Dot Physics

I am moving to ScienceBlogs.com. So, as I have said before, basically it will be the same stuff, new server. As of right now, only my new stuff is at http://ScienceBlogs.com/dotphysics, but soon all my old stuff will be there too.

To summarize:

It is not you, it’s me. Thousand points of [...]

Everyone knows, or should know how much I like MythBusters. Here is the problem. Below is a picture of Adam analyzing the motion of a an exploding water heater.

Actually, I applaud Adam for his creative use of the vernier caliper. Really, it is an example of “making things work”. However, in [...]

In my previous post on launching a pumpkin (punkin chunkin) I essentially just looked at what happens to the pumpkin after it is launched. How fast would you have to shoot it to go 1 mile? The answer seems to be around 1000 mph and they are currently shooting them around 600 mph.

The [...]

Last night I saw the newest episode of MythBusters. One of the myths they revisited was the exploding water heater. Well, it turns out that I had an analysis of this first explosion, but I didn’t move it over when I switched software. So, here it is.

In case you never saw the [...]

Not really. Here are the details (and some data) for the Millikan Oil Drop Experiment without the oil drop that I talked about previously (originally from The Physics Teacher – lucky you, it was a featured article so it should still be available (pdf)).

The basic idea that Lowell McCann and Earl Blodgett from U [...]

Maybe this isn’t that mysterious. However, quite some time ago my daughter found this rock in the backyard. First, you must understand that this is an odd occurrence. In this part of Louisiana, there really aren’t any rocks, just dirt. When she showed it to me, I readily dismissed it as [...]

This is for commenter JimP. How do you take into account uncertainty when using video analysis? A great question. The first thing to think about is where does the uncertainty come from? My first guess would that it would be from the user. Where does the user click? Is [...]

Very simply, parallax is an apparent motion of an object due to a change in observation position. Let me start with an example. Here are two photos. I took a picture of the cabinet in the background from two slightly different positions. In the foreground is a clone trooper that did [...]

I already attacked the 2008 Punkin Chunkin Show. So, now I going to give the chunkers some tips. In case you aren’t familiar, the Punkin Chunkin contest has teams create devices to launch a pumpkin. They have different categories, but I am going to focus on the air-powered devices. The basic [...]

I am sad to say the following comes from a school that I attended. This was from an alumni newsletter regarding the activities of one of the physics faculty.

“Since the time of Archimedes, sciences advanced along two avenues, through new experiments and through theory….”

I have a problem with just that first part, but it [...]