Skip to content
Physics Stop

Month: September 2020

When analogies are taken too far: Spacetime is bent, but it’s not quite a stretchy membrane

September 30, 2020 | Marcus | science, Uncategorised

Last week I was asked by some school students about the nature of gravity. What is it? Isaac Newton, and a whole pile of textbooks following him, treat gravity as an attractive force between two objects. It’s a force that is proportional to the product of the masses of the two objects, and is inversely […]

Continue reading

Friction and the Anti-lock Braking System

September 22, 2020 | Marcus | science

Yesterday afternoon I had to call on my car’s anti-lock braking system (ABS). For reasons best known to its driver, a car pulled out of a side road right in front of me while I was driving home after work, and I needed to stop in a hurry. I rather think the car behind me […]

Continue reading

Post-communist Bulgaria, solar eclipses, and NZ Level 2 restrictions

September 1, 2020 | Marcus | health, science, Uncategorised

In August 1999, I had the opportunity to travel from the U.K. to Varna, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea coast, to view the European Total Solar Eclipse. Just why we ended up in Varna, as opposed to a plethora of other possibilities in Europe, is a bit of a long story, but a substantial part […]

Continue reading

Search Physics Stop

Pages

  • About Physics Stop
  • Archives

Tags

air astronomy atoms climate change colour communication covid-19 cricket Einstein electricity electromagnetism electron electrons energy engineering experiment experiments fluids gravity heat LHC light mathematics maths measurement mechanics mechanisms metrology modelling Newton's laws oscillation particle physics quantum quantum mechanics radiation science sound statistical-physics teaching thermodynamics time transport water waves weather

Recent Archives

  • April 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020

Categories

  • environment
  • health
  • science
  • Uncategorised

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2023 Physics Stop | All views expressed on this site are the the authors on and do not represent the opinions of the University of Waikato.