Here’s a biomechanics example for rugby fans http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/womensrugby/rookie_documents/mechanics_of_scruming.doc
Continue readingTag: Newton’s laws
Biomechanics
I might have had a bit of a sarcastic tone in my last entry about kicking football penalties, but we shouldn’t jump to the idea that sport science isn’t proper science. After all, it’s what has given Australia three zillion more gold medals than is warranted by its population. Have a look at the Australian Institute […]
Continue readingHuygens’ Clocks
I was reminded this week about the story of Huygens’ clocks. Christaan Huygens was one of those too-clever-by-half physicists / mathematicians who was into just about any science that was going on at the time. This seventeenth century dutchman is maybe best known in physics for his work on wave motion, but he was also […]
Continue readingThree is a big number
Carrying on the big number theme I will now tell you that three is a good working approximation to infinity. Yes, three, you know, the number that comes after two. As in one, two, infinity. So you are thinking I’ve finally lost my marbles.
Continue readingEquinox
Last Friday (for most parts of the world – Saturday for us ‘advanced’ people in New Zealand) was the equinox. Loosely described, that’s when the day and night are of equal length – from this moment on and for the next six months all us southern hemispherers will be experiencing longer periods of darkness than […]
Continue readingMass and the Higgs Boson
In the minds of many, the name ‘Large Hadron Collider’ is linked with the words ‘Higgs Boson’. And so it should be – one of the aims of the LHC is to find (or not to find) this mysterious particle. But what is the Higgs boson? It’s to do with mass. In broad terms, mass […]
Continue readingWho’s the greatest?
I’ve recently been asked to participate in a ‘cafe scientifique’ event looking at the relative achievements of Darwin and Galileo. For those who don’t know, 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and the 150th of the publication of ‘Origin of the Species’ (how very thoughtful it was of him to arrange that both […]
Continue readingAttractive scenery
This story might be apocryphal; I haven’t been able to verify it, but it is certainly plausible. Mount Egmont National Park forms almost a perfect circle around Mount Taranaki. Given its status, its bush remains intact, unlike the rest of Taranaki. You get a great view of this dark green circle with a mountain poking […]
Continue readingGoing around in circles
If there’s one thing that is likely to promote disharmony amongst the physics community, its the use for the f-word. That’s ‘f’ as in ‘fugal’, as in centrifugal. Now, part of me thinks I should reconsider before writing this entry, but I have recently read a particularly unhelpful piece on the internet written by a […]
Continue readingNewton in action
On the subject of luging, it is the perfect place to illustrate some physics. For those unfamiliar with the Skyline complex, the idea is you sit on a small cart and freewheel down a concrete path, negotiating the various bends inconveniently sited to slow your speed. Great fun, and lots of physics.
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