Dot Physics
Archives for June, 2010
Energy in a hidden battery
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 11, 2010 Back to the discussion about hiding an electric motor in a pro racing cycle. Before, I looked at a video of Fabian Cancellara to see how his speed and acceleration compare to other bikers. The claim on the internet is that he pulls away so fast that he must have a motor hidden in his…
Collisions: Kinetic energy or momentum?
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 10, 2010 In the last episode of MythBusters, they wanted to see if a tornado could make some glass cut off a person’s head. The first attempt was just to take some glass and through it at a simulated human neck. Clearly, this wasn’t quite the same as a tornado. So, here was their plan. If they…
Ask a ScienceBlogger: Evaporating Water
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 9, 2010 Here is another question from Ask a ScienceBlogger. Reader Uday Panta asks: How does water evaporate in the seas? Doesn’t water evaporate at 100 C? There were some very good responses in the comments where the question was, but I am going to answer it with some more details. Small Particle Model This is where…
Do Bikers Cheat?
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 8, 2010 Well, maybe that isn’t the best title. You see, there is this video going around saying that it is possible that a professional bike racer was cheating by putting a hidden motor in his bike. I am not really going to talk about the cheating aspect (my gut feeling says that it would be too…
Ask a ScienceBlogger: Drying dishes
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 7, 2010 As part of the Ask a ScienceBlogger series, reader Jim Swanson asks: When I open the dishwasher after washing and the contents are still hot, why do the glass and ceramic items dry off more quickly than the plastic items? This is a great question. Great because it is something most everyone can relate to…
Physics 2 refresher
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 6, 2010 So, I hear you are starting your second semester of physics. One of the cool things about physics is that the second semester still uses stuff from the first semester. Maybe you forgot some of that stuff, so here are the bare essentials you will need to get by (this is assuming you are in…
Spoof Science: Are kids dangerous?
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 4, 2010 I got tired of attacking ESPN Sport Science. Well, tired of attacking might not be the best term. How about, attack in a new way (here are my older Sport Science attacks). Check out episode 1 of Spoof Science: A couple of notes: Watch it youtube if you want the HD version Making videos takes…
How far will the car go?
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 4, 2010 Honestly, I was going to add this to my previous post about the jumping car but I didn’t because I wanted to finish. So, here it is and more. Actually, I will just make a projectile motion spreadsheet. That way, anytime you want to do a projectile motion problem, you can come here. Maybe this…
How fast was the car going?
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 3, 2010 Reader Colin asked a great question about this popular clip. How fast was the car moving? First, a quick assumption. I will assume that the frame rate on the video is correct (meaning not slowed down). Colin already looked up the length of the Chevy Impala on Wikipedia for me. It has a length of…
Low Completer Programs
Posted by Rhett Allain on June 2, 2010 This idea comes up every once in a while. The idea that an institution should remove its physics degree program because it doesn’t produce enough majors. Right now, it is up again due to budget problems in our state. I think the idea of removing low-completer programs is dangerous. It comes from administrators who like…