One of the many physics stories I haven’t had time to blog about recently is the demonstration of relativistic time effects using atomic clocks. I did mention a DAMOP talk about the experiment, but the actual paper was published in Science (and is freely available from the NIST Time and Frequency Division (PDF file), because… Continue reading How Do You Trap an Ion, Anyway?
Category: Science
Academic Poll: Course Selection
We’ve just recently completed pre-registration for Winter term classes, so I’ve been thinking a bit about why students do and do not sign up for things. Thus, a poll: You are a college student considering an elective class in your major, and you see it has a lab. Your reaction is:survey software Feel free to… Continue reading Academic Poll: Course Selection
Physics Job Market: Same As It Ever Was
The American Institute of Physics has a statistics division that produces lots of interesting analyses of issues relevant to the discipline. A couple of them were released just recently, including one on the job status of new Ph.D.’s (PDF). The key graph from the report is this one: The text of the report talks up… Continue reading Physics Job Market: Same As It Ever Was
Massive Giveaway Winner(s)
Last week’s guess-the-number contest for my spare copy of Massive by Ian Sample generated over 150 comments. So, who won? Well, I said at the time: I am thinking of an integer between 0 and 1000 (inclusive). The person who comes closest to guessing the number by midnight Eastern time Friday, November 5 wins a… Continue reading Massive Giveaway Winner(s)
Entangled in Sports Analogies
Having written in defense of analogies in physics yesterday, I should note that not all of the analogies that are brought out in an attempt to clarify physics concepts are good. For example, there’s this incredibly strained opening to a Science News article on entanglement: If the Manning brothers were quantum physicists as well as… Continue reading Entangled in Sports Analogies
Physics Is All About Analogies
Regular commenter onymous left a comment to my review of Warped Passages that struck me as a little odd: The extended analogy between the renormalization group and a bureaucracy convinced me that she was trying way too hard to make sophisticated concepts comprehensible. Also, I’m not really sure that analogies are the best way to… Continue reading Physics Is All About Analogies
How to Teach Physics to Your Spanish Dog
I can’t resist interrupting the relatively productive day I’m having working on the new book to point you to Conversación de fÃsica con mi perro, the Spanish-language edtion of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, which sports this spiffy cover: I haven’t seen a physical copy of this yet, but the vanity search turned… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Spanish Dog
The Unexpected Leaping Ability of Bovines
I’m spending the day trying to get some work done on the book-in-progress, so I’m avoiding both work- and blog-related stuff. I don’t want to leave the site completely quiet, though, so here’s a question to ponder, relating to SteelyKid’s continuing fascination with Goodnight Moon: How does a cow jump over the moon? The father… Continue reading The Unexpected Leaping Ability of Bovines
Massive Giveaway: Guess the Number, Win a Book
In a case of poor communication between publicists, I have ended up with not one but two advance copies of Massive by Ian Sample, a forthcoming book about the Higgs Boson. As I barely have time to read one, I don’t remotely need two; thus, I will dispose of one with a really simple contest:… Continue reading Massive Giveaway: Guess the Number, Win a Book
Warped Passages by Lisa Randall
I have nothing useful or interesting to say about electoral politics, but I suspect that’s all people will want to read about today. So here’s a book post that’s been backlogged for quite a while. Lisa Randall’s Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions dates from 2005, and was, I think, part… Continue reading Warped Passages by Lisa Randall