I was out of town last week, and doing talk prep leading up to that, so it’s been a little while since my last collection of Forbes links. Here’s the latest from over there: — Football Physics: The Forces Behind Those Big Hits: A look at force, momentum, and acceleration in tackling. — The Science… Continue reading Physics Blogging Round-Up: Football, Harmonic Oscillation, Parallel Worlds, Citizen Science, and Optics
056/366: SpeakingKid
SteelyKid’s second-grade class is doing a “Zoom Time” thing where the kids make short presentations to the class about one of their interests. It’s basically an expanded show-and-tell, with fifteen minutes for talking, and five for “questions and compliments.” She, of course, decided to talk about taekwondo, so I brought her sparring gear in and… Continue reading 056/366: SpeakingKid
055/366: Take Off
You didn’t get a photo of the day yesterday because this was my day: I spent about seven hours on planes, starting before the sun was up in California, to say nothing of the time spent in airports. I had the good camera with me, so I got some cool photos out the plane window,… Continue reading 055/366: Take Off
054/366: Unprecedented Catblogging
As noted yesterday, I’m visiting my sister for a few days, since I was on the West Coast anyway. Being here in Southern California, it seems appropriate to jack Kevin Drum’s style and do some cat-blogging, and luckily enough, my sister is the Cat Person in the family. So, here they are: SteelyKid was really… Continue reading 054/366: Unprecedented Catblogging
053/366: Mount Rubidoux
Having successfully given two talks in Sacramento, I’m spending a few days visiting my sister in Riverside, CA, because it’s not often I’m on the West Coast at all. She had to work this morning, so I went on a bit of a hike up and down Mt. Rubidoux, where the city has built a… Continue reading 053/366: Mount Rubidoux
052/366: Fire Sheep
Having a slow morning here in Sacramento, because yesterday started before 4am and ended after 1am, according to my internal clock. This provided the opportunity to take some nicer pictures than just the obligatory hotel-window shot, so I went for a walk on the bike path by the American River. Where I saw Fire Sheep:… Continue reading 052/366: Fire Sheep
051/366: OBParkingLot
I’m in California for a few days, to give a couple of talks in Sacramento. I’m told that it’s traditional to commemorate such travel by taking a photo of a hotel parking lot, so here you go: There are, in fact, palm trees around here, just not any that are visible from the hotel room… Continue reading 051/366: OBParkingLot
050/366: Physics Toy
When we were in DC back in July, SteelyKid purchased a toy Newton’s cradle. And I already owned a 1000fps video camera, so it was inevitable that the one would end up in front of the other… I spent a while this afternoon making high-speed video of the toy clicking back and forth, but didn’t… Continue reading 050/366: Physics Toy
049/366: Frozen Fractals
We’ve had a serious cold snap over the last few days, with temperatures dropping from the 60F kind of range down to 40F. And with that comes, well: Happily, it’s going to warm back up over the next couple of days, but it won’t be long before I need to extend nearly every morning’s routine… Continue reading 049/366: Frozen Fractals
The Evolution of a Sad Balloon
A few years back, I did a couple of posts on the physics of a sad balloon (that is, a helium balloon that can no longer lift itself up to the ceiling), the first on simple buoyancy, the second on how long it takes for the helium to leak out. These were based on only… Continue reading The Evolution of a Sad Balloon