Everyday
Category archives for Everyday
The Physics of Sprints and Kickoff Safety
Posted by Chad Orzel on April 17, 2012 Over at Grantland, Bill Barnwell offers some unorthodox suggestions for replacing the kickoff in NFL games, which has apparently been floated as a way to improve player safety. Appropriately enough, the suggestion apparently came from Giants owner John Mara, which makes perfect sense giving that the Giants haven’t had a decent kick returner since Dave…
Scientific Commuting: Some Answers to “How Much Faster?”
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 23, 2012 So, the previous post poses a physics question based on some previous fooling around with modeling my commute: A car starts from rest at the beginning of a straight 1km course, accelerates up to some speed, cruises at constant speed for a while, then decelerates to a stop at the end of the course. A…
Scientific Commuting: How Much Faster?
Posted by Chad Orzel on March 23, 2012 Back in the summer, I did a post mathematically comparing two routes to campus, one with a small number of traffic lights, the other with a larger number of stop signs, and looked at which would be faster. Later on, I did the experiment, too.) Having spent a bunch of time on this, I was…
Thursday Eratosthenes Blogging: Measuring Latitude and Longitude with a Sundial
Posted by Chad Orzel on February 2, 2012 As I keep saying in various posts, I’m teaching a class on timekeeping this term, which has included discussion of really primitive timekeeping devices like sundials, as well as a discussion of the importance of timekeeping for navigation. To give students an idea of how this works, I arranged an experimental demonstration, coordinated with Rhett…
Difficult Problems in Automotive Thermodynamics
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 20, 2012 While clearing the cars of frost Thursday morning, I was reminded of a difference of opinion Kate and I have about the best approach to a cold car. I tend to start the car up, and immediately turn the defrost on full blast; she prefers to let the car warm up for a while first,…
The Test(ing) of Time: The Surprisingly Good Hourglass
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 2, 2012 My class this term is a “Scholars Research Seminar” with the title “A Brief History of Timekeeping,” looking at the science and technology of timekeeping from prehistory through modern atomic clocks. This is nominally an introduction to “research methods,” though the class operates under a lot of constraints that fully justify the scare quotes, at…
Christmas Physics: How Strong Is One Grinch?
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 13, 2011 And what happened then? Well, in Who-ville they say That the Grinch’s small heart Grew three sizes that day. And then the true meaning Of Christmas came through And the Grinch found the strength Of ten Grinches, plus two – Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas It’s nearly Christmas, so SteelyKid keeps demanding to…
Scientific Commuting: The Data
Posted by Chad Orzel on November 22, 2011 A few months back, I did a post about estimating the time required for the different routes I take to work, looking at the question of whether it’s better to take a shorter route with a small number of slow traffic lights, or a longer route with a bunch of stop signs. This was primarily…
Sad Balloon Physics II: How Long Will a Balloon Last?
Posted by Chad Orzel on August 19, 2011 As a follow up to Wednesday’s sad balloon post, the repair that lofted it back to the ceiling was a temporary reprieve, unsurprisingly. After 24 hours, more or less, it had sunk back down to the point where the ribbon was just barely touching the floor. On the one hand, it looks kind of pathetic…
The Physics of a Sad Balloon
Posted by Chad Orzel on August 17, 2011 My birthday was two months ago, and SteelyKid’s was the weekend before last, so we’ve had balloons running around the house for a good while now. Meaning that when I came into the library yesterday, I saw the sad little image on the right: a half-deflated Mylar balloon floating at about chest height. Now, the…
