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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.
September 30, 2009
Category: physics
We have these projectile cannons that shoot small balls. In order to look at projectile motion, they need to first determine the launch speed of the ball. I have a great method for this. Basically, shoot the ball horizontally off the table and measure how far horizontally it goes.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 7:57 PM • 3 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
September 29, 2009
Category: random
I was shocked. After installing Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Tracker Video Analysis didn't work. This is one of my favorite programs for blogging. It appears that the problem is with 32 bit Java vs. 64 bit. I don't really...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 8:32 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 28, 2009
Category: physics
I fit a linear function to the position data for the time before the collision. This gives a fairly (I was surprised) constant speed of 6.2 m/s (about 14 mph). Here is the fit to the data after contact.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 5:19 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 23, 2009
Category: physics
I am not going to shoot any guns, or even drop bullets - that is for the MythBusters. What I will do instead is make a numerical calculation of the motion of a bullet shot into the air.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 6:37 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 21, 2009
Category: random
Thanks to all who participated in the Dot Physics Census. Let me share some of the things that I learned: The survey was flawed. How dumb was I? Almost everyone would fit into more than one of those categories. Oh...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 8:53 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 17, 2009
Category: physics
This is Tom's fault (Swans on Tea). He suspects that most of the physics blogs are read by physics bloggers. I have kind of been avoiding this, but I guess I need to know who my readers are. Actually, there...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:39 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: physics
Yes, this can be very complicated. But what should a middle-school student understand about light? You see stuff in textbooks that is either wrong or just a bunch of disconnected factoids (I like the word factoid)
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:11 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 16, 2009
Category: random
The administration are people too. I just want to start off saying that. However, in this case, I just don't get it. The more I think about it, the less I get it. Here is the plan our administration came...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 12:47 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 15, 2009
Category: random
As I said before, I went a SPIN-UP workshop (you can find tons of info and the SPIN-UP report here). The basic idea of the SPIN-UP program is to first look at schools that are successful in their production of...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 11:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 14, 2009
Category: physics
I am going to give an example of how to solve such a problem and then I am going to make the solution as a spreadsheet. This way, you can enter your own dangerous setup and make your own ramp.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 6:08 PM • 7 Comments • 1 TrackBacks
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