Marcus Wilson • Nov 05, 2010 •
I read in the NZ Herald this week that one of Air New Zealand's energy-saving strategies was to make sure an aircraft's insulation is dry. Apparantly, 200 kg of water can be sucked out of a plane's insulation. Sounds impressive.The article appeared to be pushing the weight saving as the main cost saving. Two hundred kilograms corresponds to about two-and-a-half luggage-laden … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Oct 21, 2010 •
Earlier this week, we had the end-of-year display of student engineering projects. There were lots of posters put up to browse around over tea, several interesting large objects such as pieces of electric cars, and many fascinating talks given by the students.One of the most enjoyable talks was given by student Timothy Walmsley, concerning a study on the sticking of milk powder in … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Aug 10, 2010 •
Saturday was one of those days that the Waikato winter is famous for. Cold and damp - by damp I mean humid as well as raining - in fact the kind of weather that reminds you that you are living in an area that used to be one massive swamp. The sort of dampness that makes you feel it is … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Jul 19, 2010 •
Here's a bit of physics that's coming up in my lectures - what's the connection between heat and infra-red? You've probably seen imagery from 'thermal imagers' or infra-red (IR) cameras, usually on police shows, taken from a helicopter as it follows a suspect fleeing down some alley-way at night. You'll see that 'hot' things (like the bonnet of a car … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Jul 01, 2010 •
...Well, it was this morning. Those unfortunate people like us who have two cars and a lot of stuff and only a double garage, meaning one car has to sit uncovered on the drive, will have noticed that the ice on the car windscreen is generally thicker than the ice on the side windows. Why is that? Surely the temperature of … Read More
Marcus Wilson • May 28, 2010 •
I've just supervised a test for a group of second year students. On looking at their answers afterwards, it was rapidly clear that there was a problem with one of the questions. Specifically, I had given the value of Boltzmann's constant as 1.38 times 10 to the power 23 Joules per Kelvin, instead of 1.38 times 10 to the power … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Mar 26, 2010 •
Yesterday morning while driving into work I was reminded that this week is 'Balloons over Waikato' - the annual hot air balloon festival. It was hard to miss; I counted 20 balloons making their way gracefully over south-east Hamilton and drifting slowly towards Morrinsville. (NB: I counted the balloons AFTER I had parked the car, not while driving, … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Mar 19, 2010 •
Just occasionally, I have a crazy thought regarding a physics demonstration. This is one that I'm thinking about inflicting on my third year electromagnetism class. We've been discussing the way electromagnetic waves travel (or rather, do not travel) through electrical conductors. Basically, conductors allow electric currents to flow in response to an applied electric field (in simple terms this just means applying a voltage). Read More
Marcus Wilson • Mar 12, 2010 •
The latest kitchen acquisition (no, we don't spend all our money on buying things for the kitchen) is decent frying pan. We've spent too long with frying pans that are about as flat as the Southern Alps. It's a copper-based pan, which probably accounts for its expense, with a stainless steel surface. The reason for the copper is that it conducts … Read More
Marcus Wilson • Mar 10, 2010 •
Those of you who check out the NZ metservice website frequently, may remember last week's 'photo-of-the-week':It's of fallstreak cloud, and this example was spotted by my mother-in-law, Barbara Seccombe, off the coast from New Plymouth recently. (Photo credit to my father-in-law, Wally Seccombe, used with permission).It's not something you see everyday, so I asked my brother (Damian Wilson), who is a … Read More