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 readingPhysicsworld 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 readingLast 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 […]
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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 readingAn 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 readingMy 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 readingYes, 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 […]
Continue readingHave a good look at the photo. The pretty rhododendron to the left of the chair looks a bit odd. That’s because it’s a ghost shrub. No, our garden isn’t haunted, and neither have I doctored the photo; it’s an example of Pepper’s Ghost – an illusion caused by reflections. The bush in question is […]
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