It's Physics
"Why is the sky blue?"
"The sky appears blue because air scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths. When we look toward a part of the sky not near the sun, the blue color we see is blue light waves scattered down toward us from the white sunlight passing through the air overhead... Scattering and absorption are major causes of the attenuation of radiation by the atmosphere. Scattering varies as a function of the ratio of the particle diameter to the wavelength of the radiation. When this ratio is less than about one-tenth, Rayleigh scattering occurs in which the scattering coefficient varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength. At larger values of the ratio of particle diameter to wavelength, the scattering varies in a complex fashion described, for spherical particles, by the Mie theory; at a ratio of the order of 10, the laws of geometric optics begin to apply." 1
*blinks*
"Umm... because it's physics."
So, it's time for the fall program of Physics is Phun at U-MD. The topic this time: It's Physics, the fun but complicated answers to simple questions we asked when we were small. We're doing the program three times, this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings (November 1-3), at 7PM. It should be phfun.
Details are here.
We're also still hunting for a few volunteers to help show off the pre-lecture toys. If you're interested, sign up with Bernie's office as per the instructions on the page linked above (or just tell me, if needs be, and I can go to the office and pretend to be you), and then show up before the show at 6 for training. (Signing up is important, so we know how much pizza to get for the volunteers. Pizza is phun, right?)
"The sky appears blue because air scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths. When we look toward a part of the sky not near the sun, the blue color we see is blue light waves scattered down toward us from the white sunlight passing through the air overhead... Scattering and absorption are major causes of the attenuation of radiation by the atmosphere. Scattering varies as a function of the ratio of the particle diameter to the wavelength of the radiation. When this ratio is less than about one-tenth, Rayleigh scattering occurs in which the scattering coefficient varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength. At larger values of the ratio of particle diameter to wavelength, the scattering varies in a complex fashion described, for spherical particles, by the Mie theory; at a ratio of the order of 10, the laws of geometric optics begin to apply." 1
*blinks*
"Umm... because it's physics."
So, it's time for the fall program of Physics is Phun at U-MD. The topic this time: It's Physics, the fun but complicated answers to simple questions we asked when we were small. We're doing the program three times, this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings (November 1-3), at 7PM. It should be phfun.
Details are here.
We're also still hunting for a few volunteers to help show off the pre-lecture toys. If you're interested, sign up with Bernie's office as per the instructions on the page linked above (or just tell me, if needs be, and I can go to the office and pretend to be you), and then show up before the show at 6 for training. (Signing up is important, so we know how much pizza to get for the volunteers. Pizza is phun, right?)