I’ve spent a frustrating day trying to drive out the bugs in one of my computer programmes. It’s a piece of computer code that is implementing equations describing how neurons talk to each other. I knew there was a bug because my modelled neurons were clearly not firing at the rate they should be. It […]
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Where maths and physics gets you…
I learned yesterday that Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce studied maths and physics at university. (See this article from the NZ Herald.) Who said that studying physics didn’t lead to good career prospects? In Joyce’s case, it’s got him in charge of a huge organization that is really going places. Or, in this case, going […]
Continue readingThe curious problem of assessing physics
Here’s a bit more on the NCEA Physics assessments that I heard about at the NZ Institute of Physics Conference last week. I alluded to it very briefly in a previous post. This comes from my notes of the presentation given by David Lillis, a statistician at the NZ Qualifications Authority. Unsurprisingly, NZQA throw lots […]
Continue readingThe continuity equation
Yesterday, being a warm, sunny Labour Day holiday (those words don’t usually go together) we decided we needed to get out of the house and go somewhere interesting, and chose the Waitomo area. Didn’t go into the show caves this time (done those a few times before) but chose to keep the bank account under […]
Continue readingOpposite charges repel, don’t they?
Well, the answer to that is, um… well…. it depends…. Now, I’m not suggesting what you’ve learned at school is not true. Take a point charge (e.g. a proton), and bring it close to another point charge (e.g. another proton) and the two will repel, with an inverse square law (Let’s not take them close […]
Continue readingThe problem with having odd-shaped balls…
…by which, of course, I mean rugby balls. To be precise, a rugby ball is a prolate ellipsoid – that is, something that is like a 3d version of an ellipse, but having a cross-section along its long axis of a circle. (A flying-saucer would be an oblate ellipsoid) Rugby balls behave awkwardly. In one […]
Continue readingComputer modelling of aircraft boarding
I love this article I came across on the BBC website this weekend. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14717695 As someone who’s travelled on a lot of planes, I can fully understand the motivation to study methods of boarding a plane. Traditionally, boarding is done in this sequence: 1. Those needing special assistance (e.g. those for whom walking is difficult) […]
Continue readingThe proton and neutron: same and different
Lately, I’ve been doing a bit of reading about the use of group theory in particle physics. I need to do this because I’m meant to be teaching it in the next few weeks. Now, the education research says I can still teach something without being an expert in it – I just need to […]
Continue readingCrop circles
There’s a great article in Physics World on crop circles. Not a discussion about man-made / weather-made / UFO-made – any sensible interpretation would be man-made – but just HOW do you make such intricate and vast patterns so quickly and leave almost no traces behind. Some of the patterns that crop-up (sorry) in crop […]
Continue readingFour legs good
Those of you who own a four-legs will have noticed that they usually exhibit a range of different gaits depending on the occasion. Taking Mizuna our cat as an example – he walks (back-left, front-left, back-right, front-right, each leg a quarter of a cycle behind the previous), he trots (back-left and front-right together – then […]
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