How to Teach Physics to Your Dog Caption Contest

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Today is six months to the day from the official release date of my book, How to Teach Physics to Your Dog. It feels like I ought to do something promotion-like to mark this date, and I have a couple of extra bound galley proofs (seen above with Emmy), sooo.....

I hereby announce the first of two contests giving you, the blog reader, a chance to win an uncorrected galley proof copy of the book six months (ish) before you can buy it. The idea is simple: below the fold are two pictures that just cry out for amusing captions of some sort. The person who comes up with the best caption will get a book.

PHOTO 1:

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PHOTO 2:

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Obligatory contest rules and disclaimers:

  • Enter either by leaving a comment below including your proposed caption, and a clear statement of which picture it goes with, or by adding a caption to the picture LOLcat-style (click on the images for slightly larger versions), posting it to somebody else's web space and leaving a link in a comment to the post. If comments are down, you can also email me the link/ caption text.
  • The entry deadline is next Sunday, June 28, 2009 at 5pm (Eastern), as determined by the time stamp on the comment/ email.
  • One entry per comment or email, please. You can enter more than once, but please put each entry in its own comment or email.
  • The winning entry will be selected by a jury consisting of the residents of Chateau Steelypips (me, Kate, Emmy, and SteelyKid). All decisions of the judges are final.
  • The winning entry will be announced on the blog sometime next week, at which time I will contact the winner and get shipping information for the proof.
  • All entries should include permission for me to use them (with acknowledgment) on the blog and at dogphysics.com.

If you win the proof and want to post a review on the web/ recommend it to all your friends/ pass it on to your close personal friend, Oprah Winfrey, that'd be appreciated, but there's no obligation to do anything in particular with it.

If you don't do photo captions, hang out for a little while, and I will announce the second win-a-galley-proof contest, which may be more to your liking.

More like this

My caption for Photo #1:

Did you see a quark come through here?

By Elizabeth (not verified) on 22 Jun 2009 #permalink

for Photo #1
The BA-CON Particle Detector experienced considerably less downtime than the LHC following activation.

for Photo #1
The BA-CON Particle Detector experienced considerably less downtime than the LHC following activation.

Emmy examines her apparatus for the bacon spectroscopy proposal.

Photo #2.

photo #2

Investigation of the effect of canine skin oils on the tensile strength and vacuum properties of materials used in detectors for high-energy uncharged particles.

photo #2

Investigation of the effect of canine skin oils on the tensile strength and vacuum properties of materials used in detectors for high-energy uncharged particles.

Photo #2. "Well there is your problem."

This only makes sense if you have the two images in a series.

Image 1: SQUIRREL!
Image 2: Tricksy quantum squirrels...

By Regnirrab (not verified) on 22 Jun 2009 #permalink

Can we put Photo #2 before Photo #1?
Photo #2: "Ok smartypants, where would you look for a quantum bunny?
Photo #1: "It escaped! I wonder which way it went?"

By Lurker #753 (not verified) on 22 Jun 2009 #permalink

#2:

Centrifugal force? What do you mean by... oh, I get it. You can let go of the leash now.

#3:

Those are neutrinos? Darn it, I thought they were a new kind of dog biscuit.

See, now most people play with their dog.
Physicists get theirs to lick clean the apparatus...

All the detecting power of a physics department and they couldn't even find a -
Hey. What's this?

Cutest. Dog. Ever. Also, congrats on the impending book!

Photo 2:

On what might be the worst Monday of her short life, Emmy discovers that getting your head stuck in a Companion Cube is uncomfortable at best, and that the cake is, indeed, a lie.

Photo #2:
Schrödinger's Dog demonstrates quantum entanglement.

Photo #3:
Who's seen the simultaneously both dead-and-alive cat?

By R. de Koeyer (not verified) on 22 Jun 2009 #permalink

err... make that Photo #1 (not Photo #3).

By R. de Koeyer (not verified) on 22 Jun 2009 #permalink

Photo 1: Emmy will celebrate her breakthrough discovery - that dogs can become magnetized if rubbed hard enough against a magnet - as soon as she extracts herself from the results of her experiment.

Photo 2: Although dressing Emmy as Laika "First Dog in Space" for Halloween seemed like a good idea at the time, Chad might have gone a little overboard on the design.

By Carrie Wolinetz (not verified) on 24 Jun 2009 #permalink

Photo 1: Emmy is finally revealed as the particle sniffer.
Photo 2: Ok, I'm in position, now I just need a little momentum.

By David Clark (not verified) on 25 Jun 2009 #permalink

Photo #1
Damn, the keg is already tapped

Your pictures are the wrong way around.

The second is actually first in order, and the caption for it is: With dog head determination, Emmy begins her search for a new sub-atomic particle whilst listening to the uncanny music of her favorite heavy metal band.

The caption for the first picture is then: Emmy has super symmetrical thoughts of the kind which can only be experienced in quantum physics. She thinks both "Ye gods, I've found the bark particle" and "Damn! I can't open my mouth to describe it...."

Photo #1:
"In what will surely be the most unexpected and controversial scientific discovery of the millennium, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider claim they have inadvertently proven the existence of Dog."

1. Where is that switch to kill the cats 100% of the time?
2. No Chad! Please dont put me in the large hadron choke collar. I already know how to heel by teleportation!

By Henry de Koeyer (not verified) on 25 Jun 2009 #permalink

#2
You said this is a vacuum chamber, but I can't find the vacuum!

#1
I would have never put my head in here if you had told me it holds those scary, loud vacuum's!

1. Once Emmy contracted fleas, she had to wear this ingeneous cone to prevent her from biting.
2. There is a flaw in the design, called solitary confinement, as shown here

By Henry de koeyer (not verified) on 26 Jun 2009 #permalink

Photo 2: The first prototype for the CyberDog revealed fundamental problems in the design's weight distribution.

By David Owen-Cruise (not verified) on 27 Jun 2009 #permalink