My wife and I stayed at a lovely Bed and Breakfast on the Coromandel Peninsula over the weekend. Here’s a snippet of conversation with the hosts over breakfast. Host: What do you do for a living? Me: I lecture physics at Waikato University Host: Really? I used to lecture physics in the US – I’m a […]
Continue readingAs if by magic…
This week I’ve been talking to my third year mechanical engineering class about the Lagrangian approach to solving dynamical problems. OK, please don’t close your browser now, rest assured that you don’t need to know what the Lagrangian approach is to follow this post. (if you do, then click here.) I reckon there are two ways […]
Continue readingLousy rotten internet
A few people have expressed surprise when they’ve learnt that that the university doesn’t block access to websites like YouTube and Twitter. I mean, how many hours are wasted by employees gazing at silly video clips of buildings being blown up in Turkey rather than concentrating on their work?
Continue readingIs there gravity in space?
This question comes from a final year school student, trying to answer a question about astronauts in spacestations. Well, having seen numerous videos of astronauts, the answer would seem to be no. They float around quite happily, scientists refer to them as being in a zero gravity environment, their leg muscles don’t get enough exercise, […]
Continue readingThe dangers of children’s books
I was on data-projector duty at church yesterday. That meant I had to press the buttons that made sure the correct verse of the song was showing at the correct time, a job that requires more concentration and co-ordination than you might think. When I’m sitting close to a projector, I find the way that dust […]
Continue readingSimple things updated
With reference to my previous entry, come to think of it, a seismograph is pretty well a mass on a spring. And a car suspension system isn’t much more glorified either.
Continue readingWhy do we do masses on springs?
This question arises from the 3rd year dynamics paper I’m teaching at the moment. How come in lectures we only ever cover simple examples of things (in the context of this paper, moving things), like a mass bouncing on a spring, rather than realistic examples, like a washing machine or aircraft engine. It’s a fair […]
Continue readingThe electricity man cometh…
…and readeth the meter and giveth unto us a very large bill. (Well, the bill got sent by email, but that’s beside the point). Now, I knew it was going to be costly, what with using electricity to heat a house during a cold winter, but I wasn’t quite expecting the figure at the bottom […]
Continue readingThe reductionist physicist
So, I’ve now had my fifteen minutes of fame. I’m sure some of you will have read the article about my trip to Germany in The Waikato Times. I have to say that I was quite glad that the reporter (Annette Taylor) kindly left out a remark I made to her during the interview where […]
Continue readingApollo
And while I’m on the subject of the moon, I shouldn’t forget the anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. For the record, the first landing was before my lifetime, but some later ones were not. (Not that I remember them).
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