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links for 2008-12-28

nanoscale views: What does it mean for a material to be an "insulator"? "We broadly lump solids into two groups, those that conduct electricity and those that don't. Materials in the latter category are known as insulators, and it turns out that there are at least three different kinds." (tags: science physics blogs education materials condensed-matter) Mr. Faraday's (most excellent) experimental researches in electricity (1831) « Skulls in the Stars "I started to investigate Faraday's writings while working on a post about Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel The Coming Race, which quotes…

If Wishes Were Horses We'd All Be Eatin' Steak

There's a kind of tradition in theoretical physics of wacky "what if" papers. The whole "wormhole" thing is an example of this in action-- somebody noticed that the structure of General Relativity would allow you to make tunnel-like structures between points in space, and then asked what you would need to make such a structure. The answer turns out to include "a negative energy density," which is impossible, as far as we know, but that hasn't stopped people from creating an entire cottage industry around papers about wormholes. (I don't know if other sciences do this-- are there biologists…

Neil Lewis of the New York Times

The much-promised peer-reviewed research post is going to slip by another day, becuase I had forgotten about a talk by Neil Lewis last night on campus. Lewis is an alumnus of Union, and a writer for the Times best known for writing about the prison camps at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and he was speaking as part of the Alumni Writers Series. He had prepared remarks, but his speech still had a very off-the-cuff feel, and he tried to get through the prepared stuff quickly to get to a more open Q&A period. He talked about Guantanamo here four years ago, and joked that he was going to re-use that…

The Sticky Tape Lab

I had the first lab of the term yesterday in my introductory E&M class. This is the first time I've taught out of this book (Matter & Interactions by Chabay and Sherwood), which actually includes the basic elements of this lab as suggested activities in the second chapter of the text. The lab was more successful than I expected (I've done the lab before), and I even managed to add a somewhat more free-form element to it, that worked out well. The materials for the lab are extremely simple: One roll of "invisible" tape for each group, plus some sort of stand for them to stick tape to.…

Uncomfortable Questions: Research University

"A" asks: Given the chance, would you take a job at a major research-university, or do you enjoy teaching a lot and doing some research at your small liberal arts college? My first answer is "no," though I guess it would depend on the terms of the offer. In general terms, though, I'm very happy with my job. I went to a small liberal arts college, and really enjoyed the experience, so I actually went to grad school with the idea of getting a Ph.D. and then teaching at a small college. I've ended up pretty much exactly where I wanted to be-- well, OK, I'd probably be even happier at a certain…

Pharmaceutical Industry and Conflicts of Interest

This has been a topic here at ScienceBlogs, and elsewhere.  In this post, I point out some of the blogosphere commentary, and provide links to some commentary published in journals that might otherwise escape widespread attention.   href="http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2006/04/psychiatry_experts_linked_to_d.php"> class="linkTitle">Psychiatry Experts Linked to Drug Makers-- And? The New York Times reported yesterday that many of the authors of the DSM-IV, the sine qua non diagnostic manual (I'm 300.00, thanks for asking) for mental health professionals had ties, either before or after…

Untestable-Hypothesis Blogging

What do the following have in common: heliocentrism, evolution, Freudian psychology, and neuroscience?  And what does this have to do with the controversy about whether nonhuman creatures have emotions? Pure Pedantry href="http://scienceblogs.com/purepedantry/2006/06/post_7.php">Do mice have empathy? Small Gray Matters href="http://www.smallgraymatters.com/2006/07/02/the-science-of-empathy-sociology-of-affective-neuroscience/">The science of empathy & sociology of affective neuroscience The authors of those blog posts engage in informed speculation about the existence of…

Army Ants of the North

Neivamyrmex nigrescens, Arizona Army ants have a decidedly tropical reputation.  The term conjures spectacular images of swarms sweeping across remote Amazonian villages, devouring chickens, cows, and small children unlucky enough to find themselves in the path of the ants.  Of course, the habits of real army ants are not nearly so sensational, but they are at least as interesting. The approximate range of army ants in North America. Few people are aware that more than a dozen army ant species are found in the United States.  Most belong to the genus Neivamyrmex, a diverse group that…

Photo Technique: A Better Backdrop

My early bug photos, the ones I don't show anyone anymore, are poorly-exposed affairs that now sit hidden in my files. If I had to put my finger on the single biggest problem with these embarrassing first attempts, I'd say that I lacked an eye for composition. I was so intent on getting the bug in focus somewhere in the LCD that I paid no attention to what else ended up sharing the frame. Turns out, all sorts of extraneous crud. Bits of grass. Dust. My finger. Many of these images are so crowded that it just isn't clear what I ought to be looking at. Understanding why busy compositions…

SciWo's Storytime: Predator-Prey Relationships (Little Cottontail)

A few nights ago, Minnow was in the mood to make videos of some of her favorite books - almost any books, except ones with an overt scientific bent. Right now, she wants books with a storyline, and I'm afraid that some of the sciencey books I'd lined up for this month are not story-driven enough for her tastes. But among the books she picked out, was a Little Golden Book called "Little Cottontail" by Carl Membling and illustrated by Lilian Obligado. As we read the book, it occurred to me that while on the surface this was a heart-warming book about a little rabbit's coming of age, if we dug…

Alice's ADVANCEing into the fall

While it is hard to go back to the daily slog of the semester after having a more freewheeling summer, I do like the fact that you can set all kinds of new academic patterns. Like an Academic New Year, as my friend Julie put it. One of my academic new year resolutions: get some data collected on our ADVANCE research projects. I mean, it's almost been a year, and we've been bogged down getting protocols through IRB, and then someone raises some concerns somewhere, and we need to revise the protocols for IRB again. It's been pretty frustrating. Not only that, but my time has been taken up…

Thinking about big ideas on Earth Day

Today for me consisted of one PhD defense (I was on the committee; it was successfully defended, congrats Dr. Ken!), a meeting about ADVANCE, 2 hrs of class, another PhD meeting that I'm on the committee of, and then a bunch of following up with folks. So it's been pretty packed, as usual. (Tomorrow looks quite humane in contrast!) But I didn't want to let today slip by without acknowledging that it is Earth Day. I thought about titling this post "Happy Earth Day!" but it really isn't, is it? The earth is in a mess, global warming is terrifying, and so is the general apathy towards global…

(Free) Trip to Delft for a workshop on gender and engineering education!

Do you do research on gender and engineering or engineering education? Do you want to talk with cool European researchers about your and their research? Want to fly to Europe for free? Consider applying for the opportunity below the fold -- there are only a couple days left to apply (April 13 is the deadline) but the application process isn't difficult and I know they're still taking applications. Only restriction: you currently need to be working at a US university (I think). US-Europe Workshop for Research on Gender and Diversity in Engineering Education Announcement and Call for…

Ask Sciencewomen: Are there really more dead grandmothers?

This is not a belated April Fool's joke, though I'll admit to having sat on this since Wednesday so that my readers wouldn't think I was making this up. Here is the correspondence I found in my email account on Wednesday morning: Hi! I've been reading your blog now for the past 18 months- and love it. Thanks so much for sharing! I'd just like to say how much it really helped me, as I'm at the same stage as you. Last July, I went from being a post-doc to a faculty member. Your comments about applying for jobs, how the process worked were of great assistance... And it's great reading how you…

Laugh at the Libertarian

There's a reason I really despise Libertarianism…but still find them hilariously twisted. Here's a case of a columnist defending the science of Rick Perry. You know that evolution stuff? It's not that important. Creationism is a waste of time and it makes Perry look "unsophisticated"…but so what? There's a real problem here, and it is all those liberals who've fallen for the junk science of "global warming". It is interesting watching the nation's defenders of reason, empirical evidence, and science fail to display a hint of skepticism over the transparently political "science" of global…

Is it really this cool to fly US Airways?

I'm stuck in the US East Coast ice and snow trying to get home after some science work for our nation's health agency (that is my rationale for posting this on my Sb blog). My four-hour equipment and weather delay has now turned into a canceled flight. The gate agent just announced that those of us who can get out tonight will be booked on a US Airways flight. The line came very close to breaking into outright applause. Can anyone say "Sully for CEO?" And if I'm going to put this out in public, let's give megaprops to Wisconsin-based co-pilot Jeff Skiles who did all the other stuff to set out…

General cool stuff to do in Durham, NC, during ScienceOnline'09

Bora/Coturnix has a nice post up this morning on science and nature things to do around the Research Triangle area for those of you coming to the area and staying before and/or after. While Bora resides in Chapel Hill, I take personal pride in singing the praises of Durham, the sometimes-maligned apex of the scalene triangle that comprises, well, the Research Triangle (the third point being Raleigh, the state capital). Since the unconference is being held at the Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park (80% of which is actually in Durham), here are two of the most valuable resources I use:…

A $200,000 settlement that just doesn't seem equitable

Well, things have changed in my life that have begun to impact my posting frequency so I really appreciate the support of readers when I last spoke of this change of life (no, not menopause). I've even gotten so distracted that I have neglected to read the daily fishwrapper - that is until today's recycling when I stood outside on the street at 6 am rummaging through my blue bin to read Tuesday's paper (hell, it was news to me). At least I was courteous enough to the neighbors to throw on a pair of shorts. In it, I learned that an academic physician settled with her employer for $200K after…

Looking for expert commentary on generic "follow-on" biologics

Last week we spent some time discussing the shortcomings of the generic vs. brand name drug debate, focusing on an example of non-bioequivalence between the antidepressant Wellbutrin XL and its generic competitors. Three days later, I then received an e-mail from one John Procter about a movement to get Washington to move forward on the approval of lower-priced generic biotechnology drugs now that original branded products are facing patent expiration. One source indicates that a $20 billion market value of biological products will be coming off patent by 2015. The US FDA has been reluctant…

Sunday morning guffaws: real church bulletin quotes

Yes, this is a science-related post, just a little off topic. We don't talk about religion much around these parts because my Catholic school upbringing and torture by nuns gives me PTSD. But I grew up in a place where your family was either Catholic or Jewish - equal-opportunity guilt. So it is with painful nostalgia that I received the following missive from my mechanical engineer/grease monkey Catholic school classmate - (hey Tom, get off the computer; shouldn't you be in church anyway?). Enjoy!: Subject: Church Bulletins They're Back! Church Bulletins: God bless the church ladies who…

Why lay off 25% of the FDA

You read correctly. If the US Senate does not pass an FDA funding bill today, 2,000 employees, nearly one-quarter of the FDA staff, will be relieved of their duties. (There were 8,157 FDA employees in 2006 - source). The House has already passed the bill but there are concerns: Senate staffers were poring over the bill's 400-page text, and leaders were hoping to be able to pass it by voice vote. But some Senate Republicans raised concerns. "We're getting a bill that has been mashed together at the last minute," said a GOP aide involved in negotiations with the House. "It's very worrisome…

Chinese Anticancer Drugs Tainted; Ractopamine Pig Wars

Leukemia Drug Adulteration Chinese generic versions of the anticancer drugs, methotrexate and cytarabine hydrochloride, have been reported to be contaminated with an undisclosed substance according to several wire reports this morning. Several children in a Shanghai hospital were reported to suffer leg pain and difficulty walking after being injected with methotrexate. A common drug used in many chemotherapy regimens for leukemia, methotrexate is not normally associated with these side effects. The Xinhua news agency reported that the drugs had been traced to one manufacturer, Shanghai…

Pharmacist "conscientious objection": a pharmacist's right or professional negligence?

So reads the title of an excellent essay Medscape has reprinted from a recent issue of the American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacists by Emily Evans (free reg req'd). Evans is a Pharm.D. faculty member at the College of Pharmacy of the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She writes: In Texas, three pharmacists are fired for refusing to fill a rape victim's prescription for emergency contraception because it "violated [their] morals." A Wisconsin pharmacist refuses to fill, or transfer out, a similar prescription and is put on trial for violating the state's regulation and licensing…

Faulty connections responsible for inherited face-blindness

Have you ever seen someone that you're sure you recognise but whose face you just can't seem to place? It's a common enough occurrence, but for some people, problems with recognising faces are a part of their daily lives. They have a condition called prosopagnosia, or face blindness, which makes them incredibly bad at recognising faces, despite their normal eyesight, memory, intelligence, and ability to recognise other objects. Prosopagnosia can be caused by accidents that damage parts of the brain like the fusiform gyrus - the core part of a broad network of regions involved in processing…

Viruses evolve to be more infectious in well-connected populations

A virus, like any other carrier of genetic information, can only enjoy evolutionary success by ensuring that its genetic material is passed on through the ages, and it can only do that if its offspring finds new hosts to infect. Its host must live to infect again, and the virus that kills its host prematurely signs its own evolutionary death sentence. So over time, we might expect that the ideal virus would evolve to never kill any of its hosts - it would have zero 'virulence'. It would also evolve to successfully infect every host it comes into contact with it - it would have a…

David Prentice's shoddy stem cell scholarship

A reader sent me copy of a letter that will be published in Science this week, criticizing the dishonest tactics of the anti-scientific adult stem cell "advocates" (in quotes because they aren't really science advocates of any kind—they're only using it as an issue to limit stem cell research.) Anyway, it raises the interesting question of who you're going to believe: scientists with expertise in the issues under discussion, or a flunky for Sam Brownback and shill for the religious right? Adult Stem Cell Treatments for Diseases? Shane Smith, William Neaves, Steven Teitelbaum Opponents of…

Size matters for mosquitoes but medium-sized males do better

Last year, I blogged about an ironic public health strategy - controlling malaria with mosquitoes. The mozzies in question are genetically engineered to be resistant to the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. The idea is that these GM-mosquitoes would mate with wild ones and spread their resistance genes through the natural population. The approach seems promising but it relies crucially on the ability of the resistant males to successfully compete for the attentions of females in wild populations. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed several failed attempts to control malaria by swamping natural…

Toaster Sunshine channels Jack White for science and technology outreach

At the recent U2 Academic Conference, I had the opportunity to be at the local premiere of It Might Get Loud, a much-more-than documentary of the electric guitar as told through the careers of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge, and Jack White of The White Stripes and Raconteurs. For the record, I thought that White was going to be totally out of his league - while I wouldn't call him a "legend" as billed by the producers, I left being incredibly impressed with his background and breadth of abilities. Related to the movie trailer below, I had an exchange with Toaster Sunshine, a…

Ch-ch-ch-changes: William Gibson is wrong

Among the axioms of the day is that we live in a time of change, and those changes are taking place at breakneck speed and accelerating. So rapid are the changes that science fiction writer William Gibson has given up trying to stay ahead of the curve. Historian-journalist Gwynne Dyer argues Gibson is dead wrong. Little of consequence has changed for the developed world for most of the 80 years, he says in a compelling essay published last month. On the other hand... On the other hand, that status quo situation could be about to come to an end, thanks to a little trend we like to call climate…

Who's on the endangered list now?

It's been a bad week for the US Interior Department, and it's only Tuesday. First a deputy assistant secretary resigned after her habit of passing endangered species information to private groups was exposed for all to see. Then more than three dozen scientists signed a letter condemning the Bush administration's interpretation of the Endangered Species Act. That would make it a good week for endangered species, though. Julie MacDonald's resignation came a week before the beginning of a series of House committee hearings on political interference with biologists. Seems an inspector general's…

The Other China Syndrome

The cover story of the latest edition of SEED, which arrived in my physical mailbox today, explores the green technological revolution under way in China. According to Shanghai correspondent Mara Hvistendahl, "an environmental consciousness is building" there. I sure hope she's right, because the latest news, too late to be included in the SEED feature, is that China will... ...exceed the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases as early as the end of this year -- not 2010, as energy experts had previously forecast. (Nature 446, 954-955) London's Independent, not too…

Witchful thinking: water on the brain

This past weekend in the New Age capital of the New South (Asheville, N.C.), members of the Appalachian chapter of the American Society of Dowsers were scheduled to hold a quarterly meeting. I know this because the alternative weekly in these parts, the Mountain X Press, decided to devote a few scarce column inches to the subject in its current edition. I have no idea how the meeting went or what goes on at such things, nor do I really care all that much. But I am a little curious as to what drives these "water witches" and adherents of other fields of non-expertise. According to the X Press…

Scooby-Doo and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Much has been made of a good-journalism award handed by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists to Michael Crichton for his science-fiction novel, State of Fear. I wrote back in pre-Scienceblog days that the AAPG had gone off the deep end by confusing a bad novel with a "notable journalistic achievement in any medium which contributes to public understanding of geology, energy resources, or the technology of oil and gas exploration." Fortunately not all geologists are happy with the choice of recipient for that particular award. Via RealClimate we have a copy of a letter (PDF) that…

Sunday Function

Most textbooks, especially ones not aimed at college math majors, give a definition of "function" that seems quite intuitive. They'll say something along the lines of: a function is a rule that takes an input x and turns it into an output f(x). Formally this isn't quite right - the essence of a function is in the set of ordered pairs {x, f(x)} and not in the specific rule that connects them. There doesn't even have to be such a rule. But the idea of function as a machine is such a powerful and intuitive one that it tends to be used pretty universally until you have a good reason to abandon it…

Experimental Consciousness

Last Saturday I penned a snarky comment about the philosophy of science, and within a week I read something that's particularly interesting from that very perspective. Well, might as well use it when it has its uses. Some preliminary: It is certainly either true or false that Julius Caesar's paternal grandfather sneezed on his tenth birthday. Can we figure out which using science? Let's review what has to be available in order to do science. While there's always debate at the margins as to what constitutes science, virtually any working scientist will tell you that the main issue is…

Greatest Physicists #7 - Erwin Schrodinger

#7 - Erwin Schrodinger Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics! Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics! That's the first couple of lines of Cecil Adams' brilliant epic poem about Schrodinger's cat. Why does Schrodinger deserve an epic poem? Because he's the 7th greatest physicist, that's why. Schrodinger was born in Austria in 1877. Looking back we can see that such a placement is a bit ominous, but war has rarely prevented science from moving forward. Quite the opposite, usually. He achieved his habilitation in 1914, and spent the next four years as an artillary officer. It…

Randomness for the Weekend

The debate? Didn't watch it. I'm keeping my "not watching the debates this year" record spotless. Not because I don't want to keep myself informed but because modern TV debate formats don't let anyone do anything but go for the best soundbites, zingers, and gotchas. That said I'll probably read the transcript, but I can't bear to actually waste the time to sit through watching it live. I'd personally like candidates to debate Lincoln-Douglas style including cross-examination, unmoderated except for a guy with a timer. That I would watch. Anyway, both sides seem to be more or less…

Greatest Physicists - Honorable Mentions

Remember the post a while back where we tried to come up with a list of the 10 greatest physicists? I've been thinking and rearranging and I think I've come up with a list I'm reasonably happy with. There are quite a few great physicists I'm not happy at all about having to leave out, but 10 is a small number and no matter which ten are picked there's at least ten more who have some good cause to feel left out. The criteria is the importance of their contribution to physics, not just their raw brilliance. To make up for those left out, I'm including a number of unordered Honorable Mentions…

Gustav Rising

"It's not the heat, it's the humidity." This is said by people all over the country, especially so in the coastal south where 90+ degree heat is made that much worse by air thick enough to swim in. But heat is usually an inconvenience. Hurricanes are another matter. It's not the wind, it's the water. I was in Baton Rouge during Katrina. We had tropical storm force winds that knocked around anything not car-sized or bolted down, downed trees, and some lost power. What's a little less well known is that New Orleans only experienced category 1 winds - low category 2 at the absolute most…

Sunday Function

If you're a regular reader of this site, you might remember a post about this fascinating specimen from the collection of unusual functions. I'm only showing it on the interval [-1,1] for reasons that will become apparent, but outside that region the growth tapers off rapidly and the function approaches 1 for large negative and large positive x. It's continuous once you define the point at the origin, and it has continuous derivatives of all orders. Nevertheless, if you try to find the power series about the origin, you see that every term in the series is 0. You can try offsetting the…

Fossil tracks show a pterosaur coming in for a landing

Several million years ago, at a time when dinosaurs walked the earth, a flying reptile - a pterosaur - came in for a landing. As it approached, it used its powerful wings to slow itself down and hit the ground feet first. It took a short hopping step before landing a second time. On solid ground, it leant forward, put its arms down and walked away on all fours. The landing made quite an impression on the underlying limestone mud and in the following millennia, the creature's tracks became fossilised. Now, they have been unearthed by Jean-Michel Mazin from the University of Lyon at a site…

Introducing Kate Lee, World's Fair Intern, Good Ole Computational Modeler

This post was authored by new World's Fair intern Kate Lee.* Hi, my name is Kate Lee, and I'm happy to be your intern today. How cool is this? I get to write stuff and it will be posted on the World's Fair, one among many of the fine blogs on scienceblogs.com! When Dave and Ben first sent out the call looking for interns, the idea of me filling those shoes got me excited mainly for selfish and egotistical reasons. On the selfish side: Since I graduated college, it has become rare for me to sit down and write about science (or anything, really). In college, I spent so much time writing,…

THE 2007 SCIENCE SPRING SHOWDOWN!!!

CLICK HERE FOR UP TO DATE COVERAGE AT THE PRESS CENTER (Download Bracket) PDF | JPG BEN: Welcome, Ladies and Gentleman to the 2007 SCIENCE SPRING SHOWDOWN - the thinking person's ccomplement to the NCAA tournament! Sponsored by the fine folks at ScienceBlogs Basic Concepts. That's right people, it's the dance, and we're here at the World's Fair bringing this to you live. We're about ready to give you that first exclusive look at the 2007 brackets. Over to you Dave. DAVE: Sure thing Ben. The conference tournaments are now officially complete. Yes, the selection committee has made all the…

Reign of termite queens rests on a single gene

The success of termites Âand other social insects hinges on their complex social systems, where workers sacrifice the ability to raise their own young in order to serve the colony and its queen - the only individual who reproduces. But this social order can be thrown into chaos by knocking out a single gene, and one that originally had a role in that other characteristic termite ability - eating wood. Judith Korb from the University of Osnabrueck in Germany found that the queen termite relies on a gene called Neofem2 to rule over her subjects. Korb worked with the termite Cryptotermes…

Go away, Martin Gaskell, we're done with you

People are still whining at me about Martin Gaskell, the astronomer/old earth creationist who didn't get a job at the University of Kentucky. I'm afraid you're not going to convince me; I wouldn't hire the guy under any conditions, because he endorses very bad science. How bad? Well, read his defense of Genesis. Even though the version on the web has apparently been edited since the controversy began, it still contains some telling revelations. Clearly, the fellow he views as one of the best sources with views similar to his own is Hugh Ross; he's cited frequently, and is praised as a good…

Spinning up the earth

There's an interesting science puff piece that's been circulating around various media outlets about the length of the day after the earthquake in Chile. At random, here's the NY Daily News version: The quake that rocked the South American nation may have also knocked the Earth off its axis. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake near Chile may have also made our planet's days shorter, according to NASA scientist Richard Gross. A minor change in the Earth's axis isn't expected to alter much in terms of weather. The planet's tilt influences the seasons, allowing for winter, spring, summer and fall, and…

Super Bowl Coin Toss, Mathematically

Every year there's a Super Bowl, and every year the whole shebang gets started by a famous person tossing a coin into the air. The team winning the toss gets to decide whether they want to begin the game on offense or defense. Theoretically this choice might produce an advantage. If so, would be interesting to know how much. The same thing happens in physics - just how much signal is hidden in the random noise of an experimental apparatus? Let's take a look at the numbers and try to see what kind of advantage the toss-winning team has. The data is pretty straightforward - in 43 coin…

Raising the Burj Khalifa

I've got to admit, this is a beautiful skyscraper: I was never very enamored of the Petronias Towers or the Taipei 101, both of which lacked the architectural panache that supertall structures ought to have. The Burj Khalifa has it. Burj Dubai is a more elegant name, but long story short Dubai really got nuked by the worldwide financial crisis and this Khalifa fellow helped keep Dubai out of bankruptcy. So now he has the world's tallest building named after him. The Burj Khalifa cost around a billion and a half dollars to construct, and I expect that figure would have been enormously…

Sunday Function

Edit: The previous version of this post required some fixing, as I boneheadedly mixed up the O and Ω notations. The rest of it should still be good. When you invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or just about any other major investment vehicle, you'll hear a standard but important disclaimer. "Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns." And it's wholly true. The hottest mutual fund of the last five years will very frequently revert to the mean over the next five. Or, start a Harley Davidson and an F-22 on the same runway and for the first few seconds the motorcycle…

Longfellow, Wellington, and Coriolis.

I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow This is what happens when you don't pay attention in freshman physics. You don't need to see where the arrow goes to find out where it lands, you just need the initial speed and angle. Two simple accelerated motion equations later, you have the range. The method isn't perfect since it fails to account for air resistance and other factors, but for finding an arrow it's a lot better than shrugging and giving up once you lose…