Here’s a nice picture I took a couple of years ago at Auckland Airport, looking over Manukau Harbour. Can you work out what’s happened to the Waitakere Ranges? I’m in the middle of teaching a group of 3rd years about some of the ways that light doesn’t travel in straight lines, […]
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The invisibility cloak
Yes, the headline writers are at it again, talking about those crazy scientists designing invisibility cloaks. As usual, the articles I’ve seen in the papers (e.g. the front page of The Waikato Times) and popular internet sites are high in ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Star Trek’ and low in science. Research into this kind of thing […]
Continue readingFundamental 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 readingDark Matter and statistics
While I was on holiday, news broke (e.g. see the piece in The Guardian) about the possible detection of WIMPs. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles are what many physicists think makes up ‘dark matter’. (What is dark matter? – basically, if you analyse the way galaxies move, you discover that the amount of matter you can ‘see’ […]
Continue readingRainbows
The sun poked out from behind the clouds on my way in to work this morning just long enough to produce a beautiful rainbow for a few seconds. Not sure when we’ll next see it. I guess most of us studied rainbows at school, but I’ll throw in a couple of physics words with this […]
Continue readingFog
Well, what does one expect living in Waikato? Four days of gorgeous spring weather in a row is a bit much to ask for. So the fog was back this morning, and with it the idiot car drivers who don’t put their lights on. Why? Do they want to die? A white car with no […]
Continue readingWhy is the sky blue?
OK – I think I’ve got it now. Why is the sky blue? – or at least, why is it that low wavelengths are scattered more than high wavelengths?
Continue readingBlue sky
I’m still working on the problem of why is the sky blue? Now, I’ve already told you its because the short-wavelength blue light is scattered more than the long-wavelength red light, but why are short wavelengths scattered more than longer ones? In words suitable for a blog. I could do some maths to show you […]
Continue readingScience Fair
For those in easy reach of Hamilton Gardens, the NIWA Science Fair is well worth a visit. I spent a considerable portion of yesterday looking over the exhibits – which mostly consist of posters describing children’s science projects. It is wonderful to see that, despite the perpetual moanings in the media, there are children out there who are interested […]
Continue readingBlue squid
Did anyone see Saturday’s ‘Country Calendar’ on TVOne? In case you didn’t, it followed a group of long-line tuna fishermen on their fishing trip North of North Cape. They were testing out a method for detering albatross from trying to take the bait (squid) from the hooks – a decision often fatal for the albatross. The method […]
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