I take back what I said last week about amazing vehicle management systems on milk tankers. Last night a GPS took a forty-two tonne tanker onto the three-tonne-rated Cambridge High Level Bridge, in what could have been a catastrophe. The bridge, with which I am very familiar, was designed for people, horses-and-carts, and the occasional […]
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Tanker physics
I'm currently at the Metrology Society of Australasia conference in beautiful Queenstown. For those that don't know, which might be most of you, metrology is the science of measurement. How do you measure things well? At this conference, we've got presentations on measuring temperature, pressure, liquid volume (a surprisingly tricky one this – if you […]
Continue readingIf gravity increased…
A colleague remarked to me yesterday, as we were trudging up the two flights of stairs from the tea-room to the third floor, "I'm sure they turn up the force of gravity in this building each year." I feel like that too, sometimes. However, I suspect it has more to do with the aging process […]
Continue readingA small maths lesson for our prime minister
This isn't physics but I do feel strongly about it. John Key today is reported by the New Zealand Herald today as saying, with regard to the refugee crisis: : It's a global problem. I accept everyone needs to take their fair share of responsibility but actually as a government we have been doing quite […]
Continue readingPluto as you’ve not seen it before
Most of us have never seen Pluto. Most of us never will. Neptune is more plausible.I remember as a student looking for Neptune with the Northumberland Telescope in Cambridge. We were doing a 'planets' night – in which it was theoretically possible to tick off all the planets (save Pluto, which was still a planet […]
Continue readingCalculating pi with darts
I love this one. Really, it's maths not physics, but there is a bit of experimental physics creeping in at the fringes when the experimenters realize that the first method is biased. The second method is much better designed. Regrettably, pi-day (March 14th, 2015, or 3.14.15) only works if you use the US system of […]
Continue readingTips on organizing a conference
With the NZ Institute of Physics conference rapidly approaching, I thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences on how to organize a good conference. Or maybe on how not to organize a good conference. Time will tell. 1. Don't try organizing a conference when you have 450 exam scripts to mark. 2. Employ a professional […]
Continue readingTwo great talks coming up in Hamilton
As part of the forthcoming NZ Institute of Physics conference, and to celebrate the International Year of Light, we have arranged two fantastic and very different public talks for the evenings of Sunday 5th and Monday 6th July. First up we have Richard Easther, from the University of Auckland. In "Dawn's Early Light" he'll be […]
Continue readingFirst a cricket fan, second a physicist
I've spent most of today thinking Google's image-of-the-day is a wicket, but have just realized it is in honour of Alessandro Volta.
Continue readingStatic friction is something sticky (as is Scholarship physics)
In January I had a go at the 2014 Scholarship Physics Exam, as I've done for the last couple of years. Sam Hight from the PhysicsLounge came along to help (or was it laugh?) The idea of this collaboration is that I get filmed attempting to do the Scholarship paper for the first time. This […]
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