I had hoped to have another post or two scheduled for the end of this week, but The Pip got some kind of stomach bug, and threw everything into disarray. And tonight, I’m flying to Houston to give a couple of talks as part of Physics Day at Space Center Houston. Life being what it… Continue reading Messing With Texas
Month: April 2014
SteelyKid Demonstrates Relativity
Before going to the playground Saturday to investigate non-intertial frames, SteelyKid and I went over to campus to do some experiments in relativity. Galileian relativity, that is: What you see here is SteelyKid sitting on a rolling lab cart with a camera bolted to it. She throws a ball up in the air a couple… Continue reading SteelyKid Demonstrates Relativity
Non-Inertial Playground Physics
The Schenectady JCC, where SteelyKid and The Pip go to day care, has a playground with a merry-go-round on it. How this hasn’t been sued out of existence, I have no idea, but it’s a great boon to a physics professor. I’ve used it before to talk about angular momentum, but this weekend I enlisted… Continue reading Non-Inertial Playground Physics
Cosmos and the Women
Back when the first episode of the Cosmos reboot aired, somebody put together a composite of the cartoon people who flashed on screen, and we played a guessing game on Twitter. The image above is from a blog post by Meg at True Anomalies, and I think it was probably her, but the ephemeral nature… Continue reading Cosmos and the Women
Great Moments in Puzzling Axis Labels
While I’m complaining about statisticulation in social media, I was puzzled by the graph in Kevin Drum’s recent post about college wage gaps, which is reproduced as the “featured image” above, and also copied below for those reading via RSS. I don’t dispute the general phenomenon this is describing– that the top 10% of college… Continue reading Great Moments in Puzzling Axis Labels
Adjunct Faculty and Awful Stats
Via a mailing list, probably via this Tyler Cowen post, an awful statistic about adjunct faculty: 35 years ago there were 44% more tenured faculty than adjuncts. Today there are 76% more adjuncts than tenured faculty, via @chronicle — Ángel Cabrera (@CabreraAngel) April 25, 2014 This is awful in two ways. First, it’s obviously a… Continue reading Adjunct Faculty and Awful Stats
Academic Round-up: Exam Review, Student Comments, Speaker Invitations
A collection of miscellaneous stuff with an academic inclination from the past week or so: — We gave an exam last night in introductory E&M (I’m teaching one of five sections this term), so we’ve spent a lot of time this week on exam review. One thing that might be worth mentioning here is the… Continue reading Academic Round-up: Exam Review, Student Comments, Speaker Invitations
Flame Challenge Finalists 2014: What Is Color?
The finalists for the 2014 “Flame Challenge” have been selected, three written entries and three visual entries. None of these is my entry, alas, but it was worth a shot. I watched the videos last night, and it was sort of interesting to compare what ended up working well with the test audience of 11-year-olds… Continue reading Flame Challenge Finalists 2014: What Is Color?
Guardian Emmy
“DAAAAADDDDDYYYYY!!!!” “What’s the matter, honey?” “I don’t like being alone.” “Well, I’m sorry, honey, but I have work to do, and it’s time for you to go to sleep.” “But when I’m alone I get scared.” “Well, I can put on some music if you like. You can listen to that, and it might give… Continue reading Guardian Emmy
Go Fly a Kite
The kids spent last week at Grandma and Grandpa’s, as school was closed for Passover/Easter (best wishes for each of those holidays to those who celebrate them), and Kate and I went down there for the weekend. During which trip we went up on top of the flood control dam in town, and flew a… Continue reading Go Fly a Kite