I’m still getting back up to speed with the blog, as well as the huge backlog of stuff I’ve read during the past few months when I was too busy to blog. Thus, I am semi-officially proclaiming this Book Review Week. I’ll post one review a day of books I was sent by publishers looking… Continue reading The Manga Guide to the Universe by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp.
Month: December 2011
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Introducing Energy
Moving along in our countdown to Newton’s birthday, we start to deal with equations that Sir Isaac never would’ve seen, because they deal with more abstract quantities than he worked with. The first and in some ways most important of these is energy: This is the full and correct expression for the energy of a… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: Introducing Energy
The Advent Calendar of Physics: The Spring’s the Thing
Continuing our countdown to Newton’s birthday, let’s acknowledge the contributions of one of his contemporaries and rivals with today’s equation: This is, of course, Hooke’s Law for a spring, which he famously published in 1660: ceiiinosssttuv Clears everything right up, doesn’t it? OK, maybe not. This one’s not only in Latin, it’s a cryptogram, unscrambling… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: The Spring’s the Thing
Links for 2011-12-04
The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2011 The year in photojournalism. How Beer Saved the World | Watch Free Documentary Online Did you know that beer was critical to the birth of civilization? That’s right – beer. Scientists and historians line up to tell the amazing, untold story of how beer helped create math, poetry,… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-04
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Newton and Einstein
We kicked off the countdown to Newton’s birthday with his second law of motion, which is almost but not quite everything you need to understand and predict the motion of objects. The missing piece is today’s equation: This is the full and correct definition of momentum, good for any speed all the way up to… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: Newton and Einstein
Links for 2011-12-03
AMNH | Master of Arts in Teaching Program Learn to teach Earth and Space science in New York City through the Master of Arts in Teaching Urban Residency Program at the American Museum of Natural History; the first urban teacher residency program offered by a museum. *Full-time 15 month program with benefits and stipend *Small… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-03
Belated Cute Blogging
Both Monday and Thursday were too hectic this week to get good family pictures. I got this one today, though, that I think is probably worth the wait: The great thing about taking pictures of really little babies is that they sleep soundly enough for you to futz around changing lenses and apertures and all… Continue reading Belated Cute Blogging
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Action and Reaction
We kicked off our countdown to Newton’s birthday with his second law of motion, so the obvious next step is to go to his third law of motion: This one was also originally in Latin, because that’s how Ike liked to roll: Lex III: Actioni contrariam semper et æqualem esse reactionem: sive corporum duorum actiones… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: Action and Reaction
Links for 2011-12-02
Tailgating Recipes: Puff Pastry Samosas – NYTimes.com I’m dubious, because the texture of the outside would be way different than a real samosa. But it looks relatively simple, so maybe it’d be worth a try. The Deepening Paradox — KarlSchroeder.com If the Fermi Paradox is a profound question, then this answer is equally profound. It… Continue reading Links for 2011-12-02
The Advent Calendar of Physics: Force and Momentum
It’s that time of year again, when we count down the days to Isaac Newton’s birthday (according to the Julian calendar, anyway), and how better to mark this than with mathematics? Thus, I’ll post an equation a day until either Christmas Eve or I run out of ideas, and talk about what it means and… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: Force and Momentum