Dot Physics

I think we are entering a new era. An era where it is quite simple to find and get great videos. Oh, just saw a great tackle on the TV? In the old days, you would have to get that video off the TV yourself. Not anymore. Welcome to the [...]

I am so pumped up that MythBusters is back on. Not only do I like the show, but it offers so many blogging opportunities. Their latest show featured car crashing myths. One of the myths from the episode was a redo of the myth where two trucks crash head on simultaneously crushing [...]

Now, what about Ruff? What did he do this time to get me fired up? The episode was about something to do with hockey. Some of the kids were trying to make goalie padding – maybe? It started off fine. They had someone talking about what the gear does. 1) allows the interaction from the hockey puck to act over a larger area and 2) increase the time of the interaction. The time is increased by putting some squishy stuff in there. Good

In a previous post, I talked about numerical calculations. The basic idea is to use the momentum principle and the following “recipe”:

Update the position of the particle Update the momentum of the particle Update the force on the particle

Looks great, right? Well, it mostly is great. [...]

Pre Reqs: Kinematics, Momentum Principle

What are “numerical calculations”? Why are they in the “basics”? I will give you really brief answer and then a more detailed answer. Numerical calculations (also called many other things – like computational physics) takes a problem and breaks into a WHOLE bunch of smaller easier problems. [...]

I already said I like scratch from MIT. After building a simple rocket model, the kids said it should be a game. I caved. Here it is:

Learn more about this project

To play, press the space bar. The arrow keys are rocket thrusts. The goal is to get to the [...]