Dot Physics

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 [...]

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 [...]

I love this question:

Why is it warmer in the summer than in the winter (for the Northern hemisphere)?

Go ahead and ask your friends. I suppose they will give one of the following likely answers:

The tilt of the Earth The tilt of the Earth makes us closer to the Sun [...]

I love this story. It is a story of how ideas changed about the nature of the atom. These are the notes (and diagrams) I use when I teach the atomic nature of matter to non-science majors. The best thing about this story is that it is a great example of science. [...]

I have been reflecting on my recent failure to realize that the Giant Water Slide Jump was fake (more analysis here). I think the guys that made this video did a really good job on several levels. First, the motion appears to do two important things:

shows constant acceleration in the vertical direction [...]

Still moving stuff over from my last server. Here is one that keeps coming up.

Surprisingly, I STILL get comments and questions from students and teachers about Pluto. Questions such as:

“Why do scientists hate Pluto?” “How did they discover that Pluto was not a planet” “What will happen [...]

Chad is posting some very useful stuff at Uncertain Principles. Basically, he has quite a few scientists that are not professors or such answering some questions. This is a great way for students to get a feel for what scientists actually do. If you don’t subscribe to Chad’s blog, you totally should. [...]

I have already talked about science and why everyone should take some science courses. The short answer (in case you don’t want to read the previous post) is that everyone should take science because science (along with art and other stuff) is what humans do.

So, tomorrow I will be off to attend a workshop [...]

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.

So, here are my key and interesting points about science in random order.