Blogging has ground to a halt in recent days, as I try to get other things done, such as research proposals, reviewing a PhD thesis, supervising a summer student, and attending numerous parties. I’m off on holidays very soon, but will be back early January. I’m currently grappling with an ever increasing parameter space in […]
Continue readingYear: 2012
Verification and Validation
I’ve worked on a lot of computer models of physics things for my various employers to date. Although I’d describe myself as primarily a physicist, I’m also a computer modeller – that’s what holds together my work on mould growth in grain silos, dispersion of dust within pig-sheds, infra-red sensors, radar propagation, electrical behaviour of […]
Continue readingCelebrating Teaching Day
This morning we were treated to some talks by some of the award-winning teachers at The University of Waikato. It was a bit unfortunate that none of the talks were from the ‘scientific’ disciplines, but that’s not because none of the winners were from scientific disciplines. We have our good share of excellent teachers in […]
Continue readingUndiscovery in physics
With the recent undiscovery of Sandy Island I’ve begun wondering what other things might be ripe for undiscovery. Wasps, for example. Wouldn’t it be great if we realized that there wasn’t actually any evidence for the existence of wasps after all. Their discovery had been just a mistake made by an entomologist back in the […]
Continue readingSeeing circular polarization
Physicsworld magazine is doing a ‘special feature’ this month on animal superheroes – those with rather unusual physical abilities. The best of the lot (in my subjective opinion) is the featured-on-the-cover mantis shrimp. Not because of its ‘dactyl clubs’ that can produce a force of 700 N, but because of its eyesight. The mantis shrimp […]
Continue readingValidity in experiment
Last Friday I was at the Waikato Science Teachers’ one day conference in Cambridge. There was a wide range of different material talked about, which made for an interesting day. One of the questions which was tackled (led by Simon Taylor) was ‘When is an experiment valid?’ Or, what is ‘validity’ all about when it […]
Continue readingPinhole cameras and eclipses
Well, the eclipse yesterday was fun. There were enough patches of sky between the clouds to get some good views. I was pleased that the pinhole cameras I made out of miscellaneous cardboard tubes, tins, paper and tinfoil worked really well. Also, the trees around the front of the sciences building gave some nice natural […]
Continue readingIn a not-quite symmetric world
An interesting problem to ask students to think about is this: Write down a definition of ‘left’ (as in the opposite of right). It’s something every adult knows, but how do you define it. There’s little wonder that children take a long time to grasp which is left and which is right. One might say: […]
Continue readingA tip for the scholarship physics exam
My last entry gave a couple of tips for exams in general. Now, here’s a tip specifically for the NZQA scholarship physics exam. In part, it comes from an assessment of the interviews I’ve been doing with first year students and practising physicists on the way that mathematics is used in physics. One really strong […]
Continue readingMy top two exam tips
Yes, it’s that time of year again that a sizable slab of the population dreads. Exams. University exams are in full swing here, and the school ones are creeping up. So, here are my top two exam tips to help you on your way. You might think they are very, very obvious, but it is […]
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