I was browsing the Symphony Of Science website and thought I would put one of the songs on here. They are videos of scientists talking about “Life, the Universe and Everything” but put to music. A program called Auto-Tune is used to turn normal spoken English into sung lyrics. It is the same technology that …
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Category:Physics
Forces v Energy (Part I)…
A thing that often causes a little confusion is the distinction between energy (the capacity to do work – measured in joule) and forces (which are simply pushes or pulls – measured in Newton). It is very important to read exam questions very carefully to avoid using the wrong one. Energy There are three forms …
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Forces v Energy (Part II)…
The next thrilling instalment in the ‘Forces v Energy‘ series – who will win? Well, neither because they are totally different things so they cannot have any sort of competition or conflict. It would be like saying ‘Custard v Empathy’ – which will win? Forces Forces are measured in Newton. Forces cause objects to speed …
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Mysterious Yellow Orb…
Yesterday dawned bright and cold. The overcast skies were now blue and dominated by a large yellow object that appeared to be a source of both light and heat. A little research and I discovered it is called the Sun and it is the ultimate source of all Earth’s energy. Even more amazingly, every star …
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Gravity Powered Light…
A pair of designers based in London has raised $200,000 towards developing their design for a gravity powered lamp – GravityLight. The idea is that these can be used in communities where access to electricity is restricted. As you may remember from our lessons spent running up flights of stairs, gravitational potential energy (Joule) = …
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Felix Baumgartner – Crazy Name, Crazy Guy…
I am sure you all remember 1960 (!) when Joe Kittinger jumped from an altitude of 31,333 metres setting an unbroken record for the highest parachute jump. Just to put that in persective, a jumbo jet flies at about 12,000 metres. Now, a base jumper called Felix Baumgartner is planning to jump from 36,575 metres. …
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Large Hadron Collider…
Protons should be beginning their warm-up laps in preparation for piling into the main ring of the LHC at CERN on the Swiss-French border. As you know, shortly after their big launch in September last year, they had a short-circuit followed by a leak of helium that threatened to destroy all their hard work. Now they …
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Free Fall…
New Scientist recently featured an article about a wingsuit flyer who plans to be the first to land from a freefall jump without a parachute. A wingsuit increases the jumper’s cross-sectional area so there is more air resistance (drag) and so he falls more slowly. If he is sufficiently skilful he can perform aerial stunts such as …
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