A couple of hours ago I gave a talk to the 'education group' in the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Broadly speaking, the audience was a group of physicists and engineers who are interested in education. I recycled a talk that I'd given a couple of years ago […]
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Blowing potholes
As part of our trip southwards last week, we visited one of the many caves scattered across the Margaret River region. The immediate impression on entering the 'Jewel Cave' is its vast size. It's hard to estimate just how big the main cavern is, but as a rough guess maybe 100 metres by 50 metres […]
Continue readingTrusting someone’s engineering calculations
We put our trust in someone else's calculations and measurements all the time. It's just part of the modern world. Cross a bridge, drive a car, use anything electrical, and we implicity trust that the people who designed it, built it, installed it and tested it have done their job correctly. Occasionally things go wrong […]
Continue readingWhere Western Australia’s money comes from
As if you didn't know already, digging holes is important in Western Australia. And there is a LOT of Western Australia to dig holes in. Sitting in a park in the centre of Perth is a great collection of stuff that comes out of these holes – the 'Ore Obelisk'. It's a great idea – […]
Continue readingThe Perth climate
A quick glance at some climate statistics will tell you that Perth in February is hot, sunny and dry. The mean maximum temperature is 31.7 C for Perth city, with a mean of 7 days going above 35 Celsius, and 1 day going above 40 Celsius. February rainfall is impressive, by its absence. The mean […]
Continue readingPhysicsstop back in business
I have been rather conscious of my looonnnnggggg absence from the blogosphere. That really is down to other commitments getting in the way, and then falling out of the habit of blogging. Hopefully this will be a restart. I have a good opportunity here – I have just started a period of study leave (what […]
Continue readingFog, concrete, plus no heating for two days
We were away this weekend – in sunny Whakatane. That was a smart move weather-wise. We arrived back home about 2.30pm yesterday afternoon, just as the fog was lifting from Cambridge. An hour later, it was settling down again for the night. A glance at the MetService website shows that, while Whakatane and Rotorua basked […]
Continue readingGlass transition of the parking permit
Right. Time to come up for air after a hectic month. I can breathe again, at least until the end of tomorrow, when the next pile of assignments land on my desk for marking. I bought a new car last week. Well, new for me. The previous 22-year-old piece of machinery had finally succumbed to […]
Continue readingProbability madness
Probability crops up in many places in physics, not least quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, where we are only sure of things in an average or 'statistical' sense. Dealing with probabilities can be a headache for many students. They are also a headache for many in everyday life. There are numerous occasions where we need […]
Continue readingEvery square millimetre counts
Seen on a notice at a Cambridge Cafe: Waipa District Council. Permit to occupy pavement space. This is to certify that **** has been approved to occupy 15.000000 metres squared of pavement space. I might not have got the exact words right, but I certainly counted the number of zeros after the decimal point. The […]
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