Physics Stop

Sycamore seeds and wind turbines

Marcus Wilson • Jul 18, 2017

• betz limit,
• Electricity Generation,
• fluid flow,
• physics,
• Science,
• sycamore seeds,
• wind turbines

At the recent NZ Institute of Physics conference in Dunedin we heard about a wide range of different physics topics -measuring electrical forces; atomic frequency combs; why a highly gendered physics class is not a good thing and measuring forces with your phone. One very simple but thought-provoking presentation was by Tim Molteno — on sycamore seeds … Read More

1

Improving gender balance in physics

Marcus Wilson • Apr 07, 2017

• bias,
• education,
• gender balance,
• gender bias,
• physics,
• Science

The Institute of Physics has just released a report on recent interventions designed to improve the uptake of physics at ‘A’-level by girls*. Although there have been considerable efforts in the UK to improve the gender balance over two decades, there has not been any substantial change – about 20% of a typical A-level physics class is … Read More

Bell ringing: inertia and resonance

Marcus Wilson • Apr 05, 2017

• bells,
• inertia,
• resonance,
• Science,
• Swan Bells

Only a week more to go in Perth. Time here has gone so quickly. It’s then off to UK for Easter to see my family before returning to Waikato. On Saturday we had a tour of the bell tower on the waterfront. It’s a great looking structure (in my opinion) – and houses the original peal of bells … Read More

The indeterminate cheese flake

Marcus Wilson • Mar 30, 2017

• ants,
• cheese,
• friction,
• physics,
• Science

A couple of days ago I arrived ‘home’ to discover our local ant colony at work. There’s a nest located somewhere in the bushes at the front of our temporary home, and the occupants have become rather adept at raiding our kitchen. Anything left on the kitchen bench is fair game for the taking. Ants are amazingly strong for … Read More

More to sundial than meets the eye

Marcus Wilson • Mar 22, 2017

• Science,
• solar time,
• sundial,
• sundials,
• TIME,
• trigonometry

Sundials are fun. As someone who visited a lot of stately homes  as a child (usually under duress), I found sundials in the gardens a welcome distraction from the monotony of trudging round a place with no other redeeming features that adults somehow seemed to find attractive. Not all adults did, I’m sure, but certainly my parents did.  First, there’s … Read More

Physics is a science. Or maybe not.

Marcus Wilson • Mar 14, 2017

• boundary work,
• mathematics,
• physics,
• Science,
• theory

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 on the role of mathematics … Read More

8

Weather records

Marcus Wilson • Mar 11, 2017

• Australia,
• climate change,
• Rainfall,
• Temperature,
• weather records,
• Wind

I came across the following on the BBC website  “Australia’s summer broke 205 records…” It draws from the recent Climate Council report. The BBC article doesn’t list them all 205 of them, but does pull out the most impressive – the hottest summer on record for Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra,  and the wettest on record … Read More

1

Jewel Cave: Blowing potholes

Marcus Wilson • Mar 07, 2017

• air flow,
• caves,
• geology,
• jewel cave,
• Science

As part of our trip southwards last week, we visited one of the many caves scattered across the Margaret River region. The immediate impression on entering the ‘Jewel Cave’ is its vast size. It’s hard to estimate just how big the main cavern is, but as a rough guess maybe 100 metres by 50 metres by 10 or … Read More

Trusting someone’s engineering calculations

Marcus Wilson • Mar 03, 2017

• engineering,
• Gloucester Tree,
• Science,
• tree

We put our trust in someone else’s calculations and measurements all the time. It’s just part of the modern world. Cross a bridge, drive a car, use anything electrical, and we implicity trust that the people who designed it, built it, installed it and tested it have done their job correctly. Occasionally things go wrong and disaster strikes, but, by … Read More

3

Physicsstop back in business

Marcus Wilson • Feb 07, 2017

• acoustics,
• physics,
• playground,
• Science,
• sound

I have been rather conscious of my looonnnnggggg absence from the blogosphere. That really is down to other commitments getting in the way, and then falling out of the habit of blogging.  Hopefully this will be a restart. I have a good opportunity here – I have just started a period of study leave (what used to be called Sabbatical … Read More

3