One of the top challenges for physics in the modern era, along with Climate Change and explaining Dark Energy, has to be fixing the problem of bad light*. (I’m talking cricket – what else?) It’s a quintessentially English problem. It’s not raining, the pitch is perfectly playable, the spectators (COVID-19 notwithstanding) are enjoying themselves, but […]
Continue readingThe problem is [this] big surge in New Zealand … it’s terrible. We don’t want that.’ Yes, Mr Trump, it’s unwelcome. And we certainly don’t want it. But the US, on the other hand, might be a lot happier to replace its last 7 days of COVID-19 statistics with New Zealand’s. Here’s the graphs, with […]
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In the last few weeks, I’ve been working with some colleagues at the University of Waikato to construct a first-year course introducing Climate Change Science, with a bit of a NZ focus. This would be suitable for students of all backgrounds (not just science students although those would likely be the majority). It’s not that […]
Continue readingI have just got back to my office after a lunch-time run around campus. I have seen almost no evidence that anything is different from yesterday. Two people were having a conversation at an obvious ‘social-distance’ length. Another person was wearing a mask. (To be fair, so were the staff at Bongo sushi, but that […]
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If you drive an electric car more than trivial distances between charges, you likely appreciate a state-of-charge meter (that is, what would be called a fuel-gauge in a petrol car) that is accurate. When it reports a range of 30 km, you do want to be sure it will actually do this distance. If you […]
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Yesterday we arrived back in Cambridge after a few days holiday in Auckland, being tourists. We sampled such delights as the unheated hotel swimming pool, the complicated and expensive process of getting on a bus (basically having to find somewhere from which to buy a HOP card, for a non-refundable $10 a card), the completely […]
Continue reading![Teaching physics without the physic[al]](https://blog.waikato.ac.nz/physicsstop/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/05/enel111-16t_marcus-300x225.jpg "Teaching physics without the physic[al]")
As we emerge from ‘lockdown’* it’s time to start reflecting on how we, as a tertiary teaching establishment, have been continuing to provide quality teaching to our learners. Like most places, The University of Waikato has a rapid transition to online teaching. From what I hear from colleagues and students, through official and unofficial channels, […]
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You might not know them by name, but you know the idea and have seen the movies – Rube Goldberg machines serve a trivial purpose that but are stupendously overcomplicated. A classic is the Honda Cog advert – a machine for unveiling a banner. It goes like this: And, for those who have stockpiled too […]
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I warn you, this post will make little sense to anyone who doesn’t know the game Pass the Pigs. What do you do on a damp Easter Holiday Monday? (Not that the Holiday Monday bit makes much difference in our house…) Play Pass the Pigs of course. And what do you do when you’re a […]
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It’s a beautiful autumn afternoon, we need to get out of the house, and so our bubble sets off on a bike ride around our local neighbourhood, Cambridge Park. The bikes come out of the garage, and, being really certain we have a front door key, close the garage door again. And off we go. […]
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