you take some basic, introductory physics and apply them to cool things you see? Dot Physics happens. This blog looks at movies, experiments, demos and other topics typically aimed at the introductory physics level.
Rhett Allain is an Associate Professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University. He
enjoys teaching and talking about physics. Sometimes he takes things apart and can't
put them back together.
December 30, 2008
Category: physics
Video from a camera phone or small portable camera looks too jerky (unless you are careful). Sometimes it is jerky to the point that it makes me feel barfy. The reason this happens is that with a small mass, a force can cause a significant acceleration.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 9:56 AM • 1 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
December 29, 2008
Category: physics
The problem is that air resistance depends on the velocity of the object. Search your feelings, you know this to be true. When you are driving (or riding) in a car and you stick your hand out the window, you can feel the air pushing against your hand. The faster the car moves, the greater this force.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 2:08 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 26, 2008
Category: physics
Most people know that a ball without air resistance (traditional projectile motion) goes the farthest if you throw it at a 45 degree angle. What if there is air resistance? Why is 45 the best angle without air resistance?
Posted by Rhett Allain at 4:20 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 23, 2008
Category: physics
In the trailer (oh, spoiler alert) a young Kirk jumps out of a car before it goes over a cliff. It does look odd, and that is why I had intended to analyze it.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 4:53 PM • 0 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
December 22, 2008
Category: physics
In the movie, two guys pour gasoline on a basketball and then light it on fire. One of the guys then gives the ball a good kick. The result is that some of the flaming gas stays in place and some goes with the ball (and some gets on the guy's foot).
Posted by Rhett Allain at 9:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 19, 2008
Category: physics
What I am going to do is allow a wave of kinetic energy to pass through my body and into yours and you will feel the way...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:28 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: science
I have been searching for where I found this link, if it was your blog please forgive me for not linking. Here is a link to Common misconceptions in science from wikipedia. Looks fun. Really, I am just posting this...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:45 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 18, 2008
Category: physics
I saw this video on several places. It shows an astronaut playing with a CD player.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 8:34 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 16, 2008
Category: physics
Wow. I wrote a post about Directly Down Wind Faster Than The Wind (DWFTTW) vehicles. At the time of this post, there are 37 comments for the original post. That is way more than I expected. This is very popular...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 4:26 PM • 75 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
December 15, 2008
Category: physics
Maybe you have seen some of my posts on basic topics. One of the original ideas I had for creating the "basics" posts was so that I would not need to keep repeatedly explaining what the fundamental physics concepts were...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 2:49 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
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