Two weeks ago I got a chance to fly with Iris Critchell. I have done this a few times before and it is always a joy. After an Experimental Fluid Mechanics course this spring, there were some things I wanted to try relating to stability and control. She discussed how we would measure what we saw. In particular, that we have our eyes, our instruments ( Read more... )

Discussing physics at the bar the other day, I realized that Aristotle was right: heavy things hit the ground first, even in a vacuum.

Nonsense, you say, F=ma.

Consider this: On Earth, let a feather drop a meter in a vacuum; it falls 1 meter, accelerating at 9.8 m/s2. Now let a dump truck drop a meter in a vacuum; it again falls essentially 1 ( Read more... )

Cube

I can solve a Rubick's Cube without looking at instructions. Some of the moves I “get”; some of them I don't, but now that they are memorized I can watch them carefully and am beginning to understand them. Cool.

Movie

I watched The Professional. Wow. Awesome. In that, I noticed an actor I hadn't noticed before: Gary Oldman who plays the ( Read more... )