The latest kitchen acquisition (no, we don’t spend all our money on buying things for the kitchen) is decent frying pan. We’ve spent too long with frying pans that are about as flat as the Southern Alps. It’s a copper-based pan, which probably accounts for its expense, with a stainless steel surface. The reason for the […]
Continue readingTag: electron
Fundamental Constants and the problem of gravity
A few years ago I wrote, along with a collaborator, a guide to uncertainty analysis (commonly and misleadingly referred to as error analysis) in university physics. Yesterday I had a quick look at this, to see if I should update anything for our new bunch of students. As part of this, I had a look […]
Continue readingScience research works
I was pleased to read in February’s PhysicsWorld that a spin-off company started by Henning Sirringhaus and Richard Friend (the latter being one of my old university lecturers) has launched an exciting product into the electronics market – the Que. (Don’t ask me how to say it, nor why they have chose such awful colours for their […]
Continue readingWhat’s so dangerous about high voltage?
There was a short piece on the television news last night about the ‘Taser’ weapon now being used by the NZ police force. I always listen carefully to popular media when they discuss electrical things, since there is a quagmire of terminology that is often used incorrectly. This time, however, I didn’t pick-up incorrectly used terms – "50 […]
Continue readingDoes my teaching work?
This year, I’ve finally decided (more accurately, finally got around to doing it) to undertake a Postgraduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching. In plain English, that means do some training that actually prepares me to teach at university. "What?" I hear you say – "You mean you haven’t got any qualification to teach at university?". Nope. […]
Continue readingWhat lightning does to your television
Well, last night’s thunderstorm was a bit of a feeble affair after the fireworks of Wednesday. There were a few flashes, the odd rumble, and a bit of rain, but it cleared away after an hour. Maybe somewhere else got the drenching this time. Still, it makes four days in a row of the same […]
Continue readingWild weather in Waikato
Well, those of you living in the central North Island will probably have some idea already of what I’m going to say, but, for those of you who don’t, I’ll start by saying that the weather here has been rather predictable this week. We’ve had three tropical-style days in a row, with a fourth shaping […]
Continue readingSay goodbye to the drill…
Here’s a nice piece of applied physics research that will excite a significant minority of the population – specifically those who dread going to the dentist. Personally, I have never had any issues with drills (needles are a different story), but I know lots of people who do. The proposed method uses cold plasmas to […]
Continue readingCan you feel the cold?
Writing the last piece about fridges has reminded me about a comment I heard from a fellow student while I was an undergraduate. I can’t remember the exact circumstances, but it quite possibly had something to do with objects in liquid nitrogen. Anyway, the comment was something along the lines of ‘The temperature’s so low you […]
Continue readingThe importance of physics
It is sometimes hard as a scientist to maintain a broad focus. It is very easy to get obsessed with your pet project and forget the equally important stuff being done by scientists and others elsewhere. Just because you find your research extremely interesting and you can see lots of uses for it, it doesn’t […]
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