One of the questions on everyone's lips at the moment is "How does a large passenger jet simply disappear from radar without trace?" It is clearly very distressing for anyone with friends or relatives on board – not knowing what has happened. As I write this, there still seems to be a complete lack of […]
Continue readingTag: electron
Notation notation notation
Physicists and engineers have a particular fondness for using symbols for things. Thus, the speed of light becomes 'c'. Planck's constant is 'h'. And so forth. Not content with the latin alphabet, they have commandeered the greek one too: The Stefan-Bolztmann constant is 'sigma', the permittivity of free space is epsilon0 (the greek letter epsilon […]
Continue readingThe earth’s magnetic field: much more complicated than you might think
At the recent NZ Institute of Physics conference, we were treated to a wonderful description of the earth's magnetic proceses, by Gillian Turner. What makes up the earth's magnetic field? What effect does it have? How is it changing? At first glance the magnetic field of the earth is pretty straightforward. There's a magnetic north […]
Continue readingMy car is cold
The last couple of days have seen our Engineering Design Show. This is where our 2nd/3rd/4th year Engineering students get to talk about and show off the various projects they've been working on in the last year. It's very interesting to see the range of activities going on, and there are some 'competitive events' – […]
Continue readingA stonking good start to our experimental physics paper. Not.
Just a couple of hours ago, I was thinking that I really need to do another blog entry for the week, but (a) can’t think what to do it on and (b) don’t have time to do it because I have a lab class for the afternoon. Well, the events in the lab class have […]
Continue readingWhere in the world?
First, sorry for the lack of activity. Simply put, there’s been a lot going on. I’ve taken on the role of treasurer for the NZ Institute of Physics which has eaten up rather more time than I hoped for. I’ll get into the swing of things soon though. In that role, here is a shameless […]
Continue readingUnits – they just don’t go away
One thing that’s become really clear to me in teaching physics is that dimensions and units are not straightforward concepts for students. I might hazard the assertion that they are ‘threshold concepts‘ – ones where grasping what they are about transforms you way of thinking. Most people at least half-understand the idea of units – […]
Continue readingMega- and nano-everything
While generally speaking I’m very pleased to hear physics words appear in everyday conversation, I would prefer for them to be used approximately correctly. ‘Exponentially‘ is a case in point – it gets used for something that keeps getting bigger, regardless of how exponential it really is. So, while ‘nanotechnology’ is a good word to […]
Continue readingWhen inifinity isn’t infinite
I’ve been having some discussion with a collaborator in Sydney regarding a numerical model that we are developing. It concerns the response of the brain to pulses of magnetic field, but for the purposes of this blog entry, that is immaterial. One thing that we’ve been grappling with is ‘dealing with infinity’. Basically, in physical […]
Continue readingScholarship physics: When the obvious is not-so-obvious
On Tuesday my physics skills were put under the spotlight. Back in November, I think, I was discussing with Sam Hight from the Physics Lounge (www.physicslounge.org) ways that we could, together help high-school students in their physics. One of the things we came up with is that I had a go at doing the 2012 […]
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