I’ve had a great reply to an older post about confidence in doing experimental work. Rather than leave it inconspicuously at the bottom of an aging post, I think it’s worthwhile a reply in a post of its own. Hope you don’t mind the publicity, John. Here’s the comment, to the original post. As a classic unconfident […]
Continue readingYear: 2011
Happy Christmas
With Christmas approaching (you can tell from the rapidly deteriorating weather) it’s time to take some leave. Physics-stop will be a little quiet until January, when the LHC might have a bit more data and the swimming pool here might have warmed up a touch. I wish you all a very happy Christmas and wonderful […]
Continue readingWas that a Higgs I just saw?
Well, CERN was certainly twittering away last night, though, to be fair, I’m glad I didn’t stay up for the press conference. Some things are worth trading in your sleep for, such as an eclipse of the moon (occasionally) or other astronomical event, an Ashes test, a Royal Wedding (just about), but, I’m afraid, not […]
Continue readingMomentum conservation again
There are some fantastic examples of momentum conservation in everyday life. This week I was attacking the leftovers from a tree removal we had a couple of weeks ago – turning the chainsaw-cut rings the tree surgeons left us into something that could be shoved into the fire come winter time (assuming no bees are […]
Continue readingWhen is my result incorrect?
I’ve been talking today with a PhD student about some measurements he’s made in the lab. In physics, like all sciences, when we measure something we don’t just make one measurement, but we measure it several times. That way you get a more accurate result. Now, with most physical measurements, we expect there to be […]
Continue readingJourney to the centre of the washing machine
I’m sure anyone who has ever used a top-loading washing machine will have seen this phenomenon occasionally: you lift the lid after the machine has been spinning and you find one item of clothing (such as your favourite most expensive shirt) stretched across the diameter. It happened to me last night. What’s happened is, right […]
Continue readingPhysics and Engineering Education
I’ve been talking this afternoon with some colleagues from the Faculty of Education here. While FoE is probably best known for teaching school teachers, that’s not all they do. In my particular case, I’ve been interested in how you go about doing research in education – with specific regard here to physics and engineering. While […]
Continue readingWhat’s the buzz?
Nothing to do with physics this bit: My wife was at home yesterday afternoon, and she phoned me at work. "Err…we’ve got a bit of a problem…." My immediate thought was maybe the plumber had severed the main water pipe or something disastrous like that, but no, rather different. "…I kind of heard this buzzing […]
Continue readingHot water
This weekend I decided it was about time that I twiddled all the various taps and valves associated with our water system – just to make sure none of them get seized in the ‘on’ position – wouldn’t be good if can’t get the water turned off when you need to most. Perhaps checking was […]
Continue readingRena: Where’s the physics?
On Tuesday night I attended a very informative and lively discussion at Cafe Scientifique on the Rena disaster. (For readers not in NZ, the Rena is the container ship that has been stuck on Astrolabe reef off the coast of Tauranga for the last few weeks, shedding oil and containers into the sea – see […]
Continue reading