Free 1200-page physics textbook, available online or
Free 1200-page physics textbook, available online or for download. I have no idea if it’s any good or not. Is anyone using this in their high school or college classroom?
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kottke.org posts about physics
Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum have proposed
Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum have proposed some ideas about gravity, extra dimensionality, and string theory that may be testable when the Large Hadron Collider goes online at CERN in 2007.
Ever seen a crab get sucked into
Ever seen a crab get sucked into a pipe through a 3mm-wide slit? This is your chance.
Jim Holt asks Freeman Dyson, Lawrence Krauss,
Jim Holt asks Freeman Dyson, Lawrence Krauss, Ed Witten and other in trying to figure out how the universe will end. Further reading: Time Without End by Freeman Dyson, Frank Tipler’s Omega Point theory, and The Physics of Extra-Terrestrial Civilizations by Michio Kaku.
A relativistic examination of gravity in the
A relativistic examination of gravity in the galaxy may indicate that the invention of dark matter may not be necessary to solve the not-enough-matter problem. “The motions of stars in galaxies is realized in general relativity’s equations without the need to invoke massive halos of exotic ‘dark matter’ that nobody can explain by current physics.”
Update: mjt has doubts about the paper referenced here and notes that there’s other evidence for dark matter that is not questioned by the above study.
Scientists want to build an array of
Scientists want to build an array of submillimeter telescopes across the whole earth to peer “inside” the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
Update: Many people wrote in to correct me in saying that “submillimeter” referred to the size of the telescopes…it of course referred to the EM wavelength. Me brain not working right.
Brian Greene on Einstein’s most famous equation,
Brian Greene on Einstein’s most famous equation, E =mc^2. When he finally gets around to it in the middle of the article, Greene’s got a pretty good layman’s explanation of what the formula actually means.
Freeman Dyson on his friend and colleague
Freeman Dyson on his friend and colleague Richard Feynman for The New York Review of Books.
A rare interview with Stephen Hawking about
A rare interview with Stephen Hawking about his remix of A Brief History of Time. The interview’s a bit weird…the interviewer doesn’t seem to know a whole lot about science.
A couple of guys calculated the average
A couple of guys calculated the average color of the universe to be turquiose. Then it turned out they had made an error and the actual color of the universe is beige.
Odd story of one astronomer possibly “stealing”
Odd story of one astronomer possibly “stealing” another astronomer’s discovery of a large trans-Neptunian object. The original discoverer alleges that the usurper looked at a couple of Web sites that detailed the discovery and where the discover’s telescopes were pointed…the astronomy equivalent of stealing signs.
A sequel to Stephen Hawking’s A Brief
A sequel to Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time: A Briefer History of Time. “More Accessible. More Concise.”
The existence and behavior of dark matter
The existence and behavior of dark matter is puzzling indeed, but some UK astrophysicists speculate that adding three more spacial dimensions to the universe explains the gravitational behavior of dark matter. If they exist, these extra dimensions would be about a nanometer across. A baby step toward string theory?
Physicist Stephen Hawking has been reduced to
Physicist Stephen Hawking has been reduced to blinking to control his helper computer.
Adriana: “I thought you might be interested in a post I wrote a while back about a former editor of Elle who communicated for the last year of his life via blinks”.
PBS has put up a companion web
PBS has put up a companion web site to the Nova program on Einstein airing in October. Features include audio clips of several physicists describing e=mc^2 to non-physicists.
When bent, why does dry spaghetti break
When bent, why does dry spaghetti break into three or more pieces instead of two? This was one of the simple problems Richard Feynman amused himself with but never solved. Someone’s come up with the answer: when the first breakage occurs, it causes a local increase in the curvature of the two pieces, resulting in more breakage. (thx dj)
Modelling nuclear decay in atoms may tell
Modelling nuclear decay in atoms may tell us something about dating and relationships. One of the findings: people who date often are beneficial to the dating ecosystem “because they break up weak couples, forcing their victims to find better relationships”.
Advice from Dr. Michio Kaku on formulating
Advice from Dr. Michio Kaku on formulating a proposal for the Unified Field Theory. I can just imagine all the crackpot theories that prompted this list.
Los Alamos From Below: Reminiscences 1943-1945, by Richard Feynman
Los Alamos From Below: Reminiscences 1943-1945, by Richard Feynman. Today marks the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test which bomb Feynman helped build.
In celebration of its 125th anniversary, Science
In celebration of its 125th anniversary, Science magazine has a list of the 125 biggest questions facing science over the next 25 years. “How did cooperative behavior evolve?”; “Do deeper principles underlie quantum uncertainty and nonlocality?”; “What is the universe made of?”
It’s not every day that a new
It’s not every day that a new form of matter is created. Physicists at MIT have created something called a superfluid, “a gas of atoms that shows high-temperature superfluidity”.
Researching quantum honeybees
Researching quantum honeybees. Can bees detect quantum fields and use them to find food?
“There is no physics theory that explains
“There is no physics theory that explains the nature of, or even the existence of, football matches, teapots, or jumbo-jet aircraft.”. “Consequently physics per se cannot causally determine the outcome of human creativity; rather it creates the ‘possibility space’ to allow human intelligence to function autonomously.”
How to turn a block of Antarctic
How to turn a block of Antarctic ice into a giant neutrino detector. “To turn the ice into a telescope, all you have to do is drill an array of 80 holes half a meter across by 2.5km deep using a very powerfull jet of hot water. Then lower a string of 60 optical detectors into each hole before they refreeze, conect them up to some powerful computer analysers and you are good to go.”
Astronomers may have detected the formation of a black hole
Astronomers may have detected the formation of a black hole. “A faint visible-light flash moments after a high-energy gamma-ray burst likely heralds the merger of two dense neutron stars to create a relatively low-mass black hole.”
Mad Physics is a neat science education
Mad Physics is a neat science education site run by a couple of high school students.
The Oh-My-God particle is a proton with
The Oh-My-God particle is a proton with the energy of a slow-pitched baseball. And it’s moving so fast that after travelling for a year, it would only be a few nanometers behind a photon travelling at the speed of light.
“Fads, fashions and dramatic shifts in public
“Fads, fashions and dramatic shifts in public opinion all appear to follow a physical law: one of the laws of magnetism”. “Michard and Bouchaud checked this prediction against their model and found that the trends in birth rates and cellphone usage in European nations conformed quite accurately to this pattern. The same was true of the rate at which clapping died away in concerts.”
A near perfect Einstein Ring found
A near perfect Einstein Ring found. Close galaxies can act as a lens for farther galaxies, focusing the distant light with an “Einstein Ring”.
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