model

I probably should have included this idea on my "All about science" blog post. Maybe I didn't put it in there because if I talk about what science is you can figure out what it is not. Science is not math Science is all about making models. It is true that many current models are mathematical models, but it doesn't have to be that way, and it hasn't always been that way. Think about rubbing a piece of metal with a magnet. It gets magnetized - right? What if you then cut that magnet in half? Then you have two smaller magnets. How can you make a model that explains this phenomena? Yes…
There are a couple of things I should probably not talk about. One of them is photons. But no matter what you think about photons you will probably agree that this is not a very good description of electromagnetic radiation. (from comos4kids.com) Structure of Energy:All EM energy waves travel at the speed of light when in a vacuum. No matter what their frequency or wavelength, they always move at the same speed. Some properties of waves, such as diffraction and interference, are also seen in EM radiation. Scientists have figured out that there are tiny particles in these waves. The…
I have been meaning to write about this for quite some time. Really, I wanted to reply to Chad's article on science at Uncertain Principles, but you know how things go. So, here are my key and interesting points about science in random order. Science is all about models (not ball bearings) Science is about making models. What is a model? A model can be lots of things. It can be a mathematical relationship, a conceptual model, or even a physical model. One model I like to use is static friction. For many cases, the frictional force can be modeled as: This model says the frictional…
There's an old adage for bomb technicians - if you see them running, try to keep up. But preliminary research carried out by the Florida Institute of Technology suggests that bolting for the exit when confronted by a suicide bomber is a poor choice of strategy. Assistant Professor Daniel Kirk and Fulbright Scholar Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani developed physics-based computer models to predict the magnitude and number of casualties occurring in suicide bomber attacks. They found that the precise location of individuals in the room had a large impact on the injuries they received. Simulations…
When you pour a beer, there is this foamy top called the head. The size of the head decreases over time. What is this process dependent on? Clearly, little bubbles of beer are popping. Does each bubble have an equal probability of popping? Do only the bubbles on the top (or bottom) pop? I became aware of this idea from a colleague. Maybe he was going to do an analysis, but I haven't seen it yet. If you do (Gerard), I am sorry for doing this before you. This may have been investigated before, but in the spirit of re-doing everything I have not searched for previous beer head studies.…
Podcasts are great. While cleaning the car today, I listened to a new one - Stuff you missed in history class (itunes link). In one episode, they were talking about alternative theories about early visits to America. There was some guy that was claiming the Chinese visited the new world 70 years before Columbus (or something to that effect). This is a great example of how similar science and history are to each other. Both science and history make 'models'. In history this may be 'the Chinese visited americas before the Europeans'. It is just like a model in science. It is an idea that…
[In part I of this post](http://scienceblogs.com/dotphysics/2008/11/interaction-between-light-an…), I struggled to show that a particle in an infinite well can only exist at certain energies. If you try to put a particle with more than one energy, the probability oscillates at a frequency (E2 - E1)/h. So, what is next? Well I think I am ready to attack the photon. According to the ultimate source of truthiness (wikipedia), [the photon is the elementary particle responsible for the electromagnetic interaction](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon). In general, the photon is view as the…
One of the fundamental aspects of physics is the study of light and how that interacts with matter. I have been putting off this post - mainly because I am not a quantum mechanic (I am a classical mechanic). There are lots of things that could be done in this post, but I am going to try and keep it limited (and maybe come back to the interesting points later). Also, most of my posts are aimed at the intro-college level or advanced high school level. This will be a little higher. If you are in high school, there is still a lot of stuff for you here. Let me summarize where I am going to…
So, I am still in Alabama because of lack of electricity in Louisiana (although we got power back last night - YAY!). My wife convinced me to go out and hear this band since we are staying at my parents and they said they would watch the kids. In general, I am way too old and crotchety to go out - but it appears I had no choice. Overall, it was not too bad except for staying out too late. (the band was actually pretty good - I think they were called [Fly By Radio](http://www.fly-byradio.com/) and they played 80s musics) The one thing I thought about while in the bar was the long line of…
Here I am, at my parents house. There is no power at my house and Louisiana in September with no power is really a whole bunch of no-fun. But maybe I can use this time to talk about science. **The Nature of Science** Here is a review. What is science all about? (I am pretty sure I talked about this before) Science is about making observations and from those observations creating models. If the model predicts other things that are confirmed, then that is good. If not, the model must be changed. Really, it's that simple. **Hurricane Models** It is somewhat interesting that forecasting…
Bret Underwood, a friend of mine from my time in Madison, WI, saw my post on String Theory, and took issue with my statement that it wasn't testable. I'm still standing behind what I said, but let's address what Bret has to say. I donât understand your argument above for why string theory is untestable. In fact, it seems to me you just outlined the best possible case for string theory! What you said above is that if I have a string theory construction of a phenomenon (say, the Standard Model or Inflation), which uses a set of parameters X, and makes some predictions, then I can find another…