The problem is [this] big surge in New Zealand … it’s terrible. We don’t want that.’ Yes, Mr Trump, it’s unwelcome. And we certainly don’t want it. But the US, on the other hand, might be a lot happier to replace its last 7 days of COVID-19 statistics with New Zealand’s. Here’s the graphs, with […]
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A battery charge meter that actually works
If you drive an electric car more than trivial distances between charges, you likely appreciate a state-of-charge meter (that is, what would be called a fuel-gauge in a petrol car) that is accurate. When it reports a range of 30 km, you do want to be sure it will actually do this distance. If you […]
Continue readingPass the pigs – ad (almost) infinitum
I warn you, this post will make little sense to anyone who doesn’t know the game Pass the Pigs. What do you do on a damp Easter Holiday Monday? (Not that the Holiday Monday bit makes much difference in our house…) Play Pass the Pigs of course. And what do you do when you’re a […]
Continue readingThis is exponential growth
Since I last posted on Wednesday, we have seen about zero sign of any flattening in the exponential growth of COVID-19 cases worldwide. I’m not a epidemiologist, or a health professional, or a infectious disease expert. But I do know what an exponential looks like. With cases doubling about every four days world wide, and […]
Continue readingEight new COVID-19 cases today. It’s no surprise when you look at some numbers
So, as I sit at home with a very, very slight headache (i.e. not at work when I would otherwise be so), the now familiar figure of Ashley Bloomfield reports eight new confirmed cases of COVID-19 including two in Waikato. A surprise, given that we had just twelve yesterday? No. A worry? Maybe, but no […]
Continue readingAnother BIG idea about physics
Further to my post a couple of weeks ago about BIG idea physics, I think I should add a further one. To do so I’ll use the words of one of my favourite physicists*, Paul Dirac. It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms […]
Continue readingWhat a difference the decimal point makes
I’m back at work following a nearly three week break over Christmas. We were fortunate to be offered a house to stay in for a week over Christmas, which enabled us to have a holiday in Dunedin and see the extended family reasonably cheaply. But the house came with a catch: a small, old, cuddly, […]
Continue readingAlice the camel
As we drove on a family outing at the weekend, we sung “Alice the camel”. For those who don’t know it, it goes like this (to the tune of “Dem Bones”): “Alice the camel had five humps; Alice the camel had five humps; Alice the camel had five humps; so go, Alice go! Alice the […]
Continue readingColour blindness and Bayes’ theorem
Following from my last post, there’s more to say about colour blindness in my family. This time we’ll look at my side of the family. My maternal grandfather was red-green colour blind. That means my mother is a carrier of red-green colour blindness, with a “faulty” (well, “alternative” would be better) X-chromosome. And as a […]
Continue readingPhysics is a science. Or maybe not.
A couple of hours ago I gave a talk to the 'education group' in the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Broadly speaking, the audience was a group of physicists and engineers who are interested in education. I recycled a talk that I'd given a couple of years ago […]
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