I don’t have a TV in Oxford but do in France. I pay the BBC license fee in the UK because I think the BBC is the greatest British institution. Sadly iPlayer doesn’t work in France and I can’t tell it that I am a paid-up member and should be entitled to view. So I …
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Category:Physics
Solar Freakin’ Roadways…
Here is the original sales pitch for a money-raising campaign for solar panels that fit into roads and other paved or tarmacked areas. It is a very wittily and cleverly put together piece of video advertising and it has so far raised 2.25 million dollars in public donations. . I would be interested to hear if …
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Signal Proof Headwear…
From the Kickstarter page… We are not saying that it protects 100% against all kinds of electromagnetic waves that are bad for your health, what we are saying is that if you care about yourself, be smart and put on this first signal proof apparel instead of the usual one – no one will spot it …
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LHC Fires Up Again…
In November 2009 I wrote about the first experimental laps of the LHC that sub-atomic particles were taking. I have also written about the Synchrotron just south of Oxford, about the standard model and atoms and molecules more generally. It would be worth going back and re-reading them and maybe having a bash at the …
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Magnetic Menace…
Another Thunderfoot video, but this time about one of the early ‘battles of science’ during the 2nd World War. It is a longish watch but stick at it. He eventually builds a working, kitchen-table experiment to show how the British finally neutralised the threat. It also raises lots of simple scientific ideas that I will …
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Circuit Construction…
More Randomness…
Randomness fascinates me, which is why I have encouraged readers of this blog to listen to the Stochasticity episode of the RadioLab podcast. (You can read about this and other podcast recommendations here.) The following is quite a lengthy (10 minute) video about the randomness (or entropy) of the Universe; free-will and quantum mechanics. It …
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Newton’s Cradle…
The inestimable Mrs Ives ‘tagged’ me on Facebook yesterday when she posted a funny cartoon that referred to a Newton’s Cradle. These are toys to have on your desk that rather neatly show the principles of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy. Momentum is mass × velocity (mv) whereas you calculate kinetic energy with the formula ½mass × …
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Two Cultures…
I apologise in advance for the whimsical nature of this post. If you don’t want ‘philosophy’, you might prefer to read this, this or this; all of which are rich in sciency goodness and have interesting questions and comments for you to ponder. I was listening to Flanders and Swann (audio link at the end) …
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