Michael Faraday's book "The Forces of Matter" is my latest read. It is a transcript, with illustrations, of the series of six lectures for young people which Faraday gave at the Royal Institution during the 1859-60 Christmas holidays. Quite some time ago I read Faraday's "The Chemical History of a Candle", another series of juvenile Christmas ( Read more... )

What does it mean to "save appearances"? I used to think it means to cover up a mistake. Even to collude with others, ie "contrive ( Read more... )

Well, I've finished my first essay for university, entitled "Ernst Mach on Rotation of the Cosmos". It's not very polished, and rather lightweight because there's a great deal that I don't know about, but I'm rather happy with the essay nonetheless. It's a starting sketch for some ideas I hope to pursue later on, when I get some more vocabulary ( Read more... )

In 1938, Albert Einstein and Leopold Infeld published a popular book, "The Evolution of Physics". About 300 pages, no formulas but a few diagrams, easy reading and full of ideas. The book traces the development of the mechanical view (it's all matter), problems with the mechanical view in explaining electromagnetic phenomena, fields and ( Read more... )

Yesterday I ran across a really neat paper, about the velocity and weight of a chain which is falling onto a scale. Now you might think it is obvious, the chain falls at the free fall rate due to gravity, but not so - it falls faster! Moreover, the weight on the scale is more than prior theory predicts ( Read more... )

Today did an enjoyable little experiment involving a rotating bucket of water. Isaac Newton did a similar experiment, suspending a bucket of water on a rope, twisting the rope, and letting the bucket go. The water is still at first, then starts to spin, and its surface becomes concave as it spins. When the rope unwinds, the bucket stops spinning, ( Read more... )