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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.
February 28, 2009
Category: Analysis
From that plot, it seems that price per piece is fairly consistent. The slope of the linear function fitting the data gives $0.097 per piece. The one data point highlighted that seems of a little bit is the Republic Dropship with AT-OT.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 11:11 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 26, 2009
Category: physics
One point that was brought is the comparison between old plastic bodies (the pontiac fiero comes to my mind) and these new plastics that should be much stronger. Well, here is the problem. Light strong bodied cars can be dangerous. Really? Yes.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 11:15 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 25, 2009
Category: physics
This teacher is crazy. He said we have a test the next day and he gave them a study guide. But he didn't give the answers to the study guide. My friend and her mom stayed up till midnight looking up the answers on google
Posted by Rhett Allain at 9:45 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 24, 2009
Category: physics
Basically, the title says it all. Here is a short tutorial on projectile motion calculations with a spreadsheet
Posted by Rhett Allain at 3:22 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: physics
Quantum mechanics is not my area of expertise. Really, I have no area of expertise. However, I think it is time to bring the whole photon thing back up.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 12:52 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 21, 2009
Category: physics
The basic idea is that you support a meter stick horizontally with two fingers. Slide your fingers in and they will both meet at the center of mass. Here is a video.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:05 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 19, 2009
After talking about textbooks, commenter Kevin posed the question: which would cost more, printing out a free book or reusing a purchased textbook. Great question. How about some quick estimation (some of this stuff I have no clue about). First,...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:31 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I saw this some time ago, probably in The Teaching Professor online magazine thingy. The basic idea is to leave your class alone when they are having a discussion. I have done this a couple of times. Yesterday was the...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 4:23 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 17, 2009
I previously talked about textbooks and how there is clearly a problem. The CK-12 Foundation is trying to do something about this problem with the flexbook. Basically, the flexbook allows teachers to create their own text by combining different free...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 3:38 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: physics
The first thing from AAPT that I would like to mention is SAM Animation that Brian Gravel demonstrated. SAM is free software that allows for the easy creation of stop motion animations. Basically, you use a web camera to take...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 3:22 PM • 0 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
