Polls
Category archives for Polls
Academic Poll: Synchronization
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 3, 2011 The clock in my classroom for this term appears to be set five minutes slow. Which is an improvement over the one in the hall that’s ten minutes slow, but kind of plays hell with starting and ending class on time. It is, however, a great excuse for a poll: Clocks in academic buildings should…
Dorky Poll: Favorite Newtonian Rule?
Posted by Chad Orzel on January 3, 2011 It’s the first day of the new term, and the projector bulb that was working on Friday decided to stop working by Sunday. After that bit of excitement this morning, plus my lecture, I’m beat. I always forget how much talking is involved in intro physics lectures. My class for the term is the first…
Poll: Top Physics Story of 2010?
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 28, 2010 It’s the last week of the (calendar) year, which means it’s a good time to recap the previous twelve months worth of scientific news. Typically, publications like Physics World will publish a list of top ten physics stories of 2010, but we’re all Web 2.0 these days, so it seems more appropriate to put this…
Literary Interlude: Bearded Mentor Figures in the Literature of the Fantastic
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 11, 2010 It’s time now to talk about two of the greatest mentor figures in the literature of the fantastic. You know their stories well, I’m sure, but the parallels between them are eerie: Both are gruff but kindly mentor figures who provide crucial guidance for the young and naive protagonist of the story as he moves…
Academic Poll: Lesser Evils
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 9, 2010 Over at Backreaction, Bee runs through the pros and cons of different presentation methods for academic talks. As she quite correctly notes, both PowerPoint presentations and chalk talks have strengths and weaknesses. You can give a good talk with either, and a bad talk with either. This does suggest a topic for a reader poll,…
Dorky Poll: How Do You Say That Again?
Posted by Chad Orzel on December 6, 2010 I’m going to be at a media training session for most of the day. I had hoped to have a long and silly post about physics to schedule today, but, well, that didn’t happen. So here’s a silly poll to pass the time. The name of element number 13, chemical symbol Al, is pronounced with…
Dorky Poll: Gratitude
Posted by Chad Orzel on November 25, 2010 It’s Thanksgiving here in the US, so blogging will be light to nonexistent. For the sake of those looking for a quick escape from the chaos of a family gathering, or, you know, those poor benighted souls in other countries for whom this is just another Thursday, here’s a thematically appropriate poll about science: What…
Poll: Greetings
Posted by Chad Orzel on November 22, 2010 I don’t think this one requires any explanation: Hello:customer surveys Staying up watching the Giants game last night was not conducive to getting anything useful done this morning.
Academic Poll: Proctoring
Posted by Chad Orzel on November 22, 2010 I’m giving the final exam in my introductory E&M class this morning, which means spending a couple of hours sitting in a room full of students taking a test and doing my best not to fall asleep. As far as I’m concerned, getting rid of exam proctoring is the best argument for an honor code…
Poll: Significant Figures
Posted by Chad Orzel on November 18, 2010 I’m grading a big backlog of homeworks today, so I don’t have time to do any really lengthy posts this morning. Thus, a poll question inspired by going through these homeworks: You are doing a physics homework problem. How many significant figures do you report?survey software While the class in question uses some quantum ideas,…
