Built on Facts

In Episode 82 of the best applied science show on TV, the Mythbusters looked at some myths involving snow. The basic idea of science is that if you have a question about nature, you set up an experiment and find out the answer for yourself. The Mythbusters do this with verve and alacrity. [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I completely forgot to mention the anniversary of the most amazing thing humanity has ever done.  July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins successfully completed our first steps onto another world.  Though I was born long after their success, I am in absolute awe of them and those who helped make [...]

[Read more →]

This is the graph of the Bessel function of order 0, along with its asymptotic approximation for large x. You can see that the convergence is quite fast. The Bessel function is important in many problems in physics, from solutions of the Helmholtz equation in cylindrical coordinates (as in a vibrating drumhead) to [...]

[Read more →]

For some light weekend posting, here’s the latest xkcd. It’s a pretty funny commentary on the state of academic discourse in literary fields. Remember the Sokal affair? That’s what happens when you build a discipline on something other than facts.
Which is too bad. Literature and its study are beautiful things, but [...]

[Read more →]

I am sick. Sore throat, sinus congestion, muscle soreness, all the hallmarks of what I hope is just the common cold.
Barring more serious failures of the body itself, illness is usually caused by bacteria trying to eat you, or viruses trying to program you to stop all that pesky “life” business and get to [...]

[Read more →]

We now know the physics, which is: this is the quantum mechanics of the sequence of symmetry operations to create mass out of light by compressing charge.
- Dan Winter, Public Speaker on Sacred Geometry
Wait, what?  Beats me, I haven’t got the foggiest idea what he’s talking about. Well actually that’s not quite true. [...]

[Read more →]

I believe I originally planned the Georgia trip post for Monday, and then pushed it back to Tuesday. Here it is Wednesday and I’ve finally written the darn thing. C’est la vie.
Where to start? Last Thursday morning I drove from College Station to Houston where my flight was departing. There’s an [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday in my recitation section I went through the chapter on electromagnetic induction, covering Faraday’s law and the displacement current term in Ampere’s law before assigning a quiz. Though this quiz really doesn’t need those concepts, it was a good opportunity to break out my all-time favorite Intro E&M quiz question.
Consider two parallel wires [...]

[Read more →]

Well. I had planned to write the story of my weekend in Atlanta watching a wedding, but a whopping six hour delay at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport meant I didn’t get back home in time to write up much here to make the Monday morning post. With any luck I should have [...]

[Read more →]

Here’s a final scheduled post before I get back home later today. Spammers haven’t overrun my comments, I trust? Either way, consider this an open post to discuss whatever you wish if you’d like!
Until tomorrow, let’s contemplate the probability density for the Schroedinger solution of a bouncing ball in a fairly low excited [...]

[Read more →]