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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, 2010
Category: calculation
I ride my bike and mostly the wind makes me unhappy. On a very few days the wind is with me on the way to work and then changes so that it is with me again. But most days the wind is fairly constant. So, if the wind is constant then shouldn't everything even out? (Even Stephen).
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:30 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 25, 2010
Category: education
I thought this was an interesting idea. One of my colleagues does not collect homework. Instead, the students turn in a sheet that lists which homework problems they worked on and how much time they spent on homework. By doing...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 12:28 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 23, 2010
Category: Analysis
Can you fall faster than terminal velocity? That is the question.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:12 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 22, 2010
Category: Analysis
In this post, I want to look at the landing portion of a ski jump. This could apply to THE ski jump, but there are some things in that even that make it a little more complicated (but I might come back to that in another post). For this case, I will consider the freestyle event - aerials.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 9:38 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 20, 2010
Category: education
The kind folks over at BloggingHeads TV were nice enough to offer me an opportunity to discuss some science stuff with Ed Grabianowski from io9.com. Here it is: In this discussion, we talk about: Learning physics and physics education research...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 12:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 19, 2010
Category: Analysis
Red Bull is sponsoring this sky dive from really really really high up - Stratos: Mission to the Edge of Space. Seems dangerous. The basic idea is that Felix Baumgartner will take a balloon ride up to 120,000 feet and...
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:57 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 17, 2010
Category: Analysis
It is winter Olympics time and time for physics. The event that I always gets me thinking about physics is short track speed skating. It is quite interesting to see these skaters turn and lean at such high angles. All it needs is a little sprinkling of physics for flavor.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 8:28 PM • 27 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 16, 2010
Category: Analysis
Do you need some physics to go with your beads? Well, here it is. Actually, I will let you do the physics (for now - meaning if you don't analyze these, I will).
Posted by Rhett Allain at 10:27 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Analysis
I had a request some time ago to talk about friction. Friction is surprisingly complicated. When two surfaces rub against each other, why is there a friction force? The basic answer is that the stuff the two surfaces are made of (atoms) are interacting with each other.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 5:49 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 14, 2010
Category: Content
I was thinking about some experiments that deal with friction and I wanted to show something with a force probe. The problem is that most people don't have one of these. So, I decided to try and make one out of simple things. In this case, I am using some straws, a rubber band and some paper clips.
Posted by Rhett Allain at 8:06 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
denialism blog 02.14.2012
respectful insolence 02.14.2012
uncertain principles 02.13.2012
confessions of a science librarian 02.13.2012
starts with a bang! 02.13.2012
